Nvidia shows ARM CPUs offer the same power as x86 CPUs in servers

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Sep 27, 2021.

  1. Hilbert Hagedoorn

    Hilbert Hagedoorn Don Vito Corleone Staff Member

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  2. Kaarme

    Kaarme Ancient Guru

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    I wonder what kind of paradise we would all be living in if corporations honoured even a quarter of their promises.

    Nevertheless, it seems like Nvidia won't be using EPYCs for too long. I guess it was just a transitional phase solution to get their own ARM CPU up to the required level of being able to drive the monster GPUs.
     
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  3. rl66

    rl66 Ancient Guru

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    ARM use less electric, and are more efficient at work... and in this case, will cost less.
    For many work ARM cpu are better than any x86 derivative.
     
  4. cryohellinc

    cryohellinc Ancient Guru

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    It will be a bad day for everyone if Nvidia will be allowed to make this acquisition. For the good of the industry, I hope we will have an independent ARM, otherwise, ARM will quickly turn into one of Nvidia's tentacles...
     

  5. JamesSneed

    JamesSneed Ancient Guru

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    There is a complete lack of data backing this up. Sure if you toss 2-3x the ARM CPU's at a certain workloads you can get higher performance than x86 which I assume is what Nvidia did.
     
  6. vestibule

    vestibule Ancient Guru

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    Lol. I bet Intel are now blank cheque book lobbying the UK government not to let Nvidia get there hands on the prize.
     
  7. Astyanax

    Astyanax Ancient Guru

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    ARM optimized applications are faster than generally optimized x86 applications.
     
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  8. rl66

    rl66 Ancient Guru

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    AMD and Intel have already a step in ARM side,
    they don't have wait that NVidia have an interest in it.
     
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  9. rl66

    rl66 Ancient Guru

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    Faster and use lot less ressource.
    Server is a very concervative world and so are still mostly in X86, but industrial and inbord are already mostly on ARM system.
     
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  10. tunejunky

    tunejunky Ancient Guru

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    server has to deal with legacy HW and SW, industrial/inboard not so much.

    but server will be the last place ARM penetrates despite x86's known issues. here the vast amount of software and related hardware is x86 based. we already know that a large percentage of enterprise is still running Win7 (some Win95) server.

    not to mention all analytics are done on x86 (hello AWS)
     

  11. tunejunky

    tunejunky Ancient Guru

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    UK gov is in a very weird and inconsistent position.
    after okaying the sale of ARM to Softbank (Japan), they are dithering over the sale to Nvidia (USA).
    talk about shutting the barn door after the cows got out.

    this is all political, and it's stupid politics at that.
    this is all a reflection on right-wing nationalist politics post-Brexit, and has nothing to do with facts.
    the fact is quite simple, Softbank could've at any time grant an exclusive license. they didn't because that wasn't their business model.

    if Nvidia had fabrication i would worry about exclusivity.
    but they don't so i won't.

    there are basically two and a half ARM fabs - 1) TSMC, 2) Samsung, 3) Chinese (the .5 fab)
    Intel does have an existing license, not that they are using it. AMD also has a license.
    Nvidia needs these fabs who also have fat contracts with other ARM licensees like Qualcomm and Apple
     
  12. Dribble

    Dribble Master Guru

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    They can't be independent - they are owned by Softbank and Softbank need to sell to someone. Even if they didn't it's not like Softbank are doing a good job - currently ARM China has basically stolen the ARM designs and setup a separate company (which they can do because the chinese dictated that just over 50% of the shares or ARM China had to be owned by them).
     
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  13. JamesSneed

    JamesSneed Ancient Guru

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    I can understand that but this data is short a lot of information to say what's going on. My point was for all we know there are 2x the cores in the ARM version. Just not enough details to take this seriously yet.
     
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  14. schmidtbag

    schmidtbag Ancient Guru

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    This isn't surprising but obviously cherry-picked results. Even MIPS or RISC-V can outperform x86 depending on how which instructions you use (or rather, omit).
    The thing is, most GPGPU tasks don't require much from the CPU at all. You basically just want a lot of low-latency cores that can handle all the compiling quickly and then oodles of PCIe lanes. That's relatively cheap and easy for Nvidia to make. The thing that surprises me is: what took them soooo long?
     
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  15. rl66

    rl66 Ancient Guru

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    Agree, but also there is server distro for ARM CPU since long time, and Windows or MacOS work very nicely with those.
    Also when the install is done internaly, IT might not have the knowledge (they should but they don't) or don't bother to do a radical change (and the financial departement is happy because this way they don't spend money) it's for that you still have old OS... And the security fail too... if not "user name: admin password: admin " 's lazy IT.
     
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  16. rl66

    rl66 Ancient Guru

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    The thing is that the UK government (as many in EU) do things without listening to expert...
    Now that USA consider old friends as possible foe (started by Obama with the spy of UK france and dutchland gov, then Trump and continued by Biden)
    UK are a bit worried to see that they will be dependent from a company of a not so friendly country (UK use ARM unit as standard in most critical sector, like no other country)

    But as you said the problem is political and due to UK governement itself
     
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  17. zais101

    zais101 Member

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    theres now 1 year phone with ddr5, 240hz touch (even on 60hz) and 240hz+ oled screen, virtual mem swap storage, lets hope coders, drivers, codecs & os can be more unified :)
     
  18. tunejunky

    tunejunky Ancient Guru

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    "IT might not have the knowledge (they should but they don't) or don't bother to do a radical change (and the financial departement is happy because this way they don't spend money) it's for that you still have old OS... And the security fail too... if not "user name: admin password: admin " 's lazy IT"

    oh RL you made my ribs hurt from the laugh of pain
     
  19. cryohellinc

    cryohellinc Ancient Guru

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    Yes, that theft situation is ridiculous. But then again - this is what the Chinese have been doing for the past decades. Now they are pretty much unstoppable with the tech they have accumilated.
     
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  20. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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    Outsourcing really comes back like a boomerang I say.
     
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