ACADEMIA

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation announced the world’s first web server implementation running on a 64-bit ARM v8-compliant processor. This demonstration of an open-source web server application represents another critical milestone for X-Gene, AppliedMicro’s “Server-on-a-Chip” solution designed to power next-generation cloud-computing data centers and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO). It also represents the first 64-bit ARM development vehicle for the ecosystem community that will aid in the acceleration of server system development.

X-Gene world's first web server implementation running on a 64-bit ARM v8-compliant processor. (Photo: Business Wire)

Since first announcing X-Gene in October of 2011, AppliedMicro has evolved the initial multi-core server-on-a-chip (SOC) implementation to a full-scale server running real applications. This enables OEMs, ODMs, Cloud Service Providers, Independent Software Vendors and other development partners to conduct early stage performance benchmarking and software development in parallel with silicon development.

The X-Gene platform features multi-core ARM v8-compliant 64-bit processors and a high performance memory subsystem. It also offers a cloud server I/O featuring an integrated Ethernet NIC, and other communications interfaces for connecting external peripherals. Other hardware highlights include:

• Multi-core ARM v8 running SMP with L1, L2, and L3 Caches
• System memory to host Linux and other server applications
• Coherent fabric, SOC peripherals and associated bridges

The platform is capable of running a full LAMP software stack featuring open-source Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.

The X-Gene SOC solution addresses the fundamental data center problems of performance, power and total cost of data center ownership. As the number of users generating and accessing unstructured content on the Web explodes globally, the need for power-efficient, high-throughput Web servers capable of handling distributed workloads increases. X-Gene enables Web servers to handle dynamic content while delivering industry-leading TCO improvements for warehouse scale vendors and hosting providers. Platforms are now shipping to top-tier hardware customers and operating system vendors in both North America and Asia.

“This is the first time the world is seeing a mature, fully-functional server platform running a real-world application on 64-bit ARM-based processor,” said Vinay Ravuri, Vice President and General Manager of Processor Products at AppliedMicro. “As a result, AppliedMicro has already secured key strategic customers and partners around the world and has been enabling them with the tools they need to get started in advance of silicon. This web server emulates a live content delivery application featuring rich video, audio and text, and demonstrates the robustness and readiness of our next generation cloud server solution.”

X-Gene multi-core processors offer disruptive performance at a fraction of the power and total cost of existing solutions. With compelling single-thread performance and right-sized memory and I/O, X-Gene revolutionizes next generation cloud server form factor designs.