Ever since NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang let slip that its ARM-based Project Denver silicon was 64-bit, the semiconductor industry has been waiting to see what ARM was cooking. Sure enough, ARM CTO Mike Muller revealed a new 64-bit architecture called ARMv8 at the ARM TechCon this week, designed for high-end servers and computing in particular.
ARM reveals 64-bit architecture ARMv8, expects prototype systems in 2014
ARM’s aiming at Intel’s server dominance, but chips are a few years out.
ARM’s aiming at Intel’s server dominance, but chips are a few years out.
is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
While it’s hard to say exactly what benefits the move to 64-bit will bring in total, the obvious one is solving a RAM deficiency: just like 32-bit desktop operating systems, the current 32-bit ARMv7 architecture can’t address more than 4GB of physical memory. Still, the 64-bit platform will be backwards compatible, and Bloomberg reports that HP is already planning to sell ARM-based servers using Calxeda silicon. AppliedMicro also announced a 128-core, 3GHz “server on a chip” called X-Gene based on the new architecture. These developments might make a dent in Intel dominance, but not anytime soon — as always, ARM just comes up with the intellectual property, and actual 64-bit ARM silicon isn’t slated to appear until 2014.
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