ThunderX

ThunderX is the product name for one of the first 64-bit server CPUs based on the ARM architecture . It was developed by the Cavium company, the first version of the CPU was presented at the supercomputing conference in 2014 and competes with Intel Xeon server CPUs. The CPU can be referred to as a system-on-a-chip , since the peripherals are largely integrated on the CPU (Ethernet network ports, PCI controller, SATAv3 controller).

ThunderX

ThunderX is based on an ARM core developed by Cavium itself. The first version of the CPU was manufactured at TSMC in a 28 nm process from 2014. The CPU is equipped with 24–48 ARM CPU cores developed in-house by Cavium, which should run at up to 2.5 GHz, 4 DDR4 main memory channels and several Ethernet 10 and 40 Gbit channels are integrated. A connection called CCPI ("Cavium Coherent Processor Interconnect") can be used to interconnect 2 CPUs in one computer, 512 GB of RAM per CPU are possible. Variants are optimized for the areas of application network, storage, security and computing that differ in the I / O connection, as well as variants with a lower number of cores (8/16/24/48 cores), 95 watts of energy consumption for a 48-core CPU are specified. Servers are available from Gigabyte:.

ThunderX2

ThunderX2 is based on an ARM core called Vulcan , which was originally developed by Broadcom , design and development team were taken over by Cavium in 2016 and together with Cavium peripherals now form the ThunderX2 CPU. Contrary to the original statements, according to which ThunderX2 should have up to 54 cores, only variants with up to 32 cores at 2.5 GHz are sold. The chip is manufactured in a 16 nm process, the energy consumption is specified between 75 and 180 watts. ThunderX2 has 8 DDR4 main memory channels with up to 2 TB main memory per CPU. and

The Microsoft Azure project "Olympus" includes ThunderX2 machines as the second ARM manufacturer alongside Qualcomm's Centriq 2400

In the HPC sector, the ThunderX2 CPU can already record some successes, there are ready-made manufacturer solutions and installed systems.

Supercomputer manufacturers with ThunderX2 CPU boards:
- Bull Sequana supercomputer x1310
- Cray XC50 with ThunderX2 slots
- HPE Apollo 70

installed supercomputers:
- Astra at Sandia National Laboratories , the world's largest ARM installation with HPE's Apollo 70 systems
- Three test systems at 3 English universities: Edinburgh Parallel Computing Center (EPCC) at The University of Edinburgh , University of Leicester , and the University of Bristol (Isambard system) (HPE Apollo 70 or Cray XC50 systems)
- a Bull Sequana x1310 in the European Montblanc project

Individual evidence

Web links

[1] ttps://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/08/cavium_thunderx2/

[2] ttps://b2b.gigabyte.com/ARM-Server/Cavium-ThunderX

[3] ttps://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/08/cavium_thunderx2/

[4] ttps://www.nextplatform.com/2016/06/03/next-generation-thunderx2-arm-targets-skylake-xeons/

[5] ttps://en.wikichip.org/wiki/cavium/microarchitectures/vulcan

[6] ttps://www.cavium.com/pdfFiles/ThunderX2_PB_Rev2.pdf

[7] ttps://www.heise.de/meldung/OCP-Summit-Windows-ARM-Server-auch-mit-Cavium-ThunderX2-3647873.html

[8] ttps://atos.net/de/2017/pressemommunikations_2017_06_20/atos-kuendigt-bull-sequana-x1310-mit-arm-prozoren

[9] ttps://www.hpe.com/de/de/product-catalog/servers/apollo-systems/pip.hpe-apollo-70-system.1010742472.html

[10] ttps://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Sandia-Supercomputer-mit-5184-ARM-Prozessoren-4084635.html

[11] ttps://fuse.wikichip.org/news/1583/cavium-takes-arm-to-petascale-with-astra/

[12] ttp://gw4.ac.uk/isambard

[13] ttps://www.top500.org/news/hpe-will-supply-arm-powered-hpc-systems-to-three-uk-universities/

[14] ttp://montblanc-project.eu/prototypes