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Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think we are lock out cause of gigant-scalers (cloud providers) and labs maybe in few years we can get some cool ARM servers for cheap :P.
Do Microsoft/Amazon/Google sell their retired cloud hardware?
Yeah, I would love to be able to buy an ARM server (or a RISC-V server), but so far that's just impossible. Let's just limit the discussion to Ampere. There is supposed to be Gigabyte G242, with several SKUs, that supports an older version of their chips. I've had extensive email discussions with Gigabyte sales staff, and yet I've been unable to find a single reseller that will even backorder any version of the G242…
Why is the x86 core count related to the per-core licensing costs?
If Ampere ever became available, it would make sense for all businesses to host non-realtime work loads on-prem. You might not even notice a change in your electric bill.
> The fact is that the x86 cores have focused so much on performance per core, largely due to per-core licensing costs that dwarf CPU hardware costs, that it has led to a window for a cloud-native processor segment designed to provide the correct level of performance per core tied to cloud vCPUs, but then offer massive numbers of cores. Why is the x86 core count related to the per-core licensing costs?
hetzner has signed a deal with Ampere.
https://www.hetzner.com/presse-berichte/2022/03/167137
however, after using Oracle free tier, I was surprised at the amount of stuff like Docker images that don't support ARM, a lot of images hat to be built manually(GH actions did that for me) or had source images which had x86 binaries!(looking at you bitnami)
in the end I needed x86-64 server to have incompatible images/services on.
> The fact is that the x86 cores have focused so much on performance per core, largely due to per-core licensing costs that dwarf CPU hardware costs, that it has led to a window for a cloud-native processor segment designed to provide the correct level of performance per core tied to cloud vCPUs, but then offer massive numbers of cores. Why is the x86 core count related to the per-core licensing costs?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do Microsoft/Amazon/Google sell their retired cloud hardware?
Not AFAIK, but Amazon's been selling Graviton 1 to Microtik.
But, those are really old generation parts given there are a number of A76 based systems appearing on the market. Those chips are a giant step above the A72 based machines the same way the A72 is a big step above the A5x ones. (aka its a gravaton1->gravaton2 kind of step, or the diff between atom and the mainstream i5/7 parts)
Edit: Notice the G1->G2 uplift in single threaded perf. https://www.anandtech.com/show/15578/cloud-clash-amazon-grav...
That is going to be the uplift going from a A72->A76+ platform. The IPC is nearly 2x, and translates to going from a early 2000s era x86 to something fairly modern.
Yeah, I would love to be able to buy an ARM server (or a RISC-V server), but so far that's just impossible. Let's just limit the discussion to Ampere. There is supposed to be Gigabyte G242, with several SKUs, that supports an older version of their chips. I've had extensive email discussions with Gigabyte sales staff, and yet I've been unable to find a single reseller that will even backorder any version of the G242…
Hey, Intel is trying to get into the foundry business, right? Wonder if Renee has any good contacts over there. Maybe they could dodge the supply chain issue. (Just kidding, I know switching fabs is a big project -- but I do sort of wonder if there was a missed opportunity here... Ampere needs some tricks up their sleeve if they want to compete with Amazon and their unlimited funds, right?).
I understand there will be some growing pains for ARM chips as they venture into server land; the x86 ecosystem with a bazillion different motherboard / component options is much, MUCH further ahead.
What about Docker or kubernetes? How about kvm / libvirt? Are they ready to rock on ARM?
Having a few (mostly idle) x86_64 home servers consuming an unpleasantly high amount of power doing nothing, I really look forward to ARM. Not sure if the power savings would eclipse the savings I get from basically freeloading off of 3-year-old workstations destined for the recycler I grab from my employer, but as someone who frets over power utilization for a major cloud provider every day, I can't wait for ARM to get here!