If anyone wants to use these for web servers, you might want to think again.
Facebook did the same evaluation recently and decided that the Intel Xeon-D chip was best [1].
YMMV
System76 launching ARM Pro server with 96 cores up to 1TB ECC RAM and 32TB storage
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Re: System76 launching ARM Pro server with 96 cores up to 1TB ECC RAM and 32TB storage
#62I got Lemur 14" laptop a while back and absolutely hated the build quality. The keyboard is terrible and the screen has the worst viewing angles of any laptop I've ever owned. I got tired of it after 4 or 5 months and converted it to a home server and it's been super reliable in that mode since 2014. AND it also has the benefit of staying online during power outages.
Clevo is a huge Chinese OEM computer manufacturer which exclusively produces cheap, low-quality laptop computers. System76 selects Clevo configurations that are more-or-less compatible with Linux, puts a brand on them and sells them at a somewhat-inflated price.
Not really that inflated. I built a Clevo laptop about 4 years ago, and compared it to an identical System76 build, it was only $70 difference.
That thing was pretty poor quality though. Died fall of 15, replaced it with an XPS 13 which is still going strong.
Re: System76 launching ARM Pro server with 96 cores up to 1TB ECC RAM and 32TB storage
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you expand upon this please? I'm considering doing the same now but this gives me pause.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12854293 It was a terrible experience across the board, never again. Highly recommend the Zenbook or the Dell XPS for linux distros :). I personally have the Zenbook but I have three friends with the XPS now. There was some complaining on the XPS about the backlight or something?
I think it has some kind of firmware that manages the backlight, so if you switch between really bright and dark windows a lot (like a browser and terminal) then it changes brightness a lot which is annoying, and there's no way to turn it off. Personally the only thing I've had issues with (on Linux) is the soundcard producing low-level noise because of the CPU going into powersaving mode. It's fixable but I can't remember exactly what I had to do to get it to stop.
On the bright side, it does help a lot for the battery life (I get around 8 hours usually).
I also have an older system76 laptop and I would definitely recommend the XPS (13 or 15) over it if you want something lightweight with good battery life.
Re: System76 launching ARM Pro server with 96 cores up to 1TB ECC RAM and 32TB storage
#64Reminds me Type 2A at Packet.net, a similar 96 core processor, 128GB RAM and 340 SSD for $0.50 USD /hr https://www.packet.net/bare-metal/servers/type-2a/
This looks very palatable. If only they had more disk space options...
They have block storage.
Re: System76 launching ARM Pro server with 96 cores up to 1TB ECC RAM and 32TB storage
#65If anyone wants to use these for web servers, you might want to think again. Facebook did the same evaluation recently and decided that the Intel Xeon-D chip was best [1]. YMMV [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11254755
Yea, decided it was best for them. I would like to see benchmarks of a BEAM app running on the Xeon-D and an ARM server with a huge number of physical CPU cores.
Re: System76 launching ARM Pro server with 96 cores up to 1TB ECC RAM and 32TB storage
#66http://www.cavium.com/pdfFiles/ThunderX_CP_PB_Rev1.pdf?x=2 Spec sheet for the CPU is there. I just don't see how IO doesn't end up murdering performance. 16MB shared L2 is across all the cores?
The cores are so wimpy that 16MB is an appropriate amount. For comparison a Xeon D only has 12MB.
Xeon D's also have a 256KB L2 though then 1.5MB per core shared L3. Whereas this is 333KB per core L2 which is presumably shared.
Not really informed enough to say it would be the performance bottleneck but it seems like it would be to me in most server environments.
Re: System76 launching ARM Pro server with 96 cores up to 1TB ECC RAM and 32TB storage
#67I see that they're releasing a new laptop: https://system76.com/laptops/galago This is probably the first laptop from them that I could consider buying, judging solely on that small picture of it. Still super-thick, and I don't know if I would feel comfortable buying that over the XPS, but at least it's got HiDPI, which for the price they sell their laptops for I feel should be included.
>Still super-thick
You make your laptops super thin and people complain about ports and only 16GB of RAM and no repairability. You make your laptops repairable with three different kinds of USB ports plus HDMI and 32GB of RAM, and people complain it's super-thick.
Re: System76 launching ARM Pro server with 96 cores up to 1TB ECC RAM and 32TB storage
#68No offense to System76, I'm very happy they are entering this space early. I just will wait for one of the biggies (e.g. dell, lenovo) so that I know the hardware could be supported.
I'm really wanting to shake Intel if possible, and I'm struggling to find chassis that support the amount of addons I require... but with these ARM servers and the network I/O they have onboard, I'm quite excited.
Re: System76 launching ARM Pro server with 96 cores up to 1TB ECC RAM and 32TB storage
#69If anyone is interested in buying a System 76 product and have it delivered outside of US, please take into account that the price doesn't include VAT. This has to be payed separately, which usually means that each device is ~20% more expensive (when delivered outside of US).
I ended up having to pay 400$ more for delivery + VAT for a laptop (didn't know about the VAT tax at that time). Very good performance, but rather mediocre quality (1 usb port is completely unusable).
Re: System76 launching ARM Pro server with 96 cores up to 1TB ECC RAM and 32TB storage
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Remember Intel is market leader making full-custom CPU's with more money thrown at each one than these small companies have. They also optimize the heck out of single-core performance which most RISC multicores don't. I think it's one of those things where you have to choose best bang for buck supporting an oligopoly or sacrifice some performance/cash to encourage new product development. Market says it overwhelmingl…
Even in multi-threaded benchmarks, where it should shine, it's getting murdered. ARM is a very promising platform and there's no technical reason why it can't out-perform Intel. It's just a matter of engineering it with that intent. Right now it's primarily intended to be efficient and good enough for mobile phones.
"Right now it's primarily intended to be efficient and good enough for mobile phones."
Exactly. That's why RISC-V variants focused on raw performance still have a differentiator.