Published in PC Hardware

AMD sneaks out 64-bit ARM server details

by on25 March 2015


For shareholder's eyes only

Buried in AMD's shareholders' report, there was a some suprising detail about the outfit's first ARM 64-bit server SoCs.

For those who came in late, they are supposed to be going on sale in the first half of 2015.

We know that the ARM Cortex-A57 architecture based SoC has been codenamed 'Hierofalcon.'

AMD started sampling these Embedded R-series chips last year and is aiming to release the chipset in the first half of this year for embedded data centre applications, communications infrastructure, and industrial solutions.

But it looks like the Hierofalcon SoC will include eight Cortex-A57 cores with 4MB L2 cache and will be manufactured on a 28nm process. It will support two 64-bit DDR3/4 memory channels with ECC up to 1866MHz and up to 128GB per CPU. Connectivity options will include two 10GbE KR, 8x SATA 3 6Gb/s, 8 lanes PCIe Gen 3, SPI, UART, and I2C interfaces. The chip will have a TDP between 15 to 30W.

The SOC ranges between a TDP of 15 – 30 W. The highly integrated SoC includes 10 Gb KR Ethernet and PCI-Express Gen 3 for high-speed network connectivity, making it ideal for control plane applications. The chip also features a dedicated security processor which enables AMD's TrustZone technology for enhanced security. There's also a dedicated cryptographic security co-processor on-board, aligning to the increased need for networked, secure systems.

Soon after Hierofalcon is out, AMD will be launching the SkyBridge platform that will feature interchangeable 64-bit ARM and x86 processors. Later in 2016, the company will be launching the K12 chip, its custom high performance 64-bit ARM core.

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