Those low end boards never do it for me.
But Samsung almost got me to buy a Galaxy S4, and I was that interested in it as a phone.

> give me a damn SATA connector already

Wandboard Quad for 129 USD:

http://www.wandboard.org/index.php/details

Update:

>> I think Applied Micro (X-Gene) or even Cavium (Project Thunder) might arrive in
>> high-end ARM land before nVidia (Project Denver/Boulder).

> Denver in 2015:
> https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8783&forum=3&start=54

X-Gene now here for real:

http://www.mitac.com/news/News_228.aspx
http://semiaccurate.com/2013/06/05/amcc-x-gene-64-bit-silicon-spotted-in-the-wild/


Edit:
http://www.apm.com/news/appliedmicro-announces-general-availability-of-x-gene-system-development-ki/

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 30.10.2013 - 23:57 ]

Addendum:

> Their PPC4xx core license(s) will be good for several years to come during which
> they'll have manufactured and sell their recent PPC chips and maybe future
> dual-ISA (PPC+ARM) chips.

Summary of the current status of Power Architecture at Applied Micro:

"We continue to market our processor products based on Power Architecture. Developed by IBM, Power Architecture is the leading standard computing platform within the communications market for high-performance embedded systems. Many of our customers' products require embedded computing solutions for managing control plane and data plane functionality. Our products combine the embedded central processing unit ("CPU") with peripheral functionality to create optimum solutions for applications such as wireless access points, residential gateways, wireless base-stations, storage controllers, network attached storage, network switches and routing products, and multi-function printers. Products based on Power Architecture are broadly deployed and continue to be designed into major telecommunications, consumer, and networking equipment. Our PACKETpro family leverages the general purpose embedded computing capabilities of Power Architecture in combination with technologies derived from our portfolio of traffic management and packet computing products to create solutions that are ideally suited for converged Internet Protocol-based networks. As part of our SLIMpro PowerPC ISA product offering, we developed an asymmetric multiprocessing architecture that combines the ARM 32-bit and PowerPC 32-bit cores. This combination has enabled enhanced features for security, power management and offload capabilities. [...] We are one of the leading suppliers of embedded processors and SoCs. Our embedded processors are widely deployed in a variety of critical applications in target markets such as wireless LAN, residential, data centers and enterprise. In networking equipment such as edge, core and enterprise routers, our embedded processors handle overall system maintenance and management functions. Versions of our processors are also targeted at large opportunities in RAID storage processing, multi-function printers and a variety of other embedded applications. In wireless LAN applications, our embedded processors are installed in a significant share of all enterprise class access points shipped worldwide. Our existing products utilize IBM's Power Architecture processor cores in various speed grades. These cores are integrated with various peripheral functionality to create specialized SoC product solutions. In fiscal 2012, we introduced the APM8669x “Black Mamba”, the highest performance member of our second generation of PACKETpro embedded processors. While PACKETpro is our second-generation of embedded processors, it is the first to feature offload acceleration of critical features at performance levels up to 1.3 GHz. The innovative subsystem design features the Scalable Lightweight Intelligent Management processor, or SLIMpro, to enable breakthrough flexibility in power management, protected asymmetrical multi-processing, failover protection, resiliency and end-to-end security for a wide range of mission-critical applications in wireless and wired networking, multi-function printer, industrial, network-attached storage, consumer and enterprise access point markets. Additional members of the PACKETpro family include “Green Mamba,” “Diamond Back”, “Keelback”, and “Catalina.” Our current embedded processor customers include Brocade, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Kyocera, Netgear, Q-Logic, Toshiba TEC and Western Digital."
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/711065/000144530513001456/amcc0331201310-k.htm

Thanks for editing that monster down to the points that matter to us. I wonder if a combination PPC/ARM core product would be one way for us to transition over?I

Update:

> in terms of 64-bit ARMv8 (AArch64) cores, there is announced so far:
> - Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 from ARM Ltd.
> - Denver from nVidia
> - X-Gene from Applied Micro
> - Thunder from Cavium

- Cyclone from Apple

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A7
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/3
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/4


Edit: added more links

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 18.09.2013 - 12:21 ]

This might be of more interest for desktop users:

AMD Hierofalcon

Up to eight 64-bit ARM Cortex-A57 cores
Up to 2GHz.
Dual 64-bit memory channels DDR3/DDR4
10-gigabit Ethernet
PCI Express 3

The current high end ARM chips are all designed for phones or at most tablets. This is more like a desktop part.

> This might be of more interest for desktop users: AMD Hierofalcon
> [...] This is more like a desktop part.

""Hierofalcon" is the first 64-bit ARM-based platform from AMD targeting embedded data center applications, communications infrastructure and industrial solutions."
http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/amd-details-embedded-2013sept9.aspx

So it is a server oriented processor.

> So it is a server oriented processor.

Oriented at the tasks required between the servers, to be precise. I think it's targeted at the same fields as for instance the IBM PowerEN.

Update:

>> They could co-develop PPC and ARM SoCs so all they have to do is drop in whatever
>> cores the market requires.

> Yes, that's what the announced QorIQ Layerscape product line will be all about.

First chips of ARM-based QorIQ LS1 series announced:

http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196520&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1864869

Regarding future QorIQ LS chips based on Power Architecture:

"Freescale isn’t abandoning the PowerPC architecture it has championed in the past, Bustami said, but it has decided to create a parallel ARM-based product line because of the direction the market heading."
http://gigaom.com/2013/10/16/freescale-puts-arm-cores-to-work-running-the-internet-of-things/

Quote:

Or rather - That's the markets targeted by AMD (who has other CPU's in their portfolio that they want to sell to the desktop market).

It doesn't seem to have an embedded GPU (as expected of course). "Weak GPU's" (everything is relative) of the current ARM chips is an argument that some people frequently use to discard ARM for desktop applications.

It does have third generation PCI-e though, so whether it's suited in desktop contexts or not may come down to the total PCI-e bandwidth/number of lanes, etc. Who knows, but if you'd be able to use 16 lanes for a state-of-the-art graphics card (or a budget one for that matter), and a few other lanes for some additional peripheral controllers/slots, then I don't think it's out of consideration for desktop applications. 8x 64-bit Cortex-A57 cores with dual-channel DDR 2/3 etc will perform quite well, and not every desktop application/customer needs or wants a Core-i7 level gaming system anyway (in fact, most probably don't).

Looking forward to see more information about this one. I think it can become quite interesting!

> Or rather - That's the markets targeted [...]. It doesn't seem to have an embedded
> GPU (as expected of course). [...] It does have third generation PCI-e though, so
> whether it's suited in desktop contexts or not may come down to the total PCI-e
> bandwidth/number of lanes, etc. Who knows, but if you'd be able to use 16 lanes
> for a state-of-the-art graphics card (or a budget one for that matter), and a few other
> lanes for some additional peripheral controllers/slots, then I don't think it's out of
> consideration for desktop applications. 8x 64-bit [...] cores with dual-channel DDR
> 2/3 etc will perform quite well, and not every desktop application/customer needs
> or wants a Core-i7 level gaming system anyway (in fact, most probably don't).

This sounds suspiciously similar to the reasoning of those strange folks who are in favour of using current and future Power Architecture communications SoCs in desktop-oriented systems ;-)

Update:

> in terms of 64-bit ARMv8 (AArch64) cores, there is announced so far:
> - Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 from ARM Ltd.
> - Denver from nVidia
> - X-Gene from Applied Micro
> - Thunder from Cavium
> - Cyclone from Apple

- Vulcan from Broadcom
- K12 from AMD

http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s797235
http://www.linleygroup.com/newsletters/newsletter_detail.php?num=5065
http://www.amd.com/en-us/press-releases/Pages/ambidextrous-computing-2014may05.aspx


Edit: added K12

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 08.05.2014 - 14:00 ]

These chips all look very interesting but unless they get used on a standard form factor motherboard I can't see them as being very useful for desktop computing.

Some of those are designed for networking infrastructure type gear so we may never see them in a desktop form factor.

OTOH they do need development machines so there will be boards of some description out there.


AMD might be more interesting because they have 64bit ARM based parts on the way and I fully expect you'll find at least some of these on desktop type boards.

Then again my "desktop" has been a laptop for over 10 years. You can already get ARM laptops and more are beginning to appear.

I quite fancy the Chromebook Pixel as a Linux Laptop, much nicer than the Dual Core Penryn Macbook Pro I've currently got.

I don't think well ever see Laptops with a PPC CPU ever again though.

> Some of those are designed for networking infrastructure type gear so we may
> never see them in a desktop form factor. [...] AMD might be more interesting
> because they have 64bit ARM based parts on the way and I fully expect you'll
> find at least some of these on desktop type boards.

In case these AMD parts you refer to happen to include Hierofalcon, I'd say this actually is "designed for networking infrastructure type gear". At least that's what AMD says:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7675&start=474

> I quite fancy the Chromebook Pixel as a Linux Laptop

This one hasn't an ARM CPU, opposed to the Samsung Chromebook and the HP Chromebook 11, right?

Quote:

Yes you are right, I hadn't looked into it in detail and just assumed it was ARM-based like the others.

Still looks lovely though. :)

> just assumed it was ARM-based like the others.

Wikipedia has a nice table on the Chromebook models:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromebook#Commercial_machines

Apparently, only a minority of them is ARM-based.

Quote:

In case these AMD parts you refer to happen to include Hierofalcon, I'd say this actually is "designed for networking infrastructure type gear". At least that's what AMD says:

Funnily enough they said it was primarily for servers just today but they mentioned other stuff as well.

4 - 8 Cores, 2GHz and PCIe3.0. A very high spec for an ARM.
Things are about to get mighty interesting.



[ Edited by minator 24.10.2013 - 21:10 ]

You probably weren't expecting this:

IBM Licenses ARM for Custom Networking, Comms Chips

XMOS also threw in a Cortex M3 to one of their designs.

> You probably weren't expecting this:
> IBM Licenses ARM for Custom Networking, Comms Chips

Indeed. Let's see what the implications will be for IBM's PPC4xx and PPC A2 business(es). IBM's move is probably not very encouraging for existing and potential PPC4xx core licensees.
Any idea what IBM's customers will need the Mali GPU for in their routers, switches and base stations?

Edit: An attempt to explain:

""This deal makes a lot of sense, and saves IBM the trouble of maintaining its own CPU cores," said Linley Gwennap, senior analyst of the Linley Group. "IBM has been offering PowerPC cores (e.g., 405, 440) through their ASIC business, but it has not updated these cores for years, so they are getting stale [meanwhile] ARM has become quite popular," he said in an email exchange. "IBM also does ASICs for set-top boxes which is probably why they picked up a Mali license," he added."
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1319884

This would answer my Mali question. And indeed, the PPC4xx core series has last been updated in 2009. And the most recent chip they sell with PPC A2 cores (PowerEN) has been introduced in early 2010.

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 25.10.2013 - 11:28 ]