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ARM Shares Updated Cortex A53/A57 Performance Expectations

ARM Shares Updated Cortex A53/A57 Performance Expectations

With the first Cortex A53 based SoCs due to ship in the coming months, and Cortex A57 based designs to follow early next year, ARM gave us a quick update on performance expectations for both cores. Given the timing of both designs we’ll see a combination of solutions built on presently available manufacturing processes (e.g. 28nm) as well as next gen offerings (20/16FF). The graph above gives us an updated look at performance expectations (in web browsing workloads) for both ARM 64-bit cores.

If we compare across the same process nodes (28nm in both cases), the Cortex A53 should give us nearly a 50% increase in performance compared to ARM’s Cortex A7. The Cortex A57 should offer roughly the same increase in performance compared to Cortex A15 as well. Although the A57 will do so at higher power, power efficiency may be better depending on the workload thanks to the added performance. Thankfully we won’t see many A57 designs built on 28nm in mobile (AMD’s first Cortex A57 design will be aimed at servers and is built on a 28nm process).

If you combine architectural improvements with a new process node, the gains are substantial. Move to 20nm or 16FF for these designs and the improvement over their 32-bit predecessors easily exceeds 50%. 

ARM also provided some Geekbench 3 performance data comparing the Cortex A57 to A15, both in 32-bit and 64-bit mode. We already know Geekbench 3 is particularly sensitive to the new instructions that come along with AArch64, but even in 32-bit mode there’s still a 15 – 30% increase in performance over the Cortex A15 at the same clocks.

Qualcomm has already announced its Snapdragon 410, 610 and 615 will use ARM’s Cortex A53, while its 808 and 810 will use a combination of Cortex A53s and A57s.

AMD is also working on a new 64-bit x86 Core
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AMD is also working on a new 64-bit x86 Core

Jim Keller joined Mark Papermaster on stage at AMD’s Core Innovation Update press conference and added a few more details to AMD’s K12 announcement. Keller stressed AMD’s expertise in building high frequency cores, as well as marrying the strengths of AMD’s big cores with those of its low power cores. The resulting K12 core is a 64-bit ARM design, but Jim Keller also revealed that his team is working on a corresponding 64-bit x86 core.

The x86 counterpart doesn’t have a publicly known name at this point, but it is a new design built from the ground up.

AMD Announces K12 Core: Custom 64-bit ARM Design in 2016
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AMD Announces K12 Core: Custom 64-bit ARM Design in 2016

In 2015 AMD will launch project SkyBridge, a pair of pin-compatible ARM and x86 based SoCs. Leveraging next generation Puma+ x86 cores or ARM’s Cortex A57 cores, these SoCs form the foundation of the next phase in AMD’s evolution where ARM and x86 are treated like equal class citizens. As I mentioned in today’s post however, both of these designs really aim at the lower end of the performance segment. To address a higher performance market, AMD is doing what many ARM partners have done and is leveraging an ARM architecture license to design their own microarchitecture. 

In 2016 AMD will release its first custom 64-bit ARMv8 CPU core, codenamed K12. Jim Keller is leading the team that is designing the K12, as well as a corresponding new 64-bit x86 design. AMD is pretty quiet about K12 details at this point given how far away it is. Given the timing I’m assuming we’re talking about a 14/16nm FinFET SoC. On the slide above we see that AMD is not only targeting servers and embedded markets, but also ultra low power client devices for its 64-bit ARM designs (presumably notebooks, chromebooks, tablets). AMD has shied away from playing in the phone market directly, but it could conceivably play in that space with its semi-custom business (offering just a CPU/GPU core with other IP). Update: AMD added that server, embedded and semi-custom markets are obvious targets for K12. 

There’s also this discussion of modularity, treating both ARM and x86 cores as IP modules rather than discrete designs. AMD continues to have a lot of expertise in SoC design, all it really needs is a focus on improving single threaded performance. I can only hope (assume?) that K12 won’t be Bulldozer-like and will hopefully prioritize single threaded performance. It’s important to point out that there hasn’t been a single reference to the Bulldozer family of CPU cores in any of these announcements either…

Update: Jim Keller added some details on K12. He referenced AMD’s knowledge of doing high frequency designs as well as “extending the range” that ARM is in. Keller also mentioned he told his team to take the best of the big and little cores that AMD presently makes in putting together this design. 

AMD Announces Project SkyBridge: Pin-Compatible ARM and x86 SoCs in 2015, Android Support
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AMD Announces Project SkyBridge: Pin-Compatible ARM and x86 SoCs in 2015, Android Support

This morning AMD decided to provide an update on its CPU core/SoC roadmap, particularly as it pertains to the ARM side of the business. AMD already committed to releasing a 28nm 8-core Cortex A57 based Opteron SoC this year. That particular SoC is aimed at the enterprise exclusively and doesn’t ship with an on-die GPU.

Next year, AMD will release a low-power 20nm Cortex A57 based SoC with integrated Graphics Core Next GPU. The big news? The 20nm ARM based SoC will be pin compatible with AMD’s next-generation low power x86 SoC (using Puma+ cores). The ARM SoC will also be AMD’s first official Android platform.

I don’t expect we’ll see standard socketed desktop boards that are compatible with both ARM and x86 SoCs, but a pin compatible design will have some benefits for embedded, BGA solutions. AMD expects to target embedded and client markets with these designs, not servers.

AMD’s motivation behind offering both ARM and x86 designs is pretty simple. The TAM (Total Addressable Market) for x86 is decreasing, while it’s increasing for ARM. AMD is no longer married to x86 exclusively and by offering OEMs pin compatible x86/ARM solutions it gets to play in both markets, as well as benefit if one increases at the expense of the other.

Note that we’re still talking about mobile phone/tablet class CPU cores here (Cortex A57/Puma+). AMD has yet to talk about what it wants to do at the high end, but I suspect there’s a strategy there as well.

Corsair’s AX1500i Released: A 1500W 80 Plus Titanium PSU
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Corsair’s AX1500i Released: A 1500W 80 Plus Titanium PSU

Shopping around for a power supply on a tight budget can be a bit of an ordeal.  On forums, everyone will have their own opinion of what constitutes a good power supply, and similarly to mechanical HDDs, a single bad experience can put a user off a brand forever.  My golden rule, unless you need a specific feature/amperage on the power lines for unique GPUs, is to take the total power draw of your system and add 40%.  My analogy is thus – a car whose top speed is 80mph will squeak and rattle if you run it every day at 70mph, whereas a car whose top speed is 130mph will hum along nicely at 70mph.  Others may disagree, but I find this is a nice guideline when building systems for family and friends.

Most desktop systems bought and sold today are often very basic, with integrated or a low end graphics card, making power requirements very low.  However the extreme is also true, with users wanting to make the most out of three or four end GPUs with a heavy deal of overclocking.  If you can recall our Gaming CPU article from April 2013 we used a 24-thread dual-processor system with four 7970 GPUs, lightly overclocked, which drew 1550W at load. This is why power supplies north of 1000W exist, and it can be very frustrating to get these units to be very efficient.  To that end, Corsair is releasing today their AX1500i, a 1500W model certified with 80 Plus Titanium qualifications.

80 Plus Titanium is a newer addition to the 80 Plus, derived from server requirements and first realised back in 2012.  As with all 80 Plus specifications, it requires a specific efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% loading (it can be any efficiency in between these values), although Titanium also adds an element for 10% loading.  For the AX1500i, this means a minimum efficiency rating of 90/92/94/90% for 10/20/50/100% loading in the 110-120V regions and 90/94/96/91% for 220V+ regions.

The Corsair design implements their Zero-RPM Fan technology, meaning the power supply fan will only activate when a 450W load or above is detected. 

The supply comes with ten connectors for PCIe devices, is fully modular, and has native USB support for Corsair Link for monitoring the power supply.  This includes real-time temperature, power use and efficiency ratings in the operating system.  The AX1500i blows the ATX specification out of the water in terms of size, measuring 225mm (8.86in) long, which is still shorter than a big GPU.

The price is not for the faint hearted: $450 MSRP, to be initially available direct from Corsair followed by worldwide distributors in late May.  This price is indicative of the high power rating combined with the high efficiency certification, as well as a 7-year warranty.  I have already seen interest online from extreme overclockers and modders designing hardcore top-end desktop machines, which indicates the niche that Corsair believes this supply will fit in to.