HP to customize Moonshot offerings, offer ARM and Xeon chips
Hewlett-Packard in the future will offer customized Moonshot servers at different prices and also offer configurations with ARM and Intel Xeon processors.
HP on Monday started shipping the first offering in its new class of hyperscale servers called Moonshot, which runs on processors built for smartphones and tablets. The initial Moonshot system has a fixed configuration with 45 Proliant servers -- also called cartridges -- based on Intel's Atom S1200 x86 low-power processors, and will be priced at $61,875.
Over time, customers will be able to work with HP to configure Moonshot depending on how the server will be used and that also will determine the price, said Mark Potter, senior vice president and general manager of the Industry-Standard Servers and Software group, in an interview. Read more...
ARM chases Intel on 3D transistors with TSMC deal
ARM is catching up with Intel on 3D transistors, announcing a new partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to manufacture 64-bit chips that are faster and more power-efficient than current chips in which transistors are organized horizontally.
The agreement calls for TSMC to implement the 3D transistors in chips based on ARM's ARMv8 64-bit architecture in the 20-nanometer manufacturing process and beyond. ARM licenses processor designs to fabless companies such as Qualcomm and Nvidia, which get the chips made by contract manufacturers like TSMC.
Currently, transistors are generally organized horizontally, but a new manufacturing technology enables them to be stacked vertically. The technology, which is referred to as FinFET, has been researched for more than a decade and is considered an important way to fit more transistors onboard as chips get smaller. Read more...
Industry consortium to tackle open spec for software use across multicore devices
Companies including AMD and ARM have formed a consortium to provide an open specification for software to be written and deployed in a cost-effective manner across multiple hardware configurations, it was announced Tuesday.
The HSA (Heterogeneous System Architecture) Foundation will provide an open hardware interface specification under which program execution can be easily offloaded to other processing resources available in servers, PCs and mobile devices. The new specification will lead to applications that are portable across architectures, while also enabling workloads to be broken up between CPUs and graphics processors for faster and more power efficient computing. Read more...
ARM joint venture seeks common security standard for connected devices
ARM is setting up a joint venture with security technology companies Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient to arrive at a common security standard for connected devices such as tablets, smart-TVs, games consoles, and smartphones, the company said Tuesday.
The Cambridge, U.K. company, which holds a dominant share of processors that go into smartphones, said it will hold 40 percent of the joint venture with the other partners holding 30 percent each.
Security is critical for companies that wish to do business over connected devices, ARM said in a statement. Read more...
Office for Windows on ARM: Free or not?
Microsoft's announcement last week that it will "include" four Office apps with Windows on ARM has analysts parsing the news like intelligence agencies that once tried to figure out what went on inside the Kremlin by poring over photos of who stood where on the Red Square reviewing stand.
Some analysts say that Office will be bundled along with Windows on ARM (WOA) sans a separate price tag. Others believe Microsoft would never give away one of its most precious possessions.
All acknowledged that Microsoft has not provided enough information, and that details may not emerge until just weeks before the company wraps up development.
Microsoft, meanwhile, declined to answer questions about Office apps on WOA, or to clarify what Steven Sinofsky, the head of the Windows group, meant in an 8,600-word missive published last week.
"What we know is that there will be some level of capability to those Office apps, but what we don't know is who pays for it," said Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC who was briefed by Microsoft last week.
Hilwa and fellow IDC analyst Al Gillen interpreted Microsoft's announcement as confirming that the Office apps included with WOA -- touch-enabled versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that run in the operating system's limited desktop mode -- would be bundled with the operating system, free to users. Read more...
Windows on ARM will include Office 15 preinstalled
Perhaps you’ve been holding off on a tablet purchase until Windows 8 arrived. And perhaps you’re keen on having a go at Windows on ARM — what with the greatly improved battery life it’ll likely deliver compared to Intel or AMD tablets. If both those things are true, you’re in for a treat: Windows 8 on ARM will include Office 15 apps.
In Steven Sinofsky’s recent, 8,000-plus word blog post detailing Windows on ARM (WOA) he made several interesting revelations. For one, he stated that the Windows desktop is still a vital component of WOA, and that ARM users will still have access to the desktop and desktop apps. The apps, of course, will have to be ported to the ARM architecture, but it’s good to get additional confirmation that WOA isn’t limited to Metro-style apps. Read more...
Windows 8 on ARM: You can look but you can’t touch
For a touch-based interface, it was awfully hard to get hold of. Microsoft's Windows 8 OS was shown on a handful of prototype ARM-based tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, but almost no one was allowed to try it out.
Nvidia had three Windows 8 tablets in its booth but they were all behind glass. Texas Instruments showed a Windows 8 tablet in a meeting room off the show floor, but a reporter who asked to try it was told that wasn't permitted. Qualcomm, the third vendor of ARM-based chips working with Windows 8, wasn't showing it at all.
Representatives from all three companies said Microsoft has placed tight limits on how they can show Windows on ARM. It's apparently taking no chances that people might have a bad experience with the software before it's ready for release, which could harm its reputation.
"I think they're being a little measured because they want to make sure that when people finally see these things that it's a good experience. They have to get it right," Mike Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia's mobile business unit, said in an interview. Read more...