Ampere Altra is the first 80-core ARM-based server processor

guest · Mar 3, 2020

Ampere Altra is the first 80-core ARM-based server processor
March 3, 2020
https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/03/ampere-altra-is-the-first-80-core-arm-based-server-processor/

Ampere has unveiled the industry’s first 80-core ARM-based 64-bit server processor today in a bid to outdo Intel and Advanced Micro Devices in datacenter chips.

Ampere announced today that it has begun providing samples of the Ampere Altra processor for modern cloud and edge computing datacenters. The Ampere Altra processor runs on 210 watts and is targeted at such server applications as data analytics, artificial intelligence, database, storage, telco stacks, edge computing, web hosting, and cloud-native applications.

Intel dominates about 95.5% of the server chip market [...] But Ampere is targeting power-efficient, high-performance, and high-memory capacity features.
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Renee James, former president of Intel and CEO of Ampere, said in an interview with VentureBeat that the chip is faster than a 64-core AMD Epyc processor and Intel’s 28-core high-end Xeon “Cascade Lake” chip.

“We’ve got the most cores in the market. It’s now in the hands of some of the industry’s largest cloud providers,” James said.
Jeff Wittich, senior vice president of products, said in an interview that the Ampere Altra was designed to provide the features that are increasingly demanded by customers and specifically optimized for cloud usage.
Power consumption is also a growing challenge for all modern datacenters, especially those operating at hyperscale.
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Ampere: Ampere Altra™ - Industry’s First 80-Core Server Processor Unveiled

Ampere™ announced today that it has begun shipping the Ampere Altra™ processor, the industry’s first 80-core server CPU and the first cloud native CPU for modern cloud and edge computing data centers. Ampere Altra is the company’s next generation cloud-focused product, and first in a new class of CPUs rolling out on an annual basis from Ampere’s roadmap, that will provide predictable high performance, secure isolation through single-threaded cores, scalability across the entire platform, and new levels of power efficiency.

The Ampere Altra processor delivers 80 cores up to 210 W, giving an industry-leading performance boost for rapidly growing use cases such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, database, storage, telco stacks, edge computing, web hosting and cloud native applications.
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guest · Jun 23, 2020

Ampere Announces Altra Max 128-Core Server Processor
June 23, 2020
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ampere-altra-max&num=1

Back in March Ampere Computing detailed their next-gen Altra ARM-based server CPU with up to 80 cores per socket. Today the company is revealing more roadmap details including the forthcoming Altra Max that offers 128 cores per socket.

The Altra Max is socket-compatible with the 80-core Altra. The Altra Max will begin sampling in Q4'2020.
Similarly, both the Altra and Altra Max are 7nm processors with eight channels of DDR4-3200 support and up to 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes while supporting up to two sockets per system.
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Ampere: Ampere® Altra™ Family of Cloud Native Processors expands to 128 cores with Altra Max™

Today, Ampere unveiled preliminary details of the expansion of the cloud-native processor family by adding Ampere Altra Max, which has 128 cores, providing customers with another cloud-optimized processor to maximize overall performance and cores-per-rack density.
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guest · Jul 26, 2022

Ampere Altra 80-core server processor gets delidded
Surprisingly small die size considering the power it's packing
July 26, 2022

In context: Ampere's Arm-based Altra processor lineup features impressive power efficiency and performance, superior to x86 alternatives in some situations. They come with multi-socket support, with the company offering models with up to 128 cores.

Overclocker and YouTuber der8auer posted a new video showcasing the performance of an Ampere Altra Q80-30 server processor and even delidded a sample to see what's under the IHS.
The YouTuber also noted the impressive power efficiency of the Arm processor, with CPU-only power draw peaking at just 180W during testing.
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Later in the video, der8auer delidded an Altra Q80-30 sample (presumably already dead) using the vice method. Surprisingly, Ampere opted to use standard thermal paste as the thermal interface material instead of soldering the IHS to the CPU die like Intel and AMD usually do. The company likely took this route because it's more cost-effective, as Arm processors are easier to cool than x86 designs due to their superior power efficiency.

The CPU die of the Altra Q80-30 measures about 22.5 mm x 25.5 mm, resulting in a surface area of 574 mm2.
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