The biggest advantage ARM has in the server space is the opportunity it gives customers to customise their ARM-based server SoCs. Intel just provides a ready-made chip and peripherals and the customer can take it or leave it – but if an ARM core is used a customer can tailor the SoC precisely to his requirement. With the big datacentre operators – Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Google et al – increasingly drawing up their own server specs which they then bung over to the Taiwan OEMs for implementation, the customisation opportunity is becoming more valuable.

Microserver的市場主要來自行動上網蔚為風潮以來所帶動的後端伺服器運作行為模式的多樣化需求, 謂之Hyperscale workloads！尚屬較為低端的伺服器市場，重點在低功耗與組態彈性化。


The characterisation that the heavy-lifting in servers needs to be done by Intel processors while lighter tasks can be left to ARM processors is an Intel's one. ARM-based solutions can use multiple high performance cores for heavy-lifting.

信心滿滿，ARM處理器不容Intel矮化。集合多顆高效的ARM核心，對于高負載工作，一樣免驚。


The collapse of Calxeda is unfortunate for them. They tried to go with 32-bit but the market really wants 64-bit.

Calxeda過於躁進，現在的64位元ARMv8才是市場要的。

16FF產品今年看得到？

When the first 16nm FinFET ARM implementations will hit the market？We’re squinting at this year.
- Pete Hutton, EVP and president of ARM’s product group


ARM sees the server market as a 50 million unit a year opportunity and aspires to a 5-10% market share by 2017. This year（2014） it sees itself gaining a ‘single digit percentage’ market share.

雖未正式出貨，伺服器兩大龍頭醞釀進軍microserver已然多時，HP的探月模組機Moonshot將陸續提供不同應用導向的CPU cartridge來讓客戶靈活運用在不同用途，CPU涉及Intel Atom、AMD Opteron、ARMv7、ARMv8，總的來說，仍以ARM架構居多數。Dell與AppliedMicro合作的64位元ARM微伺服器，也已出貨特約客戶測試中。


分析師雖然沒唱衰，實際上是稍顯保守的。

• ARM servers won’t ship in large volumes next year（2014）. 2014 is going to be a year of introductions and low-volume shipment of 64-bit ARM server [chips] from several suppliers.

• If AppliedMicro starts shipping 64-bit ARM server developer boards early next year, it “will be a feather in their cap. These boards, open for pre-orders in December of 2013, might be using sample chips, and the timing of commercial chip availability remains up in the air.
- Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64

看來，64位元ARM伺服器晶片大量出貨，在今年上半是有難度的。