Can the Neoverse V2 platform update, codenamed “Demeter,” bring a bountiful harvest for the British company?
Arm has unveiled Neoverse V2, the company’s new data technology to enhance the Neoverse compute portfolio. The Neoverse V2 platform update, codenamed “Demeter,” is its attempt to offer better cloud workload performance and address the demands of data and cloud infrastructure processing.
V2 designed to boost Arm Neoverse
As the latest expansion of the Arm Neoverse roadmap, the V2 platform aims to upgrade the N1 central processing unit (CPU) and enable the platform technology to deliver better per-thread performance for hyperscale, cloud and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads and fuel next-generation infrastructure solutions.
The new additions to the company’s compute roadmap will enable its partners to utilize Arm-based technology, support scalability for more significant cloud and HPC workloads, and provide Arm v9 architecture security upgrades. The Neoverse V2 platform also includes the newest V-series core and the Arm CMN-700 mesh interconnect.
SEE: Hiring Kit: Cloud Engineer (TechRepublic Premium)
V2 provides 2MB (megabytes) of private L2 cache and up to 512MB of system-level cache, meaning users can gain up to 4TBps (terabytes per second) of bandwidth for the CMN mesh interconnect. It also comes with DDR5 (Double Data Rate 5), LPDDR5 (Low-Power DDR5), and CXL (Compute Express Link) 2.0 memory expansion power to boost memory use at scale.
Arm’s current partnerships
The company’s specialized processing technology aims to reduce workload power consumption and meet the increased compute requirements of modern cloud-native software. With the Arm software ecosystem, Neoverse platforms, and fabrics like AMBA CHI, UCIe and CXL, Arm partners have support in developing customized cloud-to-edge software solutions.
The Neoverse V2 platform design is currently supporting multiple company partners with their architectures. One of these current partners, NVIDIA, is utilizing V2 as the foundation for their Grace data center CPU, which will use V2 technology and LPDDR5X memory to improve performance per watt for servers using traditional architectures.
Arm Neoverse also announced that it is currently developing its next-gen N-series product for release in 2023. The company’s E-Series CPUs provide support for a range of functions, including data plane processing, edge networking and 5G RAN.
The Neoverse E2 core platform leverages the Cortex-A510 CPU with the Neoverse CMN-700 and N2 system backplane to support cloud use in constrained applications with a range of core counts; SystemReady compatibility; and PCIe, CXL, IO and interfaces.
Today, Arm has 1,000+ technology partners, and most significant cloud providers offer Arm-based instances. The company continues to collaborate with cloud partners to support their cloud-native frameworks, workloads and infrastructures.
The Arm Neoverse technology holds great potential for the development of future applications, as it is leveraged by developers to generate contributions for open-source communities. Some examples include contributions to existing tools to supply native builds for the Arm architecture and that have helped to amplify existing machine learning frameworks and cloud software workloads.
Making moves in the cloud computing platform and network infrastructure scene
While Arm has been developing ways to address the increased demands of computing infrastructure platforms, other vendors have also been stepping up their efforts in this tech area. Other competing technologies for more complex workloads and data processing include solutions from Intel and AMD.
Arm claims that Neoverse V2 CPUs will offer the highest single-threaded integer performance available in the market, eclipsing next-generation designs from both AMD and Intel. Still, Arm’s cloud computing technology is a worthy solution with the ability to fuel the development of valuable applications that will contribute to the enhancement of tomorrow’s digital world.
SEE: IBM partners with SAP to move more workloads to the cloud (TechRepublic)
About Arm and Neoverse technology
Arm is a custom semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England, owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group. It provides processor designs and software platforms to enable chip computing and secure power for digital products.
Since its introduction in 2018, Neoverse has been adopted by companies and developers as a platform enabling it to create customized applications and solutions. Arm Neoverse also launched the Ampere Altra-based HPEProliant 11th Gen platform with partners in traditional enterprise spaces including Project Monterey by VMware, Red Hat supporting OpenShift on Arm, and SAP HANA moving its cloud infrastructure on to the Arm-powered AWS Graviton.
Arm’s solutions reduce the power necessary to perform in the 5G RAN (radio access network) and wireless infrastructure. The Arm 5G Solutions Lab is working with several 5G ecosystem leaders, including Google Cloud, Dish Wireless and Vodafone, to support end-to-end 5G networks on Arm.
While it’s still early, things could be looking good so far for the potential success of the new processor chip and Arm’s other technology offerings. The new U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are reportedly planning to persuade Softbank Group to list Arm in the U.K.
However, Softbank has considered the possibility of forming a dual listing to own a base in the U.K. and the U.S., which would give Arm index inclusion in both of these markets. This could be quite favorable for the company considering the potential increase to its investment funds, possibly even leading to its place in the FTSE 100 index.
Considering the higher valuations and vast investor pool within the U.S. drawing Softbank in, we’ll have to wait and see whether they choose a rare dual listing or to stick with the States. Either way, more investments could mean funding more advancements to the Arm Neoverse technology.