Part I: Ampere Altra ARM Microprocessor Notes

Interesting tidbits about the Ampere Altra CPU, in no proper order.

Mt. Jade Platform: Dual Socket Rack Server. Image: Ampere Computing

This story is my own research and notes on things I find interesting about the Ampere Altra. As such this isn’t much of a story driving towards any important point. However I put it out here in case others find the various collected factoids interesting.

Hopefully I will get down to writing a proper story on Ampere Altra, when I get a better sense on what story there is to tell about it.

Ampere Computing (the Company behind Chip)

Ampere Computing is a relatively new company. Just 3 years old started in 2017. Can we trust that they have a clue what they are doing? Well they are founded by former Intel president Renée James, so that must count for something.

Chip Overview

The Altra is based on the ARM’s new Neoverse-N1 CPU core. This core was specifically designed for servers unlike most other cores made for embedded devices, cell phones etc.

The server chip from Amazon Graviton2 is also based on using Neoverse-N1 cores.

The Altra product line not just something they slapped together that ARM pushed out. Apparently it is the result of several…