Tag: 64-bit

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miniNodes.com Launches First Hosted 64-Bit ARM Server

Phoenix, AZ — Cloud hosting provider miniNodes.com, a pioneer in the ARM server hosting industry, is proud to announce the immediate availability of the world’s first hosted 64-bit ARM server. The new 64-bit ARM miniNode is the first publicly available hosted Linux server to use a processor based on the ARMv8 architecture.

While the transition from 32-bit to 64-bit CPU’s is already underway in the smartphone market, the server market has been slower to evolve. This has been due to the limited availability and prohibitively expensive early samples of 64-bit ARM hardware. However, the new 64-bit ARM miniNode eliminates the barriers to entry and dramatically reduces the cost for companies to begin testing software, porting applications, and building new technologies that leverage the benefits of the ARMv8 architecture. The 64-bit ARM miniNode is based on the HiSilicon Kirin 6220 processor, which has 8 ARM Cortex-A53 cores, coupled with 1gb of RAM and 20gb of storage. Linux support includes Debian 8.0 “Jessie” at launch, with other Linux distributions expected to become available in the future.

Although ARM processors already power the vast majority of smartphones, tablets, and media players, as well as some laptops, the biggest market segment poised for growth is the server and datacenter industry. ARM’s low power, high efficiency CPU designs can result in significant energy savings for web-scale datacenter operators, where energy and cooling are the largest costs. Companies can make sure their applications and code are ready to take advantage of these next-generation datacenters by using the new miniNode 64-bit ARM server to achieve compatibility today.

More information about the miniNode 64-bit ARM server can be found on our website, https://www.mininodes.com/product/64-bit-arm-mininode/

More information on ARM Holdings can be located on their website, http://www.arm.com

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64-bit ARM Servers Now Available!

miniNodes is proud to announce that we have a small number of 64-bit ARM servers built and available for purchase, making us the first provider in the industry to offer this product.  Check them out here:  https://www.mininodes.com/product/64-bit-arm-mininode/

These 64-bit ARM servers are perfect for early adopters to test code and port applications, as well as verify functionality of their programs and squash bugs.  These nodes were built using the 96boards.org HiKey board, so these are 8-core HiSilicon 6220 (ARM Cortex A53) processors with 1gb of RAM and 4gb of eMMC, running pre-release Debian 8.0 “Jessie”, on a Linux 3.18 kernel.  The hardware offers great performance and the software is rapidly evolving.

Keep in mind this is an alpha product, so there are a few Known Issues to be aware of:

  • Reboots are not working yet.  To reboot your node, simply open up a Ticket and let us know you need a reboot.  We’ll power cycle the board.
  • These nodes are behind a firewall and NAT’ed to keep them protected.  SSH access and the standard required ports are open, but not much else.

Until now, it has been prohibitively expensive to acquire, deploy, and run 64-bit ARM servers locally to build and test code designed for the architecture.  However, miniNodes is helping to drive early adoption by providing an alternate, and much more cost effective way to gain access to the platform.

Special thanks for all of the engineering work goes to the Linaro organization, as they have done the bulk of the work in bringing up this hardware and software.