NVIDIA Reportedly Near Deal To Buy Arm For $40+ Billion Dollars

[starshipeleven]

Then they turn consumer ARM into a closed-source design with encrypted firmware and zero open drivers.

I was under the impression that ARM is already like this?

[tildearrow]

I was under the impression that ARM is already like this?

See Panfrost (Mesa).

[tildearrow]

SPEC and Geekbench contain only real world programs, like GCC, LLVM, LZMA compression, image compression etc. To say they are not real world is like saying you prefer Dhrystone.

Also they have put a lot of effort into ISA/OS neutrality (so yes, they are comparable) - unlike Phoronix which doesn't even compare the same source code in many cases!

No, thanks. Please show me an ARM chip running the x264 bench at 120+ FPS.

Then I'll believe you.

[ElectricPrism]

Unlike an investment bank, Nvidia has real skin in the game. Sounds like a good match, hope it works out for all customers.

Good for Customers? No. Unlikely. Good for Nvidia's pocket? Probably.

[PerformanceExpert]

No, thanks. Please show me an ARM chip running the x264 bench at 120+ FPS.

Then I'll believe you.

Graviton 2 scored 140 for x264 in the Phoronix benchmarks. At just 2.5GHz.

[edwaleni]

Maybe Amazon should buy ARM instead.

[PerformanceExpert]

I'm not very confident in NUVIA claims. First we haven't seen them IRL, second no revolution really ever happens (Ryzen is a very bold move, but AMD did not crushed intel that much - expect 10 to 15% improvement other a concurrent, but 40% seems a commercial claim for foolish people).

NUVIA is pushing a SOC in a server - that is indeed interesting, but I am not sure how many datacenters/pro ITs will try this.

Comparing a SOC that don't care about multiple pci-express buses, super fast RAM bus and enormous cache is interesting, but you have to prove that we don't need all those extra features that Intel/AMD provide.

Don't misunderstand: I have always supported ARM, I like clean designs, I think it works great in embedded and specific applications, but I think there are some fantasies on ARM being that much superior to x64, and the software and hardware ecosystem is somewhat lagging in existence or support.

You talk as if Arm servers don't exist already. AWS, Ampere, Marvell and others have already released Arm servers with fast 8-channel DRAM and lots of PCI-E that compete with EPYC. Nuvia's claim is they can do even better. And that is not outlandish given they have the CPU designer of the fastest Arm core that exists today. Note that Arm cores improve by about 20% per year, so 40% is not revolutionary. It would be foolish to aim lower if you want to be competitive in 2 years.

[tildearrow]

Graviton 2 scored 140 for x264 in the Phoronix benchmarks. At just 2.5GHz.

Can't buy this processor though.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Maybe Amazon should buy ARM instead.

Please, ${deity}, no. Amazon already have far too strong a hold on too many areas.

[PerformanceExpert]

Can't buy this processor though.

That's moving goal posts. From a user perspective, there is no difference between a cloud server and a server that is somewhere in a server room (in a different building and/or city).