The Fastest AArch64 Linux Distribution On The 192-Core AmpereOne

When it comes to the question of the fastest x86_64 Linux distribution the answer is very easy with Intel's Clear Linux. But what about in the AArch64 world? When having the AmpereOne server in the lab curiosity got the best of me and I ran benchmarks across seven different Linux distributions on this Supermicro ARM server for seeing what platform had the fastest out-of-the-box Linux performance. The Linux distributions tested on this AmpereOne A192-32X server included Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Ubuntu 24.10 daily, Fedora Server 40, AlmaLinux 9.4, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Debian Testing, and CentOS Stream 10.

Besides being curious about the differences in the out-of-the-box Linux performance on AArch64 with AmpereOne, I also used this exercise for seeing how well these AArch64 Linux distributions were running on this Supermicro ARS-211M-NR R13SPD server with the AmpereOne A192-32X.

All the Linux distributions I attempted worked out effortlessly on this Supermicro AmpereOne server. Like with Ampere Altra and Ampere eMAG before that, it's a seamless AArch64 Linux experience. Thanks to supporting open standards like UEFI, Arm SBSA/SBBR and ACPI and not having to rely on DeviceTrees or other nuisances, installing an AArch64 Linux distribution on Ampere hardware is as easy as in the x86_64 space.

All seven tested Linux distributions installed fine on this Supermicro ARS-211M-NR R13SPD with AmpereOne A192-32X and 8 x 64GB DDR5-5200 ECC RDIMMs with Samsung NVMe SSD storage. Great experience and I wish dealing with different Linux distributions on all ARM SBCs/systems were this easy like in the x86_64 land.

All seven Linux distributions tested were run in their out-of-the-box configuration on this AmpereOne server that for the likes of AlmaLinux / CentOS Stream does include the use of CPPC CPUFreq performance governor by default, various package version differences, various file-system differences, etc. Take the results as you wish for just this out-of-the-box AArch64 Linux distribution comparison.