Hewlett-Packard's effort to build ARM servers will get a boost from Texas Instruments, which will provide chips based on the latest ARM processor design.
With the Moonshot architecture, HP has created a platform architecture that enables Texas Instruments, and other companies, to develop workload-optimized hardware and software solutions.
TI recently announced its new product series based on the KeyStone II architecture that enables "a better way to cloud" for applications in high performance computing, gaming and media processing. TI's KeyStone II System-on-Chip (SoC) family, including the K2H and K2E devices, provides an implementation of quad ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore processors in an infrastructure-class embedded SoC. This unique SoC creates a combination of Cortex-A15 processors, C66x DSPs, packet processing and Ethernet switching.
Specifically, TI's 66AK2Hx family and its integrated c66x multicore DSPs are applicable for workloads ranging from high performance computing, media processing, video conferencing, off-line image processing & analytics, video recorders (DVR/NVR), gaming, virtual desktop infrastructure and medical imaging.
"Coupling TI's new KeyStone II architecture with HP Moonshot enables large-scale, concurrent real-time processing of cloud and traditional telecommunications workloads by one integrated system optimized for high performance, power-efficient processing," wrote Tim Wesselman, senior director of ecosystem strategy at HP's HyperScale Business Unit, in the blog entry.
HP did not disclose any product specific plans. The first low-power Moonshot HP servers are expected to be released next quarter. Howevre, it is not clear whether this first server will be powered by Intel (Centerton) or ARM-based chips.
