An ARM SoC 64-bit

Next step for ARM chips: 64-bit. If it is not yet for immediately, it is no doubt for tomorrow.

Applied Micro, one of the many companies who have licensed ARM, presented a new SoC X-Gene able to run an Apache server in 64-bit mode. It is therefore a first prototype of smart ARM 64-bit, which is based on the set of instruction ARMv8, but which does not strictly speaking a Cortex of ARM core. Indeed, Applied Micro can, through its licence, use the ARM instruction set and develop its own hearts, what has been done here to ensure a 64-bit compatibility. It is therefore a processor House.

Tom's Hardware indicates that this processor was designed to be used in a "cloud" servers. It indeed offers sufficient power but consumes little energy, incorporating several ARMv8 hearts and a management subsystem memory better than usual, and an Ethernet network manager.

So should expect to see land ARM 64-bit chips in our phones and shelves quickly enough? No, most manufacturers of processors ARM do using the hearts of reference ARM, the famous Cortex. And the new (and efficient) Cortex A15 which should begin to spread at the end are still 32-bit. At best, the 64-bit will be the next generation of hearts ARM program. But it is of course interesting to see that companies are already working on that possibility.