Published in PC Hardware

AMD talks Hierofalcon, coming in 2H 2014

by on21 October 2013

It's no slouch

AMD’s first ARM based parts are expected to launch next year. Although there are persistent rumours that AMD will eventually enter the consumer ARM SoC space, the first chips are reserved for datacenters and networks.

Hierofalcon will pack four to eight 64-bit ARM A57 cores clocked up to 2GHz. The TDP will be in the 15W to 30W range. However, AMD insists that the chip won’t be slow.

Kamal Khouri, director of product management for AMD’s embedded division, told Electronics Weekly that there’s a popular misconception that ARM parts are energy efficient, but also slow. This is not the case with Hierofalcon.

“This is truly a high performance SOC taking advantage of ARM’s first 64-bit architecture,” said Khouri.

In addition to new ARM cores, the 28nm chips also feature 10Gbit Ethernet and PCI Express 3.0 on board, which means they should be a good fit for data centres. AMD VP Arun Iyengar pointed out that AMD already has a server business unit for the data centre, but the new chips should go after the storage element and the networking element.

He added that AMD can leverage its extensive 64-bit experience to new ARM-based parts such as Hierofalcon, Bald Eagle and Adelaar. Steppe Eagle is a Jaguar based x86 part that should target similar markets.

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