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posted by martyb on Sunday October 17 2021, @05:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the how-does-that-compare-to-the-Cray-1? dept.

TSMC delivers first batch of Baikal BE-M1000 CPUs based on ARM Cortex-A57 cores

Baikal Electronics confirms they received the first batch of 5000 BE-M1000 CPUs from their foundry, TSMC. These are second-generation processors based on ARM architecture.

[...] Baikal BE-M1000 is based on eight ARM Cortex A57 cores all clocked up to 1.5 GHz at TDP at 30-35W. The CPU has 4MB of L2 cache and 8MB of L3 cache. It comes with an integrated ARM Mali-T682 GPU clocked at 700 to 750 MHz.

The processor offers a performance level of Intel Core i3-7300T, which should be good enough for standard office use.

The Intel Core i3-7300T was a dual-core Kaby Lake CPU launched in 2017, with a similar TDP (35 Watts).

Previously: Desktop and All-in-One Arm Linux Computers Launched with Baikal-M Processor

Related: Russia to Build RISC-V Processors for Laptops: 8-core, 2 GHz, 12nm, 2025


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 17 2021, @06:59PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 17 2021, @06:59PM (#1187776)

    The Intel Core i3-7300T was a dual-core Kaby Lake CPU launched in 2017, with a similar TDP (35 Watts).

    So the old ARM ISA offers no advantage in energy efficiency over the old Intel ISA?

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Sunday October 17 2021, @07:37PM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Sunday October 17 2021, @07:37PM (#1187777) Journal

    Details are off.

    If the performance comparison is accurate, it means the multi-threaded performance of the 8-core Baikal matches the 2-core Intel chip. But the single-threaded performance would be much worse and that would be perceived while doing various tasks.

    The i3-7300T is made on Intel's 14nm node with FinFET transistors, while the Baikal chip is made on less efficient but cheap TSMC 28nm.

    The easier thing to compare it to might be the Raspberry Pi 4. The Pi 4 uses 4x Cortex-A72 at the same clock speed. A72 is the successor to the A57, and should use about 80% of the power at the same clock speed. So 8x Cortex-A57 on the same 28nm node (not sure which foundry for Pi 4) should be 2.5x the power consumption, although that could be inaccurate for various reasons. The Pi 4 SoC isn't drawing 12-14 Watts by itself.

    The Mali GPU is running at a higher clock speed than Pi 4's GPU. It's an 8-core Mali-T628 GPU [baikalelectronics.com] (not 682), which is the most cores that one can have.

    Baikal's page says "Estimated TDP below 30 W". Maybe that TDP encompasses some of the other features, like the 10 Gb Ethernet controllers.

    In conclusion, this thing is a nice industrial-grade ARM chip, and you should definitely loot a Baikal-M workstation from a nearby Russian office when you get the opportunity.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 19 2021, @09:17PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 19 2021, @09:17PM (#1188582)

      But what's the upload speed of my commercial secrets to the Russian govt?

  • (Score: 2) by driverless on Monday October 18 2021, @07:30AM (2 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Monday October 18 2021, @07:30AM (#1187923)

    That was my response as well, so they're finally catching up with Intel in terms of energy inefficiency?

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday October 18 2021, @09:14AM (1 child)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday October 18 2021, @09:14AM (#1187935) Homepage
      But this isn't "finally catching up", it's "even when massively hamstrung". Those A57's are ancient cores. The successor A72/A73 came out half a decade ago and provide better grunt per watt as they use fewer watts, and the successor of those, that A75/A76 came out 3 years ago and provide better grunt per watt by providing way more grunt - those are the better comparison generation-wise to the Intel Cores. And they're not even the cutting edge, there are several incremental improvements since then. In particular, you should be looking out for smaller processes, these are legacy (you're comparing TSMC's 28nm with Intel's "14nm" (which in reality is about 20nm, but still, a 2x density)).

      I can only hope that these Baikals are as cheap as dirt, as otherwise, they're lacking a USP.
      --
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      • (Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Monday October 18 2021, @12:12PM

        by fraxinus-tree (5590) on Monday October 18 2021, @12:12PM (#1187958)

        Baikals are not cheap at any rate, they are expensive as hell. The main reason Russians make these is because they want hardware they can trust in order to use it in military and related applications. This is also why these CPUs are made using somewhat older technology - the chips need to be simple enough and visible enough in order to be auditable. KGB and Politburo and comrade Stalin in particular (yes, I know they call them otherwise these days) are ok with '2000s performance at '1970s price as long as they know who is exactly responsible for the eventual security issues.