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from the factory-is-probably-already-compromised-by-NSA dept.
The Moscow Center for SPARC Technologies has released a quad-core chip built on a 65 nm process:
Despite the company's own name, the chip is actually built on the proprietary "Elbrus" instruction set architecture and not on SPARC. The CPU cores are clocked only at 800 MHz each, and the chip is manufactured on a rather old 65 nm process. The chip has a TDP of 45 W, which isn't too bad considering its target market [of high-performance PCs and servers].
However, the performance may be lacking. Going by the MCST's own benchmarks (shown above and below), the CPU is only compared with older Atom chips that used to target netbooks or (also old) "Pentium-M" notebook processors. Even if the Elbrus-4C wins by a large margin in the floating point score, it does so against obsolete processors. When it is compared against the others for integer performance, the difference is much smaller.
The Register speculates that this chip may be the first effort to wean Russia off of "compromised" Intel and AMD processors.
The Elbrus 4c used in the PCs and servers is said to support two instruction sets: very long instruction word and SPARC. It's also said to be capable of x86 emulation, and to run Linux natively, after one performs binary translation.
The Elbrus ARM-401 PC is a minitower packing a version of Linux also called Elbrus and boasts four USB 2.0 ports, a PCI-express slot, gigabit ethernet and not much more. The CPU is apparently capable of running Doom 3, enabling Russian gamers to go fragging like it's 2004.
The Server Elbrus 4.4 is a four-socket affair and four of the machines fit into a 1U chassis. Gigabit ethernet, SATA and plenty of PCI slots connect it to other kit and the rest of the worlds.
MCST has announced the products are on sale, but don't expect an online configurator at which you can run up a rig and get a live price: the outfit offers just the sales@mcst.ru email address for would-be buyers.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:25AM
User "eSyr" writes:
"By the way, "ARM" in "Elbrus ARM-401" is a cyrillic abbreviation which roughly stands for "automated (computer-assisted) work place" («АРМ» — «автоматизированное рабочее место» in russian). It is common to call workstation/desktop-class machines (together with associated periphery) like this in government/military official documentation."
-http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/05/russia-now-selling-home-grown-cpus-with-transmeta-like-x86-emulation/?comments=1&start=0
On SPARC:
User "enduzzer" writes:
Here's some more info on Moscow Center for SPARC Technologies. The New York Times (1992).
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/02/business/company-news-russian-research-pact-for-sun-microsystems.html [nytimes.com]
The new agreement follows a joint research project that Sun announced with the Russian researchers in February. Those efforts have led to the establishment of a research center in Russia called the Moscow Center of Sparc Technology. Sparc is the name of the microprocessor chip technology on which Sun's work stations are based.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:28AM
181818?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:40AM
18spooky18me
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:43AM
niggerniggerspooknigger
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2015, @09:17AM
Got your number...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:48AM
Isn't Sun Microsystems, Inc gone? as in absorbed by Oracle?
(which seem to produce sloppy code)