Can an Apple iOS server appear for ARM servers?
Today, Apple is releasing two lines of servers: Xserve and Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server , on which Mac OS X Server is installed.
Curiously, large Xserve servers are in low demand, even rumors have surfaced that Apple will soon remove this line from its catalog :(
But Mac mini Server, on the contrary, is in high demand today: the processor and motherboard of which are essentially analogous to a mobile platform for laptops, and therefore they consume much less electricity and therefore less heat the environment than a large Xserve (for this, see in the article: “Mac mini sample 2010” ).
Recently there was information that Apple is seriously reflecting on the unification of the names of its operating systems, and among them there is a variant of the name of the server OS - iOS server (about this, see the article: "From Mac OS X to iOS desktop?" ). Will it be a simple renaming of Mac OS X Server in the iOS server or will a new version of the server OS appear?
It is difficult to say, but the emergence of a new server OS, a part of the code of which may well be taken from the mobile Apple iOS, cannot be completely ruled out.
Energy efficient servers - as a trend:
Today, there are companies that build servers for Internet hosting not on ordinary server processors such as: Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron , but on processors with low power consumption, for example, on mobile processors like: Intel Atom (see: “Silicon Graphics offers the concept of server on Intel Atom and 512 Atom's in 10U " ) or VIA Nano (see: " VIA Nano processors will appear in Dell servers " ), or even on 64-core Tilera processors (see: " Quanta + TILERA = 512 -nuser in 2U server ” ).
That's the company Marvell (which produces processors for phones and PDAs) by the end of the year, promises to present a 40-nm quad-core ARM processor clocked at 2 GHz, which will compete with x86-compatible server solutions.
And servers using ARM processors are already being announced - see: “Dell will launch the first servers on ARM processors” .
There are also sustained rumors that such Internet giants as Google and Microsoft are experimenting with server racks on ARM processors, since the lion's share of the costs of their huge Data Centers (Data Centers) is the cost of electricity (see: “Waiting for servers on ARM processors?” and “Google requires more efficient servers” ).
')
The director of ARM Holdings was intrigued by the statement that some companies had chosen the ARM architecture in order to develop high-efficiency server processors based on it. And he believes that servers built on the basis of multi-core processors with ARM architecture may appear in the next 12 months (see: “We are waiting for servers on ARM-processors?” ). What are these companies that are developing not just servers, but the server processors themselves on the ARM architecture, he refused to explain (officially, only the aforementioned company Marvell confirmed that it will release the server ARM processor).
Everyone knows that for the past few years, Apple has been developing ARM processors, and it does it so zealously that, according to some information, it is even going to buy ARM Holdings in whole or in part - see: “Apple Inc. going to buy ARM Holdings again? ”
It is likely (and many experts testify to this) that Apple has been engaged in designing multi-core ARM processors (up to 4 or more cores), which can be used very effectively not only in the iPad `ah, but also in the server equipment.
Will Apple's home media server appear?
Some time ago, information leaked out that Apple was preparing to release a line of Home Servers (see: “ Is Apple working on a home media server?” ) That will serve as media centers. Such servers successfully produce competitors, for example, HP MediaSmart Server LX195 - see: “The specifications of the home server HP MediaSmart Server LX195" leaked "to the Network . " And such a server does not require much power from the processor, the same HP MediaSmart Server LX195 runs on the Intel Atom processor.
Today, there are also “home” network drives on ARM processors, for example, see: “Everything is in a cube” , and making such a “cube” a home media server is not at all a problem - everything depends only on the software.
And Apple has always been famous for delivering a complete solution, i.e. iron + software for specific tasks. Therefore, Apple may well transfer its Apple Mac OS X Server operating system to ARM processors and make an iOS home server based on it. Moreover, Apple has experience in transferring Apple OS X to mobile ARM processors — I’ll introduce Apple iOS , which is essentially a transfer of the Apple Mac OS X desktop OS to ARM processors with the addition of the Cocoa Touch API and adaptation to mobile hardware resources.
The peculiarity of the home media server is that, in fact, this box does not involve the installation of any additional software, just like on Apple TV , i.e. The buyer is satisfied with the features and software that was included at the time of purchase (at best, software can be remotely updated as it regularly happens with Apple TV OS ). And this feature is very convenient for the iOS home server if it is transferred to ARM processors - because Apple will transfer as much of the OS software components as it deems sufficient for the functions of the home media server and no one will blame Apple for the fact that for ARM processors there is no third-party software from independent manufacturers :)
Will the Apple ARM Server appear?
Well, if the experience with a home media server is successful, then further (and maybe even at the same time) Apple may well release a rack server of the standard Xserve format or even the current Blade server format, but on ARM processors.
In this case, Apple will have to deal with the transfer of the widest possible range of server software to ARM processors.
It should be noted that Mac OS X Server initially includes a huge set of server software, which is sufficient for any server tasks: File and Print Services, Communication Services, Mail Services, Podcast Services, Web Hosting, Application Servers, Media Streaming, Directory Services and Authentication , Client Management, Networking and VPN, Distributed Computing, High-Availability Features, Administration - see: Technical Specifications Mac OS X Server . And provided that the same complete set of the supplied software is preserved along with the iOS server server OS, such an ARM server for many clients may well satisfy, and they will not regret that there are no third-party software from independent manufacturers for ARM processors.
But energy savings by ARM servers can be an important factor when making a purchase decision. Especially for large Data Centers (Data Centers), and it is possible that Apple itself, such ARM servers can save a lot of money - see: Why does Apple build a $ 1 billion data center?
PS: Do not judge too harshly.
I am interested in your opinion: what do you think about the prospects of ARM-servers?
Curiously, large Xserve servers are in low demand, even rumors have surfaced that Apple will soon remove this line from its catalog :(
But Mac mini Server, on the contrary, is in high demand today: the processor and motherboard of which are essentially analogous to a mobile platform for laptops, and therefore they consume much less electricity and therefore less heat the environment than a large Xserve (for this, see in the article: “Mac mini sample 2010” ).
Recently there was information that Apple is seriously reflecting on the unification of the names of its operating systems, and among them there is a variant of the name of the server OS - iOS server (about this, see the article: "From Mac OS X to iOS desktop?" ). Will it be a simple renaming of Mac OS X Server in the iOS server or will a new version of the server OS appear?
It is difficult to say, but the emergence of a new server OS, a part of the code of which may well be taken from the mobile Apple iOS, cannot be completely ruled out.
Energy efficient servers - as a trend:
Today, there are companies that build servers for Internet hosting not on ordinary server processors such as: Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron , but on processors with low power consumption, for example, on mobile processors like: Intel Atom (see: “Silicon Graphics offers the concept of server on Intel Atom and 512 Atom's in 10U " ) or VIA Nano (see: " VIA Nano processors will appear in Dell servers " ), or even on 64-core Tilera processors (see: " Quanta + TILERA = 512 -nuser in 2U server ” ).
That's the company Marvell (which produces processors for phones and PDAs) by the end of the year, promises to present a 40-nm quad-core ARM processor clocked at 2 GHz, which will compete with x86-compatible server solutions.
And servers using ARM processors are already being announced - see: “Dell will launch the first servers on ARM processors” .
There are also sustained rumors that such Internet giants as Google and Microsoft are experimenting with server racks on ARM processors, since the lion's share of the costs of their huge Data Centers (Data Centers) is the cost of electricity (see: “Waiting for servers on ARM processors?” and “Google requires more efficient servers” ).
')
The director of ARM Holdings was intrigued by the statement that some companies had chosen the ARM architecture in order to develop high-efficiency server processors based on it. And he believes that servers built on the basis of multi-core processors with ARM architecture may appear in the next 12 months (see: “We are waiting for servers on ARM-processors?” ). What are these companies that are developing not just servers, but the server processors themselves on the ARM architecture, he refused to explain (officially, only the aforementioned company Marvell confirmed that it will release the server ARM processor).
Everyone knows that for the past few years, Apple has been developing ARM processors, and it does it so zealously that, according to some information, it is even going to buy ARM Holdings in whole or in part - see: “Apple Inc. going to buy ARM Holdings again? ”
It is likely (and many experts testify to this) that Apple has been engaged in designing multi-core ARM processors (up to 4 or more cores), which can be used very effectively not only in the iPad `ah, but also in the server equipment.
Will Apple's home media server appear?
Some time ago, information leaked out that Apple was preparing to release a line of Home Servers (see: “ Is Apple working on a home media server?” ) That will serve as media centers. Such servers successfully produce competitors, for example, HP MediaSmart Server LX195 - see: “The specifications of the home server HP MediaSmart Server LX195" leaked "to the Network . " And such a server does not require much power from the processor, the same HP MediaSmart Server LX195 runs on the Intel Atom processor.
Today, there are also “home” network drives on ARM processors, for example, see: “Everything is in a cube” , and making such a “cube” a home media server is not at all a problem - everything depends only on the software.
And Apple has always been famous for delivering a complete solution, i.e. iron + software for specific tasks. Therefore, Apple may well transfer its Apple Mac OS X Server operating system to ARM processors and make an iOS home server based on it. Moreover, Apple has experience in transferring Apple OS X to mobile ARM processors — I’ll introduce Apple iOS , which is essentially a transfer of the Apple Mac OS X desktop OS to ARM processors with the addition of the Cocoa Touch API and adaptation to mobile hardware resources.
The peculiarity of the home media server is that, in fact, this box does not involve the installation of any additional software, just like on Apple TV , i.e. The buyer is satisfied with the features and software that was included at the time of purchase (at best, software can be remotely updated as it regularly happens with Apple TV OS ). And this feature is very convenient for the iOS home server if it is transferred to ARM processors - because Apple will transfer as much of the OS software components as it deems sufficient for the functions of the home media server and no one will blame Apple for the fact that for ARM processors there is no third-party software from independent manufacturers :)
Will the Apple ARM Server appear?
Well, if the experience with a home media server is successful, then further (and maybe even at the same time) Apple may well release a rack server of the standard Xserve format or even the current Blade server format, but on ARM processors.
In this case, Apple will have to deal with the transfer of the widest possible range of server software to ARM processors.
It should be noted that Mac OS X Server initially includes a huge set of server software, which is sufficient for any server tasks: File and Print Services, Communication Services, Mail Services, Podcast Services, Web Hosting, Application Servers, Media Streaming, Directory Services and Authentication , Client Management, Networking and VPN, Distributed Computing, High-Availability Features, Administration - see: Technical Specifications Mac OS X Server . And provided that the same complete set of the supplied software is preserved along with the iOS server server OS, such an ARM server for many clients may well satisfy, and they will not regret that there are no third-party software from independent manufacturers for ARM processors.
But energy savings by ARM servers can be an important factor when making a purchase decision. Especially for large Data Centers (Data Centers), and it is possible that Apple itself, such ARM servers can save a lot of money - see: Why does Apple build a $ 1 billion data center?
PS: Do not judge too harshly.
I am interested in your opinion: what do you think about the prospects of ARM-servers?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/98643/
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