UPDATED 07:23 EDT / NOVEMBER 02 2011

ARM is to Server Processors what Linux is to UNIX, says Calxeda Exec.

Calxeda’s stolen a bit of the limelight this week at HP’s Moonshot event, presenting its servers as proof positive that ARM’s new quad-core chip is a promising development for the industry at large.  Karl Freund, Calxeda’s VP of Marketing, stopped by theCube to discuss the company and the exciting future that lays ahead.  “The more I look at it, it could be big,” Freund says of the changes servers are going through, speaking specifically to the proposal of using an ARM chip in one of Calxeda’s servers.  “Servers are going through so many changes,” he notes.  “You want to be on the right side of those changes.”

For Calxeda the opportunity to collaborate with HP on its ARM-powered servers brings a new concept and a new product to light.  Calxeda revealed its EnergyCore System-on-a-Chip, each containing up to four ARM Cortex-AP processors.

Speaking with SiliconAngle founding editor John Furrier and Wikibon chief analyst Dave Vellante, Freund goes on to discuss how new products are coming to the market in an age where platforms like iOS and Android are changing the idea of what the computer is.  “In a very real sense, what ARM is to the server processor is the same as what Linux was to UNIX,” Freund says as a point of comparison.  “There will be a lot of companies like Calxeda that allow innovation on top of ARM chips.”

That idea of industry innovation on top of ARM was a persistent motif throughout Freund’s interview, even as Furrier questions whether or not ARM faces a unification problem similar to the issues UNIX initially faced.  “I think ARM does change that…what ARM is doing is providing a standard on what other people innovate.  We’re ARM-based, but what’s really exciting about our product is all the other stuff on the chip.”

That “stuff” includes speeds clocked between 1.1-1.9GHz, an 80GB crossbar switch, single-channel, single DIMM memory controller, a SATA controller and additional support for multiple network interfaces.  There’s a great deal of compounded capabilities in Calxeda’s new server, and it’s energy-efficient to boot.

And with so much stuff going on behind the scene, today’s consumers are largely unaware of the true processing power behind their devices, or even involved in the cloud play behind those devices at the server level.

“I used to work at HP Labs and I remember a guy there that said ‘it’s the interface that’s going to be domesticated,’” Freund recalls.  “All the complexity is hidden for the users.  Everything that happens behind that is happening on the server.”

And as is the case with most hardware companies, there’s an accompanying focus on the software ecosystem.  For Calxeda, it all starts with the customer.  “If they show demand, the ecosystem will follow,” says Freund.  “We have Trailblazer now with 10 ISVs signed up and they’re excited.  People like Couchbase and Opscode–a lot of the big data guys and cloud management guys.  They see the opportunity here and want to be a part of that.”


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