Banana Pi to Launch ARM Server with 24 Cores

[AlphaAtlas]

CNXSoft reports that Banana Pi is launching a 24-core ARM server sometime soon. A photo published on their forum suggests that the new offering will feature 24 ARM Cortex A53 processors and 32 GB of RAM. Given its CPU configuration, the site seems to think the server will use a SocioNext SC2A11 processor, which means it could also feature dual gigabit LAN ports, a 1Ghz clockspeed, and 4 lanes of PCIe Gen 2. Thanks to cageymaru for the tip.

CNXSoft also spotted a video of the system running a stress test, which you can watch here.

Nora, Project Manager for Banana Pi at Foxconn, provides a few more details in LinkedIn comments and we know the board supports NVMe storage, the company tested TensorFlow under Docker, Raspbian, and ROS Melodic Morenia. We’ll likely have to wait a few more months to find out details about hardware, price and availability.

 

[ir0nw0lf]

Title has "Banani" and not "Banana"

 

[{NG}Fidel]

Only 4 Lanes of pcie 2.0?

 

[Wrecked Em]

Title has "Banani" and not "Banana"

The plural of banana is banani. This is a multi cpu system, so the title is correct.

Personally I'm disappointed though, that they didn't call it a banana bunch.

 

[Arcygenical]

The plural of banana is banani. This is a multi cpu system, so the title is correct.

Personally I'm disappointed though, that they didn't call it a banana bunch.

Rofl. Banani

 

[ir0nw0lf]

Dang, everyone has been naming "Bananas Foster" wrong all this time...

 

[Elf_Boy]

How much $$$$$ ?

 

[Burticus]

Cool. Hope it doesn't cost a ton.

 

[Deleted member 214115]

I wonder how this can fair with pfSense, or really any router supporting OSS? It looks to be the direction intended: http://www.banana-pi.org/

 

[DocNo]

Banna?

 

[Red Falcon]

^

 

[Wrecked Em]

Unboxing photos leaked on a Japanese site:

 

[SamuraiInBlack]

Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is this aimed at doing that you wouldn't do with something Intel or AMD based? I'm not really familiar with ARM. Is it a power consumption thing or is there more to it?

 

[Red Falcon]

Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is this aimed at doing that you wouldn't do with something Intel or AMD based? I'm not really familiar with ARM. Is it a power consumption thing or is there more to it?

Since it is a single 24-core CPU, I believe this would be aimed at software routers, web servers, and many-user hosted content servers.
Essentially, tasks that don't require much single-threaded performance, or even SMP performance, but need lots of threads.

If I remember right (correct me if I'm wrong), I believe the Cortex-A53 is only slightly (~5%) slower clock-for-clock compared to the Cortex-A9, but it is using the ARM AArch64 ISA and is 64-bit.
I believe this also supports 72-bit ECC DDR4 memory as well.

This wouldn't be that great for a workstation or general-purpose system, as that would be more geared towards an ARM system running one or two Cavium ThunderX2 CPUs.

 

[Patton43]

Banna?

View attachment 130794

That switch plate is driving me nuts...

 

[S-F]

Banana hammock.