Server partners expect to be able to deploy new systems directly from the shipping box, with straightforward integration of the operating systems and applications of their choosing. To achieve this, it is necessary for the Arm server ecosystem to define and comply to a minimal set of standards. This is of particular importance for the server and infrastructure market, as unlike the mobile sector, it is not acceptable to have to modify the operating system for every platform. Standards allow compatibility across different products, while enabling the individual partners to innovate and differentiate within these boundaries.
Over recent years, Arm has worked with the full infrastructure supply chain, including silicon providers, independent firmware vendors, OS and hypervisor vendors, OEMs, ODMs, independent hardware vendors and cloud infrastructure providers. We have collectively defined the minimal hardware requirements in the Server Base System Architecture (SBSA) specification, and the minimal firmware requirements in the Server Base Boot Requirements (SBBR) specification. We have leveraged the industry standards wherever possible and created new Arm specifications, to enable interoperability.
We live by the statement “there is no specification without verification”. This is realised by the various Arm compliance programs that help developers to ensure their hardware is fully compliant with the Arm architecture specifications. In the same spirit, we have created the Architecture Compliance Suite (ACS) for the SBSA and SBBR verification.
As part of the official launch of Neoverse for Arm-based infrastructure, we are now announcing a certification program – Arm ServerReady – allowing customers to deploy Arm server systems with confidence. The Arm ServerReady program involves booting standard operating systems and running the ACS, either by the vendors themselves or with help from the Arm support team. The servers passing the ACS are granted the Arm ServerReady certificate.
Arm ServerReady version 1.0 utilizes ACS version 1.6. It is testing the compliance against SBSA version 3.1 and SBBR version 1.0.
In the meantime, Arm has worked with partners to move SBSA to version 5.0 and SBBR to version 1.1. Arm is also working on a new Server Base Manageability Guide (SBMG) specification. It is expected that the future versions of the Arm ServerReady program will make use of these newer standards for the future server systems.
Today, we are pleased to announce that systems from the following silicon vendors - Ampere, Huawei, HXT, Marvell and Qualcomm - and ODMs - Femrice, Gigabyte and UIT - have obtained the Arm ServerReady version 1.0 certificate.
"Avantek Computer is proud to partner with Arm. We are very pleased to be awarded one of the first Arm ServerReady certifications for our eMAG “Arm Native” Development Workstation. This certification is a wonderful “stamp of approval” and builds on the excellent work by the Avantek technical team in conjunction with the dedicated team at Arm. Having a certified platform helps make the life of a developer so much easier – It just Works". Tony Lees, Managing Director at Avantek Computer Limited. “The Arm ServerReady compliance program builds on Arm’s server standards and community contributions to the infrastructure industry. It enforces a set of common principles that software developers and customers alike can rely on. I am pleased to see this come to fruition with several server platforms already certified as ServerReady.” Dr. Leendert van Doorn, Distinguished Engineer, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Corp.
"Avantek Computer is proud to partner with Arm. We are very pleased to be awarded one of the first Arm ServerReady certifications for our eMAG “Arm Native” Development Workstation. This certification is a wonderful “stamp of approval” and builds on the excellent work by the Avantek technical team in conjunction with the dedicated team at Arm. Having a certified platform helps make the life of a developer so much easier – It just Works". Tony Lees, Managing Director at Avantek Computer Limited.
“The Arm ServerReady compliance program builds on Arm’s server standards and community contributions to the infrastructure industry. It enforces a set of common principles that software developers and customers alike can rely on. I am pleased to see this come to fruition with several server platforms already certified as ServerReady.” Dr. Leendert van Doorn, Distinguished Engineer, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Corp.
"GIGABYTE is delighted to be one of the first Arm ServerReady system partners, and has worked closely with Arm on the definition and validation of the ServerReady program, enabling us to offer hardware platforms that just work on a wide range of operating systems and hypervisors. GIGABYTE is ready and excited to be able to empower customers with our Arm ServerReady certified systems.” Akira Hoshino, Head of Product Strategy and Planning at GIGABYTE.
“HPE welcomes the Arm ServerReady compliance program as providing an out-of-the-box experience for customers,” says Mike Vildibill, VP of advanced technologies at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
“Arm-based servers offer high performance, low power and a high-density solution to cloud computing and data center with an open ecosystem. The ServerReady compliance program enables us to offer servers to our customers, conforming to industry standards and giving an excellent out-of-the-box experience.” Diana Luo, UIT
"Linaro is delighted to support and help promote the ServerReady systems. Linaro works closely with Arm on the implementation of standards for AArch64 servers. We are working with partners to validate their systems with ACS, leveraging the open source firmware collaboratively developed with great success." Martin Stadler, Senior Director LDCG, Linaro
“Marvell has partnered closely with Arm on the definition and validation of the ServerReady program. The Marvell® ThunderX2® 64-bit Armv8-A processor is one of the first ServerReady certified processors. Our partners and end users will benefit from this level of testing and certification with accelerated development and deployment into mainstream cloud and HPC environments.” Larry Wikelius, VP Ecosystem and Partner Enabling, Marvell.
“Arm server processors, like Ampere’s eMAG, offer a compelling alternative to legacy processors, delivering high-performance compute, excellent total cost of ownership and high memory capacity. Ampere’s products are Arm ServerReady compliant, supporting industry compatibility and helping fuel the continued adoption of Arm-based processors.” Mauri Whalen, Vice President of Software Engineering at Ampere.
“American Megatrends Inc. (AMI) is pleased to participate in Arm ServerReady. Providing efficient delivery and maintenance of innovative, secure, and stable boot firmware to our customers is central to our business, and ServerReady helps us in testing Arm-based systems. We see ServerReady and the standards-based approach as critical for the success of Arm-based servers.” Terry Otsubo, Head of Marketing at American Megatrends Inc.
"As technological innovations spanning silicon, networking and storage spawn new server architectures and enable new workloads, it's important that enterprises have common standards upon which they can base their decisions. Red Hat has long supported standards in open source innovation, from common microprocessor criteria to the base components of the Linux kernel, and today we're pleased to extend this support to include the Arm ServerReady program which is designed to help enterprises adopt microarchitecture innovation with greater confidence." Jon Masters, Chief Arm Architect, Red Hat.
“Thanks to Arm’s championship, Huaxintong, as a leading Arm server chip vendor, is among the first to get the Arm ServerReady Certification. Huaxintong is ready to empower customers with revolutionary green computing Arm servers.” William Yi, Ph.D, Senior Director at Huaxintong.
“It is useful for customers and partners. The Arm ServerReady compliance program will enhance the strength of the Arm ecosystem in the industry. I am pleased to see this.” Winson Lu, General Manager of TaiShan Business, Huawei
“Byosoft is glad to participate in the Arm ServerReady compliance program. This program enables us to provide one standard firmware product for different kinds of AArch64 server platforms. We are ready to empower our customers with one generic, secure and rich functional firmware now.” Xie Qian, CEO at Byosoft."The Arm partner ecosystem has been leveraging the performance of Synopsys ZeBu® Server 4 emulation system for complex SoC hardware and software verification. We are pleased to participate in the Arm ServerReady compliance program and extend our collaboration with Arm and its partners by offering out-of-the-box support in ZeBu. We look forward to enabling Arm’s partners to accelerate their AArch64 server SoC development." Tom De Schutter, Vice President of Engineering at Synopsys.
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