David Kanter (dkanter.delete@this.realworldtech.com) on January 28, 2013 1:47 pm wrote:
> The server market is at a potential inflection point, with a new breed of ARM-based microserver vendors
> (and Tilera) challenging the status quo, particularly for cloud computing. We survey 20 modern processors
> to understand the options for alternative architectures. To achieve disruptive performance, microserver
> vendors must deeply specialize in particular workloads. However, there is a trade-off between differentiation
> and market breadth. As the handful of microserver startups are culled to 1-2 viable vendors, only the
> companies which deliver compelling advantages to significant markets will survive.
>
> http://www.realworldtech.com/microservers
>
> Comments, questions and feedback welcome as always!
>
> David

When Pentium Pro came it was both a good CISC->RISC converter but also using much faster L2 cache than the others. So it is up to the ARM server to show: is the cache both fast and big? Bulldozer has not been very successful so far but in fact it is a clear improvement on SPECint_rate and SPECfp_rate. Cache is bigger than before but too slow to compete with Intel.