What are ARM servers?

ARM servers are servers based on the ARM ar­chi­tec­ture rather than the x86 in­struc­tion set. As demand grows for more energy-efficient server solutions for data centres, ARM-based servers are gaining prom­in­ence.

What is the un­der­ly­ing ar­chi­tec­ture of ARM servers?

ARM server pro­cessors are built on the Reduced In­struc­tion Set Computing (RISC) ar­chi­tec­ture. Unlike the Complex In­struc­tion Set Computing (CISC) ar­chi­tec­ture common in x86 pro­cessors (such as Intel and AMD), RISC operates with a sim­pli­fied in­struc­tion set. This reduced in­struc­tion set requires less energy, enabling ARM pro­cessors to work more ef­fi­ciently. However, the ARM ar­chi­tec­ture is by no means weaker. The ar­chi­tec­ture is spe­cific­ally optimised for parallel processes and offers high levels of ef­fi­ciency and scalab­il­ity in modern ap­plic­a­tions that do not rely heavily on high single-core per­form­ance.

In recent years, companies like Nvidia and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have made sig­ni­fic­ant strides in de­vel­op­ing high-per­form­ance ARM servers that meet the needs of en­ter­prise and cloud ap­plic­a­tions. Modern it­er­a­tions of the ar­chi­tec­ture, such as ARMv9, bring ad­vant­ages for cutting-edge ap­plic­a­tions like AI and machine learning. Companies like AWS, for instance, offer their Graviton processor family, which includes ARM-based CPUs designed spe­cific­ally for their data centres. As a result, the ARM ar­chi­tec­ture has evolved from being pre­dom­in­antly used in mobile devices to becoming a reliable found­a­tion for data centres and high-per­form­ance computing.

What are the ad­vant­ages of ARM servers?

Thanks to their ar­chi­tec­ture, ARM servers offer several ad­vant­ages over x86 ar­chi­tec­tures.

Energy ef­fi­ciency

The most sig­ni­fic­ant advantage of ARM servers is their energy ef­fi­ciency. Since the ARM ar­chi­tec­ture was ori­gin­ally designed for mobile devices requiring long battery life, its pro­cessors are optimised to use minimal energy. This energy ef­fi­ciency is also be­ne­fi­cial in data centres, where power con­sump­tion and cooling typically pose sig­ni­fic­ant cost factors. ARM servers enable companies to reduce energy costs sub­stan­tially, which also pos­it­ively impacts their carbon footprint.

High scalab­il­ity and flex­ib­il­ity

ARM servers provide high scalab­il­ity, as the ar­chi­tec­ture allows for the in­teg­ra­tion of a large number of cores into a single processor without com­prom­ising energy ef­fi­ciency. This makes ARM-based servers ideal for workloads involving extensive parallel pro­cessing, where many com­pu­ta­tions need to be performed sim­ul­tan­eously. Con­sequently, ARM servers are par­tic­u­larly well-suited for cloud en­vir­on­ments and modern container workloads.

Lower operating costs

Due to their energy ef­fi­ciency, ARM servers con­trib­ute to a more cost-effective op­er­a­tion­al in­fra­struc­ture. For companies running numerous servers in data centres, using ARM servers offers a way to sig­ni­fic­antly reduce operating costs without sac­ri­fi­cing per­form­ance. Ad­di­tion­ally, licensing costs can be lower with ARM-based servers, as many ARM im­ple­ment­a­tions utilise open-source-based operating systems and software.

What are common use cases for ARM servers?

ARM servers excel in modern ap­plic­a­tions that require extensive parallel pro­cessing. However, depending on the specific use case, the ARM ar­chi­tec­ture can also hold its own against tra­di­tion­al x86 pro­cessors in more con­ven­tion­al server ap­plic­a­tions. Below are some of the key use cases for ARM servers:

Cloud computing

A sig­ni­fic­ant use case for ARM servers is cloud computing. ARM pro­cessors have proven their worth in this area, es­pe­cially with regard to scalab­il­ity and energy ef­fi­ciency, making them at­tract­ive to providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. They are ideal for ap­plic­a­tions requiring par­al­lel­ism, such as mi­croservices and con­tain­er­ised workloads. Companies operating their ap­plic­a­tions in the cloud and focusing on cost ef­fi­ciency benefit from ARM-based instances, as these are generally more eco­nom­ic­al to run.

Web and ap­plic­a­tion servers

ARM servers are also suitable for use as web and ap­plic­a­tion servers. Par­tic­u­larly when it comes to heavily traf­ficked websites or ap­plic­a­tions requiring many sim­ul­tan­eous con­nec­tions, ARM-based servers can leverage their strength in parallel pro­cessing. This cap­ab­il­ity allows companies to reduce op­er­a­tion­al costs through lower power con­sump­tion and reduced cooling re­quire­ments.

Edge computing and IoT ap­plic­a­tions

Another growing use case for ARM servers, es­pe­cially with ad­vance­ments like ARMv9, is edge computing. Since ARM pro­cessors are in­her­ently designed for energy-efficient operation, they are ideally suited for computing tasks close to the data source (i.e., at the network’s edge). This is par­tic­u­larly relevant for the Internet of Things (IoT), where numerous sensors and devices require local com­pu­ta­tion­al power near the data source. ARM-based edge servers enable fast response times and reliable pro­cessing without high energy demands.

Ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence and machine learning

Thanks to their parallel pro­cessing cap­ab­il­it­ies and the potential for hardware spe­cial­isa­tion, modern ARM servers are also suitable for ap­plic­a­tions in ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence and machine learning. The 2021 in­tro­duc­tion of ARMv9 brought several ad­vant­ages that make it par­tic­u­larly well-suited for these ap­plic­a­tion areas.

De­vel­op­ment and testing en­vir­on­ments

ARM servers are also a great choice for de­vel­op­ment and testing en­vir­on­ments. De­velopers can use ARM servers to test ap­plic­a­tions for mobile and IoT devices that are also based on the ARM ar­chi­tec­ture. Using ARM servers in these contexts enables realistic con­di­tions, ensuring the ap­plic­a­tion performs ef­fi­ciently and reliably on target platforms.