Calxeda (previously known as Smooth-Stone) was a company that aimed to provide computers based on the

ARM architecture ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...

for server computers. It operated from 2008 through 2013. In March 2011 Calxeda announced a 480-core server in development, consisting of 120 quad-core ARM

Cortex-A9 The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set. It was introduced in 2007. Features Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are: * ...

CPUs. Calxeda claimed reduced energy consumption as well as better cost per throughput, compared to

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

-based server manufacturers. They competed in the

many-core Manycore processors are special kinds of multi-core processors designed for a high degree of parallel processing, containing numerous simpler, independent processor cores (from a few tens of cores to thousands or more). Manycore processors are use ...

server market against

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

and

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...

, other recent ARM-based server vendors such as

Marvell Technology Group Marvell Technology, Inc. is an American company, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, which develops and produces semiconductors and related technology. Founded in 1995, the company had more than 6,000 employees as of 2021, with over 10,00 ...

(the Armada XP product), and the

multi-core processor A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such a ...

manufacturer

Tilera Tilera Corporation was a fabless semiconductor company focusing on manycore embedded processor design. The company shipped multiple processors, including the TILE64, TILE''Pro''64, and the TILE''Pro''36, TILE-Gx72, TILE-Gx36, TILE-Gx16 and TILE- ...

. In November 2011 Calxeda announced the EnergyCore ECX-1000, featuring four

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32-bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calculation ...

ARMv7 Cortex-A9 CPU cores operating at 1.1–1.4 GHz, 32 KB L1 I-cache and 32 KB L1 D-cache per core, 4 MB shared L2 cache, 1.5 W per processor, 5 W per server node including 4 GB of DDR3 DRAM, 0.5 W when idle. Each chip included five 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. Four chips are carried on each EnergyCard. The UK-headquartered company Boston Limited announced in 2011 appliances based on the Calxeda EnergyCore

system on a chip A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory ...

products. Boston's appliances, marketed under the Viridis brand, were demonstrated in November 2012.

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

used Calxeda products for a server product known as ''Moonshot'' in November 2011, named after the

Redstone rocket The PGM-11 Redstone was the first large American ballistic missile. A short-range ballistic missile (SRBM), it was in active service with the United States Army in West Germany from June 1958 to June 1964 as part of NATO's Cold War defense of W ...

. On December 19, 2013, Calxeda was reported to be restructuring, widely referred to as shutting down its operation due to running out of the capital venture funding, after failing to secure the deal with

. In December 2014 the intellectual property developed by Calxeda re-emerged with a company called Silver Lining Systems (SLS).

References

External links

Calxeda web site
(last copy archived by

WayBack Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

)
Silver Lining Systems (SLS)
the new company that is leveraging the intellectual property developed by Calxeda {{US-manufacturing-company-stub 2008 establishments in Texas 2013 disestablishments in Texas ARM architecture Computer companies established in 2008 Computer companies established in 2013 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Electronics companies disestablished in 2013 Electronics companies established in 2008 Manufacturing companies based in Austin, Texas Manycore processors