SAP on Linux/ARM (Aarch64)?

[markus_doehr2]

This being more a strategical question rather than a concrete issue:

Is SAP looking into the Linux on ARM architecture? Given for example HP's Moonshot System (HP Moonshot System | HP® Official Site) as a platform for application servers - mid- to longterm?

Any thoughts?

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Markus

[former_member360066 · Accepted solution]

Hi Markus,

it's an interesting platform, but I assume the per-CPU/per-Core performance is to slow to handle standard Netweaver workloads. I mean, in Netweaver each user gets a workprocess (which runs single-threaded) and the user needs to wait until this work process has finished the work. Now, if the per-CPU performance is slow (compared to e.g. Intel processors) the user has to wait quite some more time. So, compared to e.g. a Intel-CPU the dialog steps will be much slower and thus the user expirience will probably be not so good.

So, I think for Netweaver and HANA and databases it's probably not so interesting, but given that SAP has other products too, it may fit to those?

Helge

[markus_doehr2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Helge,

given that ARMv8 A57 can run at speeds of 3 Ghz (our current DB server runs on an an Intel Xeon E5-2670 with 2,6 Ghz) pure computing power shouldn't be the big issue.

Hadoop was demonstrated on the upcoming Opteron A1100 (AMD cosies up with Oracle over Hadoop | News | TechRadar) so I could imagine running (at some point in the future) application servers on that platform. If phones and tablets are able to render HD videos why should such an SoC not be able to run an ABAP-VM or even an AS-Java - given the possibility to densify the current (blade-)datacenters even more while at the same time "greening-up" the IT by using less power and cooling.

Markus

[former_member360066 · Accepted solution]

Hi Markus,

> given that ARMv8 A57 can run at speeds of 3 Ghz (our current DB server runs on an an Intel Xeon E5-2670 with 2,6 Ghz) pure computing power shouldn't be the big issue.

I think that's a big issue. The raw computing speed of a 3GHz ARM chip will be much lower than a 3GHz Intel E5 chip. You can't compare those two... Maybe the ARM 3GHz chip will be comparable with regards to performance to a 3GHz Atom chip if it would exist..?

Helge

[tom_slee]

FYI, the SAP SQL Anywhere database is available for 32-bit Linux/ARM  (http://scn.sap.com/community/sql-anywhere/blog/2014/08/11/sql-anywhere-available-for-linux-on-arm). While it is primarily aimed at small devices (Raspberry Pi etc), use in low-power server environments is also of interest, so 64-bit support is a possibility.