A Feasible Architecture for ARM-Based Microserver Systems Considering Energy Efficiency

Abstract

In this paper, we propose the architecture of the ARM-based server system and physically build the ARM-based server cluster board (SCB). Based on a real implementation, the efficiency of the microserver is evaluated to verify the benefits of the proposed scheme. In experiments, every SCB is equipped with four server-grade ARM quad-core processors for enterprise-class applications. The major difference between our work and other studies is that this paper tests the performance of the server-grade processors, whereas previous works use the cluster system formed by the embedded processors. The experiment results show that the SCB-based systems perform with lower power-consumption than the x86 systems. Since various types of cluster systems can be built with the SCB through either the PCI Express (PCIe) interface or gigabit Ethernet interface, the proposed design of the ARM server board and the systems can, therefore, be extensively applied. This physical implementation and measurement show that the proposed architecture can work well. The proposed energy-saving (i.e., green) server designs with low-power processors are suitable for relative applications in the coming era of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things.

Keywords

• ARM
• embedded systems
• energy efficiency
• parallel machines
• parallel processing
• server cluster boards (SCBs)