A 32 core Ampere Arm and NVIDIA Edge Platform from 7Starlake

At OCP Summit 2022, we saw an interesting box that many have not seen before. We have an Ampere Altra-based edge computing box from a company called 7Starlake. This is a ruggedized edge platform that also houses a GPU.

A 32-core Ampere Arm and NVIDIA Edge Platform from 7Starlake

Here is a look at the 32-core Ampere Altra Q32-17 (32 core, 1.7GHz) CPU at 45W TDP. The entire unit is powered by 18-36V DC-IN and offers a number of ports.

These ports all have covers. Here we can see the VGA port next to two 10GbE SFP+ ports.

On the other side, there are two 1GbE ports.

Here is the full port setup. The fans on top help add extra cooling if required. The bottom two covers are for expansion slots.

Here is the back of the chassis. Since it is sealed, these are the pressure release valves for cases such as when the unit is being transported in a vehicle in the air. With a sealed chassis, that air pressure difference can crack seals.

Onboard, one can house things such as a NVIDIA A4500M MXM module and cool that passively as well. There are other options for SDI capture and also 100GbE if needed.

Final Words

It is really cool to see these platforms. We often discuss 64 core, 80 core, and 128 core (Altra Max) parts, but seeing a 45W TDP 32 Arm core/ 128GB RAM machine is interesting, especially when it comes in a ruggedized platform. We are not experts on the different military specs, but this says MIL-STD-461/1275 as a feature.

Of course, most of these types of devices that we see run on some form of Intel processor these days, but it is great to see Arm competing in a similar form factor even with a much larger chip than Xeon D or Atom C3000.