Cavium Collaborates with the Fedora Project to Support Project Thunder 64-bit ARMv8 Processors

The Project Thunder SDK will be used by independent software vendors (ISVs), data center and cloud vendors to develop software for 64-bit systems based on ARMv8.

The Project Thunder SDK offers application programmers a-platform to start developing their software for Project Thunder 64-bit ARMv8 processors. It offers the Linux operating system, toolchain and example applications that will enable ISVs and programmers to start distributed-computing development on the latest 64-bit ARMv8 architecture. Additionally, a variety of applications can be ported to scale workloads and execute them on thousands of cores and virtual machines. These applications include, but are not limited to, web frontends, enterprise data integration and messaging middleware, data center and cloud management.

The Project Thunder SDK offers a complete ARMv8 development environment, and provides programmers access to cache coherent 64-bit ARMv8 CPU cores, interrupt controller, network connectivity, mass storage interface, timers, System Memory Management Unit (SMMU) and console. It comes equipped with all device drivers and utilities required for platform components including a cross-developmental platform enabling programmers to write their own applications or build third party packages for Thunder and a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) compliant firmware used to boot OS images.

The Fedora Project recently unveiled Fedora 18, the latest version of its free, open source operating system distribution, nicknamed “Spherical Cow.” 32-bit ARM processor support has been included in the Fedora 18 distribution since its Beta release, providing a robust set of features, including installable pre-built system images, network boot support, and a yum repository of software updates in RPM format. Red Hat engineers, in conjunction with the broader Fedora community, are working on 64-bit ARMv8 processor support and have made initial images available for testing. Full Fedora distribution support for 64-bit ARMv8 will follow in a later release.

“Building on our history of rapid innovation, we are enabling initial support for emerging 64-bit ARMv8 processors such as Project Thunder in the Fedora Project, said Jon Masters, Chief ARM Architect at Red Hat. “During our initial testing, the Project Thunder SDK demonstrated stability, scalability and performance that should make it an important component of the ARM 64-bit ecosystem’s development efforts. We look forward to continued collaboration with Cavium, even ahead of silicon availability.”

“Project Thunder will offer an innovative system-on-chip (SoC) that will redefine performance, power and cost metrics for the next-generation cloud and datacenter markets,” said Amer Haider, Vice President Corporate and Business Development, Cavium. “We are excited to work with the Fedora Project to enable application development for Project Thunder SoCs.”