> The video below shows the server’s 24 cores fully utilized while building the Linux kernel, and as the title implies it’s running the recent Linux 4.19.
And how long does it take?
And how long does it take?
Cross-compilation gives you performance, but a lot of other headaches... and currently using a quad or hex-core ARM takes quite a long time... so this would give a significant performance boost, especially with the 32GB of ram it seems to have.
For linux distros, they download the source, apply some patches, then let their build server/farm have at it.
Managing a cross compilation toolchain in addition to cross compilation flags and what-not for joe-random-package with quirks quickly becomes a nightmare. Version upgrades will break everything, or pull in build-system linked libraries when they're not supposed to, etc.
This sort of high-core count arm server alleviates a lot of headaches - it gives you faster build times as well as native builds. It also does away with a lot of complexity in your build pipeline, since you don't have to carefully isolate the build environment to prevent rouge linking x86 binaries.
Most linux distros that offer ARM versions already build natively... so this just gives them better build times, or more concurrent builds. That's a win.
Besides, with Cortex-A53, any single-threaded step in a build (linking, etc), is going to be very slow.
It's a sort-of cool product, especially if it comes at a good price point. But it's unlikely to make a huge difference in the overall market.