To ARM or not to ARM?

What if we can make computing even more sustainable? Switching to ARM based resources can help reducing power usage.

4.0%
Finanzierungsziel
8'000 CHF

Bereits erreicht
318 CHF
Anzahl an Unterstützern
2
Start
16.08.2020
Ziel
17.09.2020

Über diese Kampagne

On our journey to true zero carbon hosting we want to explore if the world is ready for the next step: low power computing resources based on ARM.

For this reason we started this crowdfunding campaign that lasts 30 days and you can make an impact by choosing ARM or Intel for running your workload.

If only 50 people decide to go for ARM, we will build a new ARM hosting in our Zero Carbon Data Center here in Switzerland.

Dedicated ARM computing

We would like to take the next step and introduce dedicated ARM compute resources. Initially the offer will be for a Quad (4) core systems featuring 2 GB of RAM and 16GB of storage (microSD, class 10). These systems are using very little power and could shape the way how hosting is offered.

Using ARM, you will get a real, physical hardware instead of virtualised resources. The CPU will be based on the Allwinner A64 SoC running at 400 Mhz.

The choice of operating systems will be adjusted to ARM. Planned are Armbian, Arch Linux, Alpine Linux and NetBSD. More are likely to follow.

The classic Intel/x86 way

This crowdfunding also works as a vote. Do you prefer staying on x86_64, Intels 64 bit technology or do you want to switch to ARM? While x86 is proven and virtualisation also helps to be energy efficient, the general design of x86 CPUs is more performance orientated and thus by design requiring more energy.

The choice of operating systems for the x86 VMs is the same ones as listed on DataCenterLight.ch.

The offer

If you can choose freely, what would you buy? We would love to know! We have created the following 4 offers:

  • Dedicated IPv6 Only ARM, 4 Cores, 2 GB RAM, 16 GB microsd storage for 159.5 CHF/year
  • Dedicated IPv6 ARM with dedicated NAT64 mapped IPv4 address, 4 Cores, 2 GB RAM, 16 GB microsd storage for 258.5 CHF/year
  • IPv6 only x86 VM, 4 Cores, 2 GB RAM, 10 GB CEPH SSD for 170.5 CHF/year
  • Dual Stack x86 VM, 4 Cores, 2 GB RAM, 10 GB CEPH SSD for 269.5 CHF/year

(all prices excluding VAT where applicable)

Conditions

If at least 50 people commit to ARM resources, we will setup dedicated ARM hosting in 2020. The one who participate in this crowdfunding campaign will be the first to get their hands on ARM resources. ARM resources

If less than 50 people commit on ARM, all dedicated ARM servers will be refunded and no ARM infrastructure will be established in the Data Center Light.

The x86 based resources will be setup independently of whether or not the goal of ARM servers is reached. You can see real time on this crowdfunding page who is in favor for which technology.

Get in touch with us

If you have any questions or would like to discuss the ARM offer, we welcome you in our Open Chat. You can also reach us by mail at support -at- ungleich.ch. You can also checkout the ungleich homepage and the Data Center Light hosting.