ARM’s Allinea buy targets server compatibility issues
Article By : Graham Prophet
Allinea’s expertise will give ARM's partners access to a software tools suite that address increasingly complex system challenges.
UK-based chip designer ARM has agreed to pay an unspecified amount to acquire Allinea Software, a California-based provider of software tools for high performance computing (HPC).
Acquiring Allinea Software, which counts 20 of the world's top 25 supercomputers as its customers, will extend ARM's range of development tools to HPC, machine learning and data analytics market, according to the company. Allinea specialises in development and performance analysis tools to maximise the efficiency of software for HPC systems.
Allinea’s product suite includes the developer tool suite Allinea Forge, which incorporates an application debugger called Allinea DDT and a performance analyser called Allinea MAP, and an analysis tool for system owners, users and administrators called Allinea Performance Reports.
“As systems and servers grow in complexity, developers in HPC are facing new challenges that require advanced tools designed to enable them to continue to innovate,” said Javier Orensanz, general manager, development solutions group, ARM. “Allinea’s ability to debug and analyse many-node systems is unique, and with this acquisition we are ensuring that this capability remains available to the whole ARM ecosystem, and to the other CPU architectures prevalent in HPC, as well as in future applications such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced data analytics.”
This acquisition continues ARM’s growth strategy in HPC and builds on the recent Fujitsu’s 64-bit ARMv8-A powered Post K supercomputer, and the launch of the ARMv8-A Scalable Vector Extension.
It follows the announcement that ARMv8-A will be the first alternative architecture with OpenHPC support, and the release of ARM Performance Libraries, which provide software development and portability to ARMv8-A server platforms.
Allinea will be integrated into the ARM business with all functions and Allinea’s Warwick and Eastleigh (UK) locations retained.