Edit: Some links no longer work.
Originally posted August 13, 2013 on AIXchange
When I think of OpenPOWER, I think of the Linux-capable IBM systems unveiled almost 10 years ago. Now though, the name signifies something new after this week’s IBM announcement:
“IBM, Mellanox, NVIDIA and Tyan… announced plans to form the OpenPOWER Consortium – an open development alliance based on IBM’s POWER microprocessor architecture. The Consortium intends to build advanced server, networking, storage and GPU-acceleration technology aimed at delivering more choice, control and flexibility to developers of next-generation, hyperscale and cloud data centers.
“The move makes POWER hardware and software available to open development for the first time as well as making POWER IP licensable to others, greatly expanding the ecosystem of innovators on the platform. The consortium will offer open-source POWER firmware, the software that controls basic chip functions. By doing this, IBM and the consortium can offer unprecedented customization in creating new styles of server hardware for a variety of computing workloads.”
Basically this announcement is a statement of direction: These companies are saying they plan to form the consortium. We should expect to hear more later on once it’s actually up and running.
The idea, as noted in the Wall Street Journal, will be to look at the complete server hardware stack — from the processor to the firmware to the operating system.
From the WSJ article:
“The alliance the companies plan to announce Tuesday would allow many companies to license IBM microprocessor designs—based on a technology dubbed Power—that are now only found in Big Blue’s own server systems. Licensees could incorporate IBM-designed circuitry in their own chips, with members of the alliance working on related products such as servers, networking and storage devices, participants said.
“The effort will start with Power8, a forthcoming member of the chip family that IBM plans to discuss at a technical conference this month.”
Having been virtualizing systems for more than 40 years, IBM has a long history around enterprise servers and virtualization. I look forward to seeing what this consortium comes up with around these proven technologies.
We’ve known for many years about the virtualization flexibility and raw performance available with POWER systems, PowerVM and the hypervisor, and obviously IBM will continue innovating with AIX and IBM i and coming out with new Power server models. However, the capabilities that we’ve taken for granted with these systems may now be available to more IT pros throughout the industry.
Power chips are already in video game consoles, computers in our vehicles and rovers on Mars, in addition to our computer rooms. Who knows where they’ll end up next?