IBM Supporting Linux On Power Processors

aheath writes "IBM issued a press release today titled 'Businesses Embrace Linux and IBM POWER Technology', indicating that: 'IBM eServer pSeries and iSeries systems are available for SUSE and Red Hat Linux operating systems (OS) on IBM's POWER microprocessor-based architecture.' CNET News are running a story about this, too, explaining: 'IBM has put more weight behind its effort to attract customers to Linux that runs on its own Power processors, an initiative that distinguishes Big Blue from its competitors in the server market.' IBM has also signed up 300 vendors to provide software to run under Linux on Power processors."

Comments

What about SCO on PPC's?

[SinaSa]

I for one, think IBM should be investing all their money and support into getting SCO Unixware running on their eServers! I mean, it's like that nice Darl McBride fellow says. Linux would be lightyears behind without SCO code! Why is IBM even considering using a mere clone when they could get the original?

Re:so when will we see Linux on a G5?

[shannara256]

It's not a long hop, to be sure, but I don't know how short it is. Apple and IBM worked together on the G5 processor, aka the IBM 970, and it is "derived from" the Power4 architecture, but they're not the same. As far as I can tell, the G5 adds 32-bit stuff to the pure 64-bit Power4, so that it's binary compatible with 32-bit programs (ie no recompiling). It also takes some things out, such as having a dual core (two processors on one chip) and replacing it with a single core.

In general, the PowerPC architecture and the POWER architecture are very similiar, but not the same. The PowerPC was based on POWER1, but had a few different design goals. From IBM's PowerPC page:

The architecture had to:

• Permit a broad range of implementations, from low-cost controllers to high-performance processors
• Be sufficiently simple so as to permit the design of processors that have a very short cycle time
• Minimize effects that hinder the design of aggressive superscalar implementations
• Include multiprocessor features
• Define a 64-bit architecture that is a superset of the 32-bit architecture, providing application binary compatibility for 32-bit applications

There's a lot of stuff out there on this. IBM's page on the PowerPC describes it very well, and the POWER arch pages can show how it's grown: POWER2, POWER3, and POWER4. Wikipedia also has some good articles on the PowerPC and Power architectures.

Re:so when will we see Linux on a G5?

[revividus]

Obligatory gentoo zealot blah blah blah, but the gentoo folks have also been working on this.

At least this fellow has.