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IBM Plans Collaboration On Power Architecture

Posted by simoniker on from the go-go-ibm-rangers dept.

TheInternet writes "According to CNET News, IBM has made a series of announcements regarding the opening-up of the Power chip architecture. The story lacks technical details, but apparently, IBM is going to divulge more information about Power/PowerPC, and expects collaboration from the industry on the future of the chip. Nick Donofrio is quoted as saying: 'We will free electronics manufacturers from the limitations of proprietary microprocessor architectures', and Red Hat and Sony are two companies listed as taking part. Power5 was also shown, as was the Blue Gene/L supercomputer, using 32 500MHz processors to achieve 128 gigaflops."

7 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. ATX PowerPC by niko9 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Another interesting
    link at the Inquirer .
    Seems IBM is courting third party mobo makers to make PowerPC boards.

    Their emracing linux and opening up their hardware platform. Sound Like
    their getting their troops in line for THE desktop battle.

    I, for one, would love to be running Debian Linux on a ATX PowerPC board. Of
    course, they would have to sell enough of them to get the price down.

    Good luck to 'em.

    1. Re:ATX PowerPC by homer_ca · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The PowerPC ATX motherboard has been one of the longest running vaporware products on slashdotters' wishlists. Well, not exactly vaporware. They did exist, but the problem was that the motherboard itself cost as much as a complete x86 system. It would be nice if they managed to sell them for a decent price this time. Might even be able to run MacOnLinux, but if that ever happened, Apple would definitely complain.

    2. Re:ATX PowerPC by Phishcast · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Seriously, x86 is going to stop scaling properly.

      I remember hearing this long before x86 was as fast as it is today.

      There's also no way we'll ever be able to push more than 9600bps through our dialup modems...

    3. Re:ATX PowerPC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      GOING to? I'd argue that it already has. We're getting chips with higher and higher clock speeds, which is great for performance, but not so great for the electricity bill. I'd be far happier with the PC market if they'd stop ratcheting up the performance of the systems and focused instead on knocking a few dozen watts off the power needed to run the damn things.

      We've a P4-based system at home, and it doesn't take long for it to make the room nice and warm. Great in winter, but not so good in summer...

    4. Re:ATX PowerPC by Too+Much+Noise · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, Alpha is being actively killed by HP as it would have wiped the floor with their new poster-child, Itanium. If I remember correctly, the more exact formulation was 'discontinued R&D, only one crippled architectural upgrade'.

      As of SPARC, it looks to me like SPARC is kicking SPARC's ass - as in Fujitsu vs. Sun versions.

      Finally, look at the difference between Itanium and x86/amd64-class CPUs. In theory EPIC is all fine and dandy, but ... why does it need 6MB of level 3 cache to show it? Makes one wonder how a comparable cache level would affect, say, a Xeon machine (given the obvious improvement that the extra cache brought to the P4EE CPUs). A similar story would hold for Power (see for instance this result, with 128MB off-chip L3 cache).

      There might not even be a 'better way' to design a general-purpose CPU. Everybody has to optimize for something. Remember Intel bolting MMX then SSE/SSE2/SSE3 on x86 only because there was a heavy demand for it? And now, given the success of amd64, adding that as well to the Pentium4-class CPUs? x86 is not standing still. But that's the same for all the 'still alive' platforms.

  2. Hmmmmmm by warlockgs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I, for one, welcome our OpenPowerPC overlords.

    No, seriously, I think this is a great step. When we get to control the functionality and content of our silicon, and contribute to the specs, I think a LOT of creative people will come forward and throw out some truly awe-inspiring ideas. Look what happened with Linux, *BSD, countless GNU projects. The list goes on, people. I think this could be a stepping stone towards getting some really new chip technology on a roll.

    Lets just hope this is a sincere effort on IBM's behalf.

  3. Very Smart Move by IBM by Constantin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As you all know, the costs of developing new chip architectures is escalating. However, once designed, chips can be replicated at relatively low cost (at least by comptent fabs like IBMs). So, to maximize profits despite the high upfront costs, what is one to do?

    Design a kick-ass chip, sign up a lot of partners to establish street credibility, maintain processor improvement momentum, deliver chips on time, then sell as many chips as possible, of course! AMD performed in some, but certainly not all of these aspects, hence their current standing in the chip industry. Don't even get me started on the slow train wreck called Motorola.

    The power architecture was always meant to be flexible, ranging from the $10,000+ quad-core uber-chip Power5's on down... So it's only logical that we will find stripped-down versions of the Power5 architecture in everything from Apple Desktops to next-gen consoles from Sony and MS.

    As I see it, this is a great PR step by IBM to get some mindshare from the growing Linux camp. When you combine the incredible performance, lower prices, etc. of the 970 architecture, folks like Intel will have to take notice sooner or later, particularly when it hits their most profitable processor lines. However, Apple may not be happy to face competition in a market segment that it has had to itself for now.

    As for MS and their PowerPC line of NT or whatever, who cares. If they need to make the switch, they'll find a way. In the meantime, it's the Linux/Unix folks who'll benefit the most from no longer being squeezed between SPARC and XEON pricing.