The OpenPower Foundation , an open development community dedicated to accelerating data center innovation, has taken its first steps to deliver actual system designs based on IBM’s new Power8 processor. Formed by Google, IBM, Mellanox Technologies, NVIDIA, and Tyan, the Foundation makes Power hardware and software available for open development, as well as Power intellectual property licensable to other manufacturers. As Re/code notes, “the move allows anyone with the technical chops to design and manufacture their own Power-based chip and add their own enhancements to it.” The OpenPower Foundation has also presented its first white box server details including a development and reference design from Tyan, and firmware and an operating system developed by IBM, Google, and Canonical.
IBM has been deepening its commitment to open source, Linux and the Power architecture. For example, the company announced at LinuxCon 2013 that it planned to invest one billion dollars into progressing development and enhancing the ecosystem around Linux on Power. With OpenPower, IBM is moving more in the direction of ARM, which licenses chip designs for third parties like Qualcomm, Applied Micro and Apple to develop. OpenPower invites developers far and wide to contribute to development.
