Don't forget that POWER10 is no longer ryf-certifiable. Of course the ryf certification may be questionable but it is an established bar, POWER9 was able to cross it, POWER10 probably won't: https://www.talospace.com/2020/08/power10-sounds-really-grea... https://twitter.com/RaptorCompSys/status/1435510763402244105...
Keeping POWER relevant in the open source world
11–20 of 75 posts
Re: Keeping POWER relevant in the open source world
#12IBM had the opportunity of being the royalty-free ISA that RISC-V is. Or even release the cores "IP". They squandered it.
Anything to back up this assertion? Like some key dates/moments?
Re: Keeping POWER relevant in the open source world
#13At the other end of the scale, if anyone wants to play you can run a little openpower CPU on an FPGA with completely open source. https://github.com/antonblanchard/microwatt
It's capable of running Linux, some example docs are https://shenki.github.io/boot-linux-on-microwatt/ The toolchain consists of "apt install gcc-powerpc64le-linux-gnu" on Debian, no funny downloads. And if you want to target a Lattice ECP5 board even the FPGA tools are also all open, thanks to Yosys and friends.
All the openpower ISA spec PDFs are available for perusing on the openpower site.
Re: Keeping POWER relevant in the open source world
#14Don't forget that POWER10 is no longer ryf-certifiable. Of course the ryf certification may be questionable but it is an established bar, POWER9 was able to cross it, POWER10 probably won't: https://www.talospace.com/2020/08/power10-sounds-really-grea... https://twitter.com/RaptorCompSys/status/1435510763402244105...
Any reference to the ryf certification?
Re: Keeping POWER relevant in the open source world
#15[deleted]
Re: Keeping POWER relevant in the open source world
#16IBM had the opportunity of being the royalty-free ISA that RISC-V is. Or even release the cores "IP". They squandered it.
"squandered [..] the opportunity of being the royalty-free ISA"
Last time I checked, IBM was a business. I don't think losing an "opportunity" to give away the ISA for free sounds like a loss to them.
Re: Keeping POWER relevant in the open source world
#17Don't forget that POWER10 is no longer ryf-certifiable. Of course the ryf certification may be questionable but it is an established bar, POWER9 was able to cross it, POWER10 probably won't: https://www.talospace.com/2020/08/power10-sounds-really-grea... https://twitter.com/RaptorCompSys/status/1435510763402244105...
RYF allows various "tricks" of hiding blobs, so it is not what I'd use as the benchmark here. Raptor's standards are likely higher than what RYF would require...
Re: Keeping POWER relevant in the open source world
#18My experience using Voidlinux, on a Raptor POWER9 system, has been excellent. The software support has just gotten better and better. It would be a shame to lose this momentum.
Affordability and availability are major pain points. I've shared my excitement about OpenPOWER with many and their excitement evaporates when they are told what a modest system costs.
I am strong believer in FOSS and fully open owner controlled hardware. I think this is far more important than it appears at first glance. It sounds like tinfoil hat stuff, but the reality is we're backed into a corner. The less control owners/users have, the more vulnerable they are.
--edit typo s/that/than/..
Re: Keeping POWER relevant in the open source world
#19Don't forget that POWER10 is no longer ryf-certifiable. Of course the ryf certification may be questionable but it is an established bar, POWER9 was able to cross it, POWER10 probably won't: https://www.talospace.com/2020/08/power10-sounds-really-grea... https://twitter.com/RaptorCompSys/status/1435510763402244105...
Any reference to the ryf certification?
They're referring to the FSF's "Respects Your Freedoms" programme, a frankly absurd specification that encourages vendors to lock down closed source firmware into ROM rather than actually make it free. RYF doesn't care about the hardware designs themselves being open (no computer would qualify in that case), so they treat closed-source firmware ROM images as identical to closed-source hardware, which is fine. But store that firmware on some sort of RAM, or flashable ROM, and all of a sudden it's now closed-source firmware, which is bad.
The end result is that systems that are the most locked down are those which "Respects Your Freedoms".
Re: Keeping POWER relevant in the open source world
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any reference to the ryf certification?
They're referring to the FSF's "Respects Your Freedoms" programme, a frankly absurd specification that encourages vendors to lock down closed source firmware into ROM rather than actually make it free. RYF doesn't care about the hardware designs themselves being open (no computer would qualify in that case), so they treat closed-source firmware ROM images as identical to closed-source hardware, which is fine. But sto…
Ah thanks a lot. I asked because I had not heard of that abbreviation.