OpenPOWER Foundation

File:IBM Power System S812LC (8971).png

IBM is using the word "open" to describe this project in three ways:

1. They are licensing the microprocessor technology openly to its partners. They are sharing the blueprints to their hardware and software to their partners, so they can hire IBM or other companies to manufacture processors or other related chips.
2. They will collaborate openly in an open-collaboration business model where participants share technologies and innovations with each other.
3. Advantages via open-source software such as the Linux operating system.

OpenPower Foundation also releases Documentation on the Power Architecture.[https://openpowerfoundation.org/technical/resource-catalog/ OpenPower Foundation Resource Catalog]

Some relevant documents are the Power ISA and Power Architecture Platform Reference.

{{Update|technology|date=September 2019}}

File:S822LC 9036.png

IBM is looking to offer the POWER8 chip technology and other future iterations under the OpenPOWER initiative but they are also making previous designs available for licensing.{{Cite web|url=https://www.itjungle.com/2013/08/12/tfh081213-story01/|title=IBM Forms OpenPower Consortium, Breathes New Life Into Power|date=August 12, 2013|website=IT Jungle}} Partners are required to contribute intellectual property to the OpenPOWER Foundation to be able to gain high level status.

The POWER8 processor architecture incorporates facilities to integrate it more easily into custom designs. The generic memory controllers are designed to evolve with future technologies, and the new CAPI (Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface) expansion bus is built to integrate easily with external coprocessors like GPUs, ASICs and FPGAs.

Nvidia is contributing their fast interconnect technology, NVLink, that will enable tight coupling of Nvidia's Pascal based graphics processors into future POWER processors.{{Cite web|url=https://newsfactor.com/|title=NewsFactor|website=NewsFactor}}

In August 2019, IBM released the tiny Microwatt processor core implementing the Power ISA v.3.0 and to be used as a reference design for OpenPOWER. It's entirely open source and published on GitHub.[https://www.talospace.com/2019/08/day-2-keynote-and-openpower-blows-doors.html Day 2 keynote and OpenPOWER blows the doors off: Royalty-free, open soft-core (RISC-V sweating gallons)] Later, Chiselwatt joined in as a second open source implementation.[https://github.com/antonblanchard/chiselwatt Chiselwatt's page on Github]

In June 2020, IBM released the high performance A2I core under a similar open source license.{{cite web | title = A2I on GitHub | publisher = IBM | author = IBM | date = 2020-06-27 | url=https://github.com/openpower-cores/a2i}} and followed up with the A2O core in September 2020.[https://openpowerfoundation.org/openpower-foundation-introduces-ibm-hardware-and-software-contributions-at-openpower-summit-2020/ OpenPOWER Foundation introduces IBM hardware and software contributions at OpenPOWER summit 2020]

Libre-SOC is the third, from scratch built, implementation of the Power ISA v.3.0, and the first Libre/Open POWER ISA core outside of IBM.

{{Update|technology|date=September 2019}}

The OpenPOWER initiative will include firmware, the KVM hypervisor, and little endian Linux operating system. The foundation has a site on GitHub for the software they are releasing as open source. As of July 2014, it has released firmware to boot Linux.{{Cite web|url=https://www.enterpriseai.news/2014/07/15/open-sourced-bios-helps-power8-compete-x86/|title=Open Sourced BIOS Helps Power8 Compete With X86|date=July 15, 2014|website=EnterpriseAI}}

SUSE included support for Power8 in their enterprise Linux distribution SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version 12 (release 27 October 2014).{{Cite web|url=https://www.suse.com/c/suse-linux-enterprise-12-ibm-power8/|title=SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 and IBM POWER8|first=Michael|last=Miller|date=April 29, 2014|website=SUSE Communities}}

Canonical Ltd. supports the architecture in Ubuntu Server from version 16.04 LTS. {{Cite web|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-intros-next-gen-power8-microprocessor-servers-along-with-openpower-roadmap/|title=IBM intros next-gen Power8 microprocessor, servers along with OpenPower roadmap|first=Rachel|last=King|website=ZDNet}}

FreeBSD has also been reported to have preliminary support for the architecture.{{Cite web|url=https://adrianchadd.blogspot.com/2015/02/freebsd-on-power8-its-alive.html|title=Adrian Chadd's Ramblings: FreeBSD on the POWER8: it's alive!|date=February 22, 2015}}{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.freebsd.org/POWER8|title=FreeBSD Wiki: POWER8|access-date=2017-11-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829073731/https://wiki.freebsd.org/POWER8|archive-date=2017-08-29|url-status=dead}}

Collabora Online is an enterprise-ready edition of LibreOffice with web-based office suite real-time collaboration, support of the OpenPOWER ppc64le architecture was announced in October 2022.{{Cite web |title=Collabora Online Unlocks the OpenPOWER Architecture |url=https://www.collaboraoffice.com/press-releases/collabora-online-unlocks-the-openpower-architecture/ |access-date=2022-10-28 |website=Collabora Online|date=26 October 2022 }} It comes with Ubuntu 20.04 packages and Docker images, and is delivered as a part of Nextcloud Enterprise which specialises in sharing files, writing emails, conducting chats and video conferences.

Google, Tyan, Nvidia, and Mellanox are founding members of the OpenPOWER Foundation. Nvidia is looking to merge its graphics cores and Mellanox to integrate its high performance interconnects with Power cores. Tyan is said to be working on servers using POWER8{{Cite web|url=https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/524768/ibm_new_power8_doubles_performance_watson_chip/|title=IBM's new Power8 doubles performance of Watson chip|website=PC World}} and Google sees using Power processors in its data centers as a future possibility.{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323420604578650412719931232|title=IBM Gets Allies to Chip Away at Intel|last=Clark|first=Don|website=Wall Street Journal|date=6 August 2013}}

Altera announced support for OpenPOWER in November 2013 with their FPGA offerings and OpenCL software.{{Cite web|url=http://www.abc27.com/story/23996554/altera-brings-fpga-based-acceleration-to-ibm-power-systems-and-announces-support-for-openpower-consortium|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131122122642/http://www.abc27.com/story/23996554/altera-brings-fpga-based-acceleration-to-ibm-power-systems-and-announces-support-for-openpower-consortium|archive-date=November 22, 2013|url-status=dead|title=Altera Brings FPGA-based Acceleration to IBM Power Systems and Announces Support for OpenPOWER Consortium - abc27 WHTM|access-date=January 20, 2014}}

On January 19, 2014, the Suzhou PowerCore Technology Company and the Research Institute of Jiangsu Industrial Technology announced that they will join the OpenPOWER Foundation and license POWER8 technologies to promote and help build systems around and design custom made processors for use in big data and cloud computing applications.{{Cite web|url=https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/42980.wss|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140123072817/http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/42980.wss|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 23, 2014|title=China Tech Groups Embrace IBM POWER Technology|date=January 19, 2014|website=www-03.ibm.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.itprotoday.com/|title=IT Pro|website=www.itprotoday.com}} On February 12, 2014, Samsung Electronics joined.{{Cite web|url=https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/43195.wss|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223013437/http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/43195.wss|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 23, 2014|title=Samsung Electronics Joins OpenPOWER Foundation|date=February 12, 2014|website=www-03.ibm.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/2097300/samsung-joins-ibm-google-in-openpower-alliance.html|title=Samsung joins IBM, Google in OpenPower alliance|date=February 12, 2014|website=PCWorld}} As of March 2014, additional members are Altera, Fusion-io, Hynix, Micron, Servergy, and Xilinx. As of April 2014, Canonical, Chuanghe Mobile, Emulex, Hitachi, Inspur, Jülich Research Centre, Oregon State University, Teamsun, Unisource Technology Inc, and ZTE are listed as members at various levels.{{cite web |url=https://openpowerfoundation.org/membership/current-members/ |title=Current members |work=OpenPOWER}} As of December 2014, Rackspace, Avnet, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Tsinghua University, Nallatech, Bull, QLogic, and Bloombase have joined, totaling about 80 members.{{Cite web|url=https://openpowerfoundation.org/openpower-tops-off-first-year-with-80-members-worldwide-and-12-systems-under-development/|title=OpenPOWER Foundation | OpenPOWER Gains Momentum Heading into Second Year}}

At the first annual OpenPOWER Summit 2015, the organization announced that there were 113 members, including Wistron, Cirrascale, and PMC-Sierra.

As of late 2016, the OpenPOWER foundation has more than 250 members.

As of July 2020, the OpenPOWER Foundation reported that it had 350-plus members.

• IBM OpenPower – a line of POWER5 based Power Systems machines running Linux
• PowerOpen Environment
• List of open-source hardware projects
• Open Compute Project
• OpenBMC
• OpenSPARC

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|OpenPOWER}}

• [https://openpowerfoundation.org/ OpenPOWER's home page]
• {{github|open-power|OpenPOWER}}
• {{github|openpower-cores|OpenPower Cores}}

{{IBM FOSS}}

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OpenPOWER

Microwatt