10 Ways the World’s First Open Server Architecture Is Disruptive

MOORE’S LAW, WHICH holds that processor advancement is derived from transistor scaling, is commonly believed to be dying as semiconductor design bumps up against the limits of physics. It’s debatable whether this is indeed true, but one thing is certain: Major computing shifts such as big data and cloud are placing heavy new demands on computing systems, and the tech industry’s traditional “tick tock” approach of moving to a new chip technology every couple of years is failing to keep up. 

What’s needed is a new wave of post-silicon innovation to scale the servers in data centers so they can handle today’s unprecedented workloads.

That’s much of the rationale for the creation of the OpenPOWER Foundation, a technology movement started by Google, IBM, NVIDIA, Mellanox and Tyan in 2013 and now backed by 111 companies and other organizations in 22 countries.

Members gathered in San Jose this week for the first OpenPOWER Summit and unveiled 10 hardware advances that demonstrate OpenPOWER’s impact as a breeding ground for new technology, These include the first commercially available OpenPOWER server, the world’s first custom POWER chip and a new high-performance server initiating a road-map that will culminate in the worlds most powerful systems to be delivered to the U.S. government.

It’s time to move beyond processor-centric design to a new paradigm that takes into account software, post-silicon materials and most importantly, the benefits of an open, collaborative ecosystem.

No one company alone can tackle the new types of systems the world will need for the growing number of hyper-scale data centers. That’s why  the OpenPOWER initiative makes IBM’s POWER hardware and software available to open development and allows POWER intellectual property to be licensed to others.

Here’s a top-10 list of ways OpenPOWER is disrupting the data center:

1. As the Linux revolution has vividly shown in software, open, collaborative development is the key to rapid, continuous innovation. OpenPOWER brings that same principle to servers. In fact, it’s the world’s first and only open server architecture.

2. Open ecosystems and technology are secure: Everyone can see the source code.

3. OpenPOWER technology can form the basis for indigenous transformation. For example, through technology building blocks made available by the OpenPOWER Foundation via the China POWER Technology Alliance, China is now equipped with the tools to build a secure technology ecosystem from the ground up by China, for China.

4. OpenPower enables customization. The explosion of big data requires systems to be built around data-intensive workloads. OpenPOWER is creating an opportunity for organizations to customize systems to fit these specific needs.

5. Companies like the safety of buying open technology becuase it guarantees a continuity of supply and options.

6. The OpenPOWER architecture is fully open, with no control points on design.

7. The opportunity in OpenPOWER is a function of an organization’s skill, not access to technology and provides an  ability to build new solutions on the open platform.

8. OpenPOWER technology includes some technology breakthroughs such as IBM’s Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (CAPI), a unique interface feature that allows partners to build their solutions right on top of the POWER8 chip, without latency issues.

9. OpenPOWER technology provides access to a broad range of customers, from enterprise data centers to warehouse scale data centers.

10. OpenPOWER provides a forum for collaboration with a wide variety of partners and results in new forms of differentiation.

Given the need for speed in a rapidly changing industry, I predict it won’t be long before collaboration through open ecosystems is the onlyroute to innovation for any type of enterprise technology.