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IBM's Power play
Monday 5 April 2004
EW Daily News 05/04/2004 09:54:03 - IBM's Power play
IBM's Power play Suzanne Deffree at ElectronicNews Online
IBM this week outlined a power play that could have a major impact on the semiconductor industry - one that could echo the open-source operating system influx of the late 1990s.
The move is based on the firm's upcoming Power5 microprocessor and came dowsed in Linux-like sourcing at a New York launch event.
As the company describes it, its Power Everywhere strategy aims for innovation at final chip designs - more than the underlying architecture - to create entire systems in silicon, not just electronics components. But the strategy in essence sees IBM - an open and vocal supporter of Linux environments - spread out control of its IP, sharing it as the open-source OS community does.
As Linux made its entrance into the OS world by creating a community around itself, IBM is seeking to broaden the existing community focused on its staple Power architecture. Power chips, rolled out 14-years ago, are used in IBM pSeries and iSeries servers, and were recently adopted by Apple Computer for its G5 line.
Power5 chips will be openly customizable - something that has been informally available to top-dog IBM customers like Sony and Nintendo in the past - allowing engineers to simulate a SOC design based on their own IP coupled with the Power architecture.
Certainly they are opening up the IP for customisation to allow more customers to get their wish list on Power architecture to market faster, Richard Doherty, research director at Envisioneering Group, told Electronic News. Now what's happening is IBM could either hire thousand and thousands of people to service these customer interfaces and control all the family jewels, or allow visitors to borrow them and customise the arrangements themselves.
Core to that is a new open community portal with services centers and no-charge, downloadable design tools. IBM is also expanding manufacturing options by enabling chip foundries to manufacture Power chips. A further step by IBM in the Power Everywhere strategy is opening development input by exploring an open governance model to guide the future of Power architecture.
Power is the leading architecture for silicon innovation, said Nick Donofrio, IBM senior v-p of technology and manufacturing. In fact, Power was designed from the ground up for massive scalability and is the most customised processor in the world. The time is right to establish it as a more open, modular and pervasive platform, accelerating the creation of next-generation devices, systems and applications.
Within its first days out, IBM's Power Everywhere strategy has garnered strong support. Sony, for one, announced it has extended its licence with IBM to the customisable Power5 architecture for its consumer devices. New customers included L-3 Communications, which signed a custom chip agreement with IBM that could be worth as much as $80m over the next five years. The Global Brands Manufacture Group, based in China, announced a multi-million dollar agreement with IBM Engineering and Technology Services to explore using Power Architecture technology in its consumer products. Princeton University has also showed its support, announcing it is installing a new Power-based system to support research into areas such as Alzheimer's disease and spinal-cord injury. Furthermore, three customers - Memory Experts International, Block/Goldring and Christie Digital - announced at the event that they are replacing HP servers with Power-based eServer iSeries systems.
All in all, Power Everywhere could give IBM the upper microprocessor hand. Indeed, Doherty said the business model could pose a threat to some Intel business, noting the MPU giant's losses on the 64-bit front already.
It's certainly going to challenge them in the 64-bit area, he said, because [IBM] was very clear to remind everyone at the conference that they have been shipping nothing by 32-bit since 1990; they been doing 64-bit since before Intel discovered how to spell it. What is Power5 today will be Power6, and there are elements of Power5 and Power4 that may be customisable to the right sized customer.
Even lagging to IBM and AMD on the 64-bit front, the analyst said Intel shows no fear of the competition.
IBM already has high dozens of millions of wins for PowerPC, among 15 million of them just being Game Cubes. Some time in this decade some people at Intel may have to rethink the assessment that they don't worry about IBM and AMD.
IBM, Doherty added, may have more volume shipments than AMD before the decade is out.
The Power5 is expected out this year.
is ElectronicsWeekly.com's affiliated US site.
IBM's Power play Suzanne Deffree at ElectronicNews Online
IBM this week outlined a power play that could have a major impact on the semiconductor industry - one that could echo the open-source operating system influx of the late 1990s.
The move is based on the firm's upcoming Power5 microprocessor and came dowsed in Linux-like sourcing at a New York launch event.
As Linux made its entrance into the OS world by creating a community around itself, IBM is seeking to broaden the existing community focused on its staple Power architecture. Power chips, rolled out 14-years ago, are used in IBM pSeries and iSeries servers, and were recently adopted by Apple Computer for its G5 line.
Certainly they are opening up the IP for customisation to allow more customers to get their wish list on Power architecture to market faster, Richard Doherty, research director at Envisioneering Group, told Electronic News. Now what's happening is IBM could either hire thousand and thousands of people to service these customer interfaces and control all the family jewels, or allow visitors to borrow them and customise the arrangements themselves.
Core to that is a new open community portal with services centers and no-charge, downloadable design tools. IBM is also expanding manufacturing options by enabling chip foundries to manufacture Power chips. A further step by IBM in the Power Everywhere strategy is opening development input by exploring an open governance model to guide the future of Power architecture.
Power is the leading architecture for silicon innovation, said Nick Donofrio, IBM senior v-p of technology and manufacturing. In fact, Power was designed from the ground up for massive scalability and is the most customised processor in the world. The time is right to establish it as a more open, modular and pervasive platform, accelerating the creation of next-generation devices, systems and applications.
Within its first days out, IBM's Power Everywhere strategy has garnered strong support. Sony, for one, announced it has extended its licence with IBM to the customisable Power5 architecture for its consumer devices. New customers included L-3 Communications, which signed a custom chip agreement with IBM that could be worth as much as $80m over the next five years. The Global Brands Manufacture Group, based in China, announced a multi-million dollar agreement with IBM Engineering and Technology Services to explore using Power Architecture technology in its consumer products. Princeton University has also showed its support, announcing it is installing a new Power-based system to support research into areas such as Alzheimer's disease and spinal-cord injury. Furthermore, three customers - Memory Experts International, Block/Goldring and Christie Digital - announced at the event that they are replacing HP servers with Power-based eServer iSeries systems.
All in all, Power Everywhere could give IBM the upper microprocessor hand. Indeed, Doherty said the business model could pose a threat to some Intel business, noting the MPU giant's losses on the 64-bit front already.
It's certainly going to challenge them in the 64-bit area, he said, because [IBM] was very clear to remind everyone at the conference that they have been shipping nothing by 32-bit since 1990; they been doing 64-bit since before Intel discovered how to spell it. What is Power5 today will be Power6, and there are elements of Power5 and Power4 that may be customisable to the right sized customer.
Even lagging to IBM and AMD on the 64-bit front, the analyst said Intel shows no fear of the competition.
IBM already has high dozens of millions of wins for PowerPC, among 15 million of them just being Game Cubes. Some time in this decade some people at Intel may have to rethink the assessment that they don't worry about IBM and AMD.
IBM, Doherty added, may have more volume shipments than AMD before the decade is out.
The Power5 is expected out this year.
is ElectronicsWeekly.com's affiliated US site.
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