Supercomputing is a fascinating topic. There is an
organization maintaining a Top
500[1]
supercomputer scorecard listing the world’s top supercomputers. In the latest
edition (November 2014) of the top 10 systems listed, four are IBM Power-based
systems, three are Cray, two are Intel, and one is Sparc-based. Clearly, Power has
already earned a strong position at the top of the heap and has momentum there.
Another fair question might be: “what will OpenPOWER’s
position be going forward?” We believe the arrival of OpenPOWER makes it
stronger. Power’s current position was established with an architecture proprietary
to and controlled by IBM. OpenPOWER’s arrival changes that equation for the
better.
Let’s consider some of the way OpenPOWER is strengthened. Of
course, all the usual arguments for an Open architecture apply. OpenPOWER has
attracted more than one hundred companies to join the OpenPOWER Foundation[2].
All have complete access to the technology; all can design devices to attach to
the technology. They can even make their own Power chips and servers as already
announced by several
Chinese[3] companies
(PowerCore, Zoom Netcom, ChuagHe, etc.). All member companies, universities, and
non-computer vendors e.g. Google, can contribute to evolving the architecture
to meet their needs.
Additionally, the situation in the Supercomputer arena has also
changed. Past Power successes were achieved by IBM alone. Now other companies
are contributing both their technology and their intellectual capital to make OpenPOWER
successful. We have already seen IBM and NVIDIA collaborate to win the
DOE project. In addition, other foundation companies, e.g. Mellanox and Micron.
have made strong contributions to Supercomputer technology.
How does this position OpenPOWER against the competition? As we have seen, the key competitors at the
high-end are Intel -based and Cray. Cray’s niche at the high end is not in a
volume growth position. Intel is competitive across the entire space. Power’s RISC
based architecture is its key advantage versus Intel. The architecture was designed to allow hardware
optimization [4]. Intel’s
older, CISC-based X86 architecture carries a lot of baggage as part of its PC
heritage. A second Power advantage, Intel[5]
has apparently been locked out of future supercomputers that may be
constructed in China. As mentioned, Chinese companies can build Power-based chips
and servers, something now no longer possible for Intel.
In summary, OpenPOWER begins with a strong, established
position in the Supercomputer space. It can build on this momentum. In combination
with the intellectual property of foundation members should easily give future
products an advantage over the closed, proprietary systems they must compete
with.
[3]
See our blog: http://tinyurl.com/ptakassoc-OpenPOWERFoundation
[4]The
first modern RISC system , the IBM 801,was developed by John Cocke at IBM. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_instruction_set_computing for a discussion.
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