POWER Instruction Set Architecture is now PUBLIC

“Life would be much better if I had the source code”, thought every programmer at least once. IBM, which has given is allegiance to open source, made a huge statement at The Linux Foundation Open Source Summit.

Yet again, IBM conquered the hearts of the open-source enthusiasts when it announced its decision of making its POWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) open to the public. This architecture accounts for the cohesion between hardware and software on POWER. It is anticipated that this declaration will give a boost to the IBM Power processor as it will permit open source developers to build innovative hardware machineries for IBM’s Power servers.

“With the ISA and other technologies being contributed to the open community, developers will have the tools to build innovative new hardware that takes advantage of POWER’s enterprise-leading capabilities to process data-intensive workloads and create new software applications for AI and hybrid cloud built to take advantage of the hardware’s unique capabilities”, the company stated in a proclamation.

Furthermore, IBM intends to provide the open-source community with some other useful technologies as well. The list may consist of reference schemes for the Open Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (OpenCAPI), a softcore implementation of the IBM Power ISA, and the Open Memory Interface (OMI).

The OpenCAPI and OMI technologies support developers in making the best use of memory bandwidth between the attached devices and processors. This is significant in defeating the performance holdups for up-and-coming technologies such as artificial intelligence.

“With our recent Red Hat acquisition and today’s announcement, IBM becomes the only processor vendor and POWER becomes the only commercially-available architecture with a completely open system stack, from the foundation of the hardware through the software stack”, stated IBM’s OpenPOWER General Manager Ken King.

OpenPower Joins the Linux Foundation

The company also used the platform to reveal that the OpenPower Foundation is being moved under the Linux Foundation. Though, the OpenPower Foundation will hold on to its board of directors, but now it will function in conjunction with the open governance norms of Linux Foundation.

Co-established by IBM in 2013, OpenPOWER has since then expanded to over 350 members who have delivered loads of novelties around the POWER architecture. Working together with OpenPOWER members Mellanox, NVIDIA, and Red Hat, IBM steered the release of two of the world’s most dynamic and capable supercomputers - US Department of Energy’s Summit and Sierra.

“Back in 2013, we were excited to see that IBM took the first steps in opening the company’s POWER architecture,” expressed Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation.

“The Linux Foundation itself has seen rising interest in open hardware communities and working with OpenPOWER Foundation will continue to make the OpenPOWER and open hardware technologies available to a growing, global audience,” he said further.

Through this appreciable step, IBM has given consent to inventors to develop hardware around their commercially-driven CPU architecture with enterprise graded safety and characteristics without paying any fee.