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Looking at https://raptorcs.com/TALOSII/ https://raptorcs.com/TALOSII/, the main cost to getting a POWER9 CPU isn't the CPU itself, it's paying a relatively sma
by peatmoss 9y ago
Looking at https://raptorcs.com/TALOSII/ https://raptorcs.com/TALOSII/, the main cost to getting a POWER9 CPU isn't the CPU itself, it's paying a relatively small mainboard design company that needs to recoup their (presumably substantial) engineering costs.
Given Google's size, I wonder:
1) If they could reasonably design their own mainboards for POWER9
2) If they could create a market for POWER9 CPUs among enthusiasts and the security minded (Google's apparent motivation for lobotomizing Intel ME)
3) If the POWER9 CPU is a reasonable option for their workloads
4) If other architectures are a non-starter from a homogeneity standpoint (e.g. everything else runs Intel, and software compatibility is king).
EDIT: Formatting
- amock 9y agoGoogle and Rackspace developed a POWER9 server https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/10/introducing-Zaius-Google-and-Rackspaces-open-server-running-IBM-POWER9.html https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/10/introducing-Zai... but I don't think it's available to others.
- rbanffy 9y agoIf that motherboard could fit in a reasonable desktop tower chassis, it'd be cool to be able to piggyback on Google's and Rackspace's work. BTW, I assume both companies would somehow benefit from having machines like those on engineer's desks - it's certainly convenient to do local development on the platform you are deploying to.