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I understand that you have problems reading so i repeat it for you the third time: >>>since you cannot check the silicon... And since you have problems using

by nix23 5y ago

I understand that you have problems reading so i repeat it for you the third time: >>>since you cannot check the silicon... And since you have problems using google too: https://www.sbir.gov/node/1620879 https://www.sbir.gov/node/1620879 >>A small business has already shown that a completely open source solution (to include CPU firmware, CPU Microcode, Baseboard Management Controller (BMC), BIOS boot code, power management, etc.) based on a high performance CPU is possible. Imagine who that "small business" is?

marcan_42 5y ago
Where's the link to the source? FYI, IBM loves to use the term "microcode" to include side CPU firmware and such. This is different from Intel "microcode" which strictly refers to the instruction dispatch part. Is the instruction dispatch microcode in POWER9 open source or not? None of these are it: https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/OpenPOWER_Firmware https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/OpenPOWER_Firmware
- nix23 5y ago
  https://git.raptorcs.com/git/ https://git.raptorcs.com/git/ >>CPU Internal Firmware >>CPU External Firmware
  - marcan_42 5y ago
    SBE, OCC, HCODE. Those are from the list I linked. None of them are the instruction dispatch microcode. Maybe it's time for you to have the realization that POWER9 has proprietary microcode just like Intel. At least it seems they probably have less of it, and they do vaguely document it in the CPU manual (they have micro-op classes and counts) but it's there, and I don't see any real source code anywhere. They also have patch registers, so you can't even say it's not updatable. The POWER9 manual mentions six Instruction Mask Registers per core, but these registers are documented nowhere (I just spent a good 30 minutes digging through the giant register documentation PDFs and HCODE source, but I couldn't find anything). Is this better than Intel? Yes. Is it "fully free"? No. Nothing's fully free. Which is why we need nuanced analysis, not the nonsense arbitrary lines the FSF draws in the sand.

by nix23 5y ago

marcan_42 5y ago

Where's the link to the source? FYI, IBM loves to use the term "microcode" to include side CPU firmware and such. This is different from Intel "microcode" which strictly refers to the instruction dispatch part. Is the instruction dispatch microcode in POWER9 open source or not? None of these are it: https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/OpenPOWER_Firmware https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/OpenPOWER_Firmware

nix23 5y ago
https://git.raptorcs.com/git/ https://git.raptorcs.com/git/ >>CPU Internal Firmware >>CPU External Firmware
- marcan_42 5y ago
  SBE, OCC, HCODE. Those are from the list I linked. None of them are the instruction dispatch microcode. Maybe it's time for you to have the realization that POWER9 has proprietary microcode just like Intel. At least it seems they probably have less of it, and they do vaguely document it in the CPU manual (they have micro-op classes and counts) but it's there, and I don't see any real source code anywhere. They also have patch registers, so you can't even say it's not updatable. The POWER9 manual mentions six Instruction Mask Registers per core, but these registers are documented nowhere (I just spent a good 30 minutes digging through the giant register documentation PDFs and HCODE source, but I couldn't find anything). Is this better than Intel? Yes. Is it "fully free"? No. Nothing's fully free. Which is why we need nuanced analysis, not the nonsense arbitrary lines the FSF draws in the sand.