3 ms·

So they reinvented the mainframe with a prettier exterior? Their own OS: Check Big tall box: Check Expensive: Check (well no price list i have seen so far) Pro

So they reinvented the mainframe with a prettier exterior? Their own OS: Check Big tall box: Check Expensive: Check (well no price list i have seen so far) Proprietary hardware at least interfaces. (?) upgrades must be bought from the vendor (?) Right to repair?

crote 3y ago
Not quite. A traditional mainframe is highly integrated, to the point of allowing hotswapping of CPU and memory. Oxide seems to be a fairly standard collection of x64 hardware, with a proprietary management software sauce.
- steveklabnik 3y ago
  Just to expand slightly, "proprietary" in the sense of "built by us for this computer," but not in the way that free or open source software developers speak of the word "proprietary," the vast majority of what we do is MPL licensed, to the degree that it is actually possbile.
  - lytedev 3y ago
    Out of curiosity, is there a list of those things that can not ot could not be licensed thusly and why?
    - bcantrill 3y ago
      In some cases, it's derived work of open source but non-MPL'd code -- but the ones that Steve is referring to are where we have third-party proprietary firmware. There aren't a ton of these (and in almost all cases, we ourselves don't have source code). We have (naturally) tried to minimize these, but as a concrete example: every AMD CPU has a PSP that runs proprietary software; we deliver that as a binary blob given to us by AMD (it's delivered over SPI to the host CPU).
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - morganw 3y ago
    Can you expand on what is not MPL licensed? I recall (foggily) reading about struggles with incomplete data sheets for Nuvoton controllers & I see the discussion about CVEs for NXP microcontrollers with secret patch ROMs.
    - steveklabnik 3y ago
      See Brian’s excellent reply to your sibling.
- jclulow 3y ago
  One of our core product goals is to actually allow relatively hot swapping of individual compute sleds. It's true that each sled is an x86 server, but there's control software managing the whole rack as a unit, with live migration of workloads and replicated storage. The architecture of the whole thing leans towards treating sleds as essentially like CPU and memory (and storage) boards in previous generations of large scale computers like mainframes.
- ThinkBeat 3y ago
  This is the case for some . Like the Tandem Nonstop series. (Now part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise) I had a contract with a 9/11 call handler for a while. They had one of them (or possibly more). On display of sorts through a window of bulletproof glass. The IBM Z series does not allow hot swapping the CPU and I dont believe it ever did. The parts on the Z Series are super easy to replace. All in nice components sitting on a rails to yank in or out.
wmf 3y ago
It's more like reinventing Sun with an uglier exterior but yes.
- ahl 3y ago
  ... but with more inner beauty.
- bcantrill 3y ago
  Hey now, the Oxide rack is pretty good looking[0] -- and not to take anything away from the likes of the E10K, I personally think the Oxide rack is better looking than the Sun machines of yore. ;) [0] https://oxide.computer/ https://oxide.computer/
- __d 3y ago
  Finally, a true dark mode server.

crote 3y ago

Not quite. A traditional mainframe is highly integrated, to the point of allowing hotswapping of CPU and memory. Oxide seems to be a fairly standard collection of x64 hardware, with a proprietary management software sauce.

steveklabnik 3y ago
Just to expand slightly, "proprietary" in the sense of "built by us for this computer," but not in the way that free or open source software developers speak of the word "proprietary," the vast majority of what we do is MPL licensed, to the degree that it is actually possbile.
- lytedev 3y ago
  Out of curiosity, is there a list of those things that can not ot could not be licensed thusly and why?
  - bcantrill 3y ago
    In some cases, it's derived work of open source but non-MPL'd code -- but the ones that Steve is referring to are where we have third-party proprietary firmware. There aren't a ton of these (and in almost all cases, we ourselves don't have source code). We have (naturally) tried to minimize these, but as a concrete example: every AMD CPU has a PSP that runs proprietary software; we deliver that as a binary blob given to us by AMD (it's delivered over SPI to the host CPU).
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- morganw 3y ago
  Can you expand on what is not MPL licensed? I recall (foggily) reading about struggles with incomplete data sheets for Nuvoton controllers & I see the discussion about CVEs for NXP microcontrollers with secret patch ROMs.
  - steveklabnik 3y ago
    See Brian’s excellent reply to your sibling.
jclulow 3y ago
One of our core product goals is to actually allow relatively hot swapping of individual compute sleds. It's true that each sled is an x86 server, but there's control software managing the whole rack as a unit, with live migration of workloads and replicated storage. The architecture of the whole thing leans towards treating sleds as essentially like CPU and memory (and storage) boards in previous generations of large scale computers like mainframes.
ThinkBeat 3y ago
This is the case for some . Like the Tandem Nonstop series. (Now part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise) I had a contract with a 9/11 call handler for a while. They had one of them (or possibly more). On display of sorts through a window of bulletproof glass. The IBM Z series does not allow hot swapping the CPU and I dont believe it ever did. The parts on the Z Series are super easy to replace. All in nice components sitting on a rails to yank in or out.

wmf 3y ago

It's more like reinventing Sun with an uglier exterior but yes.

ahl 3y ago
... but with more inner beauty.
bcantrill 3y ago
Hey now, the Oxide rack is pretty good looking[0] -- and not to take anything away from the likes of the E10K, I personally think the Oxide rack is better looking than the Sun machines of yore. ;) [0] https://oxide.computer/ https://oxide.computer/
__d 3y ago
Finally, a true dark mode server.