frabre
Joined 2 years ago
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Member since
Feb 9
Recent submissions
Comment · 2 years ago
Comment · 2 years ago
Interesting take! I hadn't considered that there could be an inversion where suddenly desktops are no longer commodity products.
It got me thinking--something similar happened to digital cameras where all the cheap point and shoots were replaced by phones so that now standalone cameras are an expensive niche for photographers.
OpenPOWER piggybacks off of IBM's high end POWER offerings, which are themselves part of a big enterprise market for scientific and financial computing. The OpenPOWER derivatives use IBM's POWER 8/9 chips.
I started looking for an alternative to commodity desktops when news came out that there were ring 0/-1/-2/-3 vulnerabilities in chips and I realized I had no idea what code was running on my computer. A lot of people just applied the mitigations and shrugged like it was perfectly normal that they couldn't really control their own computers.
When Raptor came out with their offerings, I thought it was great: full ownership of my computer, and as an added bonus some premium IBM chips from another architecture. I know people who spend more than I spent just on graphics cards every year.
Comment · 2 years ago
I don't follow: how are they not server grade? How are they crippled Power9s? What x86 server are you comparing them to?
For example, the Talos II system has dual (server) CPU sockets with up to 24 cores/96 threads per processor; 16 ECC memory slots with 2TB capacity; SAS controller; out of band management and service processor (separate serial and ethernet ports for the BMC); a server form factor; better capacitors; no onboard audio and only rudimentary graphics; and a thick/quality PCB. It's also made in America. What else were you looking for?
Comment · 2 years ago
I also have a Blackbird, and haven't had any issues with getting precompiled software or compiling software for it. What issues have you had?
I find it more performant than the kind of ARM hardware I think you're referring to, and more satisfying to use. I'd probably buy it again if mine died.
Comment · 2 years ago
The software support is good. I use it and don't lack for pre-built packages or updates. For example, it's supported by Ubuntu Pro.
Comment · 2 years ago
If you're not used to buying server-grade hardware, I know it seems expensive. I think the founder initially priced it too low in an effort to make it as affordable as possible, found himself giving tons of expensive support, and decided to raise prices to the market average.
Comment · 2 years ago
If you're used to building your PCs, you can build an 8-core workstation with a bunch more RAM for about $4000. While it's about double what you might spend on a similarly capable commodity desktop, you're getting a Libre boot process, fewer blobs, and a different class of chips.
Comment · 2 years ago
I care! And I know a lot of people who care, but we are still a niche sized group. I care mainly because of Raptor Computing Systems offerings, which I think are the main (only?) OpenPOWER systems available. I use a Blackbird, and I'm happy with it.
From my own point of view, I'm willing to spend a $$$$ premium on hardware where I can have assurances that from the time I boot it, only code I authorize to run is run. Where every part of the system has code that, at least in principle, I or someone else could audit and fix. People have valuable IP stored on computers and it's worth much more than a few thousand dollars.
If you just look at price to performance, you are missing the point. Also, the price is not out of line with other niche desktops such as Apple's or System76.
There's not a lot of competition in this niche. The previous system that was useful was a ASUS KGPE-D16 motherboard, which could be librebooted (https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/kgpe-d16.html) I expect something new to come along in this space every 5-10 years.
For my purposes, I haven't fought with the software ecosystem, and was able to compile the very few packages that weren't already precompiled.
Here are some developments I think are worth noting:
* There is a libre driver for the onboard NIC. (https://github.com/meklort/bcm5719-fw) This seems to be the only project that cares about blobs in every part of the board.
* Dasharo https://www.dasharo.com/ providing alternative boot firmware.
* Artic Tern, (https://www.raptorcs.com/content/AT1PC2/intro.html) which is objectively still mostly a development platform (that if you're skilled you can get to work) provides a completely libre boot environment and the possibility of controlling other peripherals using only auditable code.
A few things have not yet made it onto the board:
* Flexver (https://www.raptorengineering.com/TALOS/documentation/flexve...) which would allow for verifying and auditing hardware, firmware and the boot process isn't commercially available yet.
* Ultravisor state enabling more secure VMs is still awaiting implementation AFAIK. (https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/Power_ISA/Privilege_States#Ul...)
* I'm not aware of a lot of hardware that would take advantage of IBM CAPI 2.0 IO accelleration. Perhaps someone has some information on this.
* I'm not sure what the status of transactional memory is, but I'm not aware of it being used in software. Perhaps someone can enlighten me on this.
These would be nice to have, and I hope to have them in the future.
The bottom line is that this is the only hardware currently in production that is going in the direction promised by the personal computing revolution back in the 1970s and 80s and is still capable of handling most people's current general computing needs. I write this hoping that other people like me who are reading this understand the importance of keeping hardware like this alive.
You can get a base working power 9 VM running a lean linux or BSD for about $20/month.