[Info-vax] OT: news from the trenches (re: Solaris)

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2015-03-11 17:54:47 +0000, <lists at openmailbox.org> said:

> On Wed, 11 Mar 2015 13:38:01 -0400
> David Froble via Info-vax <info-vax at rbnsn.com> wrote:
> 
>> What other options are there?  VMS cannot support it's own custom CPUs.
>> Remember Alpha?  So, what's left?
> 
> POWER,

IBM is selling off their fabs, and setting up a POWER processor roadmap 
with GlobalFoundries.

<http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324321>
<http://anandtech.com/show/8631/globalfoundries-acquires-ibms-semiconductor-manufacturing-business-ibm-bows-out> 


"IBM’s POWER chip manufacturing volume isn’t enough to sustain the 
business on its own."

IBM has sold off their x86 business and most recently their x86 server 
business to Lenovo, and I'd wonder of POWER isn't following — albeit 
following along the ten-year roadmap that is available.

That, and the POWER boxes are lower-volume, and there's no Microsoft 
Windows available, there's the fun with the x86-64 boot ROMs, and the 
rest.

> SPARC,

Unclear.  I'd be skeptical.  Again, there are comparatively low volumes 
and comparatively fewer product choices and — as is the case with most 
of these alternatives — not all that much in the way of alternative or 
multiple sources, and you don't get x86-64 tools and software, boot 
ROMs et al, and no Windows available on the box.

> MIPS,

Maybe, but it doesn't get you much in the way of product volume and 
product choices, and you can't use x86-64 tools, and you can't boot and 
run Windows on the box.  So prices are going to be somewhat higher, and 
your platform options reduced, and you're off dealing with emulating 
for the x86 boot ROMs and the rest of the messes.

> and ARM. First two are both open, last two are both licensable for 
> cheap per CPU.

VSI has mentioned ARM (presumably ARMv8-A or later) as a potential 
target, but of the server boxes that are available now and in the next 
five to ten years, I don't see any choice other than x86-64 here.

Put another way, if I was to be beholden to any particular vendor(s) 
for my platform hardware beyond the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise folks 
after HP splits, right now that's probably going to best be Intel 
and/or AMD, and the various Windows-box providers, as they have the 
highest volumes and the lowest prices.   This if I weren't going to be 
using one of those providers to create a bespoke x86-64 box, maybe with 
a "DSMOSX-like" feature, specifically for OpenVMS, and that can also 
run Windows and/or VMware and/or RHEL and/or other x86-64 software.

Ask yourself what architecture you'd pick here after Itanium, if you 
were spending, say, ten million dollars of your own money, and wanted 
to maximize your chances of success when you were launching an 
operating system business.  Sure, if you had infinite money and/or 
infinite staff, x86-64 and POWER and MIPS and ARM and SPARC and 
Ooooh-Shiny and whatever else can pass the Turing test...  But if you 
had to pick just one, and bet on it?


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