[Info-vax] PowerX Roadmap - Extended beyond 2020

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax [mailto:info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com] On
> Behalf Of IanD via Info-vax
> Sent: 10-Sep-16 3:59 PM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: IanD <iloveopenvms at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] PowerX Roadmap - Extended
> beyond 2020
> 
> On Saturday, September 10, 2016 at 12:35:05 AM UTC+10,
> Kerry Main wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > Hey, I would love to see VSI do OpenVMS on Power9  at
> some future point.  As a reminder, VSI has always stated
> that the X86-64 port was part of the journey, not an end
> point.
> >
> > Having stated this, one should never make a port
> decision based purely on pure technical reasons.
> >
> 
> +1
> 

[snip..]

> 
> Not sure where OpenVMS is going to fit in the IoT picture,
> it's not lean enough or it's file system not quick enough to
> act as a data collector. Maybe as an aggregator?

These are "thin clients" with one user type workloads. 

Imho, given the power of chip HW today, performance is not that much of an issue. OpenVMS 8.4-2 boots and runs fine on my Alpha system with 128MB memory. License costs and the biggie - license simplicity, dependability / stability / security (you don’t want monthly patches) and industry / ISV acceptance are the bigger challenges. 

OpenVMS/ARM might be a nice volume play option in the longer term if all of the above could be addressed. 

> 
> > This is a great future market for VSI to market OpenVMS
> and ARM/X86-64. This is a volume compute focus.
> >
> 
> I certainly hope so
> 
> If it also runs on hardware that us mere mortals can buy
> and the license fee's don't require me to sell both kidneys
> (clustering for example) then I'll be in line to buy
> 

X86-64 HW is pretty cheap today. 

Actually, besides all of the various emulators, Alpha HW is pretty cheap as well as long as you are ok with doing your own support.

Course, it depends on your location as well.

Simply google "ebay DS10" or "ebay ds10L"

[snip]

> > Another good link on Power9 (more technical): August
> 24, 2016
> > http://www.nextplatform.com/2016/08/24/big-blue-
> aims-sky-power9/
> >
> > Imho, this would be a great "blue oceans" future
> strategy.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Kerry Main
> > Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com
> 
> Thanks for those links, I'm heading off to look at them
> now... :-)
>

Btw, for those that like to keep current with compute HW and supporting infrastructure technology, the web site "The Next Platform" is pretty good in that it explores ARM, X86-64 and PowerX as well as high speed interconnects and some of the other not so well known HPC technologies from various vendors reasonably well.

http://www.nextplatform.com

Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com