[Info-vax] OpenVMS development tooling

[John Dallman]

In article <sj9m1i$l73$1 at gioia.aioe.org>, chris-nospam at tridac.net (chris)
wrote:

> High end users will always pay a premium for top end machines, real
> or imaginary. Cad and scientific apps are always pushing the
> boundary and there are security advantages for not using X86 arch.

However, CAD people want to be able to get their software of choice on a
platform. These days, CAD software is mostly for x86-64 Windows if it has
a GUI, or x86-64 Linux if it's analysis code without GUI. Linux on POWER
won't have any significant software available that isn't open source. 

> Hear very few reports about Power or Sparc arch suffering viruses or
> other attacks. Resources required vs value of the result and X86
> are probably the worst in terms of potential attack surface...

Sadly, the amount of expense and inconvenience that most people will put
up with for security purposes is quite limited. Raptor Computing Systems
have stayed in business for a few years, but they're not a large
manufacturer. The IBM processors they use stay about one generation
behind the leading edge of chip manufacturing, because that's much
cheaper and easier than the bleeding edge. They are currently offering
POWER9, dating from 2016, in 14nm. 

Tyan offer POWER8, from 2014, in 22nm. 

The LibreSOC open-source OpenPOWER chip is nowhere near the power of a
modern desktop: it's in 180nm, not 14nm or smaller.

John