Re:The Future Google Rackspace Power9 System
by bluedino on Sunday April 10, 2016 @08:50PM
(#11468996)
IBM reps love to throw around the "Google is switching to IBM" line. Can they possibly compete with IBM on price? Why isn't AMD trying to reach this market?
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Re:The Future Google Rackspace Power9 System
by bryanlarsen on Monday April 11, 2016 @09:31AM
(#11471310)
"Why isn't AMD trying to reach this market?"
AMD would still have an AMD64 architecture though? Or are you thinking they should come up with a new competing architecture.
Re:The Future Google Rackspace Power9 System
by derefr on Sunday April 10, 2016 @11:02PM
(#11469371)
These POWER chips are an open design; thus, anyone who wants Google as a customer and has a chip fab ready to go (like, say, AMD) could, in theory just fab some up to sell to Google.
Re:The Future Google Rackspace Power9 System
by WoodenChair on Sunday April 10, 2016 @11:12PM
(#11469405)
AMD doesn't have a chip fab - they are fabless now.
Re:The Future Google Rackspace Power9 System
by monksy on Sunday April 10, 2016 @11:23PM
(#11469431)
Oh wow. Is there a good reason for this?
Re:The Future Google Rackspace Power9 System
by snuxoll on Monday April 11, 2016 @01:57AM
(#11469875)
Maintaining a fab when you can't justify enough orders for chips to keep it running around the clock is expensive. As part of the spinoff they had penalties because they weren't purchasing enough wafers from GF anyway, but it resulted in less bleeding than owning and managing it as a subsidiary.
They're broke and they need at least $750MM to $1B in the bank to operate effectively as a company.
Re:The Future Google Rackspace Power9 System
by ajdlinux on Monday April 11, 2016 @09:32AM
(#11471319)
Neither does IBM as of last year - all IBM POWER chips are fabricated by GlobalFoundries.