Sadly I do not think that I will ever be able to afford it, just like I would not be able to afford a similarly performing Xeon box. :( My processor is from the Intel® Pentium® Processor G Series, a really cheap one.

I find them hard (sadly) to justify as developing on POWER brings me no palpable benefit over doing so on a low-end workstation-class Xeon box and their performance is way more than what I need. I find their work on the single-socket system commendable, but, if IBM wants people to have POWER9 desktops, they'll need to offer low-cost SKUs.

I really don't know why they don't do it - it's not like the CPUs are a significant part of the overall BOM of their p and i series machines and the profit margins are very thick. Their lowest of the low end box is already quite insane.