Ask HN: Why is Open POWER Foundation a wasteland?

Posted by climate_denier_ on Saturday August 08, 2026 @06:49PM
from the ask-hn dept.

Why is the Open POWER Foundation website a desolate post-apocalyptic wasteland compared to riscv.org?

Just ten years ago PowerPC was getting so much love (at least, a little love). What has possessed people who relied on that ecosystem to dump it so wholeheartedly?

( 2 comments | 2 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Why is Open POWER Foundation a wasteland? by simfree on Saturday August 08, 2026 @08:11PM (#49227109)

IBM spun out their foundries to Global Foundaries (formerly part of AMD) a decade ago, then refused to commit to Global Foundaries next major process upgrades.

Staying on the bleeding edge of silicon requires massive investment, which they weren't willing to make.

https://newsroom.ibm.com/2025-01-02-GlobalFoundries-and-IBM-...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Why is Open POWER Foundation a wasteland? by Pet_Ant on Sunday August 09, 2026 @12:32AM (#49228464)

Didn’t POWER end up needing proprietary memory firmware?

https://www.talospace.com/2021/09/its-not-just-omi-thats-tro...

That couldn’t have helped. Otherwise I feel like RISC-V is better if you want to build something new from scratch.

[ Parent | on HN ]