Expanding the Power ISA's Influence
So many random things coming across my desk lately, so little time. Things are going to be a little quiet while I'm pushing through the home stretch on some things, but this was worth passing on because of how it'll tie into some things you'll see here later.
Sometime last week I found a Power Point file left behind on some cocktail napkins, which I found to be pretty interesting stuff. It basically breaks down some of what IBM is trying to accomplish through it's recent licensing deals of the PowerPC ISA (Instruction Set Architecture).
You can probably connect most of the dots yourself, but do pay attention to how IBM stays in full control of the core ISA, and how all licensees, while able to expand upon the Power ISA, have to make those changes available to everyone else one way or another.
Since not all of you may have Power Point, I also knocked it out as a QuickTime movie:
- Power.org_Business_Partners.ppt.zip (1.1M PPT)
- Power.org_Business_Partners.mov.zip (1.7M QuickTime)
Posted by drunkenbatmanFebruary 06, 2005, at 08:37 PM
Comments (6)
Posted by: ping at February 6, 2005 08:53 PM
Interesting data on the embedded market... but... uh... was this released to the public?
Posted by: Skatch at February 7, 2005 01:22 AM
Heh, looks like it is now...
Posted by: Ankalon at February 7, 2005 07:56 AM
How do you people--there are others with your luck--find this stuff? The most I could ever find on a napkin would be a stain, maybe a booger if I would be lucky that day.
Posted by: coman at February 7, 2005 01:37 PM
Really interesting stuff, but I think much of is lost on me. Licensing the Power ISA could be very good for IBM and help innovate in ways they don't want to. And it has other companies using their own fabrication plants to make PowerPC's which can only be good for furthering the Power ISA.
I still wonder if this "one foot in" licensing of the Power ISA could not come back to bite them though. It reminds me of how Apple tried to only put one foot in when it licensed their hardware and it did not go so well.
Posted by: Mike Wheaton at February 7, 2005 02:00 PM
What I find interesting is that Motorola is not listed as part of this. I would suppose they could benefit from the ISA changes that are created? Or are they locked out?
How do you store a PowerPoint file on a cocktail napkin?
That's a nice, cheap storage medium!