The Talos Secure Workstation Is A High-Performance Libre System

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The Talos Secure Workstation Is A High-Performance Libre System

Raptor Engineering is working on the Talos Secure Workstation, which is being advertised as a high-performance, open-to-the-firmware system that is much better than the commonly antiquated "freed" x86 systems. However, getting a high-performance, free software friendly workstation doesn't come cheap...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Talos-Secure-Workstation

[bitman]

Great choice that POWER8 arch. By the way real people use x86-64 so when this fails they can reconsider cpu choice. Also im pretty sure those 3 people who actually care to buy the product will be pretty happy too.

[pal666]

By the way real people use x86-64

real windows and other proprietary shit users

[thunderbird32]

Great choice that POWER8 arch. By the way real people use x86-64 so when this fails they can reconsider cpu choice. Also im pretty sure those 3 people who actually care to buy the product will be pretty happy too.

Well, if they want a FULLY open system I believe that their only options are POWER or SPARC, and I don't believe there are any SPARC CPUs that are appropriate for workstation use (from a heat/price/power consumption point of view).

[cb88]

Well, if they want a FULLY open system I believe that their only options are POWER or SPARC, and I don't believe there are any SPARC CPUs that are appropriate for workstation use (from a heat/price/power consumption point of view).

Sparc isn't really an option without some more enginnering as well... the only open source 64bit Sparc design is the slow Niagra T1/T2 core which isn't even superscalar... its just a basic RISC core. They'd be great companion cores in a BIG.little sparc workstation though...

[Michael_S]

I like the idea, but I have no plans to replace any of my PCs in the near future and even if I did $3,100 is too much.

[FLHerne]

That's pretty nice - I loved my old PPC G4 and G5, and the increasingly locked-down nature of Intel and AMD hardware is worrying.

Shame about the price though - I'm sure it's the best they could do, given the niche nature of the product, but that doesn't make it any more affordable.

[Zan Lynx]

Great choice that POWER8 arch. By the way real people use x86-64 so when this fails they can reconsider cpu choice. Also im pretty sure those 3 people who actually care to buy the product will be pretty happy too.

There aren't any modern x86-64 designs that are safe to use anymore. In the name of "security" both Intel and AMD CPUs include little sub-processors that run their own secret programs.

[Kemosabe]

Great choice that POWER8 arch. By the way real people use x86-64 so when this fails they can reconsider cpu choice. Also im pretty sure those 3 people who actually care to buy the product will be pretty happy too.

Yeah arm looked hip&trendy a while ago but getting things working properly is a real pain and sometimes not possible within the lifetime of the product. Let's not talk about replacing hardware... Never again.
How is it with power8?

[rstat1]

I'm gonna go ahead and call BS on the secure part. Unless they provide a way to verify the code running on the board is the same code available for download, it's no more secure than it's cheaper (and far more capable) x86-based counterparts.