Binary Blobs Continue To Prove Challenging For POWER10 Plus Very Expensive Motherboards

While POWER CPUs have generally been well received by the free software community for being open-source friendly especially with the OpenPOWER Foundation, IBM's latest-generation POWER10 processors are continuing to be an upset.

In particular, not all of the POWER10 firmware is open-source and there are no indications of that changing in the near-term. There are firmware blobs still necessary for POWER10 when it comes to the DDR memory support and PCI Express, which obviously are crucial with today's systems.

Raptor Blackbird with POWER9.

Raptor Computing Systems that has been at the forefront of offering 100% free software POWER-based systems down to the motherboard designs and system firmware is understandably upset by the situation with POWER10. While they offer excellent Talos II and Blackbird offerings right now for fully free software POWER9 systems, those processors are showing their age and obviously would be great to see POWER10-based libre systems.

Raptor put out a community poll in relation to firmware requirements and POWER10 interest.

Since this has come up a couple times, we'd like to ask if our hard-line open firmware stance is what you all would like to see, or if the P10 concerns are relegated to specific users. Let us know below!

— Raptor Computing Sys (@RaptorCompSys) December 14, 2021

Making matters worse beyond the proprietary firmware components is the expectation that a POWER10 motherboard from Raptor could cost in excess of $3,500 USD. The motherboard would be very pricey due to POWER10 complexities. That $3,500 USD cost would not include the CPU itself or a custom heatsink. Even with an EATX form factor, Raptor Computing Systems says it would be a "packed" motherboard for a single socket design.

Due to twitter length limits, the blobs referenced are the P10 DDR and PCIe blobs, both required to use the system. Mainboard cost alone would be $3.5k, then add the CPU cost and custom heatsink, all for a very packed EATX single socket system (P10 is a *huge* piece of silicon).

— Raptor Computing Sys (@RaptorCompSys) December 14, 2021

So at least in the near-term, things aren't looking good around having a fully free software POWER10-based system. Those concerned with fully free systems down to the firmware can check out Raptor's current wares on RaptorCS.com.