Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: "Taiidan@×××.com" <Taiidan@×××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-user] RaptorCS Blackbird - Owner controlled, open source firmware system on the POWER ppc64/ppc64le arch - a less expensive mATX TALOS 2
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2018 22:21:08
Message-Id: b0b4f10a-8383-99d7-d916-53df65990874@gmx.com
1 This is a much less expensive mATX variant of the TALOS 2 from the same
2 people.
3
4 It runs both little and big endian so both ppc64 and ppc64le.
5
6 https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Blackbird-POWER9-Pre-Orders
7 https://raptorcs.com/content/BK1B01/intro.html
8
9 The only binary blob is the NIC firmware[1], otherwise it is fully open
10 source and has no hardware code signing enforcement so it is entirely
11 yours unlike modern x86 stuff which can't ever be free[2] and has the
12 impossible to disable ME/PSP doing god knows what.
13
14 OpenPOWER9 CPU's are Made in USA and the board is Made in the USA from
15 US and foreign components so it is much more trustworthy.
16
17 In terms of speed POWER9 is superior to the offerings from intel/amd or
18 equivilant without x86's spectre/meltdown protections enabled which
19 intel usually dishonestly performs in their benchmarks.
20
21 [1]It was the best alternative to using an intel nic as there is a large
22 amount of documentation available, people are working on freeing it and
23 the first one to do so gets a free TALOS 2 workstation.
24
25 [2]New x86 hardware has none of the documentation published that is
26 required to write firmware and it has a variety of black boxes like
27 ME/PSP, boot guard etc designed to prevent you from owning and
28 controlling your hardware.