BEIJING: International Business Machines Corp, (IBM) has begun offering its technology for other companies for use in their own chips and computers in 2013. Now some tech firms in China are taking Big Blue up on it.
China’s Suzhou PowerCore Technology Co. said it would offer its own variant of the IBM Power8 microprocessor, the first chip to emerge from the program, which is known as OpenPower. The CP1, as the Chinese chip is called, is expected to be used initially by another Chinese company called Zoom Netcom in a new line of servers called RedPower.
An array of hardware based on Power8 technology was on display at an event in Silicon Valley this week, including prototype circuit boards by Google Inc. and Rackspace Hosting Inc. and servers by China’s Inspur Group Co. The terms of IBM’s OpenPower licensing haven’t been disclosed.
For IBM’s partners, a key motivator is the desire to foster competition amid Intel Corp.’s near-total lock on the market for microprocessor chips used in servers, particularly the varieties used by big Web companies and other cloud-style facilities.
In China, government officials have nurtured local chip makers for reasons that include fears that foreign intelligence agencies could find ways to exploit non-Chinese components. Taking part in IBM’s OpenPower program doesn’t address such concerns, but IBM is encouraging licensees in China and elsewhere to add custom features that they control.
“What we do is we develop based on key industries’ needs,” said Adam Zhu, Suzhou PowerCore’s chairman, in an interview on the eve of an OpenPower event in San Jose, Calif.
Mr. Zhu said his company is in discussions with a range of potential customers in China about using the Power8 technology, including communications carriers and power companies. He expects the chip to be ready in June.
Ken King, IBM’s general manager for OpenPower alliances, said Chinese officials endorsed the program last fall, helping to spur demand in the country. “It’s a local China pull versus an IBM push,” he said.
IBM, which has been reducing its reliance on revenue from selling hardware, uses its Power microprocessor line, of which Power8 is the latest, in one of two remaining computer lines. The Power8 is known for extremely high performance.
But the IBM server business that uses the chip line has been shrinking, as the x86 technology used by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has become ubiquitous. So Big Blue opted to change its tactics to reach cloud-based services, which have been the most active server buyers lately.
