IBM's move to open source key tech in its Power processor could benefit IoT device makers, Apple, and Microsoft, while Intel, Qualcomm, ARM, and AMD could lose
It's a heck of an announcement by Big Blue, and this is a heck of a list. — At the Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit in San Diego … Tweets: @jperlow Tweets: Jason Perlow / @jperlow : I think this tech is being overlooked by a lot of industry media but this is being examined very closely by the technology giants to move into the next phase of processor architecture for many solutions including 5G, networking, cloud computing and mobile. https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
At the Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit in San Diego, IBM said it would open source key technology inside its Power processor — a shift Jason Perlow flagged as being examined closely by the giants for 5G, networking, cloud, and mobile silicon. The move extends an arc the related coverage has tracked for years: [[a:832456|IBM and ARM's 2015 partnership to pull analytics data out of industrial, health, car, and wearable IoT devices]] showed Big Blue courting the embedded edge, and its 2016 cloud push brought Apple, VMware, GitHub, and Siemens into its orbit.
What makes this announcement consequential is who it arms and who it squeezes: IoT device makers, Apple, and Microsoft stand to gain a no-license-fee architecture option, while Intel, Qualcomm, ARM, and AMD see a fourth major instruction set competing for sockets.
First-order effects
- IoT device makers get an open, royalty-free path to Power-based silicon, loosening the dependence on ARM cores and Qualcomm parts that dominate embedded designs today.
- Intel, Qualcomm, ARM, and AMD now face a credible free alternative at exactly the moment their licensed and proprietary models are being challenged elsewhere.
Second-order effects
- ARM's per-device licensing economics come under direct pressure — if Power is free where ARM charges royalties, every high-volume IoT design becomes a negotiation ARM has to win on merit rather than inertia.
- Microsoft and Apple can hedge their server and mobile silicon bets across one more architecture, and standards bodies like the Open Connectivity Foundation — formed by Microsoft, Qualcomm, Intel, Cisco, and Samsung — have an open ISA they could fold into future IoT profiles.
Third-order effects
- If open Power gains traction alongside RISC-V, the industry moves toward community-governed instruction sets as the default, forcing the x86 camp's defensive consolidation — the kind later formalized when Intel and AMD forged an x86 ecosystem advisory group to present a unified front against Arm and RISC-V.
- Processor value migrates from owning IP to owning implementation excellence — a logic that eventually pushed even Intel into partnering with IBM on new transistor architectures to outpace Moore's Law, as Gelsinger and Lavender discussed in their later interview on the IBM partnership.
The trend: Processor architecture is shifting from proprietary, licensed IP toward openly shared instruction sets, with IBM's Power gambit an early move in the same current that produced RISC-V and the x86 camp's defensive alliance.