Will IBM 'Power' Spark Chinese Open-Source Innovation?

WASHINGTON — Fifteen companies, including chip designers and manufacturers, unveiled an open standards initiative in Beijing on Thursday (Dec. 2) centering on IBM Corp.'s Power microprocessor architecture.

The partners predicted the effort called Power.org would spark innovation in the design of consumer electronics, networking, automotive and IT. They plan to pool resources to create new devices and components based on Power chips.

Along with IBM, companies backing the initiative include Cadence Design Systems, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Novell, Sony Corp., Chinese chip maker Shanghai Belling and Synopsys Inc. More companies were expected to join the development group in the next few weeks.

Backers of the initiative also said China could benefit the most from open hardware and software standards. Chinese companies have chafed under the weight of royalty payments to license de facto standard products like Windows.

"Chinese firms can feel free to embrace and contribute to open technologies while maintaining their own freedom of action and unique differentiation," Roger Li, president of Infotech Ventures, said in a statement announcing the initiative. Infotech is the designated fund manager for the State Electronic & Information Industry Development Fund overseen by the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry.

Separately, IBM announced several other initiatives designed to boost its Power technology in China, including:

Adding 150 engineers working on Power architecture applications at its design center in Shanghai. A deal with Shanghai Belling to license Power technology to help Belling design advanced chips. The launch of a remote access "Linux on Power" initiative. IBM also unveiled details of a "wet" immersion lithography process for manufacturing Power chips along with a plan to add low-power "synthesizable" processor cores.