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0 pointssteve19772y ago0 comments

What makes you think so? According to their website, the compute bit is based on AMD EPYC 7713P CPUs.

I can buy these at my local electroncis retailer. So pretty much commodity x86.

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9 comments · 3 top-level

dist1ll2y ago· 2 in thread

The difference is that when you're buying a x86 system, the entire CPU bringup (incl. AMEGAS/openSIL on AMD) runs proprietary and poorly documented firmware. You're entirely at the mercy of the vendor.

Oxide has put immense effort into writing open-source platform initialization code, and built their own open-source BMC/RoT solution.

steve1977OP2y ago

So effectively I’m at the mercy of Oxide, at least as long as their system does not become some kind of standard.

Not in theory maybe, but in practice. Because as a customer, I would probably also need to put in immense effort to understand and maintain that software myself.

EvanAnderson2y ago

Their firmware is open source. You can pay whoever you want to maintain it. You can't do that with Dell, HP, Supermicro, and the unknowable rabbit hole of ODMs and sub-suppliers and contractors who actually make the hardware and firmware for these companies.

Until you've dealt with a malfunctioning Dell or HP server and have to live with being told "we don't know why it acts that way, we'll try to get the ODM to repro" I don't think you can appreciate how cool Oxide's offering seems.

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speed_spread2y ago· 2 in thread

The CPUs are x64 but the architecture is not that of a PC, there is no BIOS, etc. You couldn't boot Windows or Linux on the bare metal. The hardware, firmware and hypervisor are custom built for control, safety and observability. On top of that, the application OS all run on VMs which _do_ have a (virtual) PC architecture.

mwcampbell2y ago

To me as a casual outside observer, the fact that they're using hardware virtualization at the top of the stack, after bcantrill gave so many talks about running containers on bare metal, is the most disappointing part. They could have had unbroken control and observability from the bottom of the stack all the way to the top. They got so close!

speed_spread2y ago

It's possible that the hypervisor can reserve you a full CPU or full cores for the guest OS to work with, so you still get most of that bare metal goodness.

nickik2y ago· 2 in thread

The CPU is commodity, nothing else is. Costume Mainboard and firmware without BIOS and their own BMCish thing and their own Root of Trust. Same for their router. Standard chip, everything else is costume.

steve1977OP2y ago

So similar to a IBM mainframe then?

nickik2y ago

Similar in some ways different in others. But in terms of not being a PC architecture. Yes it is. But in many other ways its not at all like a Mainframe.

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9 comments · 3 top-level

dist1ll2y ago· 2 in thread

Oxide has put immense effort into writing open-source platform initialization code, and built their own open-source BMC/RoT solution.

steve1977OP2y ago

So effectively I’m at the mercy of Oxide, at least as long as their system does not become some kind of standard.

Not in theory maybe, but in practice. Because as a customer, I would probably also need to put in immense effort to understand and maintain that software myself.

EvanAnderson2y ago

1 more reply

speed_spread2y ago· 2 in thread

mwcampbell2y ago

speed_spread2y ago

It's possible that the hypervisor can reserve you a full CPU or full cores for the guest OS to work with, so you still get most of that bare metal goodness.

nickik2y ago· 2 in thread

steve1977OP2y ago

So similar to a IBM mainframe then?

nickik2y ago

Similar in some ways different in others. But in terms of not being a PC architecture. Yes it is. But in many other ways its not at all like a Mainframe.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse