IBM and Freescale, Together Again

Online staff -- Electronic News, 2/6/2006

Motorola spin-off Freescale Semiconductor has joined Power.org as a founding member.

Freescale and IBM announced the membership in the organization focused on development around the IBM’s Power processor and collaboration between the companies at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. 

The two companies plan several key collaborative efforts, including creating a common instruction set architecture, developing innovations to extend the Power processors to a broader set of customer applications, enabling Linux on the architecture, and expanding the ecosystem through marketing programs.

"With IBM and Freescale joining together again, this time with other stakeholders, Power Architecture technology maintains the advantage of having multiple chip suppliers,” said Joseph Byrne, senior analyst with the Linley Group, in a statement.  “It also gains the benefit of managed evolution."

The collaboration is designed to extend Power Architecture technology deeper into next-generation products in end applications including consumer electronics, industrial, automotive, enterprise systems, telecommunications and supercomputers, the companies said in a statement.

"Power Architecture technology is at the forefront of the world's leading computing devices from Blue Gene, the world's most powerful supercomputer, to enterprise systems, automobiles and all of the leading video game platforms," said John Kelly III, senior VP of technology and intellectual property at IBM, in a statement.. "Power Architecture not only is extremely scalable and versatile -- it is extremely open. We look forward to collaboratively innovating with Freescale to extend Power Architecture technology's capabilities."

The Power.org organization comprises microprocessor manufacturers, application software developers, Linux operating system distributors, and design and development tools providers.

"Freescale and IBM are committed to the continued success of Power Architecture technology and to the expanding ecosystem of open tools, solutions and platforms within the Power.org community," said Michel Mayer, chairman and CEO of Freescale, in a statement. "As allied leaders and founding members of Power.org, we have the technical and financial resources to drive the proliferation of Power Architecture microprocessor-based platforms throughout the consumer-driven, networked world."