
The State of Owner-Controlled Computing as Talos Winds Down - xoa
https://www.crowdsupply.com/raptor-computing-systems/talos-secure-workstation/updates/the-state-of-owner-controlled-computing-as-talos-winds-down
======
xoa
This was previously on HN but only got a few comments, and in light of today's
confirmation that AMD has no near future plans to open up its PSP it seemed
worth a repost. With AMD's announcement post-2006(Intel)/2013(AMD) x86 will
remain with a fully manufacturer-controlled access module for the foreseeable
future, ARM is a mess, so OpenPOWER remains worth at least keeping in mind as
a hedge. Raptor is apparently trying again with a "Talos II" system [0] based
on the upcoming general release of POWER9, though details remain unclear as it
won't even be open to pre-order until next month, if they hit their target.

It's doubtful, even with the technical community controversy around the ME
earlier this year, that there will be much general willingness to pay a
significant premium for owner control unless something extremely malicious,
widespread, and _directly end user noticeable_ (as something other then some
slowdown) takes advantage of a hole or capability related to it. But I don't
think it's unreasonable to keep it in the back of our minds, or for big enough
open source projects to at least attempt to keep some flexibility with regards
to not letting themselves fall too deeply into x86-only design. Also, though
it's not free multi-architecture work can healthy for project self-discipline
and useful in finding bugs regardless of whether it's ultimately deployed
beyond the primary target.

\----

0:
[http://raptorcs.com/TALOSII/prerelease.php?target=2](http://raptorcs.com/TALOSII/prerelease.php?target=2)

------
Quequau
I find this kinda confusing, seeing how there's a link [0] to the "Talos II"
Power 9 workstation 'pre-announcement' page (or whatever polite folks are
calling vapourware these days) here today as well.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14803535](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14803535)

~~~
xoa
Talos II is a followup to to their attempted crowd funding attempt of a POWER8
based "Talos Secure Workstation" last year, which did not meet its funding
goal and failed. This article is a sort of post-mortem by them on why they
thought it mattered and was still worth pursuing, and after the last 6 month's
developments in x86 it seems worth a revisit (and perhaps some of the works
exploring a tightening grip on general purpose computing by Cory Doctorow and
such). They made some basic blunders in the launch of their crowd funding
campaign, such as only offering a maxed out super expensive workstation at the
start and adding still expensive, but much more sane options later. It's hard
to say whether that would have actually made any significant difference given
how far they were from their minimum target, but that sort of thing does sap
momentum. Perhaps they've found a better angle with lessons learned (or the
economics have improved since last year).

They claim Talos II will be open for pre-orders next month, so whether it ends
up being vaporware may become at least somewhat clearer at that point (an
actual preorder certainly isn't shipping, but it's more serious then a mere
announcement or "coming someday" product page too). It's not as if POWER9 is
generally available yet anyway.

