Design & Reuse

IBM's Last Stand in CPUs?

Rick Merritt, EETimes
8/28/2013 12:33 PM EDT

The Open Power Consortium could become IBM's last stand in microprocessors with huge implications for the future of Big Blue.

Years ago, IBM took a shot at the mainstream PC market when it forged its PowerPC alliance with Motorola. Intel won, and the partners retrenched into the embedded market with the Power.org consortium. These days, their embedded partners -- LSI, Freescale, and others -- are all shifting to ARM cores.

After a last foray trying to gain traction in China, Power.org appears to be quietly withering away.