Power PC is pretty much dead - also screw the employees

[Greenman]

What the hell does "services" mean? I don't understand how the world works.

Services means you don't produce anything.

 

[Ketchup]

Oh, please enlighten me! How DOES this whole thing work??

I don't mean to jump too much off topic here, but we are talking about IBM.

Speaking from a retail software standpoint (since we were talking about Wal-Mart), if a store has a problem with their IBM register, it has to go through about 3 or 4 levels before it is considered an IBM problem. Once IBM has the issue, they deliver a fix, a company will integrate the fix into the customer's software (since every customer has IBM software tweaked by other companies to fit their needs) and delivered to the company with the issue, possibly through yet another middleman.

For hardware, the problem would be handled by IBM for a standard warranty period, and farmed out after that.

My point being that IBM plays a relatively small, but crucial, role in handling hardware that is out of the factory, and software that has already been developed. And since Toshiba has bought that business, I don't see any indications that it would change.

 

[bononos]

Services means you don't produce anything.

You mean anything hard with edges which has a weight.

 

[SunnyD]

PowerPC is still alive and well. It's extremely common in embedded, with designs from Freescale.

In fact, I just bought a dual 1.067 GHz PowerPC Synology NAS a couple of months ago.

Really. I thought Freescale did most of it's business with Intel for IXP stuff. Hmph. Live and learn.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I don't mean to jump too much off topic here, but we are talking about IBM.

Speaking from a retail software standpoint (since we were talking about Wal-Mart), if a store has a problem with their IBM register, it has to go through about 3 or 4 levels before it is considered an IBM problem. Once IBM has the issue, they deliver a fix, a company will integrate the fix into the customer's software (since every customer has IBM software tweaked by other companies to fit their needs) and delivered to the company with the issue, possibly through yet another middleman.

For hardware, the problem would be handled by IBM for a standard warranty period, and farmed out after that.

My point being that IBM plays a relatively small, but crucial, role in handling hardware that is out of the factory, and software that has already been developed. And since Toshiba has bought that business, I don't see any indications that it would change.

I agree with all of that, so we understand it the same. My point is that just because a customer bought registers doesn't mean IBM is involved at all. There are POS vendors that sell IBM hardware, and use other software. CRS comes to mind, if they're still around. Walmart is a special customer, very demanding. Being so large, they often demand solutions tailored to their specific needs.

I'm sure not all the areas are the same, in my area (western mass/ct), the registers were purchased roughly 10+ years ago based on the MTM of the registers, controllers, and thermal/impact printers at the cash wraps. Walmart, specifically, doesn't contract IBM to service their retail equipment due to cost. Other vendors do it cheaper.

We'll see how long Toshiba lasts. I'm not entirely sure they know what they're getting into.

Back to the original point. POWER systems are alive and well. So I'm curious as to what exactly is being affected.

 

[Ketchup]

We'll see how long Toshiba lasts. I'm not entirely sure they know what they're getting into.

Cool, I see what you are saying as well. Do you have any inside info on the quoted comment? I somewhat agree with this statement, but I would assume they just bought people and facilities that were already in place, so at the very least the short term should be fine.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Cool, I see what you are saying as well. Do you have any inside info on the quoted comment? I somewhat agree with this statement, but I would assume they just bought people and facilities that were already in place, so at the very least the short term should be fine.

none from me. I'm curious as to where this information is coming from, and who/what is affected.

 

[Jimzz]

I
Back to the original point. POWER systems are alive and well. So I'm curious as to what exactly is being affected.

The power core (cpu/SOC) is being killed. The people laid off yesterday were in design/support.

So they will still make the core just no new designs or support of it. So without support many will not buy. IBM was working on some arm designs but some of those people were also let go.

Power servers are still kicking, still money in them. But I have been told IBM is shopping them around. Lenovo is looking to buy but I am sure there are others as well.

 

[rh71]

LOL exactly.

"LOL Exactly" look at their annual revenue. Companies keep signing up for *something*.

 

[ultimatebob]

Link? I cant find anything on news...

IBM wised up awhile back, and started doing their layoffs in smaller batches so they wouldn't grab much media attention.

But, hey... you can always move to India or Brazil to get your old job back

 

[ultimatebob]

The power core (cpu/SOC) is being killed. The people laid off yesterday were in design/support.

So they will still make the core just no new designs or support of it. So without support many will not buy. IBM was working on some arm designs but some of those people were also let go.

Power servers are still kicking, still money in them. But I have been told IBM is shopping them around. Lenovo is looking to buy but I am sure there are others as well.

Yeah... but who's going to invest in newer POWER servers if nobody is working on improving the processors for them anymore?

If I was a big system P buyer and I heard this news, I'd be moving over to x86 as fast as I could.

 

[slag]

I hate that word so much. Sometimes I'll click on it just to see what a company is trying to sell and it almost never makes sense.

paraphrase:
We offer business integration solutions for the dynamic cloud environment of tomorrow - today. Synergize the accounting with the shipping department to reduce overhead by up to 20% through dynamic vertical integration using database management fetching and caching. Call for pricing

Alright so you didn't say what you are selling nor did you say what it will cost. What an awesome product that must be.

You forgot SOA and "cloud".

 

[slag]

What the hell does "services" mean? I don't understand how the world works.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a software design and software architecture design pattern based on structured collections of discrete software modules, known as services, that collectively provide the complete functionality of a large software application.[1] The purpose of SOA is to allow easy cooperation of a large number of computers that are connected over a network. Every computer can run an arbitrary number of programs - called services in this context - that are built in a way that they can exchange information with any other service within the reach of the network without human interaction and without the need to make changes to the underlying program itself.

Most business, financial institutions, insurance, and govt entities are transitioning to a SOA architecture as a sort of modular approach to providing solutions.

 

[BUTCH1]

Yeah, I thought that IBM made most of their money off of software and consulting services now. Or maybe Ginni Rometty just told us that because we all worked in the business consulting arm back then

There is good money is selling expensive and overly complex business software, and then selling business consulting services when the customer can't get it running right!

LOL, sounds like SAP in a nutshell

 

[Platypus]

OP is there any confirmation or news of this story? Seems like a pretty crazy thing to have not heard about yet.

 

[Jimzz]

OP is there any confirmation or news of this story? Seems like a pretty crazy thing to have not heard about yet.

Stories are starting to leak out but again its mostly based on employees, IBM will not say anything specific as they don't want to hurt their image or stock price.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...reach-at-least-1-300-employee-group-says.html

http://www.foxbusiness.com/technolo...retch-beyond-1600-people-employee-group-says/

http://www.ibtimes.com/ibm-layoffs-...obs-worldwide-part-restructuring-plan-1304949


The stories are mostly from the april release and the employees that have been cut so far mixed and pieced together. Expect more cuts in the future months as those left behind in some groups are just clean up. That and no 401k match for 2013 if IBM cuts someone before November.

 

[ultimatebob]

Stories are starting to leak out but again its mostly based on employees, IBM will not say anything specific as they don't want to hurt their image or stock price.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...reach-at-least-1-300-employee-group-says.html

http://www.foxbusiness.com/technolo...retch-beyond-1600-people-employee-group-says/

http://www.ibtimes.com/ibm-layoffs-...obs-worldwide-part-restructuring-plan-1304949


The stories are mostly from the april release and the employees that have been cut so far mixed and pieced together. Expect more cuts in the future months as those left behind in some groups are just clean up. That and no 401k match for 2013 if IBM cuts someone before November.

Oooh... you guys missed a quarterly estimate. Yeah, IBM almost always seems to do a layoff when that happens.

 

[Jimzz]

Oooh... you guys missed a quarterly estimate. Yeah, IBM almost always seems to do a layoff when that happens.

Well this has been planned for a while, the writing was on the wall in design group.

Some other areas may get cuts due to the mis but the powerPC core has been on a lifeline for a while now. Designs were killed, contracts cut, etc...

For those that were not cut this week they know its coming soon, before November.


EDIT:
Just heard Lenovo WILL be bidding on IBMs server group. Not sure if someone will push them out first but they are first in line from what has been talked about.

 

[Eug]

Really. I thought Freescale did most of it's business with Intel for IXP stuff. Hmph. Live and learn.

IBM and Motorola were original partners for PowerPC (along with Apple). Motorola did really well with low power PowerPC chips, in embedded.

Then the PowerPC chip division of Motorola got spun off as Freescale, and they've continued to make a lot of PowerPC chips. You find them in stuff like my NAS, printers, cars, networking, etc. I'm no chip guru, but it seems to me that for most instances where PowerPC is used, PowerPC actually competes more with ARM.

BTW, ironically, my NAS has almost twice the PowerPC GHz of my fastest iMac.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Well this has been planned for a while, the writing was on the wall in design group.

Some other areas may get cuts due to the mis but the powerPC core has been on a lifeline for a while now. Designs were killed, contracts cut, etc...

For those that were not cut this week they know its coming soon, before November.


EDIT:
Just heard Lenovo WILL be bidding on IBMs server group. Not sure if someone will push them out first but they are first in line from what has been talked about.

The question remains, which server group.

 

[ComputerWizKid]

PowerPC has long been dead
However people on Craigslist still think their PPC Mac is worth $450 FIRM (Picture a late 1990's CRT G3 iMac or even a CRT G4 eMac, however I don't see many G4 or G5 iMacs for sale though)

 

[Centauri]

How is that a relevant post to the subject at hand or POWER servers?

 

[ComputerWizKid]

How is that a relevant post to the subject at hand or POWER servers?

Oh sorry I though the thread was about the Power PC not Power servers
serves me right for not completely reading the thread D:

 

[Ichinisan]

Challenge: walk into any Wal-Mart and find a register that does not say IBM on it.

All the ones that say "NCR."

 

[Ketchup]

All the ones that say "NCR."

Really? I'm surprised. All the ones over here have IBM hardware, even the new stores. They USED to be IBM only, but like anything that can change. What part was it?