Oct. 19, 2022 — The Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP), the nonprofit organization bringing hyperscale innovations to all, has announced an expanded collaboration with the Linux Foundation (LF), leveraging hardware-software co-design strategy by establishing a framework for creation of joint-effort shared communities and coordinated deliverables. Adding to the collaboration announced in April 2022 for data center switching efforts on Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) at OCP and SONiC at LF, the OCP and LF have established a new effort supported by Microsoft and Google called Caliptra, standardizing implementation of silicon embedded hardware root of trust security.

“An important part of the OCP mission, on top of serving our hyperscale operator community, is to make it easy for everyone to consume hyperscale innovations, which end up embedded in OCP recognized products. Understanding that deployable solutions need hardware and software that is integrated into a complete and validated solution, we are pleased to be able to bring together the strengths of the Linux Foundation for collaborative open source software development and the OCP for hardware specifications, and ability to develop supply chains for emerging markets. As part of the expanded collaboration with LF, we are pleased to have new security contributions from Google and Microsoft,” said George Tchaparian, CEO Open Compute Project Foundation.

There are many opportunities to create additional joint-efforts centered on hardware-software co-design and discussions between OCP and LF leadership continue with areas identified for further exploration include: development of integrated solutions using OCP recognized Open Edge Servers and LF Edge, developing standardized APIs for dynamically sharing data center facility and IT hardware ecological footprint information allowing greener software, additional edge computing use cases, and support for OCP standardized modules, such as open accelerator and security control, in LF software.

“The Linux Foundation is happy to collaborate with the OCP to create communities that participate on both LF and OCP projects with a common goal and harmonized process to deliver market ready solutions combining open hardware and software,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge, and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “We also look forward to partnering with the OCP on go-to-market initiatives developing emerging market supply chains in support of our vendor and system integrator members.”

“Independent hardware and software initiatives by different communities and consortia often require significant integration efforts by the industry. Vendors need to convert and integrate the initiative into solutions with the market need in mind. The net effect is that many innovations never see the light of the day or serve the needs of the broader market. The expanded collaboration between the Open Compute Project and Linux Foundation has the strong potential to accelerate the absorption of open innovations into meaningful products and services,” said Ashish Nadkarni, Group Vice President and General Manager, Worldwide Infrastructure at IDC.

About the Open Compute Project Foundation

At the core of the Open Compute Project (OCP) is its community of hyperscale data center operators, joined by telecom and colocation providers and enterprise IT users, working with vendors to develop open innovations that when embedded in product are deployed from the cloud to the edge. The OCP Foundation is responsible for fostering and serving the OCP community to meet the market and shape the future, taking hyperscale led innovations to everyone. Meeting the market is accomplished through open designs and best practices, and with data center facility and IT equipment embedding OCP community developed innovations for efficiency, at-scale operations, and sustainability. Shaping the future includes investing in strategic initiatives that prepare the IT ecosystem for major changes, such as AI & ML, optics, advanced cooling techniques, and composable silicon.

---

Source: OCP