Basic Blackbird Bundle with 4-core IBM Power9 CPU

There's two, main attractions for Raptor:

1. All Intel and AMD CPU's are backdoored with management processors running black box software that's already had vulnerabilities. They refuse to remove the backdoors for consumer segment for probably shady reasons. These POWER CPU's have open-source firmware, OpenBMC, which is a little better on trust side. Personally, I think they're still backdoored somehow since IBM is one of NSA's longest-running partners. Still a risk reduction if we go from anyone might hit this closed software to open software anyone can analyze and improve.

https://hackaday.com/2017/12/11/what-you-need-to-know-about-...

2. People that want POWER ISA or just a RISC ISA at x86's performance. The x86 ISA is pretty horrible to some of us. It also locks you into specific patterns of execution, like its stack architecture, that can make it harder to efficiently implement alternative schemes. POWER could be more flexible for alternative designs.

2.1. PowerPC, like sold by NXP/Freescale, is still used in a lot of safety-critical fields along with sections of the embedded sector. While invisible to desktop programmers, it kept getting better and better for niches like with QorIQ CPU's for telecoms. I speculated developing on a POWER architecture for POWER-like targets might be easier somehow (idk though).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QorIQ

2.2. The separation kernels like INTEGRITY-178B were all originally designed for PowerPC boards like Curtis-Wright makes for aerospace and military. They might be easier to port in evaluated configuration to a Raptor than to x86. There are also a lot of hardware/software architectures for improving security that work better when you know what the hardware is doing in the first place and/or can modify the firmware. OpenPOWER has more potential for these designs with the main drawback being CompSci folks usually not able to afford expensive, new computers. Somebody might port an existing idea, though, that they were doing on MIPS, Leon3, ARM, etc.

2.3. The Amiga people also use PowerPC-based machines. They're willing to pay a premium to maintain their nostalgia. Wouldn't surprise me if someone ports MorphOS or something like that to these machines.

So, there's a few ideas.

It support 2 x 128GB DIMMs, though :)

> Mind, I'm probably waiting for whichever gets <$500 first

This is pretty much my threshold as well, but when I actually think about these numbers and put them in perspective with regards to how much I used to spend on 486/pentium desktop computers when they were modern, and adjust those numbers for inflation, it's downright absurd that I'm not willing to spend what raptorcs is asking for a modern, open platform, in 2018 dollars.

I guess situation where you are privacy-conscious enough to inspect all the source code up to and including the CPU microcode? There was post in this thread about FreeBSD being available. If there is a Linux kernel for it, then a distribution might be not too far off e.g. Gentoo (I’m not aware of any POWER9 Linux distribution as off yet).

For one, all x86 malware fails instantly. That's why some people I knew who wouldn't be targeted more specifically were still on PowerPC Macs. Their software was fine for their use case. I have one for experiments from 2003 that ran YouTube fine with a bit of lag a year or two ago. Although I used default, there's even still a browser for it:

https://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

People who use a lot of terminal apps that don't need a full-on browser or non-portable apps can use it to its fullest. Most importantly besides owner-controlled, the fact that you're getting to use, show off, and develop on a unique system nobody else in your area probably has. Let's not forget the novelty and awing people aspect of tech that might sell some of these.

For me, it's a combination of familiarity with Power ISA since the RS/6000 days, a chance to have as trustworthy and auditable machine as possible (no ME/PSP bullcrap), and a desire to support other architectures than the usual ARM or x86 duopoly. Fortunately, you don't have to make very many compromises. Most stuff just works and I'm delighted with the performance of my Talos. Most of all, I'm very confident it's not doing anything or exposing something that would make me vulnerable or insecure because I can audit it myself and the full documentation is included.

If people want choice in computing, we need to step up and support these alternatives or we'll reap exactly what we've sown.