While POWER9 was big for open-source fans with the formation of the OpenPOWER Foundation and Raptor Computing Systems designing POWER9-based systems that are fully open-source down to schematics and the motherboard firmware, the same can't be currently said about POWER10 .
Raptor Computing Systems previously hinted that it might not be all rosy for POWER10 when it comes to open-source and at least for the initial rollout, it does appear to be that way.
While we applaud the overall extent of source code available for the #POWER10 firmware stack, two key P10-specific firmware components remain closed source at this time. The first is the off-chip OMI DRAM bridge, and the second is the on-chip PPE I/O processor (links below).
— Raptor Computing Sys (@RaptorCompSys) September 8, 2021
While IBM has published a lot of the POWER10 firmware as open-source, remaining closed for at least the time being is their off-chip OMI DRAM bridge and their on-chip PPE I/O processor.
Due to being blocked by not having open-source firmware in those areas, Raptor isn't currently working on any POWER10-based designs but hopes that with time IBM will open-source the remaining components.
The OMI bridge firmware is binary only and the PPE I/O processor is also distributed as just compiled firmware .
At least the POWER10 firmware stack is more open than some other platforms, but hopefully they will be able to make it fully open-source in the not too distant future so Raptor Computing Systems and others can deliver fully open-source next-generation, high performance servers.