Open19 Launches Open Hardware Project Targeting Edge Computing

miller60 writes: The Open19 Foundation launched today, positioning its open hardware designs as a platform for edge computing, and an alternative to the Open Compute Project and hyperscale designs. The Open19 designs were created by the data center team at LinkedIn, citing its focus on a 19-inch rack and licensing terms that it said allow participants better control over their intellectual property. Open Compute develops the 21-inch Open Rack but is also supporting several designs for 19-inch racks, including the Project Olympus concept contributed by Microsoft, LinkedIn's parent company. According to Fortune, the Open19 Foundation is a new group established by LinkedIn, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and General Electric. Its purpose is to make it easier for businesses to buy data center hardware and to encourage companies to build data center hardware more uniformly so that it fits in standardized data racks. The racks themselves are used by businesses to house their computing gear, such as servers and routers. The 19-inch rack is the most commonly used.

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[ArmoredDragon]

I don't see the difference. Metric is still based on artifacts that vary in measurement, just like the imperial system the US mostly uses.

You might have a point if you refer to a measurement system that is based on Plank units.

Edge Computing

[ShanghaiBill]

If, like me, you have never heard the term "Edge Computing" before, here is a link [wikipedia.org]. After reading that page, I am still not quite sure what it is, but I know that next time I want a project funded, instead of saying "We will run it in the Cloud", I will say "We will run it on the Edge".

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[DontBeAMoran]

Then people will ask you why your project doesn't run on Chrome, Safari and Firefox.

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[Dutch Gun]

From what I can tell, edge computing is basically peer-to-peer networking, except with far more buzzwords and hand waving.

Critical Mass?

[LesserWeevil]

If this gets going (note the HPE contingent..) I'll be shocked. There's an entire cottage industry supplying the HPC world with small-run servers and boutique solutions. Looks like just another HPE marketing glossy at this point.

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[Dogers]

There are a number of big name companies listed (HPE, Super Micro, ASRock) so it might get off the ground. Whether it actually amounts to anything interoperable though..

Facebook

[speedplane]

Didn't facebook recently open up much of its hardware architectures and data center designs? This seems like a knee jerk response so LinkedIn can get their own hardware standardized.

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[Dogers]

Problem with the Facebook stuff is it uses custom sized racks. This stuff appears to be all standard rack sizes..

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[tepples]

"19-inch rack" on Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] claims that the standard rack unit is 483x44.5 mm (19.0 by 1.75 inches), with up to 438 mm (17.25 inches) between the rails. Where do you get the 500 mm (19.7 inch) figure?