Talos Secure Workstation
Talos Secure Workstation

  
  

  
    
  
    
  

  

  
  

  







































    
  
      
  
    
    Raptor Computing Systems
    
        
      Security & Privacy
        
        
      Laptops & PCs
  

      
  
  
    The world's first ATX-compatible, workstation-class mainboard for the IBM POWER8 processor.


      
        
          
      
  
  
    
  


    
    
  
    
  



        
        
    
      $516,050 raised
    
    
      of $3,700,000 goal
    
    
    14% Funded

      Time Expired
    
    
  
      
    



  
  

      
    Recent Updates
    
        
          
    Sep 01, 2017

          Talos™ is Back: Talos™ II Now Available
        
        
          
    Jan 09, 2017

          The State of Owner-Controlled Computing as Talos™ Winds Down
        
        
          
    Dec 15, 2016

          Campaign Extension
        
        
          
    Dec 01, 2016

          Talos FPGA Functions and Responsibilities - Part 2
        
    
      


        

    




    
  
      Talos™ is a state-of-the-art mainboard designed for the new IBM POWER8 architecture. It is the first and only high performance computer with absolutely no proprietary software or firmware blobs. With its ATX form factor, Talos™ brings a level of performance to the workstation realm usually found in dedicated servers and a level of freedom and user control long extinct in modern hardware. In addition to its onboard, open-toolchain FPGAs, Talos™ easily and tightly interfaces with GPUs, FPGAs, and custom hardware.












    
  
        
    
  


        
      

OverviewPerformanceTalos™ competes with the highest-end mainstream (e.g., x86) computers available - Intel Xeon E5 and even E7 machines. Whether it’s AAA games, intensive CAD and modeling software, or machine learning algorithms for crunching huge datasets, Talos™ is well-equipped to handle the workload:

Up to 256 GB RAM
Up to 96 logical cores
Multiple PCIe, USB, and other interfaces
Onboard FPGAs

SecurityTalos’™ fully open firmware means there are absolutely no inscrutable binary blobs where bugs, backdoors, and vulnerabilities can hide. If you deal with sensitive information or you care about the safety of your intellectual property, Talos™ will dramatically reduce the risk of intrusion and theft with features like:

Trusted Platform Module (TPM) that verifies all firmware before boot
No Intel Management Engine or equivalent
Auditable schematics, firmware, and software
100% self-hosting, no need for external tools or compilers

ControlSay goodbye to the days of not being able to configure your system to your needs because of inaccessible firmware, schematics, or toolchains. With Talos™, you own the machine and can modify it to your heart’s content:

No signing keys preventing firmware modification
Openly licensed firmware and software (Apache 2.0, GPL 2.0, GPL 3.0)
Open toolchains for the onboard FPGAs allow for tuning of power sequencing, IRQ routing, and more

ExtensibilityYou can extend Talos’™ capabilities with hardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs and GPUs) and with custom peripherals, using a wide array of interfaces:

GPIO header
Seven PCIe slots
Eight USB 3.0 ports















    
  
    
  


  





High-level overview of Talos™ mainboard components



A. 1 x PCI slotG. 8 x DDR3 ECC DIMM slots

B. GPIO headerH. 6 x PCI Express slots

C. mPCIe slotI. AST2400 BMC with HDMI video

D. 8 x 6 Gbps internal SATAJ. Integrated I/O

E. 2-port USB 3.0 headerK. 1x socketed POWER8 SCM

F. 2 x internal USB 3.0



Features & Specifications
POWER8 Single-Chip Module (SCM) [sold separately]
QEMU-supported Hardware Virtual Machine (HVM)
Translation Control Entry (TCE), a variant of an IOMMU
Vector Multimedia eXtension (VMX)
Vector Scalar eXtension (VSX)
AES acceleration for VMX / VSX


Up to 256 GB Memory
8 DDR3 RDIMM slots with ECC support
2 memory controllers


Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
2 PCIe x16 slots (8 shared lanes)
each can become a Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (CAPI)


4 PCIe x8 slots
1 internal mPCIe 1x slot
1 legacy PCI slot


Serial ATA (SATA)
8 internal SATA 6 Gbps ports
2 external eSATA 6 Gbps ports


RS-232
2 external ports with DB-9 connectors
2 internal ports with 10-pin connectors and level shifters


Universal Serial Bus (USB)
4 external USB 3.0 Type A ports
2 internal USB 3.0 stacked Type A ports
2 internal USB 3.0 ports via a single header


PS/2 Keyboard and mouse (combined connector)
General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO)
1 40-pin dual inline header with 0.1" pitch
most pins connected directly to one of the onboard FPGAs


Onboard, open-toolchain FPGAs for controlling low-level operations
2 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports
Video
Integrated ASPEED AST2400 for HDMI output
Support for discrete GPUs


Standard ATX form factor
Heatsink
Includes a 92 mm fan
Dissipates 190 W continuously in a normal office environment


Operating System
Little Endian Mode
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 or higher
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 or higher
CentOS 7 or higher
Fedora 22 or higher
Debian 8.0 ("Jessie") or higher
Ubuntu 14.04.3 ("Trusty") or higher
Gentoo (planned, build in process)
Trisquel (planned for Trisquel 8)
others


Big Endian Mode
Fedora 22 or higher
others





The POWER ArchitectureTalos™ is designed around IBM’s POWER8 architecture and line of processors. IBM has published a significant amount of detailed POWER8 design and software documentation:

POWER Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) v2.07
POWER8 Processor User's Manual for the Single-Chip Module
IBM's OpenPOWER Connect portal (free account creation required)

OpenPOWER FoundationRaptor Engineering (a partner of Raptor Computing Systems) is a member of the OpenPOWER Foundation, an open technical membership organization dedicated to the POWER architecture.
A World Beyond x86The x86 architecture, while ubiquitous in personal computing, suffers from irreparable security and lockdown issues. For example, the Intel Management Engine (ME) is a problem that’s been brewing for about ten years, even though the popular technology press has only recently started reporting on it. The Intel ME is present on all modern Intel processors and is essentially a backdoor with full access to the entire computer - a security disaster waiting to happen. Due to the deeply entrenched interests of current players (e.g., Intel and AMD), and the presumed jungle of legally binding contracts those interests have with their myriad partners, this situation will never improve and will only worsen.
The video below goes into detail about why Talos is a great alternative to x86. (This presentation was first given at the Coreboot conference and developer meeting in San Francisco, June 2016.)



  
    
  

Comparisons & BenchmarksAnandTech recently did an extensive comparison of IBM’s POWER8 processor with Intel’s Xeon E5. This quote from the conclusion highlights the strength of the POWER8 processor:

The POWER8 microarchitecture is clearly built to run at least two threads. On average, two threads gives a massive 43% performance boost, with further peaks of up to 84%. This is in sharp contrast with Intel’s SMT, which delivers a 18% performance boost with peaks of up to 32%. Taken further, SMT-4 on the POWER8 chip outright doubles its performance compared to single threaded situations in many of the SPEC CPU subtests.
All in all, the maximum throughput of one POWER8 core is about 43% faster than a similar Broadwell-based Xeon E5 v4. Considering that using more cores hardly ever results in perfect scaling, a POWER8 CPU should be able to keep up with a Xeon with 40 to 60% more cores.

Benchmarks and graphs in the remainder of this section are provided as-is for general reference only, and are copyright Raptor Engineering 2016.
High-level Comparison of Machine ArchitecturesValues are approximate and for illustration purposes only.












    
  
    
  


  

The State of General Purpose ComputingWhere does Talos™ fit within the larger spectrum of general purpose computers?  Talos™ is the only powerful, auditable machine available in a standard ATX workstation / server form factor.  Nothing else comes close.
While certain ARM SoCs are relatively open and libre-friendly, their performance leaves much to be desired.  Most of these ARM SoCs cannot even compete against x86 hardware from the late 2000s on a raw performance or performance per watt basis.  However, they are inexpensive and in some cases suitable for light web browsing or other non-intensive tasks.
On the x86 end, all currently available hardware has been effectively "TiVoized" through vendor- and manufacturer-signed binaries, and can never be audited or modified by the machine owner. Multiple scandals have come to light over the past year involving the manufacturer abusing this position of power to install various forms of malware through a hostile firmware image. In many cases the only recourse was to stop using the computer entirely until the manufacturer released a new firmware version with the malware ostensibly removed. This tradeoff of inexpensive machines for loss of owner control over said machines is unacceptable for many users in the current age of diminishing privacy and increasingly damaging cyberattacks.
Even machines ostensibly built for security are impacted by this situation.  For example, the ORWL listed in the table below may have excellent hardware security features, but the software and firmware stack running on its x86 processor is completely unauditable, has full machine control even after operating system launch, and may not be trustworthy.  Why would a criminal even bother attacking such a machine physically when a remote wireless or Internet-based exploit would be not only more cost effective but virtually untraceable? Talos™ does not allow such malware or bugs to hide undetected in the most privileged and sensitive areas of your system, namely the firmware and kernel, nor does it ask you to give up modern, high-end general purpose compute performance in the name of security.
Openness & Performance Comparison



RCS Talos™ Tyan TN71-BP012ASUS KGPE-D16Lenovo T400SuperMicro X10SRL-FORWLEOMA68-A20ASUS C201



Form FactorATX Mainboard 2U ServerEATX MainboardLaptopATX MainboardProprietaryPCMCIALaptop

CPU Package Count1 1211111

ArchitecturePOWER8 POWER8x86_64x86_64x86_64x86_64ARMARM

Hardware Enforced Vendor Signatures on FirmwareNO NO NO NO YES YES NO NO 

Open Firmware AvailableYES PARTIAL YES YES NO PARTIAL[2] YES YES 

Hardware Schematics AvailableYES NO NO YES[3] NO YES YES NO 

Trusted Boot with TPM and Owner Provided CRTMWIP[0] NO[1] YES NO NO NO NO YES 

Hardware VirtualizationYES YES YES NO YES YES YES NO 

IOMMUYES YES YES WIP [4] YES YES NO YES 

PCIe Slots7 4 4 3 7 0 0 0 

GPIOYES NO NO NO NO NO YES NO 

Open FPGA/CPLD ToolchainYES NO N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 

Raw GP Compute PerformanceHIGH HIGH MODERATE MODERATE HIGH LOW VERY LOW LOW 

Fully Auditable FirmwareYES NO YES YES NO NO YES YES 




[0] Hardware capable, software still under development
[1] Lack of open firmware makes owner-controlled trusted boot unavailable
[2] Multiple closed binary files are required to boot. At least one of them (the ME) is signed by Intel and can never be replaced with a libre alternative.
[3] We are aware that at least some community members have access to the schematics. Provenance is unknown at this time.
[4] An attempt is currently being made to activate the IOMMU without blobs. It is still unknown if this is possible on this particular hardware.

High-end Mainboard Comparison



RCS Talos™ IBM S822LCTyan GN70-BP010Tyan TN71-BP012ASUS KGPE-D16SuperMicro X10SRL-F



Form FactorATX Mainboard 2U Server2U Server2U ServerEATX MainboardATX Mainboard

CPU Package Count1 21121

ArchitecturePOWER8 POWER8POWER8POWER8x86_64x86_64

Hardware Enforced Vendor Signatures on FirmwareNO NO NO NO NO YES 

Open Firmware AvailableYES YES YES PARTIAL YES NO 

Hardware Schematics AvailableYES[0] PARTIAL[1] NO NO NO NO 

Trusted Boot with TPM and Owner Provided CRTMWIP[2] WIP[2] WIP[2] NO[3] YES NO 

PCIe Slots7 5 2 4 4 7 

GPIOYES NO NO NO NO NO 

Open FPGA/CPLD ToolchainYES NO NO NO N/A N/A 

Raw GP Compute PerformanceHIGH VERY HIGH MODERATE HIGH MODERATE HIGH 

Fully Auditable FirmwareYES YES YES NO YES NO 




[0] Although an effort will be made to provide Talos™ schematics to purchasers of the Talos™ mainboard, several pages will be redacted on the public schematic due to mandatory NDAs with a few of our support silicon vendors. The affected areas are primarily related to the PCIe subsystem, do not directly involve the IBM components, and should not hinder third-party development or modification of Talos™ firmware, hardware, or peripherals in most cases. Furthermore, these components do not contain reprogrammable CPU(s), and are also fully isolated behind the IOMMU integrated into the POWER CPU.
[1] Available only to OpenPOWER Foundation members under a non-disclosure agreement
[2] Hardware capable, software still under development
[3] Lack of open firmware makes owner-controlled trusted boot unavailable

Single-Thread Memory Benchmark ComparisonsAll benchmarks were run on the actual hardware listed using Raptor Engineering’s modified version of the "bandwidth" utility. You can read a more detailed analysis of these benchmarks in our October 21, 2016 campaign update.
Hynix 16GB x4 ECC RDIMMs operating at DDR3 PC-12800 speeds were used to generate the following memory benchmarks.

POWER8 in Talos™ configuration @ 3.32 GHz











    
  
      
    
  
    
  POWER8 in Talos™ configuration @ 3.32 GHz
  


Intel® Xeon® E3-1270 "Sandy Bridge" @ 3.5 GHz











    
  
      
    
  
    
  Intel® Xeon® E3-1270 "Sandy Bridge" @ 3.5 GHz
  


AMD® Opteron™ 6328 @ 3.2 GHz











    
  
      
    
  
    
  AMD® Opteron™ 6328 @ 3.2 GHz
  


LZ4 Benchmarks (r131)All benchmarks were run on the actual hardware listed using stock LZ4 sources.
128M binary random file, compression mode



POWER8 / Talos™ @ 3.32 GHzIntel® Xeon® E3-1270 @ 3.5 GHz



LZ4 default134217728 ->134744128 (100.4%), 6227.7 MB/s 134217728 ->134744128 (100.4%), 4848.7 MB/s134217728 ->134744128 (100.4%), 1764.6 MB/s

LZ4 fast 17134217728 ->134744128 (100.4%), 6246.4 MB/s 134217728 ->134744128 (100.4%), 4856.4 MB/s134217728 ->134744128 (100.4%), 1803.0 MB/s

LZ4 HC134217728 ->134742945 (100.4%), 44.4 MB/s134217728 ->134742945 (100.4%), 49.1 MB/s 134217728 ->134742945 (100.4%), 20.3 MB/s



silesia/mozilla, compression mode



POWER8 / Talos™ @ 3.32 GHzIntel® Xeon® E3-1270 @ 3.5 GHz



LZ4 default51220480 -> 26441724 (51.62%), 430.3 MB/s51220480 -> 26441724 (51.62%), 473.7 MB/s 51220480 -> 26441724 (51.62%), 251.7 MB/s

LZ4 fast 1751220480 -> 34055649 (66.49%), 767.5 MB/s51220480 -> 34055649 (66.49%), 861.0 MB/s 51220480 -> 34055649 (66.49%), 501.2 MB/s

LZ4 HC51220480 -> 22113133 (43.17%), 35.0 MB/s51220480 -> 22113133 (43.17%), 42.5 MB/s 51220480 -> 22113133 (43.17%), 24.8 MB/s



MultichaseAll benchmarks were run on the actual hardware listed using stock multichase sources. Results are a measure of latency; lower is better.
WARNING: Validity of pingpong results is questionable at this time




POWER8 / Talos™ @ 3.32 GHzIntel® Xeon® E3-1270 @ 3.5 GHzAMD® Opteron™ 6328 @ 3.2 GHz



multichase46.258 59.34689.389

multichase -m 256k -s 128 -t 163.367 4.1437.406

multichase -m 1g -n 6047.773 58.91284.184

fairness (unrelaxed)avg 419.4 sdev 17.4avg 200.3 sdev 6.8 avg 817.3 sdev 273.3

avg 417.6 sdev 7.5avg 200.4 sdev 5.1 avg 895.3 sdev 558.4

avg 418.9 sdev 16.4avg 200.4 sdev 5.0 avg 939.5 sdev 522.3

avg 419.4 sdev 17.4avg 200.5 sdev 5.1 avg 903.4 sdev 442.5

avg 419.3 sdev 17.2avg 200.5 sdev 5.1 avg 947.4 sdev 576.6

fairness (relaxed)avg 406.2 sdev 16.5avg 206.8 sdev 59.4 avg 910.0 sdev 440.8

avg 406.2 sdev 16.2avg 206.8 sdev 59.4 avg 911.0 sdev 458.7

avg 406.4 sdev 16.6avg 206.7 sdev 59.3 avg 894.4 sdev 464.1

avg 406.3 sdev 16.6avg 206.8 sdev 59.4 avg 967.1 sdev 614.1

avg 406.2 sdev 16.3avg 206.8 sdev 59.4 avg 1495.6 sdev 2335.9

pingpong -u (best / worst)83.925.4 42.8

83.944.2 250.1



OpenSSLAll benchmarks run on actual hardware listed using stock openssl sources.




POWER8 / Talos™ @ 3.32 GHzIntel® Xeon® E3-1270 @ 3.5 GHz



sha256 on 16 size blocks11727614 sha256's in 2.99s 10914039 sha256's in 2.99s6634242 sha256's in 3.00s

sha256 on 64 size blocks6939319 sha256's in 2.99s 6155672 sha256's in 3.00s3938033 sha256's in 3.00s

sha256 on 256 size blocks3247902 sha256's in 3.00s 2632052 sha256's in 3.00s1647055 sha256's in 3.00s

sha256 on 1024 size blocks1044366 sha256's in 2.99s 812946 sha256's in 2.99s500873 sha256's in 3.00s

sha256 on 8192 size blocks142769 sha256's in 2.99s 108998 sha256's in 3.00s66807 sha256's in 3.00s

aes-256 cbc on 16 size blocks14710386 aes-256 cbc's in 2.99s19541372 aes-256 cbc's in 3.00s 13043240 aes-256 cbc's in 3.00s

aes-256 cbc on 64 size blocks3738862 aes-256 cbc's in 3.00s5203385 aes-256 cbc's in 2.99s 3410443 aes-256 cbc's in 3.00s

aes-256 cbc on 256 size blocks945467 aes-256 cbc's in 2.99s1319633 aes-256 cbc's in 3.00s 872751 aes-256 cbc's in 3.00s

aes-256 cbc on 1024 size blocks237015 aes-256 cbc's in 2.99s331752 aes-256 cbc's in 3.00s503286 aes-256 cbc's in 3.00s 

aes-256 cbc on 8192 size blocks29646 aes-256 cbc's in 3.00s41550 aes-256 cbc's in 2.99s64019 aes-256 cbc's in 2.99s 

4096 bit private rsa401 4096 bit private RSA's in 10.00s1303 4096 bit private RSA's in 10.00s 771 4096 bit private RSA's in 10.00s

4096 bit public rsa26460 4096 bit public RSA's in 9.98s82121 4096 bit public RSA's in 9.98s 49485 4096 bit public RSA's in 9.99s

VersionOpenSSL 1.0.2eOpenSSL 1.0.1fOpenSSL 1.0.1k



DemosLegacy x86 Applications on OpenPOWER™ via QEMUThe following video illustrates a variety of x86_64 native binary applications running on a POWER8 machine using QEMU user mode translation. These applications are using the full 3D hardware capabilities of the host POWER8 machine, and have access to the host’s ALSA audio. Applications that primarily use scalar instructions perform quite well, while applications making heavy use of vector instructions experience lag and stuttering due to missing features in QEMU (see notes below). Multiple 3D games were used to demonstrate the feasibility of a non-native engine binary interfacing with the POWER8 host GPU. At the end of the video, several applications are re-launched using native ppc64el builds for a performance comparison.



  
    
  

Notes:

Video captured straight from Radeon DVI output.
ALSA audio functions also, but was not captured for this demonstration.
This QEMU patch series is required, and was applied to the QEMU master version used in this demonstration.
Stuttering is largely caused by QEMU not translating target SIMD / vector instructions to host SIMD / vector instructions. QEMU currently translates each vector instruction (e.g. from SSE/SSE2/AVX/NEON/AltiVec) to large chunks of scalar code, resulting in very slow vector execution. This currently affects all target / host pairs available in QEMU, not just the OpenPOWER / x86 combination. The QEMU project is seeking volunteers to implement SIMD / vector translation, so if you would like to help out please contact the developers!
setreuid() / setegid() calls from target binaries currently crash QEMU. Alien Arena was recompiled for x86 with those two calls commented out for this demonstration.
Tested using POWER8 with a single AMD Radeon R290X and the open Radeon driver.
Host kernel must be compiled with 4k page support to match the x86_64 architecture-defined page size.
DRM passthrough requires that the QEMU host process LP mode match the target LP mode; i.e. i386 targets would require a 32-bit build of QEMU. Because OpenPOWER™ ships with a stock 64-bit kernel and userspace, i386 targets have not been tested.

Unreal® Engine 4 on OpenPOWER™The following video illustrates the power of Talos™ to accelerate game development. Talos™ allows you to keep your valuable assets and proprietary engine code safe and secure through full owner control, while outperforming similarly priced systems running on the x86 and ARM architectures.  Talos™’ massive RAM and GPU bandwidth reduce both compile and asset cook times which frees developers to focus on improving the design and gameplay of their next AAA title.



  
    
  

Notes:

Radeon 290X used with Mesa 12 in OpenGL 4.3 mode on Debian Strech (LLVM 3.9).
Flickering directional lights are a general bug in the Unreal® Engine OpenGL backend; this issue is present on all architectures and has been reported to Epic Games.
Editor load time is similar to load time experienced on the x86 architecture using Linux.
Video recorded directly from R290X output at 1920x1080 60FPS using 5.1 HDMI audio.
Several minor dropouts are present in the video due to the extreme bandwidth of the source stream. These dropouts are an artifact of the recording process used and are not visible during gameplay.
This Unreal® Engine 4 patch
series is required (agreement with Epic Games required for private access), and was applied to the Unreal® Engine 4 master version used in this demonstration.
This Unreal Tournament™ patch series is required (agreement with Epic Games required for private access), and was applied to the Unreal Tournament™ master version used in this demonstration.
This Radeon driver patch is required, and was applied to the radeon driver used in this demonstration.

Building a Complete Talos™ SystemYou’ll need the following components to build out a complete Talos™ system.
CPUIf you don’t already have one, you can add a POWER8 CPU to your order. We currently offer 8-, 10-, and 12-core options.
RAMWhile a full RAM hardware compatibility list (HCL) is not yet available, we can recommend Hynix 16GB x4 ECC RDIMMs operating at DDR3 PC-12800 speeds.
GPUAlthough an integrated display driver comes with the Talos™ mainboard, you can also install a discrete GPU of your choosing.  We recommend any NVIDIA GK104-based card, which is a reasonably modern GPU that can be initialized by and used with the libre Nouveau driver. Should a discrete GPU be installed, the integrated display driver can either be safely disabled or used as a secondary display output, contingent on software support.
EnclosureA good choice for an enclosure is the Super Micro Computer SC747TG-R1400B-SQ.
Development ProcessOur firmware and software development system for OpenPOWER uses a two-socket reference server from IBM codenamed "Firestone." This allows us to directly verify functionality, check performance, and develop / port new software to Talos™ machines even before Talos™ prototypes have been manufactured. The following images show our test setup.












    
  
      
    
  
    
  Angled view of the internals of the Firestone server used for Talos™ prototyping
  













    
  
      
    
  
    
  Top view of the internals of the Firestone server used for Talos™ prototyping
  

To configure Firestone emulation of Talos™, we pull all cards and disable the secondary CPU package, then we install two memory buffer cards on CP0 and add in PCIe cards containing the new peripherals present on Talos™.  While the resultant configuration is not exactly the same as a Talos™ system, and in fact from a pure hardware perspective is quite different, from a performance and software view it is nearly indistinguishable.  This configuration is what we use to patch the kernel, modify the OpenPOWER firmware, and gather benchmarks for the Talos™ machines.
Manufacturing PlanWe are in the process of converting the Talos™ designs into the requisite PCB layout.  During this process, firmware development is occurring in parallel. Once these two processes are complete, initial bringup will commence, followed by full testing and requisite minor modifications before release for manufacture.
We have many years of experience in all aspects of electrical and software engineering, spanning board level layout through high level application development, without any gaps.  As a result, we fully understand each and every part of our designs, the interactions between those parts, and are uniquely situated to handle large, complex projects requiring each component to mesh neatly with the surrounding components, whether those components be hardware, firmware, or software.  Our design philosophy is to do it right the first time, and we take explicit steps to ensure that the resultant product will operate in a wide range of adverse conditions.  For this particular project we also have the backing of our major silicon vendors, who are willing to work with us to ensure that their devices are used correctly and to their maximum potential.
Risks & ChallengesWhat could go wrong?
With a project of this complexity, there are numerous potential failure points.  Raptor Engineering has significant experience in board level design and system bringup, so we have anticipated and handled the most likely points of failure.  That being said, certain unknowns still remain:

Board space!  Cramming a high-performance POWER8 processor and its support circuitry onto a densely populated ATX board means there is zero physical margin in many areas.  While we are fairly confident that the board can be routed as depicted, there is still the off chance that some changes to the list of Talos™ peripherals may need to be made during the routing phase.
The open toolchain for the FPGAs, while apparently stable, has not been tested to the same degree as most commercial offerings.  Any number of issues could crop up during bringup of the FPGA section as a result of the toolchain -- our fallback plan would involve developing the FPGA HDL using the proprietary software and assisting the open toolchain project(s) where feasible after Talos™ has shipped.
DDR3 / PCIe routing / signal integrity issues.  Even when design guidelines are rigorously followed, there is always the chance that signal integrity will be compromised somewhere due to nearby signals and components.  If this occurs, the fault will need to be isolated and repaired in the prototyping stage.
System firmware.  Current offerings from IBM require the machine owner follow strict guidelines for memory population and related hardware configuration.  It is likely that bugs in the IBM firmware will be discovered once these rules are no longer enforced.
Linux drivers.  While overall the switch to little endian has ensured the vast majority of existing Linux drivers function normally on Talos™, there is still the potential for various bugs in these drivers to appear in the final system configuration.

Ordering & PaymentCrowd Supply can accept a wide array of payment options, though credit card is the easiest way to place an order.
Because this is a crowdfunding campaign, any order you place for a Talos™ system using a credit card will not actually be charged until the campaign reaches the funding goal ($3.7M USD). If we don’t reach that goal, no credit cards will be charged and orders paid by means other than credit card will be refunded.
For some product options, you will need to add a POWER8 processor as a separate line item to your order (or order it separately later). These processors are in "pre-order" mode, which means you will be charged for them right away. However, if the campaign does not meet the funding goal, all pre-orders of POWER8 CPUs will be fully refunded.
Why are the CPUs Sold Separately?Unfortunately, the answer to that question is a little complicated. Basically, it has to do with the complexities of crowdfunding and ensuring that we’re doing all we can to protect backers. Generally speaking, the CPUs are offered separately from the mainboards in order to ensure that the campaign’s funding goal is accurate. While the funding goal is a dollar amount ($3.7M), it is based on a minimum order quantity (MOQ) of Talos mainboards, 900 units. The problem is that basing a campaign on an MOQ is impractical for a number of reasons. For example, backers are unaccustomed to such campaigns, there’s no way to account for support-only pledges, and different components that go into the product can have different MOQs.
Given this reality, the wide price range of CPUs (from $0 if a CPU isn’t wanted, up to $3350 for a 12-core CPU) means it would be basically impossible to accurately or meaningfully set a funding goal. For example, if no one bought a CPU, the goal would be 900 x \$4100 = \$3.7M. On the other hand, if everyone bought a 12-core CPU, then the funding goal would need to be 900 x (\$4100 + \$3350) =$6.7M. Because we can’t possibly predict the demand for each CPU, we therefore need to sell them separately from the mainboards.
You’ll also note that the CPUs are sold in "pre-order" mode as opposed to "crowdfunding" mode, which means your card is charged as soon as the order is placed. That’s because, unlike the mainboards, there is no strict MOQ to meet before they can be manufactured. As with all pre-orders on Crowd Supply, you can cancel and get a full refund at any time. As we note on the CPU page, if the Talos campaign fails to meet its funding goal, all CPU orders will be promptly canceled and refunded in full.
On one hand, this is all a little cumbersome and confusing. On the other hand, it allows you to spread out the cost of purchase over a longer time by giving you the option of purchasing the CPU later. The bottom line is that these processes are in place to best protect backers while maximizing the potential for a successful campaign.

  

    
  

    
    
        In the Press

          
              
              
              
                Free Software Foundation
                "Whereas all modern x86 systems are encumbered by proprietary firmware and software, such as Intel's Management Engine and Active Management Technology (AMT), the POWER 8 architecture is able to run an entirely free software boot system."
              
            
          
              
              
              
                Golem.de
                "Um dennoch leistungsfähige moderne Hardware mit freier Firmware nutzen zu können, bietet das Unternehmen Raptor Engineering mit seinen Talos-Workstations Rechner auf Basis der freien Power8-Architektur." "
              
            
          
              
              
              
                Extreme Tech
                "Fans of alternative CPU architectures haven’t had it easy the past few decades. Intel and AMD collectively own the desktop, laptop, workstation, and nearly all of the server markets... A new crowdfunding project seeks to change that..."
              
            
          
              
              
              
                Svět Hardware
                "Spuštěn byl nový zajímavý crowdfundingový projekt, který slibuje základní desku klasického PC formátu ATX, ovšem ta bude určena ne pro procesory x86, ale pro IBM Power8." "
              
            
          
              
              
              
                Phoronix
                "The Talos Secure Workstation aims to be a high performance, free software system."
              
            
          
              
              
              
                Tom's Hardware
                "Il était un temps où les entreprises, et même les consommateurs, pouvaient choisir autre chose qu’un processeur x86 pour leur PC et serveurs. Raptor tente de revenir à cette époque en proposant une carte mère pour processeur Power8."
              
            
          
              
              
              
                The Linux Link Tech Show
                "We're bringing open Power architecture to the workstation and high-end desktop level." (Podcast)"
              
            
          
              
              
              
                PCWorld
                "Those concerned about the secretive firmware Intel and AMD bake into their CPUs and chipsets really have no alternative using modern hardware."
              
            
          
              
              
              
                Boing Boing
                "...promising us new, better, more open and more free systems on which to build our information age."
              
            
          
              
              
              
                Enterprise Times
                "[Talos'] target market is anyone dealing with valuable data...  they want better visibility over what is happening inside their hardware. The ability to audit firmware means that vendors, hackers and even intelligence agencies cannot hide code."
              
            
          
              
              
              
                TechRepublic
                "Speaking in terms of power (excuse the pun), the POWER8 processors are very competitive with Intel's Xeon series of server processors." "
              
            


      


      
  
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        Support Us!


        Thanks for helping make Talos™ a reality! You will be rewarded with good karma and regular backer updates. Help grow the ecosystem and expand freedom!

        
  
  $10

        

        
    



        

      
    

        
  
      
      
      
        Log in with Us!


        Thanks for helping make Talos™ a reality! You will be rewarded with
good karma, regular backer updates, and 6 months of SSH access to
a dedicated POWER8 virtual machine.  Help grow the ecosystem and
give POWER8 a try when you support Talos™!

        
  
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        Develop with Us!


        Thanks for helping make Talos™ a reality! You will be rewarded with good karma, regular backer updates, and 12 months of SSH access to a dedicated POWER8 virtual machine. You will even be able to download your complete VM image to a new Talos™ system to seamlessly continue your work on POWER8. Help grow the ecosystem and give POWER8 a try when you support Talos™!

        
  
  $500

        

        
    



        

      
    

        
  
      
      
      
        Talos™ Mainboard and Accessories


        The world's first ATX-compatible, workstation-class mainboard for the
new, free-software friendly IBM POWER8 processor. Includes one
heatsink and 92 mm fan, one ATX-compatible I/O shield, and a live
rescue DVD with factory reset utilities, source code for firmware and
FPGA components, mainboard schematics, user manual, and Ubuntu
installation media. CPU, RAM, power supply, storage drives, and
chassis sold separately.

        
  
  $3,700

            
              Free US Shipping / $18 Worldwide
            
        

        
    



        

      
    

        
  
        Talos™ Desktop Edition (TALP8D050)


        A complete Talos™ workstation with a CPU of your choice, 128 GB of DDR3 ECC RAM, an AMD Radeon RX 480 (8 GB VRAM) GPU, and two Western Digital WD40EFRX 4 TB SATA drives, all installed in a heavy-duty tower chassis. Comes pre-installed with Debian. Select the CPU by purchasing it as a separate item in the same order or under the same account - the CPU will be installed and ready to go before shipping.

        
  
  $7,100

            
              Free US Shipping / $18 Worldwide
            
        

        
    



        

      

        
  
        Talos™ Storage Server (TALP8S050)


        A complete Talos™ server with a CPU of your choice, 128 GB of DDR3 ECC RAM, LSI SAS controller, and two Western Digital 4 TB SAS drives, all installed in a heavy-duty 4U rack mount chassis with 24 3.5" hot swap SAS drive bays and redundant 1200 W power supplies! Comes pre-installed with either Debian or CentOS. Select the CPU by purchasing it as a separate item in the same order or under the same account - the CPU will be installed and ready to go before shipping.

        
  
  $7,600

            
              Free US Shipping / $18 Worldwide
            
        

        
    



        

      

        
  
        Complete Talos™ Workstation (TALP8W100)


        A complete 12-core Talos™ workstation with 256GB of DDR3 ECC RAM,
installed in a customized, heavy-duty chassis with your choice of an
AMD® FirePro™ or nVidia® Tesla™ graphics card (see list).  Also
includes built-in 4TB RAID1 (2x 4TB enterprise SAS disks and LSI SAS
controller), plus a pre-installed copy of Debian or CentOS to get you
up and running in no time!

        
  
  $17,600

            
              Free US Shipping / $18 Worldwide
            
        

        
    



        

      

    


    
  
      About the Team
      
  
    
    
    
      
          Raptor Computing Systems
      
      
  
    
    Austin, TX
  
     · 
    
  
     raptorcs.com
  


        Raptor Computing Systems was the first vendor to come to market with POWER9, and will be the only source for POWER9 machines in this market segment for the forseeable future. We are the only vendor to offer a full lineup of whitebox-type parts and accessories for POWER9, and are the only vendor to offer a fully libre firmware and hardware solution. Furthermore, we are not just shipping a stock reference design, like other vendors did with POWER8; rather, Talos™ II contains numerous unique features that increase usability, promote openness, and boost system security. Talos™ II is truly one of a kind and is additionally protected against unauthorized hardware clones by patents and/or patents pending, so if you want the benefits of a truly open POWER9 system, be sure to get your Talos™ II today!
    
  

      
    
    
        Timothy Pearson
        Senior Electrical Engineer
    
  

    

    
  
    





  
    
  
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