Microsemi Joins the OpenPOWER Foundation With Focus on Data Center Security

Microsemi Corporation announced the company has joined the OpenPOWER Foundation, an open technical membership organization based on IBM’s POWER microprocessor architecture founded in 2013 to enable data centers to rethink their approach to technology. Microsemi will collaborate with IBM and other OpenPOWER Foundation members to leverage its expertise in developing highly secure field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), with an emphasis on moving toward more accelerated computing technology capabilities for data centers where timing, security and networking solutions are vital.

“We are pleased to join the OpenPOWER Foundation, which allows Microsemi to focus on the expansion of our data center security capabilities and further elevate our solution offerings in this growing market,” said Amr Elashmawi, Microsemi vice president of corporate and vertical marketing. “Our deep expertise in security and networking solutions allows us a significant advantage as we educate the data center community on how our innovative FPGAs and our networking solutions enable data center security, storage and computer acceleration.”

As a new member of the nonprofit, Microsemi joins a growing roster of technology organizations working collaboratively to build advanced server, networking, storage and acceleration technology as well as industry-leading open source software aimed at delivering more choice, control and flexibility to developers of next generation, hyperscale and cloud data centers. The group makes power hardware and software available to open development for the first time, and makes power intellectual property (IP) licensable to others, greatly expanding the ecosystem of innovators on the platform. 

As part of its OpenPOWER Foundation silver membership, Microsemi will focus on changing the use model for FPGAs in the computing market with FPGA-based security and acceleration technologies designed for next generation data centers. In addition, as Microsemi continues to roll out new networking products that operate at up to 25Gbps data rates, supporting important interoperability capabilities, Microsemi’s goals align with the objectives of OpenPOWER’s 25G IO Interoperability Mode Work Group. The company currently offers the industry’s most secure FPGAs with differential power analysis (DPA)-certified countermeasures and layered cryptographic controls, allowing for true supply chain assurance and system authentication. By applying Microsemi’s FPGA and security technology in the datacenter, operators and developers can deploy proprietary IP acceleration solutions while minimizing their risk of IP compromise.

“The development model of the OpenPOWER Foundation is ideal for industry-leading companies like Microsemi, as it elicits collaboration and represents a new way in exploiting and innovating around processor technology,” said Calista Redmond, Director of OpenPOWER Global Alliances at IBM. “The Foundation will benefit greatly from Microsemi’s FPGA expertise and its ability to provide both security and performance for the future demands of data centers and cloud computing.”

The OpenPOWER Foundation includes a group of industry-leading companies working together to develop high-performance computing solutions based upon IBM’s POWER architecture. Members include IBM, Google, Mellanox, Micron, NVIDIA, Samsung, Tyan, Xilinx, ZTE and dozens of esteemed higher education institutions.