Summary and Resources

Linux on POWER offers you a high-performance home for applications that need to take a step up to more robust hardware, while providing a full set of hardware and software resources. 64-bit applications can coexist peacefully with 32-bit applications in the twin execution environment. The IBM iSeries and pSeries lines bring a robust hardware foundation that was previously unavailable to Linux. Red Hat and SUSE have worked diligently to make available the best in open source distributions, as has IBM to provide leading middleware solutions familiar to AIX developers. New development tools like Eclipse make transitions easy, and cutting-edge development environments provide both the flexibility and performance expected from this union of Linux and IBM iSeries and pSeries servers.

Resources

• IBM's portal for the Power Architecture community is the first step in building a broader community around the Power Architecture. The portal provides a place to gather, find resources, and begin establishing a governance model to help guide future directions for innovation and collaboration.
  
  
• The IBM Power Architecture Pack is a no-charge, downloadable evaluation kit that lets designers create custom Power chips in a simulation environment. It allows engineers to simulate a system-on-chip design based on their own intellectual property coupled with a Power processor.
  
  
• Find out more about Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS, SUSE SLES8 for IBM iSeries and pSeries, and TurboLinux.
  
  
• Linux on POWER is available on IBM eServer pSeries, on IBM eServer iSeries, and on JS20 Blade Center. Explore all the options at the Linux on POWER pages.
  
  
• Speed-start your Linux app offers downloads for IBM products like DB2, Rational, and WebSphere -- as well as documentation, articles, and other information. You can also skip straight to the Linux on POWER downloads page. IBM RedBooks on Linux topics are also a great source of information.
  
  
• Two of Matt's favorite resources for Linux POWER developers include "Migrating UNIX Applications for Linux on IBM pSeries and iSeries Servers" and "How To Use IBM VisualAge C++ Version 6.0 for Linux on IBM pSeries and iSeries Servers" (both in PDF format).
  
  
• The cross-platform GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) includes support for everything from C and C++ to Fortran to Ada -- and more! The 3.3 and 3.4 versions of GCC provide many POWER architecture-specific enhancements. SUSE Enterprise Server 9 will use a 3.3. branch called "hammer," which has lots of 3.4 stuff back ported.
  
  
• The IBM VisualAge Compiler Set can offer upwards of 30% performance improvements over other compilers. It incorporates support for the advanced ESSL and P/ESSL (Parallel/Engineering and Scientific Subroutine) mathematical and scientific libraries.
  
  
• The IBM Software Developer Kit for Linux and the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment for Linux offer a complete Java development environment for Linux on POWER.
  
  
• You can learn more about Linux on POWER kernel development and other 64-bit Linux issues at linuxppc64.org.
  
  
• You will find the article "Speed-start your Linux app 2003: Using open source tools for Linux on POWER" helpful if you are new to the world of open source software.
  
  
• "Grid technology for Linux on POWER" is part of the Speed-start your Linux app series; you will also find the documentation at the Globus Web site to be of great help.
  
  
• "Application Development on Linux Power" (developerWorks, March 2003) is a guide to deploying and developing applications on Linux POWER platforms.
  
  
• Find articles for Eclipse users in the Open source projects zone on developerWorks. For Eclipse plug-ins and tools, see also the Eclipse technology page on alphaWorks.
  
  
• Find more resources for Linux developers in the developerWorks Linux zone.
  
  
• You'll find a wide selection of books on Linux in the Linux section of the Developer Bookstore.