1.
Soul of a New Machine
Rethinking the Server-Side Computer
Bryan Cantrill
Oxide Computer Company

2.
Server-side computing, ca. 1961

3.
Server-side computing, ca. 1961 (cont.)
Source: Martin Weik, A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems (1961)

4.
Server-side computing, ca. 1975
Source: Retro-computing Society of Rhode Island

5.
Server-side computing, ca. 1999

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Server-side computing, ca. 2009

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Hyperscale computing, ca. 2009
Source: Stephen Shankland/CNET: Google uncloaks once-secret server (2009)

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Hyperscale computing, ca. 2020

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Server-side computing, ca. 2009

10.
Server-side computing, ca. 2020

11.
The problem
● There remain good reasons to own and operate one’s own computer!
● But the world has bifurcated: fit-for-purpose infrastructure for
hyperscalers; rack-mounted personal computers for everyone else
● Worse, the commercial server world is split between software-agnostic
hardware and putatively hardware-agnostic software
● Result is a cobbled-together system that the end-user is left to design,
integrate, operate -- and support
● Problems are up and down the stack; we need a new approach

12.
Towards a solution: Hardware/firmware
● We need a real hardware root-of-trust, offering firmware attestation
● We need a fit-to-purpose BMC, with much less surface area
● We need host firmware confined to booting a host operating system
● We need a true rack-scale design in which a top-of-rack switch is
co-designed with compute and storage
● We need this in a dense form factor that allows for efficient operation!

13.
Towards a solution: Software
● Rack-scale designs necessitate integrated software: hypervisor, control
plane, storage, ToR + API endpoints for both operator and developer
● But the era of proprietary infrastructure software is over: it must be
fully open and attested!
● Much of what needs to be built is software, albeit at very low levels
(hardware root-of-trust, service processor, boot software, etc.)

14.
Is a solution attainable?
● On the one hand, there is an outrageous amount to be done, with many
different problems that need to be solved concurrently...
● But on the other, the solution can be tightly tailored: co-designing
hardware with software allows for elimination of false generalities
● And there are several interesting hardware and software trends that
make a solution more attainable than it has been historically…

15.
Trends: Hardware components
● The industry has recognized the need to collaborate on a hardware
root-of-trust, e.g. Microsoft Cerberus, Google/lowRISC OpenTitan
● The open EDA movement has made FPGA design and implementation
easier than ever, e.g. Yosys, Chisel, SpinalHDL, Bluespec
● RISC-V has allowed for free soft cores -- and the end of Moore’s Law has
meant that these cores are viable for sophisticated software
● Open firmware is arriving (at long last!) and being encouraged by the
Open Compute Project

16.
Trends: System software components
● Infrastructure software is entirely open source: many interesting
production-grade components new in just the past few years!
● And -- perhaps surprisingly -- there’s been a very important
development in programming languages...
● Rust may be the most important system software development in four
decades: if C was portable assembly, Rust is safe C!
● Small Rust-based systems like Tock show particular promise...

17.
Soul of a new computer company
● We started Oxide, a computer company in Emeryville, California
● Raised seed capital end of 2019, ramping team now (Feb. 2020)
● Aiming for functional prototypes in 2021, customer systems in 2022
● We are looking for like minds and kindred spirits!
● Learn more about Oxide at https://oxide.computer
● Check out our podcast, On the Metal!