IBM teams with Google to licence chip technology

Technology services provider IBM is teaming up with Google and a handful of other tech companies to licence IBM's Power chip technology, in an effort to attract more users.

Under the alliance called OpenPower Consortium, IBM and Google - along with Israel's chip designer Mellanox Technologies, US chip-maker Nvidia Corp and Taiwan-based server supplier Tyan Computer Corp - will build server, networking and storage technology based on the chips for cloud data centers.

The hardware and software, previously proprietary to IBM, will be available to open development and it will be licensable to others, IBM said in a statement.

The alliance is open to any company that wants to participate and innovate on the platform, IBM said.

IBM competes with Intel Corp and ARM Holdings' chips, which dominate the market.

Revenue from IBM Power Systems was down 25 percent in the second quarter compared with the previous year.