Open Compute Project Driving Open-Source Hardware Development

Facebook launched the Open Compute Project in April 2011 with the intention of sharing the designs of the social networking giant’s data center in Prineville, Oregon, as well as custom designs for servers, power supplies and UPS units. Since then, the project has been growing, adding new partners and introducing new technologies designed specifically for use in webscale data centers.

via Open Compute Project Driving Open-Source Hardware Development.

The Open Compute v2 machines were unveiled at the third Open Compute Summit in May. The new OCP v2 servers are double-stuffed machines that can fit two two-socket x86 servers, their power supplies, and fans into a 1.5U Open Computer chassis.

AMD and Intel have contributed motherboard designs used in OCP v1 and v2. The new motherboards stripped out many features found in traditional motherboards to optimize power and reduce costs.