Purpose
Making compute comparable
Compute is bought and sold on specifications that say little about what it delivers. The same chip performs very differently depending on the system around it, and there is no common measure of what a user actually gets.
The forthcoming Compute Open Standards Alliance (COSA) aims to develop the open standard for measuring compute: tested on real workloads, verifiable by anyone, and neutral across every chip and provider. A shared measure gives users a fair way to compare, providers a way to prove what they deliver, and lenders and policymakers a common basis to value and oversee it.
About
COSA is intended to be an independent, member-governed alliance spanning the compute supply chain, from foundry and chip design to data centers, software and finance, alongside the public institutions that govern it. Every standard is developed in open working groups, published for public comment, adopted by a two-thirds vote and released royalty-free for anyone to use. No member, however large, controls the outcome.
Founding members are expected to be announced in the coming months. Organizations interested in taking part can contact us using the form below.
Upcoming COSA publications
Compute Passport. An open, machine-generated record of each system tested: accelerators, memory, network, storage and measured performance, so what is delivered can be checked against what was sold.
Compute Commons. The open repository and working groups where every COSA specification, reference implementation and tool is developed in public and released royalty-free.