Hi,

Do you know of any PPC based motherboard manufacturers?

Can someone do a search and find out exactly how many manufacturers actually produce PPC motherboards?

It would be nice to know and see if we can contact them...

This is getting ridiculous now...how is OS4 supposed to come out if there is no hardware to run it on!

We could set up a consortium and see if someone (even on another planet) can make us some boards

Ciao

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@TheDaddy

I did a quick pass and found squat . . .

Other than the Pegasos and an IBM $6000 test board, duel 970's there wasn't much of a pot to piss in . . But maybe I missed something . . .

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@TheDaddy

Quote:

TheDaddy wrote: Hi, Do you know of any PPC based motherboard manufacturers? Can someone do a search and find out exactly how many manufacturers actually produce PPC motherboards? It would be nice to know and see if we can contact them... This is getting ridiculous now...how is OS4 supposed to come out if there is no hardware to run it on! We could set up a consortium and see if someone (even on another planet) can make us some boards Ciao

Of course there is (and has been all along)! Sorry to state the obvious, but ...

A list here: http://www.pegasosppc.com/products.php

And some info here: http://www.morphzone.org/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4508&forum=11#42437

The Efika looks especially interesting from an OS4 point of view, IMHO. And interested developers are quite supported from Freescale, look at this list of approved projects:

http://projects.ppczone.org/projects.php?program=EFIKA

So all this talk about "there is no PPC hardware" is a little untrue. Good quality hardware has been here all along, and new interesting things are in the pipeline ...

@wolfe

Yeah.. I pretty much got the same... the only thing I even found mentioned was the Mai Teron boards and the Pegasos.... Kinda useless really...

Surely there's SOMEONE out there that makes PPC boards... (Apart from Genesi)

Last edited by BinoX on 15-Jun-2006 at 08:19 AM.

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@wolfe

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@takemehomegrandma

Isn't the Efika a bit underpowered?

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I mean someone who makes a respectably powerful mobo, we are not asking much.....(AGP 8x or PCI-Express, 2 PCI slots, G4 or G5, USB 2.0, up to 4GB of RAM)...

Is it too much too ask?

I bet there are people prepared to pay...

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@TheDaddy

Quote:

Isn't the Efika a bit underpowered?

No I don't think so. The Efika is an excellent building block for various embedded devices, and a lean OS like OS4 will make perfect sense in this context. It could very well be the foundation for a commercial future of OS4. IMHO - a device like this is what OS4 has been waiting for!

It is based on the MPC5200 SoC processor from Freescale (same as Power Vixen for A1200), and according to the latest publically known info (which might very well change before the thing arrives) are that it will come in three flavors; one basic configuration like the one that's listed on the products page linked to above, a second flavor with an Altera Cyclone II FPGA added to the first design, and a third with a XGI Volari V3XT graphic chip added to the second design (comes with complete and official drivers for 2D/3D/mpeg2/HDTV out etc).

Take an Efika, add OS4 and Hollywood 2.0, and you have a foundation for an industry.

Or take an Efika and put it in a case similar to this, and you could have a neat thin client, internet terminal, or maybe even a $100 computer (like this and this)?

And think of the various hand-held and sub-laptop devices you could do with this ...

Last edited by takemehomegrandma on 15-Jun-2006 at 09:32 AM.

@TheDaddy

CerfCube 405EP
Kuro Box
TAMS MOAB
IBM pSeries

Those are not desktop systems tho

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Amiga 500, Efika, Mac Mini and PowerBook

@BinoX


Quote:

Surely there's SOMEONE out there that makes PPC boards... (Apart from Genesi)

here you have the largest desktop ppc motherboard manofacturer

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@TheDaddy

Quote:

TheDaddy wrote: I mean someone who makes a respectably powerful mobo, we are not asking much.....(AGP 8x or PCI-Express, 2 PCI slots, G4 or G5, USB 2.0, up to 4GB of RAM)... Is it too much too ask? I bet there are people prepared to pay...

Then the Pegasos ODW or OSW is your best choice then, although especially the latter may be somewhat of an overkill for OS4; it is 64-bit and has four cores. Besides, OS4 is not really suitable to build a commercial desktop system upon, although I am sure a system like that would be embraced by OS4 application developers wanting to compile things faster, as well as the few hundred or so regular users remaining in this little "sub-culture" .

That's why I believe much more in the Efika type of devices for OS4's commercial future ...

@Crumb

Quote:

Crumb wrote: @BinoX Quote: Surely there's SOMEONE out there that makes PPC boards... (Apart from Genesi) here you have the largest desktop ppc motherboard manofacturer

Yeah, right. I hope you are not suggesting building a commercial future on second hand powermacs recycled from e-bay?

Besides - a commercial future in the desktop segment is not in the scope of OS4, except for current and future application developers and the current community of enthusiast level users. And even if it was, the Mac hardware is notoriously a PITA to support for any third party OS developers, so is it really worth even considering it? No, I don't think so ...

@TheDaddy

PowerPC chips are usually targetted to embedded and server use. Tundra Tsi-109 and Marvell Discovery II are targetted to desktop processors but a desktop computer is not their intended use. AGP port on a router is not at top priority.

AFAIK G5 uses completely different bus compared to G3/G4 processors and would need new chip design. Tundra and Marvell chips dont seem to support G5 (970) at all.

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@itix

Quote:

itix wrote: @TheDaddy Tundra Tsi-109 and Marvell Discovery II are targetted to desktop processors but a desktop computer is not their intended use.

Indeed neither of the Discovery II or Tundra 109 are intended for desktop use, but at least the Discovery has two independent PCI buses, so it *can* have an AGP slot ...

Quote:

AFAIK G5 uses completely different bus compared to G3/G4 processors and would need new chip design. Tundra and Marvell chips dont seem to support G5 (970) at all.

Yeah, it's kind of a different architecture altogether.

@takemehomegrandma

[all together] "it's kind of a different architecture . . ." [/all together]

(SCNR)

But seriously, folks, the dearth of PPC mobos is probably explained by the fact that most of the PPC manufacturing ability is used for custom embedded designs that are not advertised on the web, so are not visible to non-insiders like us.

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tony

Hyperion Support Forum: http://forum.hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php

@TheDaddy

These guys look have some interesting products.
Mercury Computers
Someone has already had a go at getting OS4 on these boards.

I feel the best thing for the community is to support the current developers to complete their projects.

Hope you enjoy the link

Wardy..

@tonyw

Exactly. There really isn't a market for mainstream PPC boards.

Well - apart from us obviously.

Last edited by -Sam- on 15-Jun-2006 at 03:35 PM.

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Sam

@BinoX

Quote:

Surely there's SOMEONE out there that makes PPC boards...

Lots of companies make lots of PPC boards. But as you can see googling for ones shaped like desktops, there isn't a lucrative consumer market for them, and thus not many companies make them in desktop-convenient form.

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@billt

But if PPC is so widely used in the embedded market isn't there a chance to find something usable there?

Unlike many others I don't need a superfast desktop with 6 PCI ports 8xAGP etc...
I could do with less if the price is right (not that I believe it will ever be cheap).
--------

Anyway, atm. I'd much rather have a portable system, it doesn't have to be a laptop but something small that could connect to a TV or monitor and had a usable LCD screen and I/O would be cool... It could even sell to outsiders if the feature/price ratio was ok, everyone loves cool gadgets these days.

Don't know the formfactor of the Efika but that could perhaps be the soloution....If it was made by another company (Not that I have anything against Genesi, but seems other more important persons still have).

We need new hardware and we need it now, not in 6 months time. The wait is IMHO killing any momentum and enthusiasm there was around OS4 some months back OS4

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@takemehomegrandma

Yeah, right. I hope you are not suggesting building a commercial future on second hand powermacs recycled from e-bay?
[/quote]

Yeah, I mean using cheap, repairable, powerful systems isn't the OS4 way. None of the systems prophecied by ACK or Troika will outperform the Mac Mini which you can get for $500 (and thats a case, memory, HD, video card, USB, Firewire, DVD drive) and we all know they arent going to make that pricepoint. Why exactly is porting to a million+ unit boards a bad idea, especially when it would only be a few days work.

Quote:

Besides - a commercial future in the desktop segment is not in the scope of OS4, except for current and future application developers and the current community of enthusiast level users.

Thats a great theory, but of course they arent running on any embedded hardware we can buy either. OS 4 will have NO embedded customers, the Friedens dont have a clue what it takes to work there, and there is 10X the competition on the embedded side as there is on the Desktop. You probably cant name 20 modern desktop OSs, I've used more embedded OSs then that since AI became a company.

Quote:

And even if it was, the Mac hardware is notoriously a PITA to support for any third party OS developers, so is it really worth even considering it? No, I don't think so ...

Just because Benji says it, surely doesnt make it true. OS 4 will take 2 months is one of his other brilliant tech quotes. There are Open Source OSs running on the Mac, I personally have ported pieces to them so we could use there FW800 ports while we brought our boards up. The complaints by 3rd Party OS guys, is its hard work to get the moniter cameras working in color the new model, Firewire800 instead of 400 when 800 came out, having trouble getting the airlink port to dynamically switch networks. Gee, wouldnt it be great if our issues on the A1's were that lowly, Firewire at half speed (instead of no firewire), moniter cameras only working in B/W (instead of no monitor cameras) and airlink port having to be switched to new network instead of no Airlink on our boards. Plus we've got our DMA issues , not enough ports, the USB issues on our boards as bonus. In addition there are only 1000 boards in the beginning, and now as Helgis, Atheist and others kill them the number of boards that run OS4 is shrinking. How is this a good plan. I know, I know there is a prophecy that ACK or Troika will bring good boards to the Amigas, be granted a license from the Sheeplord himself and all who want OS 4 will be able to get it. But for those of us who dont believe in the Prophecy when is Hyperion going to fix there hardware issue?
-Tig

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