Market research for new PowerPC system

Tue Sep 29 13:46:37 EST 2009

I think that you should start out with something of the sub-netbook type.
These are the next generation and coming up very soon. For a home computer
you need at least dual core and at those speeds it will need a very low
price and small footprint.
If you could sneak in on the sub-net quick perhaps power could become 2nd to
ARM as AMD is to Intel. Intel is trying to sneak in but there could be some
anti-trust issues, especially if there are other contenders (maybe).

Its really too too bad PA-SEMI killed by apple last year. I am still mad
about that. That was a really really nice cpu, 2ghz and 7watt and 64bit.
Should have been illegal.

The  first subnetbook  may likely be an apple product, and a tablet with an
optional separate keyboard and a 9.5 inch screen, and the ARM cpu...

On Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Guennadi Liakhovetski <
g.liakhovetski at gmx.de> wrote:

> On Sat, 26 Sep 2009, Konstantinos Margaritis wrote:
>
> > (Sorry for the cross-posting, please ignore if you are not interested in
> this,
> > CC me as I'm not subscribed)
> > Hi,
> >
> > First some introductions. I'm Konstantinos Margaritis, a long time
> > Amiga/BeOS/Linux user/developer and a PowerPC fan, former Debian
> Developer,
> > also a SIMD/AltiVec fanatic and the author of libfreevec. I've posted
> this on
> > the following sites:
> >
> >
> http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic_id=29594&forum=33&start=0&viewmode=flat&order=0
> >
> > http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49424
> >
> >
> http://www.morphzone.org/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6465&forum=11
> >
> >
> http://aros-exec.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&topic_id=3768&forum=4
> >
> >
> http://www.haiku-os.org/community/forum/market_research_new_powerpc_system#comment-12604
> >
> > To anyone who is not a PowerPC user, it might seem like crazy, but here
> it
> > goes:
> >
> > I'm considering funding the design & production of a new PowerPC system
> (well,
> > the motherboard, the rest are typical pc stuff and a case). No this is
> not a
> > joke, I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and perhaps the
> chance
> > will be given to me now. But before I spend any money on this, I want to
> do a
> > little market research first. I know the market is literally "dying" for
> a new
> > powerpc motherboard, but exactly how many are there that want to buy one?
>
> Ok, just a short comment. In principle I like diversity, competition, etc.
> And it was somewhat sad when Apple abandoned ppc. But honestly - why
> should I be buying a ppc desktop system? If we restrict our comparison to
> Linux, because that's what I'm using, what advantages would a ppc system
> give me over a comparable in price ix86 system? This is not meant
> negatively, I just have not followed recent ppc CPUs from the "desktop"
> range, so, this is a real honest question. Would such a system provide
> more MIPS per Watt at the same price? Or more periferals? Or some specific
> hardware blocks unavailable or unsupported om ix86?
>
> Thanks
> Guennadi
>
> >
> > Ok, let's give some rough specs first. I'm considering 3 choices -not in
> order
> > of probability/importance:
> >
> > 1. MPC8640D-based. It will be dual core at 1Ghz -most likely, higher
> > frequencies are much more expensive and the cost of the final board would
> be
> > prohibitive.
> > 2. MPC8610-based. Single core at 1Ghz, slightly less expensive, and
> includes a
> > 2D DIU display unit -quite fast, but no 3D unfortunately.
> > 3. QorIQ P1022-based. Again dual core at 1Ghz (1055Mhz to be precise).
> Apart
> > from the much lower chip price, this one includes dual gigabit ethernet,
> dual
> > SATA, USB 2.0 and a 2D DIU display unit (same as the MPC8610). So this
> one
> > would lower the cost of the board quite much. Disadvantages: No AltiVec
> unit
> > (it sucks I know), though it includes an SPE unit which is not that bad,
> and
> > availability will be in Q3/Q4 2010, so that's a long wait.
> >
> > Now, the end motherboard will probably be MicroATX (in the 8640D/8610
> case) or
> > PicoITX (in the P1022 case), and it will definitely include:
> >
> > * SATA connectors
> > * USB (possibly 2 back and 2 front, but that's discussable)
> > * Dual gigabit (at least one will be there, in the case of the MPC8640D
> we
> > might even have 4!!!)
> > * Sound (of course, SPDIF support will definitely be there)
> > * 1 PCI-e slot 1x
> > * 1 PCI-e slot (4x in the P1022 case, 8x in the MPC86xx cases)
> >
> > Ok, what I want to know is if people would really really buy one of
> these. End
> > price is estimated to be ~around~ 350EUR for the P1022 board or ~500EUR
> > (definitely more in the case of 8640D) in the case of the other boards.
> > Besides being more expensive, the MPC86xx chips, don't include SATA, USB
> and
> > only one of ethernet/sound (quad-gige in MPC8640D case, or sound in the
> case
> > of MPC8610). I know this sounds a lot, but it's the reality, there is not
> > enough funding to build enormous amounts of units and bring the prices
> down
> > substantially, we have to start low and build up from there. In case you
> are
> > wondering, yes, the boards will be designed/produced by bPlan and funded
> by my
> > company (Codex).
> >
> > Support for OSes: Linux definitely, Haiku most probably and there is a
> > possibility of supporting AmigaOS/MorphOS, which will depend on the
> actual
> > feedback I get from those users.
> >
> > I would like to make a list of everyone that is really interested in such
> a
> > system, so it would really help me make a decision sooner rather than
> later if
> > you would send me a few personal details to markos at codex.gr with subject
> > "PowerPC board":
> >
> > * Name
> > * Country
> > * email (definitely, I'd have to reach you back!)
> > * Phone/Skype (optional, please include international prefix)
> > * Forum you saw this post (ok, Morphzone in this case)
> > * OS of preference
> > * board you would be most interested in (MPC8610/MPC8640D/P1022)
> > * preferred price (please have in mind the estimated price quotes I
> mentioned,
> > it might be lower but that's not very probable)
> > * Other notes/comments
> >
> > Also, I found out that I had to state my case on many forums to prove
> that
> > this is not vapourware. Well, it will not be vapourware, if I get
> feedback. So
> > far the feedback I got can be summarized here:
> >
> > http://www.codex.gr/index.php?pageID=&blogItem=60
> >
> > Thanks a lot for your time and I hope this system becomes a reality.
> >
> > Konstantinos Margaritis
> >
> > Codex
> > _______________________________________________
> > Linuxppc-dev mailing list
> > Linuxppc-dev at lists.ozlabs.org
> > https://lists.ozlabs.org/listinfo/linuxppc-dev
>
> ---
> Guennadi Liakhovetski, Ph.D.
> Freelance Open-Source Software Developer
> http://www.open-technology.de/
>
>
> --
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