PPC Laptop, something for MorphOS?
  • vox
  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    vox
    Posts: 616 from 2003/11/25
    From: Belgrade
    Quote:

    Kronos wrote
    And what exactly would be more modern?
    It’s just another ancient SoC containing even older cores only deemed for legacy support.
    Some onboard parts that could be added to an x5000 via PCIe.

    Best case scenario is kinda like a 2007 iBook with questionable build quality.

    The ship for this project has sailed long ago.


    CPU GPU RAM to G4 laptops, almost everything.

    Surely x5000 is closeby by design, but even PA Semi was ment for laptop efficiency\
    some crazy people made it into a full desktop :D
    ------------------------------------------
    iMac G5 1GB with MorphOS and MacOS X
    Lame PC with AmiKit XE, Linux, AROS and sadly Win11
    Telegram MOS group: https://t.me/+zCLnwCvwhs4wMTI0
    Steam https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198164221485/
  • »28.11.24 - 02:53
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  • vox
  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    vox
    Posts: 616 from 2003/11/25
    From: Belgrade
    Quote:

    KennyR wrote:

    PPC is dead.


    Its a zombie. In SW it isnt dead yet as many Linux distros support it.
    But as kernel support for m68k (original Linux arch) is now removed,
    one day, not so far will PPC32 at least - PPC64 (G5 plus) might live some more.

    We still those QUIRK (I call them WEIRD) CPUs left and some FPGA, and beside
    IBM POWER, thats it.

    What if zombies could walk

    Zombie walk 2022
    ------------------------------------------
    iMac G5 1GB with MorphOS and MacOS X
    Lame PC with AmiKit XE, Linux, AROS and sadly Win11
    Telegram MOS group: https://t.me/+zCLnwCvwhs4wMTI0
    Steam https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198164221485/
  • »28.11.24 - 02:56
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12370 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > kernel support for m68k (original Linux arch) is now removed

    Is it? The m68k Linux kernel development mailing list looks busy as usual to me. Besides, the original Linux platform is x86. m68k was second.
  • »28.11.24 - 15:41
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  • vox
  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    vox
    Posts: 616 from 2003/11/25
    From: Belgrade
    Quote:

    Andreas_Wolf wrote:
    > kernel support for m68k (original Linux arch) is now removed

    Is it? The m68k Linux kernel development mailing list looks busy as usual to me. Besides, the original Linux platform is x86. m68k was second.


    Hmmm ... my mistake since Linus learne ASM on QLs 68008.
    You are right, its about time he got 386 (as usual)

    However I am not wrong on moveaway
    IDE https://www.phoronix.com/news/m68k-Switches-To-Libata
    Kernel https://lwn.net/Articles/769694/

    As with PPC it does not kill community efforts.
    ------------------------------------------
    iMac G5 1GB with MorphOS and MacOS X
    Lame PC with AmiKit XE, Linux, AROS and sadly Win11
    Telegram MOS group: https://t.me/+zCLnwCvwhs4wMTI0
    Steam https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198164221485/
  • »28.11.24 - 23:36
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12370 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    >>> kernel support for m68k (original Linux arch) is now removed

    >> Is it?

    > I am not wrong on moveaway
    > IDE https://www.phoronix.com/news/m68k-Switches-To-Libata
    > Kernel https://lwn.net/Articles/769694/

    None of those links supports your claim of Linux kernel support for m68k having been removed. Quite to the contrary, your first link from 2021 describes how m68k support was retained by switching the m68k kernel from the legacy IDE API to modern libata. Your second link from 2018 merely mentions that that year's Kernel Maintainers Summit had discussions of removing support for old architectures like m68k due to their kernels using old APIs. As your first link and the fact that m68k is today, as much as 6 years later, still an officially supported architecture, are testimony of, the m68k kernel maintainers managed to switch the kernel from the old APIs to the new ones (which include both the IDE/ATA API as per the 2021 article and the timer API as per the 2018 article comments).
    Bottom line: You are wrong ideed :-)
  • »29.11.24 - 10:10
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  • vox
  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    vox
    Posts: 616 from 2003/11/25
    From: Belgrade
    Quote:

    Andreas_Wolf wrote:
    Bottom line: You are wrong ideed :-)


    OK. I will use argument m68k Linux is less developed then AROS
    but hey, its not bad it lives!

    However, jokes aside, seems Linux kernel will be "cleansed of all old heaten" if not now, then in near future.


    [ Edited by vox 04.12.2024 - 19:25 ]
    ------------------------------------------
    iMac G5 1GB with MorphOS and MacOS X
    Lame PC with AmiKit XE, Linux, AROS and sadly Win11
    Telegram MOS group: https://t.me/+zCLnwCvwhs4wMTI0
    Steam https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198164221485/
  • »04.12.24 - 19:24
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12370 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > m68k Linux is less developed then AROS

    Strictly speaking, Linux is just the kernel. I'm not sure how to compare that to an OS like AROS. But if we take a Linux-based OS (i.e. distribution) like Debian, it seems rather recent and complete:

    http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/ports/current/
    http://ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports/pool-m68k/main/

    I'd hazard the guess that for most use cases and as long as the hardware is fast enough (e.g. emulated m68k), Debian/m68k still has more to offer than AROS on any ISA (except for the web browser situation compared to AROS/x64).

    > seems Linux kernel will be "cleansed of all old heaten" if not now,
    > then in near future.

    That's not quite how it works. Linux kernel support simply depends on whether or not there are active maintainers who keep the kernel development in sync for a given ISA. There are many cases of newer ISAs not supported anymore while older ISAs still are. m68k has been a tremendously popular ISA even to this day. As soon as the current m68k maintainers step down and there'll be no replacement for them found, the m68k Linux kernel development will be dead, but not before.
  • »04.12.24 - 20:48
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12370 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    Another update to this train wreck of a project:

    > https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/2024/11/major-improvements-for-powerboard-tyche-despite-adversity-but-there-is-still-work-to-be-done/

    "we just couldn’t get the board to reach the crucial boot stage. This led us on a search for a new designer, someone with specific skills and experience with PowerPC architecture. We were really pleased to find a talented new designer who was available from the beginning of 2025, who can even rely on an additional person who is an expert in firmware programming. [...] we had high hopes that this new collaboration would quickly move us past the booting issues. [...] Our work with the new designer has been focused on rigorous testing. [...] Despite taking these significant steps, the board still did not boot. [...] after two years with the prototype motherboards in our hands, we still are not able to boot it. [...] By the end of 2025, we are determined to [...] have at least a stripped-down functional desktop version [...] up and running. [...] Focusing on a desktop board first allows us to concentrate on getting the core computing platform stable and functional, tackling the complexities of a laptop form factor [...] in a later stage if needed. [...] Once we reached the point of a fully working desktop version, we will still have to design the heat pipes, work on the chassis and most probably adjusting the board mechanical design, and finally, test the MXM video card, but for this we hope that the desktop version will provide a suitable testing bed."
    https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/2025/05/strategic-change-by-2025-lets-do-whatever-it-takes-to-achieve-at-least-a-desktop-version/

    Meanwhile, the financial state of all campaigns/phases is as follows:

    I_0. 12600 EUR: Electrical schematics [accomplished]
    I_1A. 19000 EUR: PCB [accomplished]
    I_1B. 5000 EUR: Fast SI bus simulations [accomplished]
    I_2. 13500 EUR: Prototypes [accomplished]
    I_3. 14000 EUR: Testing [accomplished]
    I_4. 12500 EUR: Certification [accomplished]
    I_5. 5375 EUR: Prototypes and MXM graphics cards [accomplished]
    II_1. 1000 EUR: JTAG debugger [accomplished]
    II_2. 5000 EUR: U-Boot [accomplished]
    II_3. 10000 EUR: Fix everything that's broken [47% done]
  • »08.05.25 - 12:42
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    koszer
    Posts: 1329 from 2004/2/8
    From: Poland
    Maybe it's too early for that but I'd wish to express some mild doubts concerning completion of this project.
  • »08.05.25 - 15:02
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    BSzili
    Posts: 560 from 2012/6/8
    From: Hungary
    It's crazy that this project was initiated before Tabor was announced and still not done.
    This is just like television, only you can see much further.
  • »08.05.25 - 20:51
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