Thanks Andreas. I've already received Freescale's info on the evaluation board, but the NEC board is interesting.
It looks like a 1Ghz 8610 based system could be built for hundreds less than a SAM460.

> It looks like a 1Ghz 8610 based system could be built for
> hundreds less than a SAM460.

Fine. Now you'd only have to get Hyperion and (potential) OS4 users interested ;-) But get Hyperion's commitment first, as you know how feanor and later power2people.org failed with such project due to lack of general interest.

I'd like to apologize for the previous post. I should have kept that part more confidential (as I'd agreed to).
Since I have mentioned receiving the technical specs, I should take the opportunity to thank Bill Buck and his wife Raquel.

Or to directly quote Bill "P.S. We just saw the thread on MorphZone. Please let folks know we are doing our best to assist you and perhaps contrary to common knowledge Genesi did a lot of work on this project. We would have continued if we saw more support from the community. R&B"


I would not have brought Bill into this except for his request to mention it AND the remarkably useful data he rushed to me earlier today.

Thank you very much Raquel and Bill.

> I'd like to apologize for the previous post. I should have kept that part
> more confidential (as I'd agreed to). Since I have mentioned receiving
> the technical specs...

Which post are you referring to? Or is it "Freescale's info" what you say you got from BBRV?

Specifically, Freescale documentation that I'd had trouble locating provided by Bill Buck through power2people.

Addendum - I thought I ought to add that this is just a design exploration. My primary interest is still Freescale's soon to be released P5020DS evaluation board.

While the MPC8610 would make a nice basis for a low cost PPC board, I'm not sure there's a market for it.

[ Edited by Jim on 2011/3/23 13:52 ]

> My primary interest is still Freescale's soon to be released
> P5020DS evaluation board.

Maybe this could be an alternative (although they're obviously confused about the core in the P5):

Press release:
"Emerson Network Power [...] is announcing the [...] COMX-P5020 modules [...] The COMX-P5020 module features Freescale's first offerings with the 64-bit, e500mc core, the Freescale QorIQ P5020 dual-core processor operating at 2.0 GHz to target control plane and compute applications that require high single-threaded performance. All modules support one or two channels of 2GB DDR-1333 ECC SO-UDIMM and have 12 configurable SERDES lanes available for maximum flexibility. Highly flexible I/O includes 10G-XAUI, SRIO, GPIO, USB 2.0, PCI Express, Gigabit Ethernet, and real-time debug."

Resources:
- product page
- data sheet

If I read the block diagram on page 2 of the data sheet correctly it seems that the COMX-P5020 (as opposed to Freescale's P5020DS) actually can provide an 'x4 x4 x4' PCIe configuration and at the same time provide lanes for the two SATA controllers.

A quick glance on the system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyKd9ptwwWI

More information on the COMX-CAR-P1 carrier board for the COMX-P5020 module can be found on page 17 of this document.

> My primary interest is still Freescale's soon to be released
> P5020DS evaluation board.

Fact sheet available:

http://www.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/fact_sheet/P5020DSFS.pdf

Thanks Andreas,
I'm glad you have such a good memory for these things.
I might not have looked for this for several weeks otherwise.

P5020DS is currently available at Arrow for $4184.82.

> P5020DS is currently available at Arrow for $4184.82.

Future Electronics offers it for 4000 USD flat.


Edit: Freescale itself now as well.

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 10.03.2012 - 22:31 ]

Addendum:

> Future Electronics offers it for 4000 USD flat.

Since at least one month ago, the PowerQUICC and QorIQ Processor Selector Guide (last page) lists the P5040RDB (reference design board) at 1995 USD.

Andreas_Wolf,
Quote:


That is a much better price. Thanks for keeping track Andreas. I hadn't thought to revisit that.
Pity the processor doesn't support AltiVec.

> Pity the processor doesn't support AltiVec.

The T4240RDB has already been announced as "Low Cost 1U development platform", (to be) developed by NEXCOM.

http://www.freescale.com/files/training_pdf/FTF/2012/americas/WBNR_FTF12_NET_F0027.pdf (page 21)
http://www.freescale.co.jp/event/ftfj/2012/technicalsession/pdf/FTF12_NET_F0027_Don_rev2-180.pdf (page 21)
http://www.freescale.com/files/training_pdf/FTF/2012/americas/WBNR_FTF12_NET_F0009.pdf (page 45)
http://2012ftf.ccidnet.com/pdf/0027.pdf (page 15)
http://www.freescale.com/files/training/doc/dwf/DWF13_AMF_NET_T0027_Ottawa.pdf (page 21)
http://www.power.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/QorIQ-T4xxx-Slides.pdf (page 21)


Edit: added another PDF link

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 24.01.2014 - 23:44 ]

Cool. I've never used rack mounted equipment before, but if it really is low cost that would be a nice change of pace.

> if it really is low cost that would be a nice change of pace.

Seeing as that very same phrase has been used for the P5040RDB of which we already know the price, I think we can estimate what "low cost" means for Freescale in this context.

http://www.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/reports_presentations/P5040OVRVWPRES.pdf (page 9)
http://www.freescale.com/files/training_pdf/FTF/2012/americas/WBNR_FTF12_NET_F0009.pdf (page 35)

Addendum:

> Press release:
> "Emerson Network Power [...] is announcing the [...] COMX-P5020 modules [...]"
>
> Resources:
> - product page
> - data sheet
> [...]
> More information on the COMX-CAR-P1 carrier board for the COMX-P5020
> module can be found on page 17 of this document.

Another company offering the QorIQ P5020 on a COM Express solution:

Press release:
"Kontron announces the extension of its Computer-on-Module (COM) portfolio with a new family of COM Express compliant Power Architecture processor modules with Freescales QorIQ [...] 64bit P5020 (COMe-cP5020) processor. [...] the pin-out relates to the COM Express pin-out type 6 as far as possible. The main differences are the flexible SerDes lanes offered by the QorIQ series and the missing video interfaces. [...] The Kontron COMe-cP5020 [...] is based on the Freescale QorIQ P5020 dual-core power processor with 2.0 GHz. Featuring 64 bit technology, it integrates up to 8 GByte of soldered DDR3 RAM at 1333 MHz and ECC. [...] In terms of I/Os, the new modules interface the QorIQ-specific I/Os towards the carrierboard: Besides USB 2.0 ports there are also [...] Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. Flexible interface support is guaranteed by [...] 18 [...] SERDES lanes, which can be configured according to application-specific needs in a whole range of different combinations for example as PCIe x4, sRIO x4 or Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface (SGMII). The Kontron COMe-bP5020 offers in addition XAUI and SATA interfaces. [...] First samples of the Kontron [...] COMe-cP5020 are available now."

Resources:
- product page
- data sheet
- user guide
- http://www.kontron.com/images/products/3712/3712prod_come-bp5020.jpg

More information on the COMe Eval Carrier QorIQ carrier board for the COMe-bP5020 module can be found there:
- product page
- quick start guide
- http://www.kontron.com/images/products/3714/3714prod_comeevalcarrierqoriq.jpg
- http://www.kontron.com/images/products/3714/3714prod_sub1.jpg
- http://www.kontron.com/images/products/3714/3714prod_sub2.jpg
- http://www.kontron.com/images/products/3714/3714prod_sub3.jpg
- http://www.kontron.com/images/products/3714/3714prod_sub4.jpg

Update:

>> Pity the processor doesn't support AltiVec.

> The T4240RDB has already been announced as "Low Cost 1U development platform",
> (to be) developed by NEXCOM.

Meanwhile, the T4240QDS has been made available by Freescale for the bargain price of 4995* USD:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=T4240QDS
http://www.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/fact_sheet/T4240QDSFS.pdf
http://www.freescale.com/files/graphic/block_diagram/T4240QDS_BD.jpg


Edit: lowered to 3995 USD

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 31.07.2013 - 00:47 ]

Andreas_Wolf,
Quote:

That's about typical for Freescale.
Of course they'll also let you have the schematics, so the basis for a board is available.


Edit - Oh, looking at it, its pretty neat, but purely a development system.
Far more complicated then we need. And I'd give up one of those X4 slots to have an X8 slot.
I'd love to see how well the dedicated hardware could handle audio and video codecs.

[ Edited by Jim 30.12.2012 - 22:48 ]

> I'd love to see how well the dedicated hardware could handle audio and video codecs.

Dedicated hardware for A/V encoding and decoding on the T4240QDS? Which one should that be?

"Compression/Decompression Acceleration at up to 20 Gbps"

> "Compression/Decompression Acceleration at up to 20 Gbps"

We already discussed the purpose of the Decompression/Compression Engine (DCE):

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=8917&start=37

I can't see how what it does can help encoding or decoding A/V data.

That's odd Andreas as I can see multiple applications for it. A significant part of the encoding and decoding of A/V and audio data involves compression and decompression.
Until we have the full specs on how this components works, it would be foolish to dismiss it as not having broader applications.

> I can see multiple applications for it.

Me too, but none of those involve A/V decoding or encoding.

> A significant part of the encoding and decoding of A/V and
> audio data involves compression and decompression.

True, but which specific A/V codecs make use of any of the algorithms supported by the DCE?

> Until we have the full specs on how this components works, it
> would be foolish to dismiss it as not having broader applications.

You mean the list of DCE-supported algorithms presented in the documents that have been published so far may not be complete and the DCE may support more algorithms, including such that are useful for A/V encoding or decoding?

Yes, Andreas,
I saying that until we have a full understanding of all that this unit can do, we can not count out the possibility that it could aid in conventional encoding and decoding applications.
What interests me more is the possibility that new methods, better suited to this component, might be created.






[

>> You mean the list of DCE-supported algorithms presented in the documents
>> that have been published so far may not be complete and the DCE may support
>> more algorithms, including such that are useful for A/V encoding or decoding?

> Yes

So you think that Freescale conceals what the DCE really can do at this point in time when you can already purchase the hardware?

> until we have a full understanding of all that this unit can do, we
> can not count out the possibility that it could aid in conventional
> encoding and decoding applications.

I don't understand. What you mean "conventional encoding and decoding applications"? Encoding/decoding means using a specific (set of) algorithm(s) to transform a bitstream into another bitstream under certain rules. In case of the DCE, algorithms mentioned specifically by Freescale have been implemented in hardware to accelerate the transformation. What's "conventional" about specific algorithms?

> What interests me more is the possibility that new methods,
> better suited to this component, might be created.

Huh? You mean that somebody should invent A/V codecs that use algorithms that the DCE implements, establish those new codecs as a standard and make the world use those codecs, so that subsequently the DCE could be used for decoding/encoding A/V data? Sounds like a plan ...not ;-) Thing is that the algorithms implemented by the DCE may not be suited for encoding of A/V data. Refer to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEFLATE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gzip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zlib
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64

As you can see, the first 3 are essentially just applications of LZ77 and Huffman. All of them, i.e. LZ77, Huffman and Base64, are *lossless* encoding algorithms. Thus, I can only repeat that I can't see where A/V encoding or decoding could fit here.