Just noticed BBRV put a few pictures from China in their blog. Some group photo taken in the Freescale lab (lots of Pegasos ODW's around), Sven Luther doing a presentation, and under one picture it says "The beginnings of a HIGH volume product headed to the market soon!". Well, we'll see about that I guess, but perhaps something really cool could come out of this China effort?

http://bbrv.blogspot.com

[ Edited by takemehomegrandma on 2005/5/3 23:17 ]

[ Edited by Darth_X on 2005/5/4 15:05 ]

Glad you noticed that. Here is another:

group3_50pc.jpg

You can probably recognize Gerald, Raquel and I. The other person is the webmaster of penguinppc, Hollis Blanchard.

We won't tell you what Gerald is showing, but it is running on MorphOS and a 7447A CPU card and it was very fast!

R&B

[ Edited by Genesi on 2005/5/3 22:40 ]

I've been waiting on news from China! Certainly, we all hope for much higher volumes of the Pegasos to be produced bringing more competative pricing to all.

There is plenty of "News" to tell, but we will be waiting for the Freescale Technology Forum to do that. We will be there in force and are a Gold Sponsor of the Event.

That picture of us with Gerald is from the week before China when we were in Austin to prepared the demos for China with Freescale. In the meanwhile, here is a surprise picture for MZ fans:

sven4_50pc.jpg

That's Sven again... with let's call it the Pegasos 2.5 (Discovery III and 7448) running Debian, but MorphOS works too...

Things still are moving at a step-by-step pace, but the steps are getting bigger. We have shipped machines or boards nearly every week to somewhere for months. Here is a report on the last batch, in case you missed it.

Raquel and Bill

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BTW, how is that 7447A CPU card coming along? Is it close upon being released now? Is there anything holding it back? You dare to set a date?

Any more news from China/Japan you want to share?

@bbrv

Great news, and congratulations on the expansion of the business.

Question is, when can I buy a Pegasos 2.5?

ps My closest friend is teaching at a University in China, he's British and said where he lives is China's richest province. Dunno if he may be of any assistance for you, I can ask him if you like?

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You've got to be kiddin' me!??

Discovery III ???

7448?????

No kidding! But, what will probably be our biggest seller ever will feature this instead of the Discovery III with the 7448. It will support the dual core. We are working on that now too. Plus, there is more! OK, enough for now...wait until the Freescale Technology Forum !

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And...
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Ok, now where's that damn dancing banana whan I need it?!?

Jokes aside, I hope things can improve and get better again. I
appreciate the work the MorphOS team has done and is doing, and I
appreciate the efforts of those at bPlan!

Kind regards,
Andrea

Hi BBRV...looks like you have been busy :) Very nice news you bring. With MorphOS back on track and new hardware on the horizon, the future is looking bright! :)

That looks pretty promising. MOS-Team gave us the 2nd update in a
short time, BPlan and Genesi challenging China with new hardware.
Well, we had worse times...

Keep up your good work.

Very nice to see progress on the Hardware Front as Well...
I never wanted My Peg II to be the last in the line anyways
I'll need something new to buy this year anyways, What else would
I do with my money

Nice, things just get better and better for the Pegasos! I cant wait
to see where we are in another few years!

I knew, I don't save money without any reason I want to spend them for a new Pegasos!

Bye, MarK.

Given the development and distribution time needed, wouldn't it be wiser to go for freescale's MPC8641 or MPC8641D (dual core!) CPUs, and drop the need for a northbridge already?
I've read some terrific specs in freescale's web site for dual core CPUs, including the presence of an integrated memory controller, capable of managing Dual 64b DDR2, 667MHz with ECC, and local interfaces like Dual PCI Express, x1/x2/x4/x8, 2.0Gb/s per lane.
The very 7448 (the step after Pegasos 2.5 with 7447A) has none of these features.
What do you think?

@jcmarcos,

If you want to wait months for the next thread with photos of this fabled board, then you can wait for the dual core processor.

We have a 7448 and a Discovery III right now :) and are happy to work with the Tsi108 too.

As Bill said, the next board is being designed with dual core in mind, but the 7448 and a northbridge (and DDR2 and gigabit ethernet and and..) in the meantime.

--
Matt Sealey <matt-genesi.co.uk>
Manager, Genesi, Developer Relations

@jcmarcos:

Yes please!
BUT Freescale said it will only be released in 2006 and who knows which integration and verification problems might still appear - the 7448 could be a simple drop in for the 7447/7447A while the MPC8641(D) requires a complete board redesign and verification cycle (including new drivers) to bring it to the market in a form that would be attractive to most of us.

[ Edited by tarbos on 2005/5/4 14:10 ]

The 8641 will be an amazing piece of silicon, but there is exactly one major problem:
It's not available yet and it won't be in "two more weeks" but more in around 6 - 12 month. Add a development phase to it and you will end up in an availablity of a Pegasos using it in early 2006 if all will go optimal.

The 7447A is available now, the 7448 in samples (IIRC) and can be used straightly, since it is pin compatible. Also the 7448 consumes lower energy per square mm/chip (not die) (the 8641 will come in a 33mm x 33 mm ceramic housing)(uses only the e600 core while the 8641(D) uses also the controller parts). I.e. the 7448 can be cooled passively (<10W @ 1.4 Ghz) while the 8641 most likely not (15 W @ ~1.5 Ghz).

I more than sure that the BPlan guys know as much about the 8641(D) as one can know about it (exept those who are designing the 8641 - they should know more) and will utilize it when it will become available.

Anyway, I am looking very forward to the 8641 - it will be an amazing piece of silicon.


edit: typos

[ Edited by Zylesea on 2005/5/4 14:14 ]

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I think that the 7447A (to be used in the newer CPU card modules for the PegasosII) and the 7448 (used in the so called Pegasos II.5 togheter with the Marvell Discovery III) have the big advantage to be available right now, so that you can see, according to Genesi's words, already working prototypes. It would be nice to hear about the possible release date of these things, though! And I remember I heard something about the adoption of the MPC8641 being talked at the SNDF of last September, as soon as the CPU would have been availbale. And we also heard something about the old Eclipsis project back then.
But I guess that we'll have to wait for the next SNDF to know more...

And finally we can be happy that things seem to be moving faster again for Genesi. Then let's hope that, as they say, the high tide will rise all the boats. In an ideal world, everyone would win and we would live happily ever after!

Kind regards,
Andrea

All this talk of a new mobo sounds very exciting. I can't wait to see what the final specs will be. I wish it the best of success.

So, as Matt Sealey from Genesi pointed out, we almost have Pegasos 2.5, with a freescale MPC7448 CPU and Marvell Discovery III chipset.
That's a bloody good thing, even better if it can be mass produced. Oh, wait, to mass-produce something you gotta be mass-selling it! Well, let's see what can BBRV do about it.
Now, back to the Pegasos III (MPC But, if I think about it slowly and calm (who could ever do that!?), my problem is: What could that Pegasos III, with MPC8641(D) CPU, be good for us? It would position it in a very different market. Home users don't need that massive power.
No, crunching RC-72 keys does not qualify as "need". The demand of "more" must be carefully studied and considered. We must not fall into that category of "it's never enough", that's no good. Computers are for doing something, not just power for the sake of it.

Excellent news!

I'm very keen on buying one of these new Pegs.
I'm hoping that the next generation mainboard
will have less height to better fit in a flat case.


Cheers
Gunnar

As the MPC8641 doesn't require a northbridge future boards will be very cheap!

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Look closely at the picture of the II.V
The CPU is on the motherboard by the looks of it.

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That's VERY INTERESTING, specially for stuff like STB and those small servers...

PS: What about 2nd GigE for Pegasos II with some addon? What about Pegasos 2.5 with more than 3 GigE (very useful for use it as server...)?