I made these comments on a thread I started in hardware forum. It is really a general topic so I have place here instead.

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"I see there was comment on the MPC5121. Definitely better options but is this a supported future direction for Genesi/Morph? I think I read somewhere that there were complications in 5121 development to the point of abandoning it. I have yet to pick up on what any future hardware platforms for Morph clearly will be. In regards to Efika, although not a long term solution, it is cheap and hopefully becasue of this the MorphOS user base is expanding and thus increasing overall Morph momentum. I think it is sound strategy at this point. Other crowd has the SAM board and it is a very nice board but also expensive and potentially limiting to user base expansion.

The 'Mini' port looks interesting just because it is a more powerful package (7447a w/ Altivec + generally good board features). Is this port a method of extending Morph user base without having to reinvent hardware? (seems perfectly reasonable) Or is the port being used as an experimental platform for a long term future hardware strategy that utilizes 'Mini' design aspects? (also seems like reasonable strategy and a good use of massive effort that must have went into the 'Mini' port)

Morph is an elegant system in my opinion. As an engineer (non-computing field), I can appreciate the logic behind how Morph is being put together. Clean-Efficient-Capable-Portable, etc... In the ideal situation I do not see why it couldn't be mainstreamed. My hope is that it does evolve into this. It's too sensible of a system to be a hobby market only entity."



[ Edited by Genesi on 2009/1/22 1:03 ]

This statement was listed in openSUSE site: Seems like a good combination to me.

"The MPC8610HPCD evaluation system includes an ULi1575 southbridge, 512MB of RAM and a 80GB SATA HDD"

Genesi is currently focusing on ARM technology.

Unless MorphOS-Team finds another PowerPC partner,
we are limited* used Apple hardware.

* By limited, I don't really mean in a negative way. The
Mac Mini and PowerBook ports are probably the best
things that have ever happened to MorphOS. IMO

@Ironfist

As a Hardware/firmware/etc.. development firm what choices does someone like Genesi have, when their main partner (Freescale) is also putting emphasis on the Arm architecture for Consumer markets?

I know this doesn't help Morphos as the system is designed around the PowerPC... I may be naive, but I can only think that Genesi must move with the market or be left behind with no one using there design or tech?

Wasn't mac situation similar few years back? How long can MorphOS sustain this run? What other PPC option would exist, outside of the game consoles(not bad at the ghz rate) and who would distribute the board set up? Remember the Sam option fell through.
I'm waiting on my macmini to arrive anyday now. I think our guys have options, which they're considering. They usually do. I'll be around to support whichever option arises.

I guess this makes Aros work very important.

well, when talking about aros... how far is ambient compilable under aros?
as ambient is the most important front-end...


bye, MarK.

@MarK

Seems someone tried once, but gave up then, according to Zapek:

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ironfist, Thanks for clearing up the hardware questions I had. Arm is definitely cool and gaining huge industry momentum. I can understand why Freescale and thus Genesi are moving towards it. It is simply a very capable hardware design that makes good business sense.

So in the situation of no new Morph friendly hardware from Genesi at least, it would appear that the PPC Mac move was done for survival. This is probably a very good decision on Morph team's part. It keeps things going until hopefully, something non-Mac reliant can get worked out in the future.

This leads me to a question. Correct me if I am wrong but didn't Genesi release the PegasosPPC design out as open source? And would they allow this thing to be built by some other hardware company for Morph hardware platform purposes?

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Apple possible future PA Semi machines maybe ?

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The next (very good) step is the mac mini version. For the future, let's hope something good and viable can come next.

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Yes, it seems so.