(Posting this in the "off-topic" forum since it's not directly related to MorphOS)

The new Efika MX Open Client (not the smartbook) is up for sale now.

http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2009/08/efikamx-on-sale-now.html

http://www.powerdeveloper.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=12634

Fascinating!
I like..!
A simple design, interesting specs.....

For more:

Efika MX

Thanks takemehomegrandma for the news!

Lovely design.. Did you buy it already? :)

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Talking to me? No, I haven't. But I will, for many reasons.

A nice device - and what a shame it's not PPC (or what ashame that MorphOS doesn't run on ARM).

Man if I had the spare cash I would pick one up now! That thing looks awesome!

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It is the latter :)

As for purchasing one, consider doing it sooner rather than later. We have an order backlog that means, first come first served. If you order today you could have it by next Friday, but if you order tomorrow, you could wait until the end of September... a set of units will be winging it's way from Taiwan to alleviate the backlog, but of course if they are still on the way, they are not going to ship out until we get them.

[ Edited by Neko on 2009/8/26 4:03 ]

MorphOS does not run on it... Nice but useless for me, for now at least.

[ Edited by Krashan on 2009/8/26 6:36 ]

Agree. Nice, but totally useless for our community yet another piece of hw.

On Morphos.net site we can read:

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Is the ARM which is in that Efika II is the same as Freescale MobileGT? Sorry for a lame question but im not really familiar with that familiy of processors.

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No, not at all. MobileGT is a platform and alliance around a family of PPC processors, starting with the MPC5200B (used in the first Efika) and followed by 5121e ("LimePC" etc), and three other CPU's that has yet to be released (if they ever will be released remains to be seen).

What the quote above refers to, is the initial port to the MobileGT evaluation system (see this and this picture). This was before the Efika port.

The "Efika MX" products (Open Client and Smartbook) is based on the i.MX515 CPU, which is ARM and not PPC.


[ Edited by takemehomegrandma on 2009/8/26 16:52 ]

The iMX515 targets the same automotive markets as the MPC5xxx lines did; and more often than not is cheaper and has better performance (even the i.MX37 does).

It remains to be seen if any MPC5xxx processors will be produced in the future but seeing as the entire division at Freescale was disbanded and now most of the engineers are working on i.MX or at other companies.. and Freescale's PPC product group focusses on network and imaging processors rather than automotive.. the i.MX515 (or any i.MX processor) is your best bet for an automotive design for modern vehicles. Or phones. Or anything, really that isn't a high performance gigabit router or a litho printer.

As for the Efika MX being useless for the Amiga Community - the AROS ARM port was started before the team even had hardware. With successful completion of the Efika 5200B bounty, Michal Schulz is working on fixing up the build and implementing the OS. You will get your Amiga-like OS for sure. Once AROS is ported, there is an agreement in place between AROS and MorphOS which allows some code-sharing (for instance Intuition was based on AROS, although probably does not share the same code anymore) so that will spur on MorphOS development if the developers do choose to take this direction.

An ARM port of MorphOS would open up a LOT of markets including Smartphones etc. - you thought running Android on your HTC Dream was a great idea, what about if you could run MorphOS 3.0? :D

You thought MorphOS for Mac Mini was cool? What about MorphOS for iPhone?

Either way, whether this happens is solely up to the MorphOS developers and NOT Genesi. We may fund some of the effort but they have to agree to it first and in all practicality money is only part of it; you guys have to really want it, first.


[ Edited by Neko on 2009/8/27 0:42 ]

> MobileGT is a platform and alliance around a family of PPC
> processors, starting with the MPC5200B

After the MobileGT alliance was founded in 2000, the first accompanying processor was the MGT5100 in 2002, followed by the MPC5200 in 2003. The MPC5200B didn't come before 2005.

> followed by [...] three other CPU's that has yet to be released
> (if they ever will be released remains to be seen).

According to Freescale, the MPC5123 is already available in volume.

Regarding the MPC5125:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=MPC5125&releaseLevel=Preview
http://www.freescale.com/files/graphic/block_diagram/2975_MPC5125_BD.jpg
http://www.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/prod_brief/MPC5125PB.pdf
http://www.silicontkx.com/ADS5125.html
http://www.silicontkx.com/MPC5125ADS.htm
http://www.silicontkx.com/MPC5125SOM.htm
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Afreescale.com+ads5125
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alauterbach.com+mpc5125

So the MPC5125 seems to be at least sampling.

And for the MPC5130, you could ask Freescale's Terry Gong :-)


Edit: Added link to another ADS5125 page at STx.

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf on 2010/8/19 4:22 ]

Neko wrote:
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Well, I for one would not be interested in replacing my iPhone software with MorphOS on my new 3G-S iPhone. For me MorphOS is a desktop OS and will always be that until it is available on a decent laptop too. I think many MorphOS users are like me and want powerful desktop replacement hardware and mid to high performance notebook and laptop hardware to run our favorite OS on. Of course we would also like it to be energy efficient and a cool looking design with tons of features and ports and support all kinds of industry standard peripherals that can be bought off the shelf easily and cheap.

The iPhone is an amazing device with a great OS and user interface that serves its intended purpose. I doubt replacing or adding MorphOS to any phone, least of all the iPhone, would be very useful unless there were a literal army of programmers creating content and programs that would be useful on a phone device for MorphOS. That is not likely to happen though.

Still, the new ARM based Efika platform is a nice device and I hope it is successful and finds many buyers once AROS is released for it.

> The iMX515 targets the same automotive markets as the MPC5xxx lines did

While it is true that there are i.MX processors which are about to substitute certain MPC5xxx regarding automotive, your claim has several flaws:

1. The MPC55xx/56xx (automotive: engine management and driver assistance) are not supposed to be substituted by any i.MX. It's only the MPC51xx/52xx (automotive infotainment) your claim fits.
2. Freescale don't target the i.MX515 at automotive at all, but at consumer market (netbooks, nettops).
3. The only i.MX processors targeted at automotive are some i.MX25/31/35. There they serve infotainment purposes only (like the MPC51xx/52xx regarding automotive).

Granted they're not drive train chips or so but, automotive is automotive. Every i.MX chip is listed in the 32-bit Processors -> Automotive section.

Freescale have reorganized so the traditional divisions between departments are gone. If a chip is suitable it can be sold for it.. the reason the processors you mentioned are specifically targeted there are down to longevity (auto manufacturers demand a long life of support on the chip for replacement parts and repair) and automotive has a different temperature range standard to desktop.

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I think you overestimate what "many" actually is.

> automotive is automotive.

No, there's a significant application difference between engine management and driver assistance on the one hand and infotainment on the other.

> Every i.MX chip is listed in the 32-bit Processors -> Automotive
> section.

Do you have a link? Here definitely only i.MX251/255/31/351/355/356 are listed under automotive, while i.MX27/353/357/515 are clearly *not*. i.MX515 is listed under consumer applications only, and the i.MX515 product page only lists netbooks and nettops as target applications, as I already mentioned.

> If a chip is suitable it can be sold for it.

Sure, but obviously Freescale don't currently think the i.MX515 to be suited for automotive, thus they currently don't target it at the same automotive markets as (they did with) the MPC51xx/52xx, and certainly never as (they do with) the MPC55xx/56xx.

> the reason the processors you mentioned are specifically targeted
> there are down to longevity (auto manufacturers demand a long life
> of support on the chip for replacement parts and repair) and
> automotive has a different temperature range standard to desktop.

You mean the i.MX515 doesn't meet these requirements for automotive? So why do you argue at all?

@Andreas_Wolf

You really build your whole perception of the world entirely on URL's, don't you?

> You really build your whole perception of the world entirely on
> URL's, don't you?

*Online* world, yes. Linking is the nature of the WWW, so why should I repeat things and copy information over and over again instead of doing the WWW concept justice and linking them? :-)

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EXACTLY! I hate when people generate loads of redundant information, by repeting things and carry over endless strings of messages just to add a single phrase.

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A very good point for new hopes for MorphOS. I feel glad that Genesi still bothers with us, while they left to sail more profitable seas long ago. What Matt says indeed could happen. But it's all up to MorphOS team decisions, which in turn is up to their resources. They are real life persons after all (really! )

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I bet you know how to tease people, Matt. I think that installing MorphOS (or any other AmigaOS descendant) in a computer that is not a weirdo-cum-from-scrapyard, and can be bought at a regular store would be something too shocking for us (ex-)amigans. I bet few people would resist being faced to it, and would faint instantly in front of the store assitant, while holding the device in the hand, and remembering decades of misery and suffering finding computers to run our favourite operating system.

You know why many people praised Genesi, don't you. Because this company gave us computers to have fun with. Sounds nerdy...

YESSSS!

@Andreas

Click Products->32-bit Microcontrollers and then from the menu on the left of the new page, click 32-bit Automotive, and see i.MX.. every i.MX family.

I'm not going to argue with you, you have too strict of a worldview to take in any information. Freescale do not care what you use the processor for, as long as you can use it. i.MX applications processors are specifically designed for multimedia, but there are plenty which have very little multimedia capability - up to the point that they can drive simple things such as dash displays (simple dial displays etc.) rather than playing DVD video or vectorized GPS navigation maps. But you can find an i.MX for those too..

The MPC5xxx exists right now I am sure only to please auto manufacturers who have an already-existing very large codebase.

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Why do you feed the thread with nonsense like this? Whatever platform AROS supports has absolutely zero effect on MorphOS as they don't share that particular codebase (and they certainly don't share goals; AROS doesn't have to retain compatibility).

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Certainly, however basing such a port on the Efika MX makes no sense whatsoever, it'd basically be market suicide unless the MX could somehow be coupled with MorphOS as a complete (and most importantly; widely attractive) product, ditching pretty much all compatibility (ie, not MorphOS as you know it today).

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I'm not sure the people who keep on ranting about this really do know what they want, and if something feasible was offered them they probably wouldn't want it anyway, so please just stop fueling this so-called debate.


- CISC

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wow, talk about negative attitude... you know binary compatibility with a 90s cpu/OS isn't everything a user asks...

[ Edited by feanor on 2009/8/27 17:12 ]

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There are lots of things happening in the mobile devices department right now. Speaking of Apple - they are about to release their first touch screen tablet computer, a mixture between iPhone and laptops. They have this "Codename Cocktail" thing going with EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music Group to create some kind of extended, digital "Music Album". More is coming. Yesterday I saw a newcomer mentioned in a Freescale newsletter, Isabella Products, with some similar product. A whole new category of digital life style products could be upon us - bigger and ahelluvalot more feature rich than small media players and phones, and at the same time a lot more mobile than laptops. And it's all about ARM, only ARM makes it possible.

You speak about Apple, but they have their own OS and software, and they are building a whole ecosystem (and an Industry!) of little applications, widgets, media and services around this. But other (smaller) potential manufacturers that would want to enter this market lacks all this, which is an entry barrier for them. It's a new, unoccupied territory for OS's. There is a gap between the traditional embedded OS's and the traditional desktop/server OS's, and I think MorphOS (EDIT: or indeed AROS) *could* bridge this gap, since it's as lean and resource efficient as many of the embedded OS's, but offers a lot more than these OS's traditionally does, features that stretches quite far towards the desktop side. Here is MorphOS's strength IMHO, and if the MorphOS team has any commercial ambitions whatsoever, I think it's in this area (the "new mobility") they should focus. And if so, then ARM is the way to go.

If they on the other hand consider MorphOS to be a serious commercial competitor on the desktop OS market (or the server market for that matter), then x86 is the logical way to go, so they at least can compete with Windows and MacOS on the same terms (Hardware wise at least, if you look at OS features and SW applications, then you'll realize what a poor option MorphOS would be here, but at least it would be on the same HW arena).

Only if they forever will consider MorphOS to be nothing more than some hobby of theirs, something you dedicate a rainy afternoon of your free weekend when you are feeling bored, only then does it make sense to continue the PPC only route. If their ambitions aren't higher than that, then they can as well spend the next decade porting MorphOS to every single old PPC Mac model out there, because then nothing matters anyway.


[ Edited by takemehomegrandma on 2009/8/27 17:40 ]