Yokemate of Keyboards
Posts: 4977 from 2009/1/28
From: Delaware, USA
Quote:Andreas_Wolf wrote:
>> Let's make our own computer then!
> Andreas, what do you think?
See
my answer to jcmarcos' suggestion.
> If someone want to step up and pitch in ten grand or so, we can start slogging
> through the manufacturers datasheet and compile the massive amount of
> detailed info need just to start.
I don't think jcmarcos referred to designing a new board but rather to using existing eval boards in order to build new Power Architecture based computer systems.
Oh! I get it now. He's never priced a PPC evaluation board.
Remember the $4000 I was quoted for the FreescaleHPCN-MPC8641D (Matt said he got his during the period they were 'discounted' to the oh so affordable price of $2000)..
Why aren't PPC evaluation board commonly used to build practical systems?
I'll avoid posting this in the caps I want to use, because they're too damned expensive!.
The odd thing is I got the impression (after a lot of work) that if I was serious about producing something with their product, Freescale would have given me the layout files and design info.
That's kind of why I was curious about jcmarco's comment about building a computer.
Semiconductor manufacturers don't want to sell you motherboards (those are design examples - proof of concept). They want to sell you the components to populate motherboards.
This is where we need someone as foolhardy (in a kind of admirable way) like Treavor who is willing to take a potential loss on a vanity project.
I really DID think he meant "build a computer". Believe it or not I've been around long enough for that to really mean to me "design, finance, build and sell" a computer. I've been part of that kind of operation before and you can take a royal shellacking on it.
I think you were right when you first mentioned that we'd end up with something as expensive as the X1000 (which I like, but will never buy).
This is where ARM starts to look seductive. Remember the last ARM evaluation board I mentioned to you? $200!
Find me a $200 PPC board (let alone a manufacturers evaluation board).
[ Edited by Jim on 2010/12/30 2:37 ]
[ Edited by Jim on 2010/12/30 2:38 ]
[ Edited by Jim on 2010/12/30 2:39 ]
"Never attribute to malice what can more readily explained by incompetence"
