Yokemate of Keyboards
Posts: 12242 from 2003/5/22
From: Germany
>>> off the self x64 is out of the question, so until custom x86 becomes cheaper
>>> than custom PPC, let's stay with the PPC
>> Why must it be custom x86(-64) instead of off-the-shelf x86(-64)?
> Normal off the self x86 motherboards have production lifecycle of three months or so.
> [...] Industrial x86 boards have longer availability with higher price etc...
It's still cheaper to use industrial off-the-shelf x86 boards than custom x86 boards.
>> And if we're talking about custom boards, then why shouldn't x86(-64) be cheaper
>> than PPC
> Only recently there has been x86 SoC chips with PCIex4 etc, so the board design
> would most likely require more components.
Why more components? Intel offers multicore x86(-64) SoCs with 8 PCIe lanes, USB, SATA and GbE for 60 USD. That's about the same feature set as PPC SoCs (ignoring PPC's DIU, which isn't suited for real desktop use anyway). And Intel also offers multicore x86(-64) SoCs with 4 PCIe lanes, USB, SATA and 3D GPU for mere 30 USD. Here you'd only need a cheap separate Ethernet chip. Audio would be needed separately with all those solutions, including PPC SoCs.
From AMD you can get multicore x86(-64) SoCs with 8 PCIe lanes, USB, SATA, GbE (using one PCIe lane), HD audio and 3D GPU for 70 USD. That's really all-in-one.
> from what I have found, usable x86 is not any cheaper than a usable PPC.
Well, 30 USD for an Intel x86 SoC with 3D GPU (only lacking Ethernet compared to PPC) or 70 USD for an AMD x86 SoC with really everything needed. I think this would come out cheaper than PPC.