Would be interesting to hear what the OS dev. Team thinks abot this?

Update:

> I think Applied Micro (X-Gene) or even Cavium (Project Thunder) might arrive in
> high-end ARM land before nVidia (Project Denver/Boulder).

Denver in 2015:
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8783&forum=3&start=54

Someone asked abot data amounts. I do some amateur videos and photos. Currently I need 1000GB only to store my videos and photos.

If you like a high quality and a (who knows) future proof video you film in 1080p with 50/60 fps. (Or minimum 720p 50/60 fps) then rhis raw material is used in your editing projects. When editing is ready you need to render the final video. For me, using Avid Studio, the Cuda GPU from Nvidia kicks in to make the rendering not take a lifetime. But in this level you easily get final rendered videos at 5-10 GB. For 30min video

Since everything needs to be backup - one project could be for example 10+7+10+7 = 34GB (Explanation: source, final, sourceCC, finalCC)

This is basically what I use a high end PC for. I rarely play games.

>> The third of the 3 architectures to be kept besides Power and ARM is probably ColdFire.

> AFAIK Coldfire only had one major customer and they switched to ARM a while back.

Seems you're right that Freescale is ditching ColdFire:

"a colleague of mine was in a meeting with Freescale last week and they're still focusing on PPC. But for MCUs, you can wave goodbye to anything that isn't ARM. So Coldfire and HC12 are finally retired."
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=37041&forum=25&start=80#704386

>"...So Coldfire and HC12 are finally retired."

I will miss Coldfire. It was small, cheap, and fairly powerful.
But the writing has been on the wall for years.
No general sales for the V5 and canceling development of the V6.

I always thought the V4 would make a nice basis for an SBC running a port of AROS68K.

Update:

> "In the last two years, we have implemented [...] Our multi-ISA SOC architectures:
> the industry’s first asymmetrical instruction set. Multi-core processors that incorporate
> both ARM and Power Architecture"
> http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/711065/000119312512204733/d343066dex992.htm

"In the embedded networking space, 2013 should be a pivotal year in the transition from single instruction set architectures or ISAs, to dual instruction set architectures. That is PowerPC, going to PowerPC plus ARM. These ARM cores will run application software on control planes. Our unique differentiation of offering both ARM and PowerPC processors on the same die today puts APM in a good position to lead the transition towards an all ARM-based infrastructure for the embedded space."
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/711065/000119312513186815/d529441dex992.htm

"...all ARM-based infrastructure for the embedded space"

Sounds like APM is getting out of the PPC business.

> Sounds like APM is getting out of the PPC business.

Yes, and they made no secret of this plan when they announced their X-Gene as long as 1.5 years ago:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7675&start=199
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7675&start=212

I wonder what they intend with the IP they acquired from IBM?

> I wonder what they intend with the IP they acquired from IBM?

What they acquired (as opposed to licensed) from IBM in 2004 were a bunch of PPC4xx SoC designs, all of which should be superseded and out of production today. I can't imagine that anyone would still be interested enough in those ancient SoCs to buy the related IP. So I guess it will simply stay with Applied Micro.
Their PPC4xx core license(s) will be good for several years to come during which they'll have manufactured and sell their recent PPC chips and maybe future dual-ISA (PPC+ARM) chips.

Sounds like a good survival strategy.
Their PPC products have not progressed nearly as quick as I thought they might a couple of years ago.

So, upon exit, is their anyone else besides IBM and Freescale in this market?

> Their PPC products have not progressed nearly as quick as I thought they might
> a couple of years ago.

Yes, they seem to phase out PPC with the PPC465 core. I had thought they would make the jump to the PPC476FP core, but didn't happen.

> is their anyone else besides IBM and Freescale in this market?

You mean the high-performance embedded PPC market? If so, there's still LSI with its Axxia line of SoCs. It was PPC-only (PPC476FP) originally but got ARM members (Cortex-A15) recently. So they're in a similar situation as Applied Micro, i.e. offering existing PPC chips for some years to come, but eventually switching completely to ARM and ditching PPC.

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7001&start=749

It has been awhile since I checked out LSI (a couple of decades actually).
They were one of the first companies to offer standardized libraries.
I never knew they had something like that in there portfolio.
Thanks/

Whoa!

http://www.lsi.com/products/networkingcomponents/Pages/AxxiaCommunicationProcessor5500.aspx

12 and 16 core A-15 processors?

It is like a nerd's wet dream.

I have pretty much ignored the 476FP.
Neat core. LSI has them running at 1.8 GHz (200MHz faster than IBM's original announcement). Not sure how they did that when IBM's L2 cache operates at 800MHz and has a maximum 2:1 CPU clock ratio.
Low wattage draw too.
A four core system with the L2 cache cores and the MPIC interupt controller, and addition I/O (PCIe, networking, USB, etc) would make a nice system,
But since we can not afford to get IBM to manufacture a semi-custom IC for us, I guess that is out of reach.

Correction = LSI lists processors "running at up to 2GHz".

Any idea why IBM does not offer this in a sandard product?

[ Edited by Jim 15.05.2013 - 03:34 ]

> LSI has them running at 1.8 GHz (200MHz faster than IBM's original announcement).

Yes, I mentioned this to you briefly some years back:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7001&start=292

> Not sure how they did that when IBM's L2 cache operates at 800MHz and
> has a maximum 2:1 CPU clock ratio.

I'd guess they simply run the cache at 900 MHz then :-)

> A four core system with the L2 cache cores and the MPIC interupt controller,
> and addition I/O (PCIe, networking, USB, etc) would make a nice system

Sounds exactly like a system using the Axxia ACP344x chip :-) Unfortunately, the chip lacks SATA.

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7001&start=482

> Correction = LSI lists processors "running at up to 2GHz".

That's what they say about the PPC476FP core. However, they only offer it in chips up to 1.8 GHz.

> Any idea why IBM does not offer this in a sandard product?

IBM waved goodbye to its PPC4xx chip business when they sold it to Applied Micro in 2004 in order to focus on the PPC4xx core business (no pun intended).

Slashdot - BeagleBone Black I wonder how fond the devs are of open firmware / device tree peripheral description...

As always with ARM boards, I'll be more interested when they figure out that onboard memory and flash is stupid because they can fail and ought to be upgradable and give me a damn SATA connector already! I wouldn't mind being able to choose my own pci-e graphics card either...

Those low end boards never do it for me.
But Samsung almost got me to buy a Galaxy S4, and I was that interested in it as a phone.

> give me a damn SATA connector already

Wandboard Quad for 129 USD:

http://www.wandboard.org/index.php/details

Update:

>> I think Applied Micro (X-Gene) or even Cavium (Project Thunder) might arrive in
>> high-end ARM land before nVidia (Project Denver/Boulder).

> Denver in 2015:
> https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8783&forum=3&start=54

X-Gene now here for real:

http://www.mitac.com/news/News_228.aspx
http://semiaccurate.com/2013/06/05/amcc-x-gene-64-bit-silicon-spotted-in-the-wild/


Edit:
http://www.apm.com/news/appliedmicro-announces-general-availability-of-x-gene-system-development-ki/

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 30.10.2013 - 23:57 ]

Addendum:

> Their PPC4xx core license(s) will be good for several years to come during which
> they'll have manufactured and sell their recent PPC chips and maybe future
> dual-ISA (PPC+ARM) chips.

Summary of the current status of Power Architecture at Applied Micro:

"We continue to market our processor products based on Power Architecture. Developed by IBM, Power Architecture is the leading standard computing platform within the communications market for high-performance embedded systems. Many of our customers' products require embedded computing solutions for managing control plane and data plane functionality. Our products combine the embedded central processing unit ("CPU") with peripheral functionality to create optimum solutions for applications such as wireless access points, residential gateways, wireless base-stations, storage controllers, network attached storage, network switches and routing products, and multi-function printers. Products based on Power Architecture are broadly deployed and continue to be designed into major telecommunications, consumer, and networking equipment. Our PACKETpro family leverages the general purpose embedded computing capabilities of Power Architecture in combination with technologies derived from our portfolio of traffic management and packet computing products to create solutions that are ideally suited for converged Internet Protocol-based networks. As part of our SLIMpro PowerPC ISA product offering, we developed an asymmetric multiprocessing architecture that combines the ARM 32-bit and PowerPC 32-bit cores. This combination has enabled enhanced features for security, power management and offload capabilities. [...] We are one of the leading suppliers of embedded processors and SoCs. Our embedded processors are widely deployed in a variety of critical applications in target markets such as wireless LAN, residential, data centers and enterprise. In networking equipment such as edge, core and enterprise routers, our embedded processors handle overall system maintenance and management functions. Versions of our processors are also targeted at large opportunities in RAID storage processing, multi-function printers and a variety of other embedded applications. In wireless LAN applications, our embedded processors are installed in a significant share of all enterprise class access points shipped worldwide. Our existing products utilize IBM's Power Architecture processor cores in various speed grades. These cores are integrated with various peripheral functionality to create specialized SoC product solutions. In fiscal 2012, we introduced the APM8669x “Black Mamba”, the highest performance member of our second generation of PACKETpro embedded processors. While PACKETpro is our second-generation of embedded processors, it is the first to feature offload acceleration of critical features at performance levels up to 1.3 GHz. The innovative subsystem design features the Scalable Lightweight Intelligent Management processor, or SLIMpro, to enable breakthrough flexibility in power management, protected asymmetrical multi-processing, failover protection, resiliency and end-to-end security for a wide range of mission-critical applications in wireless and wired networking, multi-function printer, industrial, network-attached storage, consumer and enterprise access point markets. Additional members of the PACKETpro family include “Green Mamba,” “Diamond Back”, “Keelback”, and “Catalina.” Our current embedded processor customers include Brocade, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Kyocera, Netgear, Q-Logic, Toshiba TEC and Western Digital."
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/711065/000144530513001456/amcc0331201310-k.htm

Thanks for editing that monster down to the points that matter to us. I wonder if a combination PPC/ARM core product would be one way for us to transition over?I

Update:

> in terms of 64-bit ARMv8 (AArch64) cores, there is announced so far:
> - Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 from ARM Ltd.
> - Denver from nVidia
> - X-Gene from Applied Micro
> - Thunder from Cavium

- Cyclone from Apple

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A7
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/3
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/4


Edit: added more links

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 18.09.2013 - 12:21 ]

This might be of more interest for desktop users:

AMD Hierofalcon

Up to eight 64-bit ARM Cortex-A57 cores
Up to 2GHz.
Dual 64-bit memory channels DDR3/DDR4
10-gigabit Ethernet
PCI Express 3

The current high end ARM chips are all designed for phones or at most tablets. This is more like a desktop part.

> This might be of more interest for desktop users: AMD Hierofalcon
> [...] This is more like a desktop part.

""Hierofalcon" is the first 64-bit ARM-based platform from AMD targeting embedded data center applications, communications infrastructure and industrial solutions."
http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/amd-details-embedded-2013sept9.aspx