Hello folks.

I am back in action looking to finally fix my broken but not dead yet, Pegasos 2 boards. I got two of them on service to a good friend in Portugal.

I have found that a broken Marvell Discovery II MV64361 Northbridge is the reason that makes the first one not to work.

Perhaps the same goes or the second.

So. Yes I am looking for one, two or more Marvell Discovery II MV64361 Northbridge chips.

I know it is a long shot but I am trying... Perhaps some hardware guys that reads this have some stock.

I am also after any kind of supplier or the specific model...

I am looking for working parts.

Thanks for looking.

Yep, really long shot.
They were hard to obtain when new.

Are you sure its the northbridge chip and not it connections?
The chip might be removed for re-balling and re-installation.

Indeed, I don't envy your chances. It's hard enough to get drivers from Marvell, never mind ex-stock chips.

If you could find out what this was used for, possibly from Marvell themselves, it may be easier to find old motherboards than the chips themselves. Even then it's a long shot, since they were mainly used in really expensive evaluation and reference boards.

Talk to Marvell?
They don't talk to end users.
I tried that years ago, its a really difficult company to get support from.

> they were mainly used in really expensive evaluation and reference boards.

This is of course not true. The Marvell Discovery II (MV6436x) series of system controllers was used in hundreds of non-evaluation and non-reference products for the military/defense, aerospace, signal processing, surveillance, real-time imaging, medical imaging, industrial automation/control, telemetry, telecommunications etc. markets.

Just some random examples:

https://www.artesyn.com/computing/products/product/mvme6100-vme-board-with-freescale-mpc7457-powerpc-processor
https://www.abaco.com/products/vg5
https://www.abaco.com/products/vme-7050
https://www.abaco.com/products/g4dsp-xd3-multiprocessor
https://www.artisantg.com/TestMeasurement/83894-1/Emerson_Motorola_Force_Computers_PPC_CPCI_695_1024_800_64_PowerCore_Universal_64_Bit_CPCI_Interface_PowerPC_SBC
https://www.artisantg.com/TestMeasurement/66794-75/Emerson_Motorola_Force_Computers_PrPMC2800_AltiVec_Enabled_Processor_PMC_Module
https://www.artisantg.com/TestMeasurement/84722-1/Emerson_Motorola_cPCI_6115_270_CompactPCI_Single_Board_Computer
https://esd.eu/en/products/cpci-cpu750
http://web.archive.org/web/20081006063713/http://www.vmetro.com/category413.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20060504043504/http://www.gocct.com/sheets/vp75420x.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20060920023618/http://www.transtech-dsp.com/powerpc/tvg5.asp

Quote:

I wouldn't even have considered non-consumer devices. If they aren't on the market, as far as I'm concerned they don't exist.

Well atleast this list of obscure HW gives us some idea where all the ODWs went that were not sold into the Amiga-market.

Quote:

Whether YOU consider it or not, that list is yet another testament as to AW's research capabilities.
Pretty f'ing cool. ;)

> I wouldn't even have considered non-consumer devices.

If we're talking about desoldering the chip off a decommissioned board, it doesn't matter whether it's from a consumer device or non-consumer device.

> If they aren't on the market, as far as I'm concerned they don't exist.

Even if there had been consumer devices with this chip other than the Pegasos II, they surely wouldn't be on the market anymore. And for increasing the chances of finding a decommissioned board with this chip, it better be not on the market anymore.

> this list of obscure HW

There's nothing obscure about the markets I mentioned.

> gives us some idea where all the ODWs went that were not sold into the Amiga-market.

To begin with, the Pegasos II board has the wrong form factor for these kinds of uses. CPU on a separate board is also a no-go.

/me slaps Wolfi....

The ODWs were supposed to be used for (SW)Development and distributed with the help of both FreeScale and Marvell.

So yes I think alot of the speciallity SW running on these embeeded systems may very well been developed and tested on a Pegasos2 prior to the HW going into production.

Prett much like games for the Gamegear(?) were developed on Amiga or even some early PS3 games on PMacG5s.

Quote:

It matters a great deal, as you will never, ever get your hands on a non-consumer device.

Quote:

But still potentially on the second hand market or in electronics dumps.

> The ODWs were [...] distributed with the help of [...] Marvell.

I can't remember I ever heard of that. Any links?

> I think alot of the speciallity SW running on these embeeded systems may very well
> been developed and tested on a Pegasos2 prior to the HW going into production.

Marvell had their own dual-G4 development platform for that, which was released before the Pegasos II.

http://web.archive.org/web/20110905234610/http://www.marvell.com/company/news/pressDetail.do?releaseID=343

I don't see why they should have switched to the single-G4 Pegasos II later on.

> Prett much like games for the Gamegear(?) were developed on Amiga

...games for the Lynx.

> or even some early PS3 games on PMacG5s.

...Xbox360 games.

> you will never, ever get your hands on a non-consumer device.

Result of a quick eBay search for boards from my list above:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121717688731
http://www.ebay.com/itm/371005588951
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271773478038
http://www.ebay.com/itm/222186044118
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291850863875
http://www.ebay.com/itm/131940139930
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181882550848

Yeah mixed up those game consoles.

As to why use a Peg2 ?

Probraly a lot cheaper to produce than Marvell's eval board (when a Peg2-G3 could retail for 299$ thats not hard to imagine)

Peg2 could take both G3 and G4 class CPUs, both featured in in your HW list.



Now, I did attend that event at Frankfurt-airport where the Peg2 was more or less central with Freescale and Marvell on site. It was quite clear that MorphOS was just a sideshow and some of those attending classes (and carrying an ODW home) had no connection at all to anything Amiga.

So yes it made absolute sense for some SW development and testing happening on Peg2 instead of Marvell's board.

> Peg2 was more or less central with [...] Marvell on site. [...] some of those attending
> classes (and carrying an ODW home) had no connection at all to anything Amiga.

Is that how Marvell helped the ODW distribution? :-)

> it made absolute sense for some SW development and testing happening on
> Peg2 instead of Marvell's board.

Shouldn't there be any traces on the web that Marvell sold Pegasos II boards or ODW systems, like there are for Freescale?

Hello folks. I found a supplier. I made an inquiry and theyvreplied back to me pointing thT they stock the item I was looking for.

https://www.utsource.net/ic-datasheet/MV64361-BAY-766176.html

Will order soon and will keep you posted.

Quote:

Utsource is a broker and more than a few people have been burned by them.
I would not be surprised to find that you receive a fake part.

Really?

Quote:

Dealing with the Chinese is hit or miss.
I know people who have received perfectly useful items from that company and others that have received fakes (like an exploding 'op amps' for instance).
The more obscure the part, the less likely it is that it might be real.

BUT, that doesn't mean that it might not be.
Also, a lot of the parts they sell are salvaged components.
I'm pretty sure what you are looking at is a BGA (ball grid array).
Instead of plain pins, these surface mount components have small balls of solder at each connection point that is melted in a temperature controlled environment when surface mounting.

A salvaged BGA doesn't have solder balls.

Sometimes these can be re-balled though.

I would try to find someone with a surface mount re-work station before you try to replace that part and just get them to re-flow the solder connections under it.
That might take care of your problem.

I'd hate to see a Peg fail to function.
There aren't that many of them.

sorry, dupe post.

[ Edited by Jim 28.09.2016 - 20:10 ]

Quote:

Lack of regulation, rather than lack of sophistication. This is why libertarians make me facepalm.

Like you say though, you can get something absolutely perfect from China, or you can get utter trash. It is getting better as time goes on. I think it's the kind of part they may actually have - don't forget Mai came from China.

Never pay in bitcoin though. Just don't.

Quote:

Well, that goes without saying, never pay with anything you can't demand a refund on.
And yeah, libertarianism won't work.
The ideal sound promising, the reality is pretty grim.

And hey, the Chinese? They will improve.

> Mai came from China.

The other China, though.

Quote:

Ah, Taiwan! I miss getting GOOD motherboards from there.