PPC Boards?

PPC Boards?

[James Bredijk]

I'm new to the list, and I'm seeing references to PReP & PPC boards that are
being used for development. What boards (or dev kits) are available & where
would I find them?

If you prefer, please respond directly: jbredijk@nac.net

Thanx,
James
---
James Bredijk
jbredijk@nac.net

"Life is a word problem, not an equation"
"Talent does what it can, Genius does what it must"


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Re: PPC Boards?

[Grant Erickson]

James,

It really depends on what kind of target applications you are looking 
for. It seems to me that the 6xx, 7xx, and 8xx boards have gotten a 
healthy amount of and successful use from a large number of users on the 
list. I'll let others with more exposure to them comment on those.

For embedded type applications, I've been using IBMs "Oak" 403GCX and 
semi-functional "Walnut" 405GP boards for porting Linux to the PowerPC 
4xx processors. Both seem like pretty competent evaluation board designs 
and if you elect to purchase IBM's RISCWatch JTAG debugger for either, 
it's a pretty nice, well-developed, and easy-to-use debug tool.

Regards,

Grant Erickson

On 1/7/2000 12:26 AM, Linux PPC Developer Digest wrote:
>Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 14:02:27 -0500
>From: "James Bredijk" <jbredijk@nac.net>
>Subject: PPC Boards?
>
>I'm new to the list, and I'm seeing references to PReP & PPC boards that are
>being used for development. What boards (or dev kits) are available & where
>would I find them?
>
>If you prefer, please respond directly: jbredijk@nac.net
>
>Thanx,
>James
>- ---
>James Bredijk
>jbredijk@nac.net
>
>"Life is a word problem, not an equation"
>"Talent does what it can, Genius does what it must"



 Grant Erickson                       University of Minnesota Alumni
  o mail:erick205@tc.umn.edu                              1996 BSEE
  o http://www.tc.umn.edu/~erick205                       1998 MSEE


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Re: PPC Boards?

[James Bredijk]

Grant,
  I'm looking to do some 'mad scientist' type of experimenting with the
PPC. I hope to 'play' with both the 'System' & 'Embedded' PPC platforms,
but I'm not looking to spend $2600 on the Motorola SandPoint board just so
I can fill up my afternoons.

  Just like everyone else in the developer game, my resources are limited
(I'm a part-time consultant who has returned to college as a part-time
student). I've spent quite a bit on solid texts covering OS Dev, Compilers
& Languages, Programming, IPC, HW Arch, etc. etc. I've also purchased &
read over a dozen PPC books (I've even got a copy of IBM's PPC Compiler
Writer's Guide). After doing Mac (and Mini & Unix &, alas, PC) programming,
I know that I want (or is it must) work with the PPC platform (but not
necessarily the Apple flavor).

  I was hoping to purchase a Motorola Excimer board (URL
http://www.mot.com/SPS/PowerPC/teksupport/refdesigns/ ), but decided that
the limited functionality may not be worth the investment of time & money.
I also had trouble when I tried to purchase the board. One electronics
reseller said that I wasn't allowed to purchase it because I wasn't a
certified Motorola End User, and another said that since I was only looking
for one that I wasn't worth their effort to sell to.

  I started looking around for alternatives, but found that they were
either very expensive ( http://www.cogcomp.com & IBM) or they just didn't
respond to my requests for information ( http://www.vicomp.com &
http://www.plxtech.com ). Some places, like Phytec ( http://www.phytec.com
) looked interesting, but didn't offer the 'System' PPC board options (I'd
like to start with System PPC, and then move to Embedded PPC), and only had
PPC555 & PPC509 modules. I had no luck finding a reseller for the offerings
from Motorola Computer Group ( http://www.mcg.mot.com ).

  I didn't find any mention of the IBM 'Walnut or Oak' boards that you
referred to, but I am rather cross eyed from reading 1000's of web pages,
and very well could have missed it. Is there a reseller who specializes in
(or at least has a complete offering of) eval boards/dev kits?? I haven't
found one yet, but many of the web sites that I've been to aren't very
'research friendly'. Any pointers (pun intended) would be _great_.

Thanx for your help,
James

----
James Bredijk
jbredijk@nac.net

"When I read a URL on the back of my fortune cookie's fortune,
I knew the world would never be the same."


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Re: PPC Boards?

[David N. Welton]

On Sat, Jan 08, 2000 at 10:23:23AM -0500, James Bredijk wrote:

>   I'm looking to do some 'mad scientist' type of experimenting with
> the PPC. I hope to 'play' with both the 'System' & 'Embedded' PPC
> platforms, but I'm not looking to spend $2600 on the Motorola
> SandPoint board just so I can fill up my afternoons.

It sounds like you really want one of those POP boxes that have yet to
actually be produced:-(

For a bit of info: http://www.popcomputers.com/

Ciao,
-- 
David N. Welton, Developer, Linuxcare, Inc.
415.354.4878 x241 tel, 415.701.7457 fax
davidw@linuxcare.com, http://www.linuxcare.com/
Linuxcare. At the center of Linux.

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Re: PPC Boards?

[Joel Klecker]

At 10:29 -0800 2000-01-08, David N. Welton wrote:
>It sounds like you really want one of those POP boxes that have yet to
>actually be produced:-(
>
>For a bit of info: http://www.popcomputers.com/

Also see: http://www.siliconfruit.com/ (dual G4, 6 PCI slots, AGP;
hopefully shipping Q2 2000)
-- 
Joel Klecker (aka Espy)                    Debian GNU/Linux Developer
<URL:mailto:jk@espy.org>                 <URL:mailto:espy@debian.org>
<URL:http://web.espy.org/>               <URL:http://www.debian.org/>

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Re: PPC Boards?

[Troy Benjegerdes]

On Sat, 8 Jan 2000, James Bredijk wrote:

> 
> Grant,
>   I'm looking to do some 'mad scientist' type of experimenting with the
> PPC. I hope to 'play' with both the 'System' & 'Embedded' PPC platforms,
> but I'm not looking to spend $2600 on the Motorola SandPoint board just so
> I can fill up my afternoons.

hrrm, for embedded, how about looking at www.embeddedplanet.com ?

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