cheap RTEMS/PowerPC platform [was: Re: Open Desktop Workstation]

[Karel Gardas]

Hello,

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005, Raquel and Bill wrote:

> That is not an entirely accurate accounting.  The ODW is a complete machine 
> (in a case with PSU, graphics card, memory, hard drive, cables, etc.) with 
> all the I/O you could want.  The others are just boards.

I've tried to make it clear with my notes below the listing (i.e. (1) 
general system versus (2)-(6) eval. boards). You are perfectly right 
except the small mistake that (3) also contains passive PCI chassis, but 
that's really just minor thing anyway.

> The earlier comparison to the MacMini would be more appropriate.  The 
> difference is the ODW has three PCI and one AGP slot and plenty more 
> expandability.  You can upgrade the CPU card, graphics card, or memory on the 
> ODW, for example.

I have probably not been clear. In my list I've listed everything what I 
know so far which provides some kind of PowerPC core, completely 
independent from expandibility, peripherals, memory size etc. with price 
lower that $1000. See I'm "comparing" 200MHz 603e core with 1GHz G4! :-) 
(so, yes, those are completely un-comparable things)

> The ODW is also support multiple operating systems.  We thought RTEMS could 
> be one of them.  We are even willing to provide FREE hardware to developers 
> that are interested in supporting the port.
>
> We joined the list and made the initial post because we had an inquiry from a 
> customer that wanted to have RTEMS running on the platform.  Is there any 
> interest?

Your offer is very kind and I hope you will find some RTEMS developer 
willing to help you with port. Personaly I think more RTEMS ports better 
for the RTEMS.

Thanks,
Karel


> Hope that clears things up!  :-)
>
> Bill
>
> On Aug 24, 2005, at 11:42 AM, Karel Gardas wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 24 Aug 2005, Joel Sherrill <joel at OARcorp.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>>>> Hmm i have no idea what the mentioned hardware cost, so i can't answer
>>>>> that question. But apple's mac mini is about 500USD which isn't that
>>>>> expensive, when you want a general PowerPC.
>>>>> 
>>>> The problem is that IIRC it does not even provide serial port which is 
>>>> needed for serial console. Pegasos seems to provide one RS-232.
>>>> BTW: Anobody here get RTEMS working on MOAB or CerfCube?
>>>> http://www.tamsinc.com/3011/index.htm
>>>> http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/mob_ref_sys/cerfcube_405_ep/index.asp
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> The Avnet evaluation board for the Coldfire that had a BSP submitted
>>> recently is inexpensive.  Do they have any PowerPC boards like that?
>>> 
>>> The PegasusPPC mentioned CHRP.  The EP1A and MVME2100 appear to be
>>> CHRP.  Would one of the existing BSPs come close to working?
>>> 
>> 
>> True, let's list here the market choices for the reference:
>> 
>> 1) Pegasos Open Desktop Workstation:       $799  (Freescale 1GHz G4/512MB 
>> RAM/80GB disc)
>> 2) Avnet AMCC PowerPC 440GX Eval. Kit:     $749  (AMCC 440GX 533MHz/256MB 
>> RAM/32MB FLASH)
>> 3) TAMS MOAB 3011 (board/chasis/doc + CD): $650  (AMCC 405GPr 400MHz/64MB 
>> RAM/128MB FLASH)
>> 4) Avnet Freescale MPC885 Evaluation Kit:  $499  (Freescale MPC885 
>> 133MHz/64MB RAM/16MB FLASH)
>> 5) Intrinsyc CerfCube 405EP for Linux:     $399  (IBM 405EP/32MB RAM/32MB 
>> FLASH)
>> 6) TAMS MOAB 3011 (eval. board only):      $399  (AMCC 405GPr 400MHz/64MB 
>> RAM/128MB FLASH)
>> 7) Synology NAS DS-101g+ :                 $300  (Freescale MPC 8241 266MHz 
>> /64MB RAM/16MB FLASH)
>> 8) Buffalo Kuro-box HG:              somewhere between (7) and (9) 
>> (Freescale MPC 8241 266MHz /128MB RAM/4MB FLASH)
>> 9) Buffalo Kuro-box:                       $160  (Freescale MPC 8241 200MHz 
>> /64MB RAM/4MB FLASH)
>> 
>> where (2)-(6) seems to be "true" embedded solutions with proper boot 
>> monitors (RedBoot, U-Boot, PPCBoot, etc.) and serial consoles, (1) is more 
>> like general system ala PowerMac and (7)-(9) are cheap NAS solutions 
>> sometimes hackable to contain serial console etc. (like now popular Linksys 
>> NSLU2 for XScale platform).
>> 
>> As my target hobby price (RTEMS/Linux/real-time is just hobby of mine) is 
>> around $200, I will probably end with one of NAS solutions or an old 
>> second-hand PowerMac. Anyway, my current strategy is wait and see, since I 
>> expect PowerPC prices to fall a little bit after recent IBM's move to more 
>> "open" PowerPC licenses and also after enter of new game consoles into the 
>> market (XBox/PS3), not talking about usual price-fall of new PowerPC-based 
>> NAS like DS-101g+.
>> 
>> BTW: RTEMS does not run on any of the choices above, although it might be 
>> probably easily ported to some of them (PPC405 etc.)
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Karel
>> --
>> Karel Gardas                  kgardas at objectsecurity.com
>> ObjectSecurity Ltd.           http://www.objectsecurity.com
>> 
>

--
Karel Gardas                  kgardas at objectsecurity.com
ObjectSecurity Ltd.           http://www.objectsecurity.com