[Eug Wanker]

Momentum Computer First to Offer Embedded System Processor Board Using IBM® PowerPC® 970FX Chip

CARLSBAD, Calif. –February 25, 2004 – Momentum Computer,, an innovative developer specializing in quick turnaround of high-performance board-level solutions has been singled out by IBM to provide the Evaluation Platform for IBM’s newest PowerPC offering, the 64-bit 970FX processor. Momentum’s ATX-style motherboard, designed for and in conjunction with IBM Microelectronics, will provide developers with a unique insight to the performance and functionality of these new processors.

Available mid-March.

[MindFad]

BUT CAN YOU MAKE A MACINTORSH OUT OF IT?

Oh, never mind; they look a bit pricey. Oh, how cool it would be to build a Mac. But we wouldn't have the awesome G5 case, though. Anyway, good news, Eug. You are the tech man.

[buffalolee]

Great...now if only I have $6,000 for the computer....

[jcadam]

uh, seems more like an ATX PowerPC motherboard meant for a full-scale computer.

Not like any embedded system board I've ever seen

Last one I programmed was an industrial controller based on the Zilog Z80 (16-bit). It was about the size of a clunky ISA card. No disk. No storage, other than 128K battery-backed up RAM. The board powered up, and started executing your code stored in the 64K EEPROM. All you could do with the thing was read the state of the digital & analog inputs, and set the state (1 or 0) of the 12 digital outputs, which used screw-down connectors to hook wires up to. It did have a RS232 serial port used for serial communication (when in run mode) and programming the ROM

We used it for the onboard computer for a high-altitude research baloon (100,000ft or so). You could fly some experiments (sensors) and hook 'em up to those analog inputs and send down a serial data stream to the ground station. We flew a camera on the thing too, and used the digital outputs to rotate it around (we could send some commands from the ground like 'move camera' and 'reset yourself') so we could look at different things
Now THAT was a fun job. Especially since I was the only software guy on the project and had to do all the coding myself. Developing cool stuff that was fun to see actually working. My current job sucks.
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Oh, I'm sorry for that. I just read 'embedded system' and all the memories came flooding back.

[kupan787]

Could you not run MOL on one of these, and then run Jaguar (or Panther) through MOL? Or, I guess, if some one wrote the drivers for darwin, you coudl potentially do a direct install of OS X for one of these, yes?

Why is the price so high, is it because they are test boards?

[Eug Wanker]

Why would you want to run OS X on one of these anyway? It's $6000 for an (evaluation) box, for a dual 1.4. These are meant to be use as development platforms for embedded or other applications, running Linux.

I just posted it to show that more 970FX-based systems are coming online now. Hopefully 970FX-based Power Macs are coming soon too.

[kupan787]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Why would you want to run OS X on one of these anyway? It's $6000 for an (evaluation) box, for a dual 1.4. These are meant to be use as development platforms for embedded or other applications, running Linux.

I just posted it to show that more 970FX-based systems are coming online now. Hopefully 970FX-based Power Macs are coming soon too.

I know what they are meant for. My point was that if someone made a resonably priced board similar to this, one could potentially run MOL and then OS X on one.

What I wonder is 2 things:

1) What would it take to make a 970 compatible board at a reasonable price for consumers? Is there high licenscing costs from IBM stopping people from doing this? I remember for a while IBM was starting an OpenPPC board design. Maybe that could come back...

2) Why do you need a dual 1.4GHz 970 to do embedded development? Why not just a single 970?

[The Godfather]

Originally posted by kupan787:
I know what they are meant for. My point was that if someone made a resonably priced board similar to this, one could potentially run MOL and then OS X on one.

What I wonder is 2 things:

1) What would it take to make a 970 compatible board at a reasonable price for consumers? Is there high licenscing costs from IBM stopping people from doing this? I remember for a while IBM was starting an OpenPPC board design. Maybe that could come back...

2) Why do you need a dual 1.4GHz 970 to do embedded development? Why not just a single 970?

Answer to #2.
For embedded computer vision you dummy That science needs all the flops it can buy. When they make it work, they will optimize it to run in an Hitachi or something light like that.

Answer to #1.
It would take mass production. So far the largest G5 seller is Apple, and no one is going to make a G5 motherboard for cheaper.

[kupan787]

Originally posted by The Godfather:
Answer to #2.
For embedded computer vision you dummy That science needs all the flops it can buy. When they make it work, they will optimize it to run in an Hitachi or something light like that.

Oh. When I think embedded I think of a phone, calculator, or a microwave. I just couldn't figure out how you would need to power of two 970s to make the next phone operating system

Answer to #1.
It would take mass production. So far the largest G5 seller is Apple, and no one is going to make a G5 motherboard for cheaper.

But at one point (not to long ago, maybe 3 years), IBM was starting an OpenPPC initive (http://www.openppc.org/). They had the blueprints for mother boards and everythign available, so that anyone could start making a PPC motherboard. Granted, the "do-it-your-self" market isn't the biggest one (no matter how many PC guys tells you to go build your own), and it likely wouldn't help Apples position, but the thought was cool for a second