[openppc] newbie questions

[Antoine Terrienne <antoine.terrienne@free.fr>]

Hello. 
 
I was looking for a way to aquire a cheap (mean non apple) powerpc configuration 
and I fond your mailing list. So i gess this is the best place for my newbie questions. 
 
In my quest for a powerpc configuration i found the pegasos moterboard. interesting 
but it seems that there are a very very few of these boards for sale. And with the 
coming of the G5, the apple G4 machines are getting cheaper. Especialy 
when apple offers G4 1Ghz and so on... versus G3 600Mhz etc... for 
pegasos. 
Do any of you know any other PowerPC moterboard ? 
 
It seems that it is very difficult to get some recent PowerPC processors  (G4, and 
don't event talk about G5). does anyone can explain me why ? 
It is very disapointing. I think IBM really want to push 
the PowerPC over the PC market (or they would never released the POP). And 
for me the main adventage of the Intel/PC over PowerPC is the abality to build 
and upgrade your machine. For shure a PowerPC processor would never be 
cheaper than an intel/amd equivalent (quality have its price) but a good motherboard 
would push ppc at last in the linux/bsd comunity (not for the everybody user 
beacause windows does not suport ppc). The point is that only ppc fans wants 
pegasos-like ppc architechture. If someone wants a computer for a special 
pupose (infographics, videogames, server, etc...) would prefer a mac or a PC 
with proper cards because of performance (latest agp for infgraphics, s-ata for 
servers, and so on...). 
To sum pu the problems : 
 - low availability of ppc processors 
 - hight cost of low volume components (chipset, etc...) 
 - no support for latest technologies 
Am i wrong ? 
 
Now I think would be realy usefull work on a huge ppc motherboard. Someting 
including all the fuzzy technologies like s-ata, pci-x, agp 8x, etc... (buy the way, the 
time we get a working motherboard these standarts won't be fuzzy anymore). For 
shure it will be very expensive to produce for a simple person, but i think providing 
a GLPed (or other licence) platform "ready to produce" could interest some 
manufacturers. A moterboard they are shure to sell, at last at the comunity that 
designed it, and that didn't cost anything to design. I gess that we should ask help 
from company like IBM, as the poject should help them at selling ppc and expand 
their market. 
Well I gess i'm just an another dreamer ;) 
 
It seems that some of you are working on powerpc projects. I saw some interesting 
posts in the archive. Could anyone tell what they are working on, and where they 
are in their progress ? I'm completely newbie to powerpc and hardware stuff but if 
I can help... 
Buy the way does anyone have some good links about hardware design ? I mean i 
looked a the POP documents on openppc.org and they don't really talk to me. Where 
could I find somme doc that explain me the underlying of the POP (or mothermoards 
in general) functionnement (interoperation beetwin chips etc...). 
 
thanks for your answers/comments ;) 
 
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 /    \  / antoine.terrienne@free.fr 
|  o o | - http://antoine.terrienne.free.fr 
|   o  | \ #153026466 
\  V V / 
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