... according to http://www.power.org/news/pr/view?item_ ... d556a4f83d

which also was preannounced on http://blemings.org/hugh/blog/blosxom.c ... 5#20070805

While I welcome the release of a powerful PowerPC system, I guess IBM wanted to have all the cards on their hands, wasting almost one year, when they might just as well license the tetrapower (whose specs look surprisingly similar to this one) 1 year ago. Anyway, I hope the price is right so that we can actually buy it.

Konstantinos

Wasn't the Tetrapower a licensed design from IBM in the first place?

slightly modified, afaik but does it matter? it took them a year to release the same thing...

I doubt it is any coincidence it uses all the same components.

_________________
Matt Sealey

exactly. they obviously decided they wanted to do it on their own. fine. my question is WTF did they have to wait one year for this? it's probably part of IBM's 'commitment' to the PowerPC platform. Anyway, let's see...

You know what? Since it will probably cost 2k (probably much more), Genesi should provide the 8641D (Pegasos III?) platform nevertheless :-)

Konstantinos

Actually, the Tetrapower was not at all licensed from IBM. Gerald led the development without any meaningful support from IBM. It is a good thing we never went to production. We would have never recovered the investment.

R&B :)

_________________
http://bbrv.blogspot.com

Any further informations available? Price point?

http://www.powerdeveloper.org/platforms ... ifications

And, here is the Business Plan:

www.genesippc.com/files/power.org/DP-WG.pdf

R&B :)

_________________
http://bbrv.blogspot.com

>My question is WTF did they have to wait one year for this?

We only saw a bare PCB last year, did Genesi have a running system?

Maybe IBM waited for the Power6 launch so that an open G5 based platform won't threaten to cannibalize their server sales. ;-)

>Since it will probably cost 2k (probably much more), Genesi should provide the 8641D (Pegasos III?) platform nevertheless :-)

The chip is too "old" and too expensive imho, Genesi couldn't even afford a 7448.
For the power budget of one 1.5 GHz G4 core you can drive three (!) PWRficient cores at 2 GHz.

G5 stops at 2 GHz in latest IBM spec sheets - and consumes 100 W.

I only see two options that remain:
PS3 or P.A. Semi.

I would be ok with both, but the 8641D is not G4. The PWRficient is maybe also overkill for a desktop system, my guess is it's targeted more to the network companies.
eh? the system mentioned *and* the Apple quad-g5s ran at 2.5Ghz, and the chip is reported to work at 3ghz -i remember reading that somewhere.
The PS3 is nice, but it's not a workstation. You can do a few things but it can't replace a quad-g5. Plus the PPE unit sucks. And PASemi is a chip producer they don't make consumer mobos (only some reference design which are overkill for the purpose). So, really right now, and until someone (IBM?Genesi?anyone?) produces a mid-range workstation, PowerPC really has nothing.

a new post from Bleming's blog:
http://blemings.org/hugh/blog/blosxom.c ... #20070929a

btw, there is also the actual mid-range IBM IntelliStation POWER (model 185).

_________________
acrux _at_ linuxmail _dot_ org

>I would be ok with both, but the 8641D is not G4.

It has the same core as the 7448.

>The PWRficient is maybe also overkill for a desktop system, my guess is it's targeted more to the network companies.

It's a modern low power CPU with performance at the low end of the desktop spectrum (about 1000 SPECint2000 and ~1500 SPECfp2000) while offering considerable I/O capabilities.
So, no and yes...
They had the goal to make a G5-like chip without the power/heat penalty.

>>G5 stops at 2 GHz in latest IBM spec sheets - and consumes 100 W.

>eh? the system mentioned *and* the Apple quad-g5s ran at 2.5Ghz, and the chip is reported to work at 3ghz -i remember reading that somewhere.

You are right, but this year IBM killed the fast chips from the Data Sheets. Don't ask me why.
The quickest commercial G5 products ran at 2.7 GHz in reality.

>The PS3 is nice, but it's not a workstation.

Yeah, it could use more RAM.

Does it matter? Tetrapower was about 2 months away from being a fully tested, marketed product and Power.org was being presented the business plan to offer it as a developer desktop. In fact there were working groups (which I was a part of) speccing out which boards would be available to developers.

Let's just say that the guys pushing developer coordination at Power.org weren't exactly on the ball; everything Power.org is going to do in the next months is exactly what Genesi was telling them they should do in July 2006. Everything they said "hmm, we don't think developers need this". I doubt you would have had a subsidised, Power.org G5 system until now even if we had finished the board.
I only wish that was true.
1) Arno, you never stop with playing the numbers game, so what you think is the least relevant addition to the information here. Big numbers do not equal products. PASemi is not relevant as a desktop system, and neither is Cell/Playstation 3. Sure they are cool, sure they have the numbers (GHz and SPEs and 3-digit Gbyte/s of bandwidth) but they are not developer systems or desktop systems.

2) I doubt you have any idea how much the 8641D is, and the problem with the 7448 was not that Genesi could not afford it - I explained to you twice that simply put, YOU could not afford it. Nobody would buy a processor card as expensive as it would have to be, even if it was the fastest Power processor on the planet.

_________________
Matt Sealey

>PASemi is not relevant as a desktop system, and neither is Cell/Playstation 3.
>Sure they are cool, sure they have the numbers (GHz and SPEs and 3-digit Gbyte/s of bandwidth) but they are not developer systems or desktop systems.

Are you breeding something better or are we DOOMED? :-)
Desktop systems are not out of reach with PWRficient.

>I doubt you have any idea how much the 8641D is

Arrow wants 1029,74 USD for a start... :-P

>Nobody would buy a processor card as expensive as it would have to be, even if it was the fastest Power processor on the planet.

Exactly.

i hope you're kidding. This system will probably stay only as a few words on this web page.