The 5200B was designed to be an "embedded" processor. In the meanwhile, the world of computing has continued to evolve and Freescale went through (and is still going through) a huge transition (from being part of Motorola to standing as an independent semiconductor company of its own). The best thing that can happen with the EFIKA Projects is that they demonstrate the extensibility of the 5200B far beyond the original design parameters. We are confident this will happen. We can see the results already.
In general, this sort of thing - moving well past the original design intent - is going to occur more and more. Not only chips will be pushed beyond their unquestioned limits but operating systems and applications too. Code can be optimized and tools like altivec can create huge improvements in performance. As a rule we (i.e., the community) have taken what we have been served -
this is what the chip does, use it, thanks and call us if you have a problem. When we start to concentrate back to what we have and make it better this *will* start to change things and imbalance the status quo that has the industry stuck where it is now. Sound like a revolution? It will be. An enormous one! Genesi will be out front. The Developers that produce successful EFIKA Projects will one day be identified as the leaders of the big changes coming. Wait and see...
R&B