Low-cost PPC chips gain Linux dev kits (LinuxDevices) [LWN.net]

LinuxDevices takes a look at some developer board kits for PPC chips. "AMCC today announced a pair of evaluation kits targeting prospective customers of its new Power 405EX and 405EXr processors. The Kilauea and Haleakala kits include boards, software tools, sample apps, benchmarks, and a Denx Linux BSP, with MontaVista Linux BSPs and tools optionally available separately from MontaVista."

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Low-cost PPC chips gain Linux dev kits (LinuxDevices)

Posted Dec 12, 2007 2:15 UTC (Wed) by jwboyer (guest, #23296) [Link]

It's probably worth noting that the good people at DENX already submitted the platform support
for kilauea to the upstream kernel.

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-...

It's nice to see that the common "embedded BSP vendors don't work with upstream" myth isn't
always true.  DENX are particularly good about this.

Low-cost PPC chips gain Linux dev kits (LinuxDevices)

Posted Dec 12, 2007 13:17 UTC (Wed) by i3839 (guest, #31386) [Link]

How low-cost is low-cost? Can't find the price for the PPC405EX anywhere online.

Low-cost PPC chips gain Linux dev kits (LinuxDevices)

Posted Dec 12, 2007 15:26 UTC (Wed) by mbottrell (guest, #43008) [Link]

You didn't look too far... read the article.

"AMCC's EV-KIT-405EX-01 and EV-KIT-405EXr-01 evaluation kits each have a SRP of $750, but AMMC
provides schematics and layout files for free download. The kits will be available in
December."

Low-cost PPC chips gain Linux dev kits (LinuxDevices)

Posted Dec 12, 2007 16:18 UTC (Wed) by i3839 (guest, #31386) [Link]

I'm talking about the individual chips (in quantities of e.g. 1000), not the development
boards.

Low-cost PPC chips gain Linux dev kits (LinuxDevices)

Posted Dec 12, 2007 17:19 UTC (Wed) by endecotp (guest, #36428) [Link]

The PPC chips that I'm waiting for are the ones from PA Semi (http://www.pasemi.com/) - these
were supposed to be very fast and very low power, and might be able to give the x86 incumbents
some competition.  But it's been a long time since there was any news, and right now their web
site seems to be down.  Does anyone know anything?

Low-cost PPC chips gain Linux dev kits (LinuxDevices)

Posted Dec 12, 2007 20:02 UTC (Wed) by i3839 (guest, #31386) [Link]

Site works for me.

My impression is that they focus on customized orders and don't sell the chips separately, so
if you want any, you need to pay for the whole thing, mask, production and whatnot. So if you
need them in the order of 100K pieces, maybe less, just contact them. I don't think they'll be
publicly available anytime soon.

Low-cost PPC chips gain Linux dev kits (LinuxDevices)

Posted Dec 13, 2007 11:04 UTC (Thu) by endecotp (guest, #36428) [Link]

Yes, the site is back.  Good.

At one point, the chips were due Q4 2007 (i.e. now).   Let's hope the slippage isn't too long.