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Message
From: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@l...>
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 12:50:47 +0100 (MET)
Subject: Re: [openppc] Apple Talk?
On Wed, 12 Dec 2001, Alasdair Ferro wrote:
> test1@y... wrote:
> > If CHRP was not killed in 1997, a super giant UK-French-Swiss group will support it. Unfortunately APPLE killed it and PowerPC 620 flopped.
> > I got idea about Motorola creating G5 for Socket A (AMD) or Pentium IV motherboards. This will eliminate the shortage of PowerPC motherboard and chipset. (similar to SiliconFruit approach).
>
> CHRP was not killed by Apple exactly, it more flopped, due to the lack of a Northbridge, a situation which is only now being rectified. Apple only have control over motherboards which are licensed to run
> Mac OS, and it was this licensing process which they stopped. There is nothing Apple can do to stop people making motherboards for PPC processors - witness Bplan, Mercedia, etc. These are CHRP's children
> - based on CHRP, but updated to current architecture, I/O etc.
This is not completely true! CHRP clone makers (both UMAX and Tatung had
working LongTrails in 1997), including Motorola, decided not to bring CHRP
boxes on the market mainly because Apple refused to license MacOS. They all
wanted to make money from selling Apple clones, and weren't convinced that
there was a sufficiently large Linux on PPC market (remember, it was 1997, i.e.
before the Linux boom). Not to speak about NT, AIX, Solaris and OS/2, which
were all marginal compared to MacOS.
The hardware was ready. Not only did you have the LongTrail (designed by IBM
around the VLSI Golden Gate II chipset), but also reference designs from
Motorola around its own MPC106. IMHO the GG2 wasn't a bad host bridge. It
lacked AGP, but AGP wasn't so ubiquitous present in 1997 anyway. SDRAM ran at
66 MHz (on my board), but this was boasted to 83 MHz on later boards.
I ported Linux to the LongTrail (http://home.tvd.be/cr26864/Linux/PPC/) just
before Apple cut the MacOS wire. The LongTrail is still my main machine, and it
proved to be very stable.
The problems started only after that: no PPC boards (besides Apple, embedded,
and high-end IBM), hence no further development of new host-bridges.
Gr{oetje,eeting}s,
Geert
--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@l...
In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
-- Linus Torvalds
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