Power to the PowerPC clones

Over the last few months, I've heard a ton of weird rumbles all pointing to the PowerPC scene being a really interesting place about a year from now -- and things like Genesi releasing the specs and plans to their ODW hardware are a sign of that. Chances are you've never heard of Genesi, but I've followed them for awhile, primarily because there aren't a lot of people making PowerPC hardware you could throw on your desk if you had a mind to...

They've had a somewhat weird history -- and sometimes a shaky one -- going back to the Amiga OS. You basically pick up their machines if you're developing for the PowerPC in an embedded market or you're an enthusiast looking to play with custom kit. Hell, before the Mac Mini (which changed things), they were a cheap way to hook a Mac into your system for using Linux on PowerPC, etc.

By itself, their current hardware won't set the world on fire, but this why the above announcement is interesting:

  • This is basically setting up PowerPC cloning, just not from Apple. Anyone who wants to -- primarily any company -- will be able to download the specs and implement their own PowerPC solution without having to go through the R&D of building everything around the chip.

  • This is about Linux and other *nix's in a big way, as the PowerPC has basically been ceded to them, and the PowerPC isn't just going to go away overnight once Apple moves to x86.

  • We know Genesi is going to be supporting IBM's PowerPC 970 variant (G5), which is interesting as they'd hitched their train to Freescale in a big way.

  • IBM has a hand in a lot of this stuff, it's just not quite clear how much. I've heard from multiple people that:

    • IBM isn't done with the PowerPC outside of the embedded market, and while they're making a big push with the CELL architecture -- perhaps because they control so much of the IP -- they're seeing Linux as a disruptive technology that allows the specifics of the hardware architecture to become less important, giving the PowerPC a new opening for Desktop hardware.

    • Everyone I talk to says IBM is very, very unhappy with Apple over what happened with the PowerPC, but annoyingly they either conflict as to specifically why, or its just vague enough that inferring too much would be dangerous. The only real commonality in the stories that they feel they were screwed/blindsided, that they're pissed, and that they're seeding cash into places to see the PowerPC on the desktop get life under Linux.

      Oddly enough I haven't been able to nail down how them being pissed factors into them doing anything they wouldn't otherwise be doing, outside of say, seeding some cash to see Linux on PowerPC optimized for some areas Apple has traditionally targeted, but the fact that they're pissed keeps coming up probably means something.

    • We're going to see more of this type of thing over the next year, as IBM is pretty serious about it and is putting their money where their mouth is to give it momentum -- albeit indirectly and discreetly. I.E., I can't say that they're bankrolling some of what Genesi is doing, but they're slipping cash around.

If you're confused about the Power.org connection, the old Expanding the Power ISA's Influence post with the included Powerpoint file should fill in some of the blanks on how the licensing can work.

Some of what's going on with the rumblings around the PowerPC raise more questions than they answer -- but while they're weird, they're all pointing towards an interesting year for the PowerPC, just with free operating systems instead of OS X.

yummy alcohol posted button Posted by drunkenbatman
    November 18, 2005, at 10:58 AM


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