The MorphOS Team is pleased to announce that the next public release of MorphOS will support the EFIKA. MorphOS is a lightweight and flexible operating system and EFIKA is a low-power and silent miniature mainboard based on the Freescale PPC5200.
The MorphOS Team is pleased to announce that the next public release of MorphOS will support the EFIKA. MorphOS is a lightweight and flexible operating system and EFIKA is a low-power and silent miniature mainboard based on the Freescale PPC5200.
MorphOS look pretty good. The hardware isn’t cheap but it’s worth it’s price. When I get the $$$, I’m buying this stuff
agentj:
199 USD for a motherboard, CPU and memory is very cheap
in the PowerPC world.
It’s called MPC5200B, not “PPC-“.
http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=MPC5…
The PowerPC chips made by Freescale, formerly Motorola, have their names start with “MPC”. I’m guessing it’s short for “Motorola PowerPC”.
Edited 2006-11-28 13:35
Does anyone know of any PCI PVR(with hardware MPEG encoding and decoding) cards that work with PPC. One of those could make and nice PVR alternative to VIA’s nano-ITX stuff.
http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2006/11/and-hello-to-you.html
I am sure it will find its niches.
Whoever hasn’t read this article ( http://www.ppcnux.de/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6614 ) about the Efika should do so.
The demoed OS has been MorphOS.
That combo will rock!
exactly, this is not a bad price at all in the ppc world.
Is this a new MB from Genesi or what is it?
Amiga OS 4?
exactly, this is not a bad price at all in the ppc world.
I agree, even if this mobo is severely underpowered for desktop use.
Amiga OS 4?
Not for this hardware, that seems fairly sure.
“I agree, even if this mobo is severely underpowered for desktop use.”
If the OS is streamlined and efficient enough, it could make one hell of a desktop system. The PPC architecture is very powerful even at lower speeds. I agree though, $199 is a great price.
“I agree, even if this mobo is severely underpowered for desktop use.”
What? With an Amiga OS 3.x like operating system? It’s 84 times faster cpu than my real amiga, got 13 times as much ram. How is that underpowered?
It would also rock as webserver, 1 watt for the systemchip/processor.
@ racs who wrote:
>I agree, even if this mobo is severely underpowered for desktop use.
Are you kidding pal?
Actually 400 MHz on a PPC mobo it still allows any usage.
Take a look at this german Linux based PVR machine, the dreambox:
http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/
It has been based for years on a simple PPC clocked at only 250 MHz.
P.S.:
These news forgot to mention that Genesi reached also a cooperation agreement with XGI graphic card manufacturer, which will release all datasheets to realize driver for MorphOS, Linux and any other OSes which still runs on Pegasos, and that next generation of Efika the Efika2, it will embed an onboard XGI graphic chip.
P.S. again:
2 weeks Ago I signalled to OSNews the infos about the public release of the new MorphOS browser called “Sputnik browser” based on KHTML engine.
Unfortunately none of the OSNews Staff noticed the news!
P.S. third:
MorphOS v1.5 will run on Efika according to Genesi words, this will also mean that the long awaited update of this beautiful OS sure will be available in a brief amount of time for Pegasos platforms also.
A superbundle CD full of licensed programs will also be available with MorphOS 1.5.
Are you kidding pal?
No, I am not. If you want to do anything else than running MorphOS by its own only, you will find out how slow a 400MHz embedded processor would be.
Have you tried to play DVD on this processor? Not to mention using something like using Blender3D or GIMP.
Well, this HW is certainly enough for a not-really-crowded web server, firewall, or probably for some kiosk, but nothing more. Or at least my definition of “usable desktop” is not matching with it.
@ racs who wrote:
>No, I am not. If you want to do anything else than running MorphOS by its own only,
>you will find out how slow a 400MHz embedded processor would be.
Currently I am navigating with a 200 MHz Pentium and it performs its work flawlessly.
I saw at friend’s home an Amiga 4000 in action with PPC 601 (or was it 603???) and I used it twice for myself. It was clocked at 200 MHz, and it is still productive for writing and navigating internet…
I also have a 600 MHz Pegasos G3 and it works flawlessly, and it reads DVDs also.
I rember also that in my previous post I had shown you the evidence of that Linux based PVR device which had as processor one PPC CPU clocked at only 250 MHz and works flawlessly in decoding satellite TV data stream, and record it at same time on HD in MPEG2 video format.
This new card Efika clocked at 400 MHz sure it is placed in a middle regarding all these four previous systems. And I think it could be used for daily usage.
>Have you tried to play DVD on this processor?
No, i have not tried it, but I expect a performance at least with some dignity as PPC 5200B connects directly with memory bus and and HD-DATA bus without the bottlenecks due to external chipset such as Articia and/or Marvell.
Hope also that we could soon see demo videos with Efika in action, so we could solve his clue about DVD playing speed and if Efika at 400 MHz it is enough or not.
> Not to mention using something like using Blender3D or GIMP.
None said Efika was useful for these features (i.e. brutal speed, speed and more speed to enhance calculations).
Efika it is aimed at developers of programs, quite normal users, second computer at home, embedded devices, and for example performing things like acting as server for entire home-lan (and securing and monitoring all internet access), or due to its very very very low power consuming, it its good to stay always on-line.
Maybe it could run even DVDs. Who knows? 😉
And perhaps… If you use it as a second computer at home, then Efika could be used to PILOTE computer with more horsepower (PPC G5, Pentium IV, Athlon 64bit, or Intel Core duo) thru VNC and realize 3D and 2D graphic rendering on-the-fly by remote.
There are plenty of environments in which Efika could emerge.
>Well, this HW is certainly enough for a not-really-crowded web server, firewall,
>or probably for some kiosk, but nothing more. Or at least my definition of “usable desktop” is not matching with it.
You just found 3 more environments in which Efika could emerge…
And finally if Efika at 400 Mhz it is too slow, then wait for new Efika2 and new S.o.C. PPC 5200B up to came out on the market and which were announced to be clocked at 500, 600, 800 and 1000 MHz.
Edited 2006-11-29 15:58
I’ve used MorphOS.
It’s as close as you can get to OS4 without spending $1000+ for an AmigaOne, if you can find one for sale. Actually, you can get OS4Emu for it, which can run some OS4 programs
. Their browser, Sputnik, is the KHTML port that they’ve been working on for a while, and is also much better than what you can get with OS4.
For users who are upgrading from a hacked, towered, and decaying (those components have to fail sometime) Amiga 1200, 3000, or 4000 with a certain 233Mhz PPC accelerator card, this is a good machine. A 400Mhz PPC chip running MorphOS will be significantly faster than the Amiga it replaces. The 68K emulation is also pretty darn good in this OS.
This doesn’t have the custom chips (the Jens Schoenfeld Clone-A project got turned down for the developer program), but MorphOS can run most Amiga programs that don’t directly hit the chipset. I wouldn’t run UAE on this and expect decent performance, however.
Considering that many of these machines will be replacing or complementing 68K or PPC Amigas, this is a really good choice for those users who want to run their old Amiga apps and have a decent web browser, which the Amiga platform has lacked for years.
Great, love you BBRV for all your work and keeping the dream alive earlier.
No new release thought I guess?
That is even more wow!
I find that this development is off the hook! Efika’s processor is not that fast and there’s not a lot of memory built in either, so MorphOS is a good fit because of MorphOS’s low requirements and responsiveness. I saw the video of the in-process version on Efika and MorphOS’ trademark quickness seemed intact.
well it is underpowered. your comparing it to an amiga thats all dsps and copro’s, to efika’s single cpu.
its a real shame they didnt just put a sodimm slot on it instead of solder the memory on, as well as the lack of gigabit ethernet. it would have made a great great NAS but no gig-e is a killer. 128mb is also a killer.
you cant tell me its cheaper to solder + buy dram chips vs a sodimm socket.
@ _df_
We amigan users have lots of discussions with Genesi (the manufacturers of Efika).
They are planning to lower as soon as possible the prices of this Efika to only 99 US $, and aim it at embedded market, an then launch on the market Efika2 with onboard ATI graphics chip with DDR memory, RAM DDR on board, DDR ram connector or at least SoDIMM, 1 PCI-X slot and optional FPGA chip on it as coprocessor (FPGA present or not as optional depending from the models).
Edited 2006-11-29 16:40
@raf, efika2 sounds like a very good move to me. even a sodimm slot would make it infinitly more usable as a micro server / nas etc. not sure about the pci-x slot tho.. pci-x was stillborn. unless you mean pci-express? id rather a plain pci slot or a pci-express slot but not pci-x…..