Moving An Embedded Project From x86 to PowerPC 16
An anonymous reader writes "This series on embedded development shows you how to migrate a project prototype from x86 to PowerPC. This initial installment explains the realities and rationale of the project: it introduces the robotic submarines that were the start of the project (and where they came from), and describes the Linux/GCC development environment and the bare-bones Kuro Box PowerPC development board."
Re:Other way around (Score:1)
You mean... (Score:5, Insightful)
But I quote from the article:
The problem is how to hook up mains, active cooling (liquid maybe?) and designing the external support circuitry for x86.
The PowerPC doesn't have that problem because:
So the answer? PPC has lower thermal constraints, higher performance given fixed energy requirements, and lower part count.
insane really use a Mips or ARM SOC (Score:2)
and run netbsd or linux
the whole thing is skewed he does mention ARM but discounts it because not powerful enough and opts for a 200MHz PPC yet a Xscale can clock at 500MHz so can the MIPS and trust me the broadcom has 4 CPU's to do the processing so its going to be outgunning ANYTHING the PPC camp has
I would have gone with a Xscale (intel) or Alchemy (AMD) solution
regards
John
Re:insane really use a Mips or ARM SOC (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure there are reasons for all these architectures. The PPC has the benefit of being reasonably scalable too: There are PPC cores from 200MHz up to 2.5GHz so you can develop on one and deploy on another.
Re:Other way around (Score:3, Interesting)
x86 is not the end all and be all of computers.
It fails at things like power to mips. Just remember the fastest computer Blue/Gene does not run x86.
Even Microsoft is dropping the X86 for the new XBox.
x86 is not dead yet thanks to AMD but it will be interesting to see what the future holds.
McCraigor wiggler (Score:2)
It's a shame he hosted his project on Windows, I would have like to have seen it on OS X or Linux. I suppose he will wind up using Cygwin which I never really got on with... I always found easier just be in a *NIX environment to begin with.
Here's hoping after they finish jettisoning the PC business we quit seeing so many Windows hosted articles on IBM Developerworks
Re:McCraigor wiggler (Score:3, Interesting)
Where do you see that he hosted it on Windows? He hosted it on a Kuro Box [revogear.com], which is a Linux-based PPC device. The only role Windows plays is running the setup program to load the Kuro system image.
Actually, you can even get around that. Someone on the Kuro forum [revogear.com] put together instructions for loading the system image from a Mac [revogear.com].
The Kuro Box is a pretty neat toy in it's own right. If you want to play around w
Re:McCraigor wiggler (Score:2)
I already do PPC development so I'm not really in the market for a cheap device.
Re:McCraigor wiggler (Score:2)
Not true. It is just another lowcost jtag interface and can easily be accessed with linux. Having said that, its worth to note, that you can build an equivalent device yourself for under $3. Digilent (www.digilent.us) also offers some cheap jtag cable, even for usb (and some nice cpld and fpga devboards)
Homepage of the author (Score:1)