Should there be one ?.
dual or more PPC/x86/EMT Processor (users choice, or combination of dual PPC & dual x86 :shock:)
DVD RW
multipple A/V in - out ports
dual TV tuners
USB, Firewire
all-in one smart card reader
dual head graphics card
WiFi and Bluetooth, etc… everything as standard equipment. 8)
What do you think ?.
Absaolutely! The only problem is that someone would need to do some motherboard design, IMO. I can picture something on the order of a mini-ITX form factor but with a Core Duo processor, SATA hard drive, FireWire and USB 2.0, BlueTooth, and 802.11 G, integrated hardware MPEG-2 encoding and decoding chips, and a DVD-RAM / dual layer DVD-RW drive, and an IR port. Yeah, I know that sounds like one of the new Mac minis, but they’re both about the same kind of thing - legacy free and really useful. :twisted:
I too have been toying with this idea but TBH I think the best bet is to use something like a Mini-ITX board and make sure it flies… there are dual processor Via boards out (just like there will be dual core ones soon - you can already get a Pentium M on one), but they’re not cheap…
Not because I want to cause any flaming…
but can we really think about Apple Mac Mini / PowerBooks ?
They have style, they have all we need wrt hardware (afaik, yay Firewire + BT), and Apple look like they are becoming happier with users running third party O/Ss on them.
The best thing of all, they have a small range of hardware. Linux driver support is likely to come quickly, and we can benefit from that. Here’s hoping for Haiku running on a mac within the next year
I only wish Rudolf could work on an ATI driver too 
Anyhow, a lot of that is said as me ( user ), and I can only encourage people to help Haiku more with donations and goodwill.
Absaolutely! The only problem is that someone would need to do some motherboard design
integrated hardware MPEG-2 encoding and decoding chips,
Why stop there, multiple custom MPEG encoding and decoding chips for video & audio, real GPU (all graphics routines handled by it, much like the Amiga design, so you don’t need a very fast CPU) and other stuffs.
http://www.pegasosppc.com/homemedia.php something like this, but better and cheaper ?. with PPC & x86 CPUs, and a Super SheepShaver, to run any OS and software within BeOS or run any OS available 8) :shock: :x :idea:Why stop there, multiple custom MPEG encoding and decoding chips for video & audio, real GPU (all graphics routines handled by it, much like the Amiga design, so you don’t need a very fast CPU) and other stuffs.
...Haiku running on a PPC mac mini is already under way
waaaaa, not just mac minis, but all models, including Beige G3s. waaaa.
Pegasos OpenDesktopWorkstation is little under 800 quints, unfortunately they won’t ship overseas. :x
Seems the chineese are embrasing the PPC, if it happens, the price could drop well below 150 quints/MOBO+PPC 
Hi,
Just joined the forum as I missed the BeOS rage when it hit. I've been active on the Amiga OS side of things and I'm actively involved with developing PowerPC hardware. Every aspect of the h/w design will be open for coding purposes. If there are any interested parties in here...send an email to a.kowalczyk@sympatico.ca. I'm presently finalizing based around a Tundra Tsi109 host bridge. I'm under the impression that BeOS/Haiku/Zeta can use SMP to greater levels than other OS's. Dual 7448's anyone?
Adam
Gets Delusional ideas of computer grandeur
Wouldn’t it be cool to have a custom Haiku platform, with something like P.A. Semi PWRficientTM Processors (PPC) 64 bit multi core running at up to 2.5ghz 2mb lv2 cache, with low power requirements on top of that! 5-13 watts on their dual core at 2.0ghz :!: :!: head explodes
I wouldn’t mind seeing Haiku hit the PPC sector (where Be once was) anyway.
*Gets Delusional ideas of computer grandeur*Wouldn’t it be cool to have a custom Haiku platform, with something like P.A. Semi PWRficientTM Processors (PPC) 64 bit multi core running at up to 2.5ghz 2mb lv2 cache, with low power requirements on top of that! 5-13 watts on their dual core at 2.0ghz :!: :!: head explodes
I wouldn’t mind seeing Haiku hit the PPC sector (where Be once was) anyway.
There have been some recent checkins to fix some issues with GCC 4.x on PPC hardware (again)… 
Scribbles wrote:*Gets Delusional ideas of computer grandeur*Wouldn’t it be cool to have a custom Haiku platform, with something like P.A. Semi PWRficientTM Processors (PPC) 64 bit multi core running at up to 2.5ghz 2mb lv2 cache, with low power requirements on top of that! 5-13 watts on their dual core at 2.0ghz :!: :!: head explodes
I wouldn’t mind seeing Haiku hit the PPC sector (where Be once was) anyway.
There have been some recent checkins to fix some issues with GCC 4.x on PPC hardware (again)…
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, yeah…I want, I want… :-))
I’ve never even considered buying a PPC-based system in the past, but if this (OpenBeBox / HaikuBox) got going, then count me in …
Oh, and btw - I’ve also heard that PPC is excellent with emulation. Apparently, it was designed from the start with that in mind, so there’s another plus.
http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=14803
Now that is a worthy BeBox 2.0.
All we need now is quad capable blinken lights.
I notice Firewire as part of this dream multi-media setup. Does Haiku have anything checked in for firewire? It’s not something I’ve seen mentioned before, however USB is a hot topic, especially now. It would be good to see it supported. My last job had me fiddling with lots of external hard drives, quite a few (thank God!) were Firewire.
Absaolutely! The only problem is that someone would need to do some motherboard design, IMO. I can picture something on the order of a mini-ITX form factor but with a Core Duo processor, SATA hard drive, FireWire and USB 2.0, BlueTooth, and 802.11 G, integrated hardware MPEG-2 encoding and decoding chips, and a DVD-RAM / dual layer DVD-RW drive, and an IR port. Yeah, I know that sounds like one of the new Mac minis, but they're both about the same kind of thing - legacy free and really useful. :twisted:
Maybe you could find something here http://www.opencores.org/
Don’t forget those! Without them it would just be another pc… They could be implemented via usb or a pci card. Usb would be the easiest path. There are also a lot of interesting G4 Powerpc chips coming out of freescale(motorola semiconductor division) theses days. Dual 1.4ghz G4 low power http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=DRPPCDUALCORE .Add an fpga for some custom application acceleration… hardware based codecs anyone? That could put Haiku (BeOS) back on top for multimedia…
Well, I find the argument about x86 and how it would make any computer (like a Mac) into "just another PC" to be reasonable, yet flawed.
A switch to Intel-x86 didn’t stop Apple from maintaining the line that their computers are Macs, not generic PCs. ââ¬ÅBecause it’s more than the processor, more than the hardware, the soul of the Mac is its operating system", Steve Jobs said at WWDC 2005 concerning the switch. Of course, its place in contrast to the many generic PCs and their makers is much more ambiguous, with the ability to run not only Windows on Apple hardware, but also Windows-native apps on Mac OS X (via Wine). Of course, the people at ReactOS, a Windows-compatible OS are planning a future PowerPC port, which should render any remaining difference between PowerPC Macs and Intel-x86 Macs obsolete.
Before Intel-x86, Macs had the fundamental hardware difference (PowerPC) that put them in a place between PCs and game consoles (that is, having the same chip that is being used in today’s game consoles while lacking the games, and being applied and used just like PCs but not with a stereotypical PC chip). Now, in 2006+, that isn’t the case any longer.
Thus, Apple, having become a generic x86 ("PC") maker with an in-home operating system, is now subject to the same criteria as every other computer maker (Dell, Sony, Toshiba, HP, etc.), and will be judged on exactly how well their hardware works (with or without OS X) compared with the competition.
If an OpenBeBox (HaiKoobox, anyone?) were to be launched, it would have to be along the same lines. People are wanting a hardware setup which will allow them to make the most use of and production with the software, or even the web.
Just my opinion.
BTW, Hi. I’m new here.
Of course, the people at ReactOS, a Windows-compatible OS are planning a future PowerPC port, which should render any remaining difference between PowerPC Macs and Intel-x86 Macs obsolete.
I just wanted to point out that doing this would NOT allow PowerPC macs to run windows apps natively… there would have to be an emulation layer to run x86 apps on a PPC machine without recompile. Due to the lower number of PPC macs out there, a ReactOS port to PPC would simply be pointless.
There is nearly zero windows software that has been compiled for PPC (maybe back in the NT days when PPC was a supported platform) providing only another "interesting" os to run on PPC - but certainly not out of the box "windows compatible" like some would like to believe.
the lower number of PPC macs out there
…compared to the number of x86 Macs? The legacy ones still sell pretty big on eBay, even with the last of their products (XServe and PowerMac) having made the transition as of last month.
But you definately have a point about the x86 emulation for PPC part. The issue with that is obtaining the specs for both x86 (moreso) and PPC, and making the layer to move it in the opposite direction - that is, opposite to Rosetta, Apple’s PPC-to-Intel translator.
Considering that x86, unlike SPARC (which includes the Power architecture), is far from an open standard, I’ll concede that ReactOS-on-PPC is a dead end.
Considering that x86, unlike SPARC (which includes the Power architecture), is far from an open standard, I'll concede that ReactOS-on-PPC is a dead end.
Just to be clear - I certainly was not saying the same would be true for Haiku. Since BeOS once had a PPC life of its own, there is already PPC software out there for it. And much of Haiku’s potential software may already be cross-platform compilable for BeOS on PPC…
I did check the ROS forums, and it appears the PPC port was sort of a hobby for a developer interested in porting it to PPC for fun. It appears nothing has really happened since then, and only the bootloader ever worked. There was also some mention of a "reverse-rosetta" style layer possibly in the FAR future if a PPC port ever happened… but I’m not holding my breath. By the time ROS hits 1.0, I suspect many will have stopped using PPC machines for desktops.