Adam pretty much confirmed on IRC that the high-end machine will run
a PA Semi Multi-core CPU:
Quote:
[14:13] -ironfist- ackcontrols, hi.. How are you supposed to sell a complete system that is better than Apples Quad 2.5 GHz PowerMac, for half the price apple wanted?
[14:14] -ackcontrols- Ironfist: Easy.
[14:14] -nicomen- ?
[14:14] -ironfist- ?
[14:14] -gregthecanuck- !
[14:14] * nicomen is intrigued
[14:14] -masuami- ackcontrols: it's not that you haven't any knowledge of the issues at hand, that's why I wonder how you think about it -yourself-, since it is unlikely that Amiga Inc will ever get their hands on ExecSG, this would make the whole hardware discussion very pointless
[14:15] -Varthall- ackcontrols: what is your opinion on Jens Schoenfeld's recent post about the A1200 CPU connectors?
[14:15] -ackcontrols- My issues wth Jens will be addressed this month.
[14:16] -ironfist- ackcontrols, using the two 970MP like apple did, a complete system and with no northbridge for desktop systems? .. how are you supposed to manage that? (apple forbid ibm to sell the northbridge for all desktops)
[14:16] -gregthecanuck- ironfist: Think PA Semi quad-core chips.
[14:17] -gregthecanuck- They won't need northbridge, nor will they require near-herculean cooling system
[14:17] -ironfist- to the best of my knowledge the PA Semi chips are not available yet
[14:17] -ironfist- only some evaluation boards
[14:17] -ackcontrols- Ironfist, available in samples to customers.
[14:18] -ironfist- ok
[14:19] -ackcontrols- Actaully, the desktop issue for the 970 and it's companion chipset is also RoHS compliance issues.
[14:20] -ironfist- ackcontrols, interesting if you use PA Semi .. i guess you are the first. How does that feel? Beeing first in untested grounds?
[14:20] -ackcontrols- The CPC925 wasn' t allowed to be sold, but the 945 doesn't have this issue.
[14:20] -gregthecanuck- ironfist: I recommend you cruise the PA Semi web site. There are a number of customers evaluating their system
[14:21] -masuami- ackcontrols: will you release the hardware regardless of os4/ExecSG availability, i.e like ACube does, maybe for the Linux market and other clients?
[14:21] -ironfist- gregthecanuck, there is a big difference in *evaluating* and *selling for end-users*
[14:21] -gregthecanuck- ironfist: Well, duh.
[14:21] -ackcontrols- I started communicating with PA Semi over a year ago.
[14:22] -ironfist- cool
[14:22] -ironfist- how will amigaos work with smp?
[14:23] -ackcontrols- What appeals to me the most about the PASemi chip is the low power consumption.
[14:23] -ironfist- (i'm no coder, just that i know neither aos nor mos has support for smp)
[14:23] -gregthecanuck- ironfist: PA Semi's roadmap includes a single-core chip. Their current plans are to ship a dual-core first.
[14:24] -gregthecanuck- I presume with OS 4.0 the extra core would be idle.
[14:24] -nicomen- ironfist: run morphos on one core and amigaos on the other ;D
[14:24] -masuami- lol
[14:24] -gregthecanuck- ar-ar-ar
[14:24] -ironfist- nicomen, hehehe
[14:24] -masuami- hopefully there won't be camp fights between the cores
[14:24] -nicomen- btw. fleecy has SMP support planned for OS5, so no problem ;D
[14:25] -ironfist- gregthecanuck, sure, but a single core cpu can never take on a quad G5 2.5 GHz .. so this ack-machine has to run a few cores
[14:25] -gregthecanuck- ironfist: A single core would more than suffice for a low-end machine
[14:25] -ironfist- we are not talking low-end
[14:25] -ackcontrols- Theer are issues with OS4 for SMP and 64 bit at the present time, but that's not a concern.
[14:25] -gregthecanuck- ironfist: For a high-end machine you just scale up the number of cores.
[14:25] -nicomen-
http://mailgate.dada.net/no/no.it.os.amiga.programvare/msg00187.html
[14:25] -ironfist- ackcontrols, ok thanks
[14:26] -gregthecanuck- ironfist: I believe PA Semi has mentioned scaling to 16 or 32 cores. Can't remember which.
[14:26] -ackcontrols- 16
[14:26] -ackcontrols- It's dual core allready, with 2 memory controllers.
[14:26] -ackcontrols- Issue with PPC archicture has always been memory bandwidth.
[14:27] -skyraker- do we know what cpu in the high end jobby?
[14:27] -wonea- PASemi boards sound great, whats the timeline ?
[14:27] -ackcontrols- Press release.
[14:27] -masuami- ackcontrols: so do you have also other markets in mind with the high-end board or only OS4? is there a backup plan?
[14:27] -skyraker- tease
[14:28] -ackcontrols- Everything is done with a backup plan.