Waldorf has it's own agenda which seems to include MIPS.
Mips seems that the design complexity if forcing the use of some
fairly complex/expensive chips. ($2711 for 0 ram, no L2 cache,
4600 with video, audio, and ethernet)
Are any of the hardware designers out there interested in doing our own
design with an eye towards price performance? Please email me and/or the
list if you feel you could help design a motherboard.
I've talked to a few dec engineers and they seem to think that a very
cheap motherboard using the ALPHA 21066 should be possible. They sent
me I believe almost everything I need to make a motherboard. (Not
that I have any skill at such things.)
Big features of the 21066:
Embedded graphics controller (on chip)
L2 cache support (directly connects to sram.)
PCI I/O controller on chip
8k/8k L1 cache
3.3 V chip (cooler)
70 Specint 105 Specfp (better then any 100 Mhz mips)
This has several big advantages of the mips design:
Cheaper, faster, PCI.
Of course the disadvantages:
No cheap production at Waldorf
Software will be pretty tricky getting started/booted.
Seems like you basically hook up the PCI bus, vram, sram, and dram to the
pins, and you have a motherboard.
So any hardware designers interested in donating time? I have parts list,
parts descriptions, schematics, and a product brief on the ALPHA
evaluation board.
It's a wild idea just thought I'd thow it out to the list.
--
Bill Broadley@{neurocog,schneider3,lrdc5}.lrdc.pitt.edu (in order of preference)
Linux is great. Bike to live, live to bike. PGP-ok
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