Yes, just do it :-)

Here is the latest and greatest:



R&B :)

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http://bbrv.blogspot.com

I agree, it's a really cool looking board and I can think of a numerous things I could use it for. I only wish it had proper graphics card slot though...

Gerald says it can work...

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http://bbrv.blogspot.com

MPC8610 related kernel development reached an important milestone: the devel board on my desk now boots with a kernel.org kernel or a reconfigured SuSE kernel. There is no more need for using the Freescale BSP with a stone age (almost a year old :-) ) kernel version.

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CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/

Posted a movie of the working "Redtail" MPC8610 board on Youtube.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=cVsWuE_3Qd4

----lonelywild

That video demo at the end is nothing short of amazing, do you have more details of exactly what it was doing? Resolution of the videos, was the animation in flash? Possibly performance figures? Software used?

How does video performance compare using something like MPlayer on a desktop?

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Matt Sealey

Yes especially that part in the end looks very cool. Really! :-)

But this is a "demo" (as in "demo scene"), an application that makes full(?) use of the CPU in order to achieve a maximized impression of the hardware/skills. I.e. not a real life situation, which some real life apps running on a "real" OS environment could achieve, right?

We have seen several examples of the 8610 being very powerful at one single task at a time, like the 1080HD playback, etc.

Well, since the 8610 lacks 3D acceleration (and *also lacks 2D acceleration* AFAIK, which could have a big impact in GUI's, etc), it has to drive *all* graphics by processor, right? At the expense of computing power for *the applications*, right?

I'd like to see some "demo" of the 8610 (alone, no GFX HW) running a couple of apps simultaneously while providing a true, modern desktop environment that's flawless.

I can see how the 8610 would fit in a HDTV. One task only. But until I have seen it work in a *computer desktop environment* I have to say:

Go for the 8640!

:-)

Don't miss the "D" ;-)

Actually it looks fairly promising. You have to realise that in modern GUIs, not much of the display is updated. In the demo you see it booting into GNOME and it's no slower than my experience with a Pegasos with a Radeon 9250. It's almost guaranteed that the Fedora build installed on it does not have any Altivec enabled where it could be (there are lots of parts of GNOME and X which are running on the Cairo or Pixman engines, along with Firefox and Openoffice of course, which Luca sent patches for a couple months back).
Peter? What are your experiences on the DIU?
Right now we're concentrating on the Netbook market, and we're thinking of how much web browsing, emailing and general internet usage you can do with it. Office apps, simple gaming, and enough "HD" video playback to fill your screen, is enough. We already think the MPC8610 is going to kick the backside of comparable Intel Atom processors (in power AND performance) and remember, Linux is not as optimized for PPC as it is for Intel. So it can only IMPROVE..

And in the end, the less acceleration offered by the board, the more you guys will have to start coding AltiVec enhancements.. I think it works to better the platform and to get EVERY improvement out of it, if you are given something which needs a little help to perform.

That said, decoding 4 nearly-DVD-resolution videos at once, moving them around while being blended - I think that's a good result. I don't think you'll have too much of a problem (certainly, using fbdev on a Radeon 9250 is not a terrible experience, especially in limited resolutions like 1024xsomething)

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Matt Sealey

Well, I guess everything is fine as long as the the rest of the applications running on the CPU won't start to crawl as soon as there are some dynamic things going on in the display...

only netbook ? what about something like the efika ? actaully a something like a mini itx board would be perfect. with ram slots, and pcie :-D

You guys have been asking for a laptop forever, now you don't want us to go there? :D

The Netboook is the end product, anyway. It is the thing we'd expect to sell millions of units (which a Notebook invariably would).
There may be a developer program.

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Matt Sealey

no, i was asking/hoping for both :-D perhaps the same board could be used ? or similar with few modifications. like one board but with different components added depending if it were a netbook or mini. like pcie for the mini. and integrated graphics for the netbook? i agree a netbook would probably sell better, and i would probably be interested in one too, maybe. my g4 ibook is still working well for me.

i was interested in a small media computer for the tv, so i can show pics or movies. quiet, no fans, and energy efficient :)

i would like to upgrade my nat/router box. i thought a new powerpc like efika would be great.

matt

That's exactly the same route I was suggesting and why I prefer the 8610 over the 8640. One design - many possibilities (with minimum modifications). Anyway, the netbook approach is currently the best one, but trying to make the base design more versatile seems like a good approach to me.