UltimatePPC and everything else

[Tahoe]

Last saturday we had our Commodore GG meeting, and the UltimatePPC was shown "in the flesh".
Both delevopers were in Maarssen and brought along Samo Jordan, original developer of the WarpOS/WarpUP! software.
 
Current status is:
 
- Hardwarewise the PPC side is working and booting. The 68040 side works, but does not yet talk to the classic hardware. The card does run, standalone. But the Amiga will not boot yet with the card inserted.
 
- Active talks with Hyperion for supporting AmigaOS4.x.
 
- Driver support: lots of help pledged for building drivers for all the hardware goodies (more help is always welcome!)
 
- Support for WarpUp/WarpOS through support pledged by the original author
 
Interesting bit: The MicroSD card on the UltimatePPC holds the firmware/bootcode. This is indended to stay. That means upgrading/flashing the card can be done with a normal PC and a card reader... !!

[Tahoe]

I don't know how much positive attitude is needed to turn a CPU to execute incompatible FPU code. Must be a lot.

At least we are moving forward now, instead of being stuck with 199x hardware. Who knows, maybe in future this will be the compatible CPU and all currently in use PPC's will be the incompatible ones...

[Tahoe]

lol. hate to think amigaones might occur to be amiga incompatible (again).. , and mac gear too!

That's why I put the smiley up!

[Tahoe]

Is there any reason why you didnt pick ARM core or x86 chip? I mean, since you dont aim for backward compatibility there could have been more cost effective options?

You seem to think I am somehow involved; I am not. I am just excited to see new hardware being developed for our classic machines. The fact Hyperion is getting involved at some point and we might see AmigaOS 4.x being released for it sounds good to me, at least better than a Cyberstorm.

Now, if Morphos were to run on this card I would be highly interested, for now Morphos is a no-go for me because I simply do not have the hardware to run it on.

Instead of bashing the card and looking for all the impossibilities it would be nice if people looked at the posibilities instead. With some effort this could be a future, at least for the classic owners out there...

[Tahoe]

BTW is Sam Jordan aware that the chosen CPU has an incompatible FPU?

Yes. Fortunatly he is looking at possibilities instead of rejecting it at first hand.

[Tahoe]

For the love of God and the Amiga, please choose another 100% 603e-604e compatible PPC for your great project

It's not my project.

[Tahoe]

(the remaining motherboard connectors are rare)

Sorry, I would have to correct you on this bit... The connectors are still being manufactured by Kel. You can buy them in minimum quantities of 220 pieces. They have already been sourced.

As far as changing the design: so far development seems to be on track, with support for both WarpUp and AmigaOS4 firmly rooted, I personally see no reason why they need to change anything. If somewhere along the line a problem occurs which they cannot overcome they can cross that bridge when they get there I suppose.

If some applications do not run because they rely heavily on the FPU and can't be trapped, maybe the author(s) are willing to adapt the code, or open source it for someone else to help out.

[Tahoe]

Update from the developers:

Happy Holidays from the UltimatePPC team!*

As we are nearing the summer holidays it is time for a quick status update from our side. The last few months have been hectic as both Gideon and myself have been extremely busy with personal affairs besides trying to advance the UltimatePPC project. As we have the prototype boards in our hands we have been actively working on booting a basic kernel on the PowerPC core and interfacing the board to the Amiga bus. Parallel we are starting the software development side of things, with WarpOS support being worked on - as well as first contact with Hyperion regarding AmigaOS4 support.

We also keep an eye on feedback from the community and are evaluating the choice made for the P1013 CPU.We knew that the FPU in this processor is incompatible with the ones found on older PowerPC boards. Our original plan to fix these incompatibilities in software turns out to have more impact that we had foreseen. For this reason, we will reconsider the choice of PowerPC CPU, while continuing the development work of other important stuff on the current prototype.

So what's next? First we'll take a few weeks off for holidays and time with family. Somewhere in August we get together again… Expect a new update end of August! Happy holidays!