In search for info on PPC cpus

[Varthall]

Hi,

next sunday me and a friend of mine will attend a Linux fair in my city. We're going to show an AmigaOne running Debian, it will be an opportunity to show off the motherboard as an alternative to x86 ones for Linuxes. I'm in search for any type of documentation about advantages of ppc type cpus over x86, as many people will certainly ask us why, for a Linux user, a PPC would be a "better" choice.
So far I've only found the recent article on OsNews, which is far from being objective IMHO. There is the heating advantage, but for others? What about the following:

- the evolution path, how does it compare against the newer 64 bit cpus from Intel and AMD? Is IBM commited in continuing the research and development?
- has ppc any advantage when used in multiprocessor machines? Some native support for this?
- how do the A1's ram and cpu buses compare against modern PCs?
- I've read that most of the next generation consoles will have a PPC, is this true? If so, will this help reducing the prices of ppc machines?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Varthall

[Varthall]

Thanks for all your infos and links, especially the arstechnica articles were highly informative. Reading the G4 vs K7 comparison I had the impression that G4s are more attractive to coders for its design elegance...
The performance depends on many factors, and it's difficult to really say which is faster and how much it is, althought it seems that G4s are more and more lagging behind P4s and Athlons, but this depends on what applications are used. So, I'll say to linux users that PPCs are roughly equivalent to x86, more expensive but with less heating being the most evident differences. I don't know if the MacOs emulation possibility will be seen as a attractive bonus for them, thought.
An important issue is that with the A1 and the Pegasos, now its finally possible to build ppc computers without having to buy complete Macs. Also, it's nice that there's a cpu in the desktop market without the x86 isa legacy.

Varthall