No it won't happen. I'm *not* saying it's technically impossible to develop a motherboard using obscure PPC CPU's (Aeon and Acube are examples of that), but the key word here is *VIABLE*, and this is where it *fails*, as again both Aeon and Acube are both examples of.
OK, so it's not dead because it's incapable
Of course it's *technically possible* to make a desktop motherboard based on obscure PPC CPU's (it can't compete with any *real* desktop motherboard though).
But open your eyes for a moment, and think about this for a few seconds: Why do you think nobody is *doing* this? Why is there no desktop market based on PPC? Why hasn't it been any for the last half decade?
it's dead because they don't sell more than some number in your head.
Oh, please...
I don't know how many either company has sold, or if they've broken even.
I'd say a few hundred units, and I recall from somewhere that the threshold for Acube to make a production batch is about 30 units, so it's an extremely low volume scheme.
Since Acube has more than one model, I feel it safe to assume that they felt successful enough to do more than the first model.
Performance wise, my $129 Efika MX kicks Sam 440's butt. And the Sam 460 doesn't quite reach up to a 2004 Pegasos 2. And it costs over *a thousand* Euros! The obscure hardware components has meant quite a dire driver situation. More than a year has passed, and
they still haven't got some of the fundamental, rudimentary things working properly! The A1X1K doesn't offer much on top of a souped-up $100 PowerMac G4, and apparently
it can't play 1080p video sufficiently even on a dual core enabled Linux with all drivers working. And it costs over *three thousand dollars*, all handled through pre-order schemes!
How is this good? How is it even *decent*? How is this viable? How is it a way to a sustainable future?
It's too bad that none of our Amiga-alike platforms can be a viable thing to you. It's sad that MorphOS is such a failure to be on such old Mac laptops instead of shiny new ones, or on shiny new anything that I know of. And sad that AROS is not viable because it runs on shiny new PCs. And sad that OS4 is not viable because they seem to have a successful business selling brand new but weird boards.
Now don't be cranky just because someone opens the window for a minute to let in some fresh reality from outside.
At least AROS isn't tied to a dead-end CPU architecture.
At least MorphOS developers aren't mentally tied to PPC in any way, in fact, I don't think any single one of them looks at PPC as a path to a viable future, rather the opposite actually, and eventually this will show.
The only ones thinking the OS4 model (obscure, custom made, low performance, low volume, ridiculously priced PPC HW) is the way forward, is the OS4 OS/HW developers. Which is fine by me.
