The CPU Architecture history and how Free Software have changed the rigid dependency of Hardware from Proprietary Software. How now it is possible a PowerPC Notebook thanks to Free Software and Open Hardware - some minor update at may 2016 More information http://www.powerpc-notebook.org/en/

1. BUILD WITH US
THE FIRST PowerPC
OPEN SOURCE NOTEBOOK

2. Who are we?
● We define ourselves as a
Solidarity/Ethical/Passion driven community
attorno a questo progetto e al Free Software e
Hardware
● We are even a Tecnlogical Ethical Purchasing
Group, in order to gather funds, design most of
our laptop and run GNU/Linux on it
● We promote a Positive and Humane relationship
between collaborators

3. Ready to switch to
GNU/Linux PowerPC
notebooks

4. WHY
TODAY IS
POSSIBLE?

5. The World is changed
● The game has changed, now GNU/Linux
is everywhere running on every CPU
architectures and devices
● It's the right time to make new choices, a
new PowerPC Notebook designed around
GNU/Linux, make it happen!

6. The Streeght of Relationships
● Mettendo relazione diretta con ogni persona che si è iscritta lalla
newsletter del nostro sito, è nata una relazione umana di
collaborazione.
● After 1 year from we have met the first interested to the project,
today contribute to our project many peoples from different
countries.
● Now we have 320 subscribers to our newsletter
● 120 collaborations and suggestions surveys compiled
● 50 collaborators (translation, software, etc)
● Our website is localized in 7 languages and we a forum

7. http://www.powerpc-notebook.org
Website 7 Languages: English – French – Spanish – German – Poland –
Portuguese - Italian

8. http://forum.powerpc-notebook.org/

9. Actions Done
● Direct single and group relationship with all the potential
collaborators
● Website localization in 7 languages
● forum/website management
● Periodic Newsletter
● Searching of Chassis Notebook suppliers and others
altenative solutions
● Tryed many synergies with other projects or producers
● Preparation of Debian 64 bit powerpc installation image
● Collaboration with Freescale/NXP that support us with a
devkit RDB2080 and uboot modification for pci-e video cards

10. Freescale/NXP Support
● Freescale/NXP have loaned us RDB2080
devkit based on the same e6500 core of our
notebook, to help us to testDebian GNU/Linux 64 bit
powerpc and video cards

11. History
of CPU

12. Instruction set Bits Introduced
64 1992
32 1983
64/32
32 2006
32 2000
32 1990
16/32 2009
64 2001
32 1997
32 1979
32 2006
1981
64 1999
8 1975
2006?
32 1982
1986
1991
16/32 2005
64 (32→64) 1985
32 1990s
1964
32 1977
1978
2003
8 1976
4→48→56 2005
32 2000
Alpha
ARM
ARMv8-A 2011[2]
AVR32
Blackfin
DLX
eSi-RISC
Itanium (IA-64)
M32R
Motorola 68k
Mico32
MIPS 64 (32→64)
MMIX
6502
65k 64 (8→64)[8]
NS320xx
PA-RISC (HP/PA) 64 (32→64)
PowerPC 32/64 (32→64)
S+core
SPARC
SuperH (SH)
System/360 / System/370 / z/Architecture64 (32→64)
VAX
x86 32 (16→32)
x86-64 64 (32→64)
Z80
Xilinx
Crusoe
Cpu Architectures in time

13. current Mainstream:
●ARM
●MIPS
●Power Architecture (Power - PowerPC)
●X86
●Sparc
CPU with many (proprietary) applications force to keep
compatibility into new CPUs.
Windows was born and grown on x86. Used by everyone, it also
forced to keep compatibility when going to new CPUs.
Mainstream processor family

14. PowerPC/Power history
● 1991 Created by AIM (Apple IBM Motorola) (mix some drawn back compatibility between IBM
Power e Motorola 88000)
1993 PowerPC 601
● 1997 G3 Freescale/IBM , Gekko (IBM) Nintendo GameCube
● 1999 G4 Freescale
● 2004 MPC 7447A ( variante G4 Freescale)
● 2003 G5 64bit (IBM)
● 2006 BroadWay IBM (64 bit) Nintendo Wii
● 2006 Cell 64bit ( 64 bit) Sony Playstation 3
● 2007 PWRficient PA6T (64bit)
● 2010 e5500 core (64 bit) Freescale
● 2012 Expresso (64 bit) IBM Nintendo Wii U
● 2012 e6500 core (64 bit) Freescale
● 2014 Power 8 - OpenPower

15. Proprietary Software
Limit CPU innovation
● 1993 Windows 25 million licenses (X86)
● 1993 PowerPC 601 released
● 1994 first Apple computer with PowerPC
PowerPC is released without software compiled
for it: OS and previous applications was running on
386 or Motorola 68000.
When Apple created PowerPC they were running
parts of Mac OS written for 68k, under emulation on
the PowerPC.

16. ● 1995 Windows NT
3.51/4.0 PowerPC
dropped in 1996
● 1995 Os/2 Warp,
PowerPC edition
● 1995 Solaris 2.51 for
PowerPC
Proprietary OS? NO PARTY

17. PowerPC games console
Name Image
Manufact
urer
Gen
erati
on
CPU Clock RAM
On the
market
No. sold
Pippin
Apple
Bandai
Katz
Media
5:th PowerPC 603 66 MHz 6 MB 1995 - 1997 42.000
M2
3DO
Panasonic
5:th 2× PowerPC 602
2×
66 MHz
8 MB
1997
Never
marketed
none
GameCub
e
Nintendo 6:th Gekko 486 MHz 24 MB 2001 - 2007
21.74
million
Xbox 360 Microsoft 7:th
XCPU (Xbox 360)
XCGPU (Xbox
360 S)
3.2 GHz
512
MB
2005 -
present
77.2
million
March
2013
Wii Nintendo 7:th Broadway 729 MHz 64 MB
2006 -
present
99.8
million
March
2013
PlayStatio
n 3
Sony 7:th Cell B.E. 3.2 GHz
256
MB
2006 -
present
78.4
million
May 2013
Wii U Nintendo 8:th Espresso
1.24 GH
z
2 GB
2012 -
present
3.45
million
March
2013

18. ● PS2 MIPS
● PS3 PowerPC
● PS4 x86_64
● Nintendo N64 MIPS
● Nintendo GameCube PowerPC
● Nintendo Wii/WiiU PowerPC
Consoles have a tiny OS with few embedded applications
Games are written from scratch or are developed on
cross-architecture engines. CPU change affects them less.
● Ms Xbox x86
● Ms Xbox 360 PowerPC
● Ms Xbox One X86_64
●
● PSP MIPS
● PSP VITA ARM
Game Consoles processors

19. POWER/PowerPC
IS AN ACTIVE
ARCHITECTURE

20. ● In 2013 was founded the OpenPower Foundation, are part of about
150 members, including companies, universities and individuals,
with hundreds of projects, it is an open technical community, they
have created an open ecosystem for the POWER architecture.

21. NXP ( was Freescale)
● NXP have an active Roadmap based on
Power architecture
● May 2016 new T4xx1 low-power e6500
core processors
● On 2017 will go in production Power at
16nm
● new processors scheduled between 2017
and 2018

22. QorIQ Multicore Communications Processor Solution Roadmap

23. ● "Free software" means software that respects users'
freedom and community.
● Users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute,
study, change and improve the software. Thus, "free
software" means liberty, not "software at no price".
Free Software: ANY CPU
● Gnu/Linux is free software → you can view ,change
and recompile the sources for many different CPUs
● It is possible to run the same programs recompiled for
different CPUs.
● You can easily change the CPU architecture

24. ● Video driver open source now are
supported from ATI and NVIDIA.
● Open Source support continue in times
more tha proprietary support
● Minor obsolescence of technology product
minor Obsolescence

25. PowerPC Desktop/embedded
● Amiga One X1000
X5000 A-Eon
● Amiga One 500 Acube
Systems

26. Power Micro/Servers/Workstation

27. Our PowerPC Notebook
● CPU 64 bit PowerPC core e6500 multi-tread, multi-
core AltiVec acceleration with 16 Gflops per core
● video card MXM ( upgradable )
● USB 2 and USB3 ports
● SATA
● RAM DDR3L, upgradable
● HD/SSD 2.5'', upgradable
● Standard notebook case 15,6''

28. Open Source Hardware
1 year ago at the Linux Day 2014 we have
received a proposal: why not make the Open
Source Hardware laptop?
● The manufacturer will make designs and will make
the prototypes under Open Source license
Hardware !!!!
● From us “Technology Purchase Solidarity Group”
depends make the crowdfunding

29. Crowdfunding Campain
● Step 1: Spread massive project
● Step 2: Informal membership Campain
● Step 3: Prototype Fundraising
● Step 4: Designs and test prototypes
updates
● Step 5: Fundraising notebook production

30. 1:How to help us
● Tanslate: our site, social media page,
applications...
● Spread the news: publish news about our project
in your blog, forum, social network page, manage
our website, communicate with our followers...
● Be Creative: design/create media to promote
ourproject (videos, pictures, animations,
presentations...)
● Join the Software Workgroup: develop, test, fix,
optimize PowerPC GNU/Linux applications, help
porting other Operating Systems.

31. 2:How to help us
● Join the Hardware Workgroup: help us finding
a chassis (case) supplier, select components,
collaborate with the producer, develop drivers...
● buying groups: enable buying groups also
involving foundations, schools, universities,
companies; study other experiences of
technological success buying groups.
● Manage the Crowdfunding campaign: prepare,
launch and manage the campain.

32. 1:Software Group Activites
Test Debian Powerpc 64 bit
● Get a G5 ( powerpc 64 bit)
● Install powerpc 32 bit unstable
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/unstable/cu
rrent/powerpc/iso-cd/
● Chroot 64 bit
https://wiki.debian.org/PPC64
● Test packages

33. ● Wii/WiiU:Dolphin
https://it.dolphin-emu.org/?cr=it
● Xbox360 https://github.com/benvanik/xenia
● PS3 https://github.com/DHrpcs3/rpcs3
They must be recompiled on Power and
removed emulation
PowerPC console Virtualization