Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Build Your Own PowerPC?

Posted by Cliff on from the why-not? dept.

amokk asks: "Let's assume for a second that somebody would want to take the time and effort to build a Personal Computer but base it on a PowerPC architecture. Besides saying 'Buy a Mac' (I already have one) or 'Buy an IBM server', is there any way of acquirng the individual parts and slapping them together? Why you would want to do this isn't up for debate. Rather, this is one of those 'wouldn't it be neat if...' type of experiments."

4 of 320 comments (clear)

  1. FP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Look here, but it's kind of old. Oh and here also!

  2. Similar Questions: ARM-powered Desktop? by Hanno · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...are there mainboards and CPUs available to end-users that are not in the sky-high price-range that manufacturers take for developer hardware?

    I'd be interested in building an ARM-based desktop computer, but it seems there is no normal mainboard sold to end-users. Or is it? ("Normal" = standard form factor, standard RAMs, IDE, USB and VGA included, possibly PS/2 and serial too.)

    Same question for the Crusoe, btw. Seems that the only desktop mainboard available is developers only...

    --

    ------------------
    You may like my a cappella music
  3. Re:The other part of the question... by dhovis · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You know, I keep wondering if we'll ever see the return of Mac-clones. Because Darwin is open-source, it should be possible to port it to any other PPC-based machine. Quartz and carbon and cocoa all ride on top of Darwin and don't know what is underneath, so once you've ported Darwin, you should be able to install the full MacOS X.

    This would be a better situation for Apple than their old clone prorgam was, because Apple can force the other hardware vendors to port Darwin to their own clones and support it themselves, and pay Apple for the bit that provides the interface. It would also help Apple spread the cost of Darwin development out a bit.

    Probably a pipe dream, but still...

    --

    --
    The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.

  4. Re:The other part of the question... by bivaughn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Linux compatbility is pretty much enough. MacOnLinux can run Jaguar on an RS/6000 now, so linux on a PPC system not designed by apple can work great. There is also work into getting Jaguar to boot on an AmigaOne PPC ATX motherboard, I think os9 already runs...

    -biv