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Hardware

Tiny PPC Motherboards 57

Posted by CmdrTaco from the aint-that-cool dept.
An anonymous reader sent us something taht is worth looking at- this is a tiny PPC motherboard. Looks like a nice start for that tiny wearable Linux box that I lust after in my sleep.
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Tiny PPC Motherboards More

Tiny PPC Motherboards

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  • Put it together with a couple quarter size IBM Harddrives and you may have a good control system for a battlebot. HEHEHEhehehe...

    They should also consider using an ARM processor...
  • How about a computer that runs off of body heat with a watch battery for backup?

    They could also have you wear a propeller on your head or use a small solar panel on top of your hat! :)

    This is majorly cool. :))
  • Uh... Well... You may want to take it off to take a bath? It could be made waterproof though...

    Every system needs a backup... right? :))
  • Yeah... you know? When you get up to go to the fridge or the necces'ry room. Exercise!
  • They could use a generator based on the magnetic lines of force surrounding the earth. As you move though the field, a microcurrent is induced in a coil of wire. The technology would probably require the use of SuperConductors though; so it could be cost prohibitive. :|
  • Posted by rooker:

    Here is the inevitable question: Since no one can seem to find a PPC PC-style motherboard and processor combo at a decent price that is non MacOS...Could a setup like this be bought cheaply and then used to build a desktop LinuxPPC only box
    at a decent price point??
  • Posted by Rizla+:

    Try looking at Blue Chip Technology [bluechiptechnology.co.uk] The price for a Intel P133, 32MB is around 570 UK Pounds, about 800 or 900 US Dollars Paul
  • These things remind me of the 68HC11 (a common motorola microcontroller) board we're using in our MOBOT (me, dscherer, mfeghali, keg). We bought that (or, scherer did) for $100 from some guy who makes'em in his basement. I could beleive some professional guys with real equipment and fabs and all could put together a nice PC on a chip. After all, the IBM 500-series laptops aren't all that ar from this -- they just have a 2.5" HD, batteries, , PCMCIA slots, a keyboard and a screen.

    I think the real ones are a bit harder to play with than the 6800-series tho....too bad....

    Our mobot rulez now, it would whomp some serious tail with a real PC running linux!
  • A QUIET Linux box for installation in a home theatre, mainly for MP3 playback and minor network activity.

    StrongARM and PowerPC's are supposed to sip power and not generate much heat. No hard drive since noone makes a quiet drive. :-( But with a 10 or 100T LAN connection everything can stream in anyways. Obviously this means net booting off another machine. What do you think -- is MP3 going to require too much power to forgo a fan?

    Does the Corel Netwinder ship in a fanless diskless configuration? I read they were thinking about such a config. Does the NW have sound?

    (I prefer a ready to go system because I'm not very experienced with building hardware...)

  • Does anyone know where I can find a small intel chipset motherboard? It doesn't need to be /that/ small, but something a lot smaller than the average AT board? BTW, 486/586 is plenty fast - no PII stuff, of course.
  • ...and make a tiny working laptop for my Original Steve Jobs Action Figure!
  • No, but we have planned the Bill Gates Raggedy Andy Doll, the Hockey-Action Scott McNeely, the Debonair Fashion/Samurai Fantasy Larry Ellison, and the Wozniak Soft Toy!
    (Send me your email if you want a picture of the Steve Jobs doll. He lives on my printer.)

  • I saw a wearable once that stored energy from the compression energy in your shoe when you walk. If you batteries get low.. go for a 15 minute stroll...

    cool, eh?
  • Epson makes some PCMCIA-sized PCs - complete with video and the works. You can check them out here [epson.co.jp] and here [smos.com]
  • Take another look at the spec sheet - the small ones are PC104 form factor (3.6" * 3.8").

    [to original poster of "Tiny Intel MBs" thread]: PCs have been around in this form factor for ages - take the base m/board, then stack a video card, sound card, multi channel analog converter (the PC104 heritage is in embedded systems) to get a nice cube, industrial strength, 2-3x the price of a standard PC of equivalent power.

    martian

  • OS/9 is a wicked little OS. Fully re-entrant, ROMmable, multitasking, multiuser, real-time interrupt handling, etcetera. Plenty o' power for many tasks. Popular machine controller OS, I understand. Runs nuke power sites and the like...
  • It just looks like someone spliced the quarter in to "demonstrate" the size and they did a bad job of it. The quarter should be larger from the looks of the ports and the rest of the board.
  • You could ask here:Brian Fowler Systems [brianfowler.co.uk]
    No idea how much it would cost.
  • These things are only available in quantity. It would be a lot cheaper to buy a used PowerMac, install LinuxPPC, and away you go. Why do you care if (once) was a Mac?

  • And doesn't that photo with the US Quarter for comparison look like the Quarter has been doctored into the photo?

    Strange.
  • You think THIS is bad?? You'd probably have a mental breakdown if subjected to an irc chat session. :)
  • Interesting looking, but I wish they had clearer promotional information on their web site.
  • try this [intel.com] its intel's embedded processor module... not something you just buy then use... just a base for developing something cool.

  • Great (Score:1)

    by Kludge ( 13653 )
    Great. Now where can I find an ATX form factor motherboard for PPC. And don't post any "I think you can find one here" or "Oh, it's easy to find one" crap! If you see one on the net, post it's URL!
  • ... okay, 'c' isn't for chip. It stands for 'cookie,' and it's good enough for me.
  • The MPC860 is a communications controller, so no FPU. However, with some additional Phy H/W, these little buggers could make cool routers. How about Enet to Frame Relay? If they have one with the MPC860SAR, you could do a cool IP (Enet) to ATM.
    -- hgc

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