Open Desktop Workstation

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Genesi Open Desktop Workstation, built around the Pegasos II. Pegasos 1.jpg
Genesi Open Desktop Workstation, built around the Pegasos II.

The Open Desktop Workstation, also referred to as ODW is a PowerPC based computer, by San Antonio-based Genesi. The ODW has an interchangeable CPU card allowing for a wide range of Power Architecture based microprocessors from IBM and Freescale Semiconductor.

PowerPC RISC instruction set architecture by AIM alliance

PowerPC is a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. PowerPC, as an evolving instruction set, has since 2006 been named Power ISA, while the old name lives on as a trademark for some implementations of Power Architecture-based processors.

Genesi

Genesi is an international group of technology and consulting companies in the United States, Mexico and Germany. It is most widely known for designing and manufacturing ARM architecture and Power ISA computing devices. The Genesi Group consists of Genesi USA Inc., Genesi Americas LLC, Genesi Europe UG, Red Efika, bPlan GmbH and the affiliated non-profit organization Power2People.

A CPU card is a printed circuit board (PCB) that contains the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer. CPU cards are specified by CPU clock frequency and bus type as well as other features and applications built into the card.

Contents

It is a standardized version of the Pegasos II. It was the first open source based PowerPC computer and gave PowerPC a host/target development environment. Genesi have released the complete specification (design and component listing) free of charge. The ODW-derived Home Media Center won the Best in Show award at the Freescale Technology Forum in 2005. [1] It also features an ATI certification [2] and a "Ready for IBM Technology" certification. [3]

Pegasos hardware platform using PowerPC CPU

Pegasos is a MicroATX motherboard powered by a PowerPC 750CXe or PowerPC 7447 microprocessor, featuring three PCI slots, one AGP slot, two Ethernet ports, USB, DDR, AC'97 sound, and FireWire. Like the PowerPC Macintosh counterparts, it boots via Open Firmware.

It supports a variety of operating systems such as MorphOS, Linux, QNX and OpenSolaris. Manufacturing of the ODW have been discontinued in favour for EFIKA.

MorphOS is an AmigaOS-like computer operating system. It is a mixed proprietary and open source OS produced for the Pegasos PowerPC processor based computer, PowerUP accelerator equipped Amiga computers, and a series of Freescale development boards that use the Genesi firmware, including the Efika and mobileGT. Since MorphOS 2.4, Apple's Mac Mini G4 is supported as well, and with the release of MorphOS 2.5 and MorphOS 2.6 the eMac and PowerMac G4 models are respectively supported. The release of MorphOS 3.2 added limited support for PowerMac G5. The core, based on the Quark microkernel, is proprietary, although several libraries and other parts are open source, such as Ambient desktop.

Linux Family of free and open-source software operating systems based on the Linux kernel

Linux is a family of free and open-source software operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution.

QNX Unix-like, real-time, embedded operating system

QNX is a commercial Unix-like real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the embedded systems market. The product was originally developed in the early 1980s by Canadian company Quantum Software Systems, later renamed QNX Software Systems and ultimately acquired by BlackBerry in 2010. QNX was one of the first commercially successful microkernel operating systems and is used in a variety of devices including cars and mobile phones.

Specification

DDR SDRAM

Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory, officially abbreviated as DDR SDRAM, is a double data rate synchronous dynamic random-access memory class of memory integrated circuits used in computers. DDR SDRAM, also retroactively called DDR1 SDRAM, has been superseded by DDR2 SDRAM, DDR3 SDRAM and DDR4 SDRAM. None of its successors are forward or backward compatible with DDR1 SDRAM, meaning DDR2, DDR3, and DDR4 memory modules will not work in DDR1-equipped motherboards, and vice versa.

Floppy disk disk storage medium

A floppy disk, also known as a floppy, diskette, or simply disk, is a type of disk storage composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic enclosure lined with fabric that removes dust particles. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive (FDD).

Accelerated Graphics Port expansion bus

The Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) was designed as a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a video card to a computer system, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. It was originally designed as a successor to PCI-type connections for video cards. Since 2004, AGP has been progressively phased out in favor of PCI Express (PCIe); by mid-2008, PCI Express cards dominated the market and only a few AGP models were available, with GPU manufacturers and add-in board partners eventually dropping support for the interface in favour of PCI Express.

Related Research Articles

PC Card

In computing, PC Card is a configuration for computer parallel communication peripheral interface, designed for laptop computers. Originally introduced as PCMCIA, the PC Card standard as well as its successors like CardBus were defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA).

HyperTransport (HT), formerly known as Lightning Data Transport (LDT), is a technology for interconnection of computer processors. It is a bidirectional serial/parallel high-bandwidth, low-latency point-to-point link that was introduced on April 2, 2001. The HyperTransport Consortium is in charge of promoting and developing HyperTransport technology.

Serial ATA computer bus interface

Serial ATA is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard to become the predominant interface for storage devices.

Power Macintosh G3

The Power Macintosh G3 is a series of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from November 1997 to August 1999. It represented Apple's first step towards eliminating redundancy and complexity in the product line by replacing eight Power Macintosh models with three: Desktop and Mini Tower models for professional and home use, and an All-In-One model for education. The introduction of the Desktop and Mini Tower models coincided with Apple starting to sell build-to-order Macs directly from its web site in an online store, which was unusual for the time as Dell was the only major computer manufacturer doing this. Apple's move to build-to-order sales of the Power Macintosh G3 also coincided with the acquisition of Power Computing Corporation, which had been providing telephone sales of Macintosh clones for more than two years.

CompactFlash flash memory mass storage device

CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994.

Dreambox

Dreambox is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial and cable digital television receivers, produced by German multimedia vendor Dream Multimedia.

IBM BladeCenter

The IBM BladeCenter was IBM's blade server architecture, until it was replaced by Flex System. The x86 division was later sold to Lenovo in 2014.

Power.org was an organization whose purpose was to develop, enable and promote Power Architecture technology. Its objective was to establish open standards, guidelines, best practices and certifications for Power Architecture, and to drive adoption of the platform.

The Classmate PC, formerly known as Eduwise, is Intel's entry into the market for low-cost personal computers for children in the developing world. It is in some respects similar to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) trade association's Children's Machine (XO), which has a similar target market. Although made for profit, the production of the Classmate PC is considered an Information and Communication Technologies for Development project. The device falls into the then popular category of netbooks.

Efika

Efika is a line of power efficient ARM architecture and Power ISA based computers manufactured by Genesi.

Dell Studio

Dell's Studio brand was a range of laptops and desktops targeted at the mainstream consumer market. The computers sit above Dell's Inspiron and below the XPS consumer lines in price and specifications. They differ from Dell's lower-end Inspiron models by offering slot-loading optical drives, media keys, more cover design options, faster processor options, HDMI and eSATA ports, LED-backlit screens and backlit keyboards.

Cherrypal

Cherrypal is a California-based marketer of Chinese-manufactured consumer-oriented computers. It markets a range of models with a diversity of CPU-types, structures, features, and operating systems. Commentators have observed that Cherrypal arguably beat the heralded and much-better financed one Laptop per Child (OLPC) project to its goal of a $100 "laptop".

ThinkPad T series line of laptop computers by Lenovo

The ThinkPad T series is a line of laptop computers introduced by IBM in 2000. After the transfer of the consumer computer division in 2005, they were developed and marketed by Chinese technology company Lenovo.

CuBox nettop class computer

CuBox and CuBox-i are series of small and fanless nettop-class computers manufactured by the Israeli company SolidRun Ltd. They are all cube-shaped and sized at approximately 2 × 2 × 2 inches and weigh 91 grams. CuBox was first announced in December 2011 and began shipping in January 2012, initially being marketed as a cheap open-source developer platform for embedded systems.

DreamPlug

DreamPlug is a compact and low power plug computer running Debian Linux, based on Marvell's Kirkwood 88F6281 ARM9E SoC. It is intended to be a device that could act as a web server, a printing server or any other network service. It uses micro-SD internal storage and an external Secure Digital slot, but also offers USB ports and a Serial ATA port to connect external disks.

The MK802 is a PC-on-a-stick produced by Rikomagic, a Chinese company using mostly two series of Systems on a chip architectures :

In order to compete with Intel's Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC), which had enabled the first Intel 486-based multiprocessor systems, in early 1995 AMD and Cyrix proposed as somewhat similar-in-purpose OpenPIC architecture supporting up to 32 processors. The OpenPIC architecture had at least declarative support from IBM and Compaq around 1995. No x86 motherboard was released with OpenPIC however. After the OpenPIC's failure in the x86 market, AMD licensed the Intel APIC Architecture for its AMD Athlon and later processors.

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2007-02-15.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-02-03. Retrieved 2007-02-15.
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