RE: AMCC PowerPC

["Fraser, Doug" <D.Fraser%flarion.com@localhost>]

AMCC has picked up distribution of the 504, 440GX and a couple others.
They are the same exact chips that IBM provided, AMCC is now responsible
for distribution, support, and future development. They still have access
to IBM intellectual property and process.

-----Original Message-----
From: port-powerpc-owner%NetBSD.org@localhost
[mailto:port-powerpc-owner%NetBSD.org@localhost]On Behalf Of Douglas Wade 
Needham
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 12:37 PM
To: Jachym Holecek
Cc: Simon Burge; port-powerpc%NetBSD.org@localhost
Subject: Re: AMCC PowerPC



Greetings,

My ignorance with AMCC may be showing here... what is the difference
between their 405* chips and the IBM 405* versions??  Also, are folks
hunting for the docs for the 405?  A few years ago, I think I had
electronic copies of the 405 docs but no need or HW, so I filed them
away someplace on CD or 4mm DAT, and have not yet gone hunting for
them.  However, I think I saw them someplace on the IBM web sites a
few months ago.  Unfortunately, I was more interested in the 750
family at the time, and never bookmarked the page where I did find
them.  The bookmarks I did store were:

    http://www-03.ibm.com/technology/power/about.html
    http://www-03.ibm.com/chips/products/powerpc/
    http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/power/
    http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-ppc/
    http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-powarch/#IDAY1QLB
    http://www-306.ibm.com/chips/techlib/techlib.nsf/productfamilies/PowerPC

Oh, a quick search for 'PPC405' found this one, which I think is
identical to what I had...

    
http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~tlan/dreambox/IBM_PPC405-Embedded_Processor_Core-UsersManual.pdf#search='PPC405'

Having a client who has products based on the PPC 405 and 750, I am
definitely in expanding into systems which run on these processors.
Unfortunately, their systems are very expensive, and so I am limited
to working remotely on systems in their lab.  However, I have been
looking for an inexpensive implementation such as the Walnut EVB, with
no success.  Your mention of being able to get a board makes me want
to know more.

Later,

- Doug

Quoting Jachym Holecek (freza%liberouter.org@localhost):
> Hi,
> 
> > > could someone provide a pointer to datasheets for AMCC/IBM 405* series of
> > > chips? AMCC's docs are rather incomplete, searching through IBM's site
> > > wasn't too helpful either. I might get an AMCC 405GP based board in a few
> > > months or so, having it run NetBSD would be nice.
> > 
> > The original IBM 405GP user manual was 1200+ pages and in my opinion was
> > a very good document.  It looks like you have to create an web account
> > with AMCC to get access to the user manual now, but I certainly wouldn't
> > call it "rather incomplete".
> 
> Yeah, I've got the account. For the 405 series, it doesn't give you
> any new docs. AMCC's ~50 page manual vs. IBM ~1200 is at least "not
> exhaustive" I'd say.
> 
> Meanwhile, I also found that Xilinx has a good "PowerPC Processor
> reference guide" on their web site in the Virtex-II Pro [*] section.
> 
> > At least the on-chip peripherals (uarts, ethernet) should Just Work, and
> > a port to the board to tie up any loose ends shouldn't be hard at all.
> 
> That's good news.
> 
> > Which board out of curiosity?
> 
> I think it's not even manufactured yet. I'll let you know when/if I have
> it home.
> 
>       Regards,
>               -- Jachym Holecek
> 
> [*] This FPGA chip comes with embedded ibm405 core ("hard" one as opposed
>     to "soft" cores like Xilinx MicroBlaze or Altera's NIOS).

-- 
Douglas Wade Needham - KA8ZRT        UN*X Consultant & UW/BSD kernel programmer
Email:  cinnion @ ka8zrt . com       http://cinnion.ka8zrt.com
Disclaimer: My opinions are my own.  Since I don't want them, why
            should my employer, or anybody else for that matter! 

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