Subject: MIPS PC - anyone?

From: Jun Sun <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 10:23:02 -0700

Does anybody know if there is such a "MIPS PC" machine?  Essentially
I am looking for a machine with MIPS CPU and PC peripherals (such as
SIMM RAM, PCI bus, EIDE HD, VGA graphics, PS/2 mouse/kbd, etc).

It would be really nice to have such a box.  If it is massively produced,
the price should be cheaper than i386 PCs because MIPS CPU price is
much cheaper. 

Jun

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From: "H . J . Lu" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 10:36:54 -0700

> the price should be cheaper than i386 PCs because MIPS CPU price is

I doubt that. Can you tell me how much 1GHz MIPS CPU might be cost?
My guess is it will be more expensive than x86. On the other hand,
100MHz MIPS may be much cheaper than similar x86, if it is still
made.

H.J.

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From: Jun Sun <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 10:37:18 -0700

On Sat, Oct 06, 2001 at 10:36:54AM -0700, H . J . Lu wrote:
> I doubt that. 

By basic premises of RISC CPU over CISC CPU...

> Can you tell me how much 1GHz MIPS CPU might be cost?

Don't know about 1Ghz MIPS CPUs.  I know some 200-300 MHz ones are selling 
less than $20.  Imagine how much it would be if you are sell them in the volumn
of i386 PCs.

Jun

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From: Thiemo Seufer <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 20:01:16 +0200

> > SIMM RAM, PCI bus, EIDE HD, VGA graphics, PS/2 mouse/kbd, etc).

I don't know, but I doubt it exists. Main problem would be developing
an appropriate chipset (different processor bus, maybe big endian,
maybe 64bit).

> > the price should be cheaper than i386 PCs because MIPS CPU price is

Nearly every CPU other than x86 would be cheaper in mass production.
Unfortunately, mass production seems not to happen.

> My guess is it will be more expensive than x86.

You might ask e.g. Sibyte about it. :-)

Thiemo

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From: Ralf Baechle <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 03:32:19 +0200

> SIMM RAM, PCI bus, EIDE HD, VGA graphics, PS/2 mouse/kbd, etc).

SNI RM200C.  Just a bit older ...

> the price should be cheaper than i386 PCs because MIPS CPU price is

The CPU may be cheaper but at least in the past when we last looked at
such issues the chipset more than compensated for the CPU price.  This
may have changed, dunno.

  Ralf

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From: Ralf Baechle <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 03:35:13 +0200

> You might ask e.g. Sibyte about it. :-)

Well, Sibyte doesn't give you one but two CPUs on the die of thei SOC.
Details see the various online resources.  Btw, not yet shipping but
Linux supported :-)

  Ralf

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From: Carsten Langgaard <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2001 18:23:00 +0200

What about a Malta board, it got a PC like structure with ATX form factor, a
Intel PIIX4E South Bridge (containing interrupt controller, RTC and USB), a
Super IO devices (with support for keyboard, 2 UARTs, floppy disk, parallel
port and mouse), AMD ethernet controller, Audio controller, Primary and
Secondary IDE, 4 PCI slots.
I probably forgot something, but the board is more or less designed to be a
"MIPS PC".

/Carsten

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From: Volker Jahns <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2001 18:38:59 +0200

> the price should be cheaper than i386 PCs because MIPS CPU price is
Why don't you use the SONY playstation 2 w/ its LINUX kit? The costs are
less and the graphics performance is greater than any Intel based PC I
am aware of.

-- 
Volker Jahns, [email-masked], http://thalreit.de

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From: James Simmons <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 10:06:20 -0700 (PDT)

> the price should be cheaper than i386 PCs because MIPS CPU price is

I have IT 8172G board. It basically is a MIPS PC.

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From: James Simmons <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 10:13:46 -0700 (PDT)

> less and the graphics performance is greater than any Intel based PC I

The SONY stuff is 2.2.X based. Their is work going on for 2.4.X support
but it is not stable at the moment.

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From: "Kevin D. Kissell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 19:21:17 +0200

> but it is not stable at the moment.

2.2 or 2.4, is the necessary configuration in fact generally
available?  Last I heard, which was some months ago,
it required a PS2 configuration that was only available
in Japan.

            Kevin K.

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From: James Simmons <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 10:20:33 -0700 (PDT)

> it required a PS2 configuration that was only available

This is true. Well this month they made available another PS2 
configuration in germany. Luckly the company I work for has people going
back and forth to Japan.

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From: "Yoshi-K" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 03:20:13 +0900

Hello.
My Internet server is PS2. --> http://galaxies.jp/

-------------------------
Yoshikatsu Kida
E-Mail: [email-masked]
http://galaxies.jp/

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From: Harald Koerfgen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 20:57:38 +0200

On Sunday 07 October 2001 18:23, Carsten Langgaard wrote:
> What about a Malta board, it got a PC like structure with ATX form factor,
[...]
> I probably forgot something, but the board is more or less designed to be a

Fine, but how much?

Greetings,
Harald

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From: "Kevin D. Kissell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 09:55:30 +0200

> configuration in germany. Luckly the company I work for has people going

I'm based in France, but should be in Germany this week
for a conference.  If there's a PS2 available there that is
capable of running the Linux port (and capable of booting
up in something other than German and Japanese!),
could someone please let me know the specific PS2
model to look for, and how I could get my hands on the
Linux release???

            Kevin K.

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From: Caleb Shay <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 01:03:36 -0700

I actually have the Japanese model that works with the Linux release for 
   the PS2.  Unfortunately, I won't be in Japan again for another year 
and they won't ship overseas.  If anyone knows of a way to get the PS2 
Linux release in the US, please let me know.

Caleb Shay
[email-masked]

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From: Carsten Langgaard <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2001 10:22:20 +0200

> > I probably forgot something, but the board is more or less designed to be a

I'm afraid we are not in the business of selling PCs, so the price is about
$3000.

--
_    _ ____  ___   Carsten Langgaard   Mailto:[email-masked]
|\  /|||___)(___   MIPS Denmark        Direct: +45 4486 5527
| \/ |||    ____)  Lautrupvang 4B      Switch: +45 4486 5555
  TECHNOLOGIES     2750 Ballerup       Fax...: +45 4486 5556
                   Denmark             http://www.mips.com

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From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 14:06:36 +0200 (CEST)

> Linux release in the US, please let me know.
It seems SONY will release the LINUX kit in Germany soon (they claim it is
going to happen this autumn). They say it will be available at SONY's online
shop only. Source of information is http://www.golem.de .

>>>configuration in germany. Luckly the company I work for has people
>>>going back and forth to Japan.
>>>
>>

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From: GOTO Masanori <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 14:47:39 +0900

At Sun, 7 Oct 2001 10:13:46 -0700 (PDT),
> but it is not stable at the moment.

FYI, but if you want to run kernel 2.4 on PS2, please check at 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ps2hacking/ . 
Current 2.4 support is very early phase and unstable, but working. 
 
-- gotom

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From: Joe George <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 15:08:15 -0600

I have been working on the design of such a machine for a few months now
as a background project.   The mainboard features are:	PMC RM7000A
400MHz CPU, 2MB tertiary cache, GT64120A system controller, 512K byte
boot prom, DS1501 RTC, 512MB SDRAM, two serial ports (ST16C2552),
OPTI 82C862 USB controller, 4 32-bit 33MHz PCI slots, 2 32-bit 66MHz
PCI slots, ATX form factor.

Prices for the processor and system controller are significantly higher than
the equivilent i386 components in low volume.  High enough volume to get
it to parity with i386 prices is probably not realistic.  From what I've 
heard
some people still don't use Linux. :)

Price for the system will probably be in the US$1200 range.  Send me an
email off the list if you are interested or have suggestions.  The more 
I hear
from the faster it will probably get done.

Joe