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FYI: https://www.eejournal.com/article/ibm-gives-away-powerpc-goes-open-source/ https://www.eejournal.com/article/ibm-gives-away-powerpc-goe... You could, in t

FYI: https://www.eejournal.com/article/ibm-gives-away-powerpc-goes-open-source/ https://www.eejournal.com/article/ibm-gives-away-powerpc-goe... You could, in theory, run code generated by your own compiler on a PPC chip you designed and built with your own hands and brain. Random thought: would it be feasible to implement PPC on an FPGA, as has been done with RISC V? Anyone know offhand what’s the most powerful PPC system you can readily buy? I’m guessing it’s one of the PPC Mac machines.

dmitrygr 6y ago
> would it be feasible to implement PPC on an FPGA Why not? It is well specified so should be quite doable.
tambourine_man 6y ago
Depends on your definition of readily. IBM sells brand new POWER machines, but they are… not cheap.
- classichasclass 6y ago
  Even if you show up with "take my money" IBM won't. They're out of the end user sales game; they want contracts. Your best bet is a VAR (that's how I got my POWER6 when IBM wouldn't sell me a POWER7), or a company like Raptor, who actually sells retail.
jabl 6y ago
Do you specifically mean PowerPC and not the POWER ISA? If not, there's at least https://github.com/antonblanchard/microwatt https://github.com/antonblanchard/microwatt And the most powerful POWER system you can buy would be something based on the POWER9 processor.
sigjuice 6y ago
PPC on an FPGA happened in the early 2000s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC#32-bit_PowerPC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC#32-bit_PowerPC ... Xilinx, FPGA maker, embedded PowerPC in the Virtex-II Pro, Virtex-4, and Virtex-5 FPGAs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtex_(FPGA)#Virtex-II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtex_(FPGA)#Virtex-II ... Xilinx introduced Virtex-II family in January 2001 on 150 nm process technology,[14] and Virtex-II Pro family in March 2002 on 130 nm process technology.
mhh__ 6y ago
> would it be feasible to implement PPC on an FPGA The actual silicon-proper, not sure, but one could definitely implement the ISA. If I'm not mistaken IBM haven't given away any actual synthesizable logic to use.
puetzk 6y ago
I don't know if there's something either higher up that you'd qualify as "can readily buy", but a [Raptor blackbird](https://www.raptorcs.com/content/BK1B01/intro.html https://www.raptorcs.com/content/BK1B01/intro.html) would handily outclass the legacy PPC macs, and a [Talos 4U server](https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/TL2SV2/purchase.html https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/TL2SV2/purchase.html) (with two CPUs up to 22 cores each) would pretty much crush it. Admittedly the latter is a $15k machine, which is perhaps may be pushing what you had in mind for "can readily buy", but it's for sale...
- classichasclass 6y ago
  This 16-core (2x8) Talos II is around $8ish-K, which is still a lot, but I feel I got my money's worth out of it. 64 threads is good times (each core is SMT-4). I run a "stripper" spec for the Blackbird, which was an experiment to see how low it could go; it came to around $2100, but I would advise going a little higher spec than I did (single-4, no GPU). The T2 is a great machine, though. There's just no comparison to the Quad G5 sitting next to it. It's quieter, it uses less power and it doesn't feel like I'm lacking for CPU. I got a lot of wear out of the G5 and I'll never get rid of it, but if you don't need 32-bit and/or to run OS X on the metal, the best Power workstation is a Raptor.

dmitrygr 6y ago

> would it be feasible to implement PPC on an FPGA Why not? It is well specified so should be quite doable.

tambourine_man 6y ago

Depends on your definition of readily. IBM sells brand new POWER machines, but they are… not cheap.

classichasclass 6y ago
Even if you show up with "take my money" IBM won't. They're out of the end user sales game; they want contracts. Your best bet is a VAR (that's how I got my POWER6 when IBM wouldn't sell me a POWER7), or a company like Raptor, who actually sells retail.

jabl 6y ago

Do you specifically mean PowerPC and not the POWER ISA? If not, there's at least https://github.com/antonblanchard/microwatt https://github.com/antonblanchard/microwatt And the most powerful POWER system you can buy would be something based on the POWER9 processor.

sigjuice 6y ago

PPC on an FPGA happened in the early 2000s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC#32-bit_PowerPC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC#32-bit_PowerPC ... Xilinx, FPGA maker, embedded PowerPC in the Virtex-II Pro, Virtex-4, and Virtex-5 FPGAs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtex_(FPGA)#Virtex-II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtex_(FPGA)#Virtex-II ... Xilinx introduced Virtex-II family in January 2001 on 150 nm process technology,[14] and Virtex-II Pro family in March 2002 on 130 nm process technology.

mhh__ 6y ago

> would it be feasible to implement PPC on an FPGA The actual silicon-proper, not sure, but one could definitely implement the ISA. If I'm not mistaken IBM haven't given away any actual synthesizable logic to use.

puetzk 6y ago

I don't know if there's something either higher up that you'd qualify as "can readily buy", but a [Raptor blackbird](https://www.raptorcs.com/content/BK1B01/intro.html https://www.raptorcs.com/content/BK1B01/intro.html) would handily outclass the legacy PPC macs, and a [Talos 4U server](https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/TL2SV2/purchase.html https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/TL2SV2/purchase.html) (with two CPUs up to 22 cores each) would pretty much crush it. Admittedly the latter is a $15k machine, which is perhaps may be pushing what you had in mind for "can readily buy", but it's for sale...

classichasclass 6y ago
This 16-core (2x8) Talos II is around $8ish-K, which is still a lot, but I feel I got my money's worth out of it. 64 threads is good times (each core is SMT-4). I run a "stripper" spec for the Blackbird, which was an experiment to see how low it could go; it came to around $2100, but I would advise going a little higher spec than I did (single-4, no GPU). The T2 is a great machine, though. There's just no comparison to the Quad G5 sitting next to it. It's quieter, it uses less power and it doesn't feel like I'm lacking for CPU. I got a lot of wear out of the G5 and I'll never get rid of it, but if you don't need 32-bit and/or to run OS X on the metal, the best Power workstation is a Raptor.