Common Hardware Reference Platform

Common Hardware Reference Platform ( CHRP short; chirp uttered from English to chirp, chirp ',' twitter ') is a motherboard standard for PowerPC machines.

Other common names are PowerPC Platform ( PPCP ) and PowerPC Open Platform (POP).

History

CHRP is the collective name for a hardware platform, with Apple, IBM and Motorola at the time wanted to establish on the basis of the technology of microcomputer RS/6000 ( POWER architecture ) a standard for PPC - based desktop computers.

Apple, maker of the PowerMac computer family, has now again of this open platform due to market strategy and technical considerations - away - as well as the PowerPC itself.

End of the 1990 CHRP compatible Macintosh clones from other manufacturers were already disappeared from the market, as Apple - not least due to a change in leadership - had abandoned the idea about clones to increase its market share ( shrunk was only Apple's share of quasi constant market for PowerMac compatible desktops). Apple's PowerPC developments proposed at first then again a more proprietary direction. Visible only left was the proven approach of Open Firmware (IEEE-1275), which corresponds roughly to the BIOS of a PC (with integrated command line). In early 2006, Apple has, however, completely away from the PowerPC platform, and developed instead x86-based systems based on Mac OS X that use the competing approach EFI firmware from Intel.

With the Pegasos computer family or architecture of Genesi and the resurgent Linux / PPC IBM and Motorola have (now Freescale ) but now again a powerful reference platform for the PowerPC. Genesi considered the IEEE 1275 -compatible Pegasos HAL / OF (Hardware Abstraction Layer / Open Firmware ) as the logical successor to the CHRP standards and provides a corresponding licensing program ( nominal license fee per unit ). Consequently, information design and the necessary components for the Pegasos hardware itself now under the heading " Open Hardware " for free download are available. It is unclear to what extent the current Pegasos II in its current form is RoHS compliant.

Hardware

From IBM and Freescale computer from the Pegasos family ( Open Desktop Workstation with G3/G4 ) or from 2006 " OSW " (Open Server Workstation with G5) are as development platforms under the name " ODW " is available again. As development goals, however, are less than desktop computers such as embedded systems in focus.

Also has - ten years after the last Amiga models that have been developed under the direction of Commodore - the British company Eyetech leave (using the Teron motherboard as a reference design ) develop new variants with their own specifications. These operate under the name AmigaOne and are also CHRP compliant. The original design of Teron Mai Logic is based on the shared IBM in 2000, Specifications for a complete CHRP motherboard including a generic design, known under the above- mentioned names POP