Pegasos

Pegasos is a CHRP PowerPC -based desktop computer from Genesi, which supports operating systems such as Linux and MorphOS. About Mac -on-Linux and Power Macs can be emulated.

The Pegasos is also a core component of the ODW (Open Desktop Workstation ) and OSW (Open Server Workstation ) from IBM and Freescale. As development goals are here but less than desktop computers such as embedded systems in focus. Also Genesi addressed with the Board EFIKA the market for thin clients, home theater systems and embedded systems and consumer electronics.

About licensing programs for third-party company Genesi has sought the Pegasus architecture to provide a broader base in the market. The production and development of the Pegasos architecture is now set.

  • 3.1 Amiga compatibility

Firmware

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.

  • Pegasos I/G3 "PRE - April ," Board: 1A ( 0.1b73 ) CPU: 750 CX 1.0, SF: 1.1 ( 20,020,814 )
  • Pegasos I/G3, Board: 1A1 ( 0.1b112 ) CPU: 750 CX 1.0, SF: 1.1 ( 20,021,203,121,657 )
  • Pegasos I/G3, Board: 1A1 ( 0.1b114 ) CPU: 750 CX 1.0, SF: 1.1 ( 20,030,317,114,750 )
  • 0.1b124
  • 0.1b131
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.1, CPU: 744X 1.1, SF: 1.2 ( 20,040,224 )
  • Pegasos II/G3, Board: 1.1 ( 0.2b1 ) CPU: 750 CX 1.0, SF: 1.2 ( 20,040,402,193,939 )
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.1, CPU: 744X 1.1, SF: 1.1 ( 20,040,405 )
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.1, CPU: 744X 1.1, SF: 1.2 ( 20,040,405 )
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2, CPU: 744X 1.2, SF: 1.1 ( 20,040,505 )
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board 1.0, CPU: 744X 1.0, SF: 1.2 ( 20,040,810,112,413 )
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2, CPU: 744X 1.1, SF: 1.2 ( 20,040,810,112,413 )
  • Pegasos II/G3, Board: 1.2, CPU: 750 CX 1.0, SF: 1.2 ( 20,040,810,112,413 )
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2, CPU: 744X 1.2, SF: 1.2 ( 20,040,810,112,413 )
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2, CPU: 744X 1.2, SF: 1.2 ( 20,050,602,111,451 )
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2, CPU: 744X 1.2, SF: 1.2 ( 20,050,808,153,840 )
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2 ( 2B5 ), CPU: 744X 1.2, SF: 1.2 ( 20,051,216,161,829 )

Hardware

Were developed PPC Pegasos motherboard of the company bplan ( bplan society for engineering and manufacturing of electrical components mbH, Oberursel ). The company is based in the same city as the time the well-known Amiga additional hardware manufacturer phase5, and published the first specification of the Pegasos PowerPC motherboards end of 2000 ( December 8, 2000). One of the ex- CEO of phase5, Gerald Carda, is also chief developer (CTO ) of bplan.

There exist since two Pegasos models. The first generation of motherboards was taken with the appearance of the Pegasos II from the market, since the boards have issues with the Northbridge chip. End of 2006, the Pegasos II is no where for the year 2007, a successor to the ( provisional ) name Pegasos 8641D is announced. Prototypes of the new motherboards are already shipped to developers. Based on the Pegasos boards customized complete systems are available at various retailers, and the motherboard is mainly sold individually. Despite the termination of the Pegasos II before the appearance of a successor, the Board (as of January 2007) is not yet sold out.

The Pegasos II is based on a processor of the PowerPC architecture family. For use G4 processors are Freescale with a clock speed of 1 GHz (or even with 1.4 and 1.7 GHz for the ODW ).

The Pegasos I differs from the Pegasos II mainly by the used Northbridge: the first used ArticiaS Northbridge MAI Logic had to be corrected temporarily by a hardware patches ( April 2 - Fix) and has therefore been completely replaced later by a chip from Marvell. Furthermore, the Pegasos I had only a G3 CPU, had only 100 Mbit Ethernet and used PC133 SDRAM. In the notice of bplan of 30 October 2001 was originally therefore still talk of a 133 MHz processor slot, even in combination with " 350 MHz G3 / 512k cache " - but even then "to dual MPC 7450 G4 PowerPC / 2 MB cache " (the former and the latter as an option " in the current clock rates ").

A special feature of the two systems is the interchangeability of the CPU, which is accommodated on a separate daughter board ( CPU board ). Similar to PowerMacs so CPU upgrades are easily possible.

The other data of the current Pegasos II are as follows:

  • MicroATX form factor
  • Open Firmware implementation ( Pegasos HAL / OF)
  • Marvell Discovery II MV64361 and VIA VT8231
  • PC2100 RAM (2 x DDR266 Socket ), max. 2 GB Pegasos I or 1.5GB Pegasos II 2B5
  • AGP slot (1 x Speed)
  • PCI slots (3 x 32 bit / 33 MHz)
  • IEEE1394/FireWire (2 x externally 1 × internally 100/200/400 Mbit / s)
  • Ethernet port ( 1 × 10/100 Mbit / s and 1 Gbit / s)
  • USB 1.1 (2 x external, 1 x internal)
  • S / PDIF Digital Audio
  • AC97 Sound (microphone, line in / out, speaker ), SigmaTel STAC 9766 codec
  • IrDA (prepared)
  • ATA100 (2 × internally or 4 devices)
  • PS / 2 ( 2 × )
  • RS- 232
  • Parallel (IEEE1284)
  • Game Port
  • Floppy (internal)

As a further Pegasos descendant who uses the same Pegasos HAL / OF as the Pegasos-I/II, offers Genesi since December 2005 EFIKA 5K2 on a " Performance Evaluation Board " which to the PowerPC SoC (System -on-Chip ) MPC5200B around is constructed. The performance data are as follows:

  • MPC5200B PowerPC SoC (up to 466 MHz)
  • 128 MB DDR SDRAM (or between 32 MB - 512 MB)
  • 44-pin IDE port
  • Ethernet ( 10/100 Mbit / s)
  • USB 1.1 (2x)
  • RS- 232
  • Stereo audio ( microphone, line / in, Speaker)
  • PCI / AGP riser slot

On the roadmap is a quad - CPU server board are based on the PPC970 and the Pegasos 8641D as the successor of the Pegasos II, where a new generation of Freescale CPUs is used, Apple has conditionally never obstructed by the switch to the X86 architecture and there come the first time on a workstation used.

Second screen

  • AGP Radeon PCI Radeon
  • AGP Radeon PCI Voodoo
  • AGP PCI Voodoo Voodoo
  • AGP Voodoo PCI Radeon

Software

The complete system was officially introduced bplan on the Amiga 2001 in Cologne together with MorphOS to the public (30 October 2001), which was two months earlier available on the platform (30 August 2001).

The following operating systems are now running on the Pegasos either directly or by emulation or are on the path of porting (as of January 2009):

  • MorphOS
  • AmigaOS (only on Pegasos II)
  • Linux
  • QNX
  • Haiku
  • AROS
  • MacOS 9 / X ( Virtualisation )
  • Windows (emulation )

Support for the Pegasos platform was removed from the OpenBSD kernel. Several requests for maintainers of the Open Darwin project revealed that a port of the system has never started and requested on the Pegasos platform, so that it is on the manufacturer's website is a wrong information in the information.

Amiga compatibility

The Pegasos is considered Amiga Clone since it was a long time standard with the AmigaOS 3.1 (by 68k emulation) binary compatible operating system MorphOS and marketed accordingly.

In contrast to the originally presented as an official Amiga successor system, which also PowerPC based AmigaOne, Pegasos is considered by its proponents to be technically much better mature, and MorphOS also offers better compatibility with the classic Amiga systems. Since January 31, 2009 is available for the Pegasos II also AmigaOS 4.

History

Several approaches to reach a larger market, have failed so far apparently - there were no major deals have been made ​​public, although the press work of Genesi otherwise takes place in many different ways and is generally very communicative. So OpenBSD port started, which was then however not continued because of differences. This was associated with a project of a network monitoring, the Pegasus Guardian, which therefore could not be realized. Even so-called set-top boxes have been announced based on the Pegasos - but never were known concrete products.

You may come by the EFIKA board a little more movement in this area.

The focus of the software development side by Genesi is now more likely to Linux, so the future of MorphOS may be regarded as rather uncertain from this side.

The more hardware- side development is likely to be influenced by the fact that the future of PowerPC processors in terms of desktop systems in professional circles generally considered unsafe after Apple switches to x86 processors with its PPC -based Power Macs and already finished the end of 2006 this process has. The future of the PowerPC appears in the embedded space, with servers (IBM Power) and in consumer electronics / consoles ( Xbox 360 CPU, the Cell processor ) to lie. The so-called G6 processor ( launched as PPC980 and derived from the Power 5), is logical since disappeared from various presentations. The hardware- side development, eg in terms of 64 -bit processors like the PPC970 (called by Apple G5), faster bus, SATA, faster FSB, etc. is currently uncertain.

For Genesi positive to note are the eligible developing partnerships with Freescale and IBM ( ODW / OSW ), which suggest an increasingly solid foothold in the embedded space.

Genesi mid-December 2005 announced exists with the company ODM Technologies is now a licensee of the Pegasos and Efika technology. Genesi has awarded accordingly ODM production license for Efika board using the Pegasos-HAL/OF. The minimum production volume is 50,000 units.

In January 2009, Genesi announced to use processors of the ARM architecture for future motherboards.

Credentials

Common Hardware Reference Platform Mac-on-Linux Freescale Semiconductor Northbridge (computing) DDR-SDRAM AROS Research Operating System Set-Top-Box
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