Collaborate with us to build the Open Hardware PowerPC GNU/Linux notebook. You can collaborate in many ways, even with the Donation Campaign. https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/campaigns/donation-campaign-for-pcb-design-of-the-powerpc-notebook-motherboard/

1. Open Hardware GNU/LinuxOpen Hardware GNU/Linux
PowerPC NOTEBOOKPowerPC NOTEBOOK
BUILD WITH USBUILD WITH US

2. Power Progress Community. Is a non profit association,
registered in Italy, with members and collaborators all volunteer
and over the world
●
We push forward Free Software and Hardware.
●
We like diversity and indie-pendent architectures aiming
freedom of choice
●
Group purchase of technology
Who we areWho we are
Members of a project focused on Collaboration; Positive and
Human relations between members.
Code of ConductCode of Conduct

3. Our goalsOur goals
Designing open hardware, with prototypes, accessible to
the widest range of people
Allow the use of disused or available low-cost hardware
solutions also through the use of free software
Making people use free software
Help and promote innovation and scientific progress in
view of the variety of the offer, reducing the risks of
monopoly situations

4. History
of CPU

5. Instruction set Bits Introduced
64 1992
32 1983
64/32
32 2006
32 2000
32 1990
16/32 2009
64 2001
32 1997
32 1979
32 2006
1981
64 1999
8 1975
2006?
32 1982
1986
1991
16/32 2005
64 (32→64) 1985
32 1990s
1964
32 1977
1978
2003
8 1976
4→48→56 2005
32 2000
Alpha
ARM
ARMv8-A 2011[2]
AVR32
Blackfin
DLX
eSi-RISC
Itanium (IA-64)
M32R
Motorola 68k
Mico32
MIPS 64 (32→64)
MMIX
6502
65k 64 (8→64)[8]
NS320xx
PA-RISC (HP/PA) 64 (32→64)
PowerPC 32/64 (32→64)
S+core
SPARC
SuperH (SH)
System/360 / System/370 / z/Architecture64 (32→64)
VAX
x86 32 (16→32)
x86-64 64 (32→64)
Z80
Xilinx
Crusoe
Cpu Architectures in time

6. current Mainstream:
●
ARM
●
MIPS
●
Power Architecture (Power - PowerPC)
●
X86
●
Sparc
CPU with many (proprietary) applications force to keep
compatibility into new CPUs.
Windows was born and grown on x86. Used by everyone, it also
forced to keep compatibility when going to new CPUs.
Mainstream processor family

7. PowerPC/Power history
●
1991 Created by AIM (Apple IBM Motorola) (mix some drawn back compatibility between
IBM Power e Motorola 88000)
1993 PowerPC 601
●
1997 G3 Freescale/IBM , Gekko (IBM) Nintendo GameCube
●
1999 G4 Freescale
●
2004 MPC 7447A ( new variant G4 Freescale)
●
2003 G5 64bit (IBM)
●
2006 BroadWay IBM (64 bit) Nintendo Wii - Cell 64bit ( 64 bit) Sony Playstation 3
●
2007 PWRficient PA6T (64bit)
●
2010 e5500 core (64 bit) Freescale
●
2012 Expresso (64 bit) IBM Nintendo Wii U - e6500 core (64 bit) Freescale
●
2014 Power 8 – OpenPower
●
2017 Power9

8. Proprietary Software
Limit CPU innovation
●
1993 Windows 25 million licenses (X86)
●
1993 PowerPC 601 released
●
1994 first Apple computer with PowerPC
PowerPC is released without software compiled for
it: OS and previous applications was running on 386 or Motorola
68000.
When Apple created PowerPC they were running parts of Mac OS
written for 68k, under emulation on the PowerPC.

9. ●
1995 Windows NT 3.51/4.0
PowerPC dropped in 1996
●
1995 Os/2 Warp, PowerPC
edition
●
1995 Solaris 2.51 for PowerPC
Proprietary OS? NO PARTY

10. PowerPC games console
Name Image
Manufact
urer
Gen
erati
on
CPU Clock RAM
On the
market
No. sold
Pippin
Apple
Bandai
Katz
Media
5:th PowerPC 603 66 MHz 6 MB 1995 - 1997 42.000
M2
3DO
Panasonic
5:th 2× PowerPC 602
2×
66 MHz
8 MB
1997
Never
marketed
none
GameCub
e
Nintendo 6:th Gekko 486 MHz 24 MB 2001 - 2007
21.74
million
Xbox 360 Microsoft 7:th
XCPU (Xbox 360)
XCGPU (Xbox
360 S)
3.2 GHz
512
MB
2005 -
present
77.2
million
March
2013
Wii Nintendo 7:th Broadway 729 MHz 64 MB
2006 -
present
99.8
million
March
2013
PlayStatio
n 3
Sony 7:th Cell B.E. 3.2 GHz
256
MB
2006 -
present
78.4
million
May 2013
Wii U Nintendo 8:th Espresso
1.24 GH
z
2 GB
2012 -
present
3.45
million
March
2013

11. ●
PS2 MIPS
●
PS3 PowerPC
●
PS4 x86_64
●
Nintendo N64 MIPS
●
Nintendo GameCube PowerPC
●
Nintendo Wii/WiiU PowerPC
Consoles have a tiny OS with few embedded applications
Games are written from scratch or are developed on
cross-architecture engines. CPU change affects them less.
●
Ms Xbox x86
●
Ms Xbox 360 PowerPC
●
Ms Xbox One X86_64
●
Nintendo Switch ARM
●
PSP MIPS
●
PSP VITA ARM
Game Consoles processors

12. It is a modern, up to date and innovative
architecture.
Interesting power efficiency for laptops
Is used in every sector.
OpenPOWER → Open architecture →
Opem ISA – no royalty
Why PowerPC?Why PowerPC?

13. Open Source ISAOpen Source ISA
RISC-V model is being followed: FPGA core
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_instruction_set_architectures#Instruction_sets
Open Source ISA delivered to the Linux Foundation

14. Founded in 2013, the OpenPower foundation has more than 350 members, Power
Progress Community is one of its members.
With a hundreds of projects, it's a technical opened community, an open
ecosystem...
Who is supporting PowerPC arch?Who is supporting PowerPC arch?

15. Open POWER ISA soft core FPGA
https://github.com/antonblanchard/microwatt
The Power ISA instruction
set is royalty-free.
There is an Open POWER
ISA softcore written in
VHDL 2008 that also runs
on very cheap FPGAs such
as Cmod A7-35T

16. What PowerPC computers are there?What PowerPC computers are there?
Acube AmigaOne 500: AMP Power™465
AmigaOne x5000: NXP P-series
AmigaOne Tabor: NXTP T-series
Raptor Talos II: Power9 Workstation
Raptor Blackbird: Power9 microATX
IBM Power9 servers, SBC in defense and
aerospace...

17. The GNU/Linux PowerPCThe GNU/Linux PowerPC
Notebook ProjectNotebook Project

18. Everyone can study, modify, build, distribute or even
sell either the project or hardware based on it.
●
Some parts could be non Open Source Hardware like some
components under NDA, in case vendors force us.
●
Open Source Hardware Certification
https://certification.oshwa.org/
– TAPR Open Hardware License vs CERN Hardware License
What is Open Source Hardware ?What is Open Source Hardware ?
Under
Under
study
study
Under
Under
study
study

19. Our Open Source Hardware Path
Objective: Certification of Oshwa
https://certification.oshwa.org/
Steps taken:
●
Advice from the NYU Technology Law and Policy
Clinic to make the project as open hardware as
possible.
●
Contact with Chip manufacturers for authorization to
distribute the project as Open Hardware
●
Publication of the electrical schematic ( Orcad
source) with Cern 1.2 License

20. Manufacturer AuthorizationsManufacturer Authorizations
C-Media
●
CM8828 HD-Audio controllers and CM9882A
codec family
●
They sent an evaluation badge to Acube.
●
They assure the availability of the chips for the
project.
NXP
●
Have authorized the publication of information in
Open Source documents

21. Others Chip Manufacturer
There are already other
Open Hardware projects
with Marvell chips
http://wiki.macchiatobin.net/tiki-index.php?pa
ge=Schematics
http://espressobin.net/tech-spec/
For Amd there are no problems to publish schema and
open hardware pcb, considering that we don't have the
AMD Radeon chip in our mobo but on a separate MXM
board produced by AMD.

22. Technical specificationsTechnical specifications
CPU: NXP T208x, e6500 64-bit Power Architecture with Altivec technology
4 x e6500 dual-threaded cores, low-latency backside 2MB L2 cache, 16GFLOPS x
core
RAM: 2 x RAM slots for DDR3L SO-DIMM
VIDEO: MXM 3 mobile video card interface
AUDIO: cmedia sound chip, audio in and audio out jacks
USB: 3.0 and 2.0 ports
STORAGE:
NVM Express (NVMe), M.2 2280 connector
2 x SATA 3
1 x SDHC card reader
NETWORK:
1 x ethernet RJ-45 connector
WiFi connectivity
Bluetooth connectivity
POWER: on-board battery charger and power-management
CHASSIS: Slimbook Eclipse notebook case 15,6”

23. Open
Hardware
PowerPC
Notebook
Block Diagram

24. Notebook Chassis

25. Collaboration with SlimbookCollaboration with Slimbook
It all started here :)
●
Collaboration Slimbook ↔
Acube
●
Slimbook has sent information
about parts of the laptop
●
The schematics have been
adapted for this chassis

26. Chassis Slimbook EclipseChassis Slimbook Eclipse
Gaming Oriented
Allows us to use MXM
graphics

27. PowerPC
Open Source
Chassis
Open
Hardware
PCB
Design
Mother board
production
Acube Systems
Power
Progress
Community
Slimbook chassis
Power
Progress
Community
from PCB to Notebookfrom PCB to Notebook

28. SecondSecond
Donation CampaignDonation Campaign

29. 22ndnd
Donation CampaignDonation Campaign
●
We have started from 11% of what is required thanks to
recurring donations.
●
Total for the campaign 24.000 €. Divided into two parts:
●
PCB Project [19.000 euro]
●
Fast SI bus simulations [5.000 euro]

30. What if it goes wrong?What if it goes wrong?
There will be a survey between all donators to decide to
which others association project use the funds.
Donations are free and non refundable (Italian law)

31. Donation campaign PhasesDonation campaign Phases
11
electrical schematicselectrical schematics
€€ 12.60012.600
22 PCB Printed Circuit BoardPCB Printed Circuit Board
Started on 12 October 2019
€€ 24.00024.000
33 5 prototypes5 prototypes €€ 10.50010.500
44 Hardware TestsHardware Tests €€14.00014.000
55 CE CertificationCE Certification €€ 12.50012.500
Started on 2 July 2017, completed on 7 June 2018,
Results in publication

32. Running ProjectsRunning Projects

33. Rivivo with ScratchRivivo with Scratch
New life for school notebooks
We regenerate through a network of volunteers old
notebooks (otherwise destined to become R.A.E.E.)
to be provided to schools and used in education.

34. Open Source Laptop Chassis Designs
3D mechanical chassis design
with FreeCad
Blender Design

35. Support to Debian PPC64Support to Debian PPC64
Debian Repository available
Goal: Porting software to PPC64
The catalogue continues to grow:
●
Firefox, mplayer, Linux Kernel, table...
●
11 groups, 546 packages, total repository size
1943.37MB (1.9GB)
●
Built using a Power8 instance in OpenStack
hosted thanks to Oregon State University Open
Source Lab and OpenPower Foundation
http://repo.powerprogress.org/

36. ●
Optimize AMD graphic cards detectionOptimize AMD graphic cards detection
●
Optimize Compilation for Debian SidOptimize Compilation for Debian Sid
●
Compile, configure and test Latest Linux KernelsCompile, configure and test Latest Linux Kernels
●
Organize and publish our patchesOrganize and publish our patches
●
Collaborate with Debian PPC64 maintainersCollaborate with Debian PPC64 maintainers
Improve our Debian PPC64 RepoImprove our Debian PPC64 Repo

37. Your Creativity onYour Creativity on
●
Creation : multimedia designer to advertise (video, animations,
images, articles, etc…).
●
Hardware R&D Design and review
●
3D Mechanical Designs - Open Source Laptop Chassis
●
Translations : websites, social networks and software
●
Spreading the project : publish information on blogs, forums, socials,
handle users, organise advertising campaigns.
●
Law Assistance: to preserve Open Source Hardware license
●
Maintain, update, manage our software tools and services

38. Decentralize and Democratize
Electronic Industry
●
All this process with Acube Systems that will produce in
small quantities our design could be demonstration
effect for many others little organization and company.
●
We hope that the Open Hardware Chassis Design will
be a starting point for others notebook project that
need a chassis to print and produce.

39. Where to find usWhere to find us
Association http://powerprogress.org/
Website http://powerpc-notebook.org/
Wiki http://wiki.powerpc-notebook.org
Forum http://forum.powerpc-notebook.org
Survey http://survey.powerpc-notebook.org/
Newsletterhttp://powerpc-notebook.org/subscribe-powerpc-notebook-
newsletter/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/powerpcnotebook/
Twitter https://twitter.com/powerpcnotebook
YouTube search for Power Progress Community

40. Thank You!Thank You!