The MPC5123 board pip mentioned can not be bought yet – we will see if the suggested price holds and 199$ are still 30% more than 149$ and 60% more than 120$. While all running linux and similar in size and power consumption, they are quite different in performance, interface details and therefore target applications (multimedia, embedded control, slim desktops).

A friend of mine has made this board: http://labs.ti.bfh.ch/gecko/

Sorry about my use of irony! What I meant to imply with that wording was that the board’s $120 price is quite low for what you’re getting. IIRC, the wiki lists the raw parts cost as $75 in small volumes — and that doesn’t include assembly and test labor, amortization of the developer’s engineering time, etc. In short: it’s a GREAT deal!

its a shame he cant get his hands on single small batch that dual MPC5123 PPC computer on a chip to use for his next project though, or even better perhaps, the newest Built on Power Architecture™ Technology
MPC8610 Integrated host processor

perhaps he can get one donated in the

http://www.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/fact_sheet/MPC8610FS.pdf?fsrch=1
and a copy of the latest freevec libray
http://www.freevec.org/functions

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/search/Serp.jsp?fsrch=1&isAdvanceSearch=false&showCustomCollateral=false&RELEVANCE=true&fromTrng=false&showAllCategories=false&fromPSP=false&pageNum=1&assetLocked=false&assetLockedForNavigation=false&fromDAP=false&fromWebPages=false&pageSize=25&isComparison=false&

August 7th, 2008 at 4:09 am
Also of interest is the beagleboard (http://beagleboard.org) which is $149 and includes a somewhat beefier processor. However, you would have trouble making it yourself..”

you cant be serious, for an extra $50 you can get a fully made developer dualcore 400Mhz Genesi development board of a MPC5123 PPC system reference design.

http://www.genesi-usa.com/press.php?date=20080414

http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196520&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1128581&highlight=

“Freescale dual-core processor simplifies embedded Linux® OS-based design
Power Architecture™ processor, backed by mobileGT® Linux starter kit, designed to reduce cost and time-to-market for industrial applications ”

“The MPC5123, a next-generation successor to the popular MPC5200 processor, combines a Power Architecture e300 core scaling to 400 MHz with an advanced multimedia co-processor to deliver exceptional processor performance. ”

“mobileGT® starter kit with Linux OS
The MPC5123 processor is supported by a cost-effective starter kit that includes a Linux® OS board support package (BSP) optimized for the MPC5123 processor. Freescale’s mobileGT Linux software includes fully functional Linux open-source images with source code, an open-source tool chain and design documentation. The software was developed in collaboration with Genesi, a leading provider of open-source platforms for the 32-bit embedded market.

“Freescale’s motherboard-on-a-chip will help redefine the 32-bit embedded market and establish new market standards for open client network computers,” said Bill Buck, general manager of Genesi U.S.A, Inc. “Our collaboration with Freescale around the MPC5123 device benefits the growing open-source development community by providing a powerful, cost-effective processing platform for embedded systems based on Power Architecture technology.”

The MPC5123 processor platform is backed by a growing ecosystem of development tool, middleware and real-time operating system (RTOS vendors).

MPC5123 product features

e300 core
Built on Power Architecture technology
32KB instruction cache and 32KB data cache
Double-precision floating point unit and dual integer units
Up to 400 MHz performance, delivering 800 MIPS
User-programmable 32-bit RISC multimedia core operating at up to 200 MHz
Integrated display controller supporting up to 720p (1280×720) and WXGA (1366×768) resolution
12 programmable serial controllers supporting UART, SPI, AC97, I2S
SDRAM DDR-I/DDR-II/mobileDDR memory controller
10/100 Fast Ethernet media access controller (MAC)
Three I2Cs
PCI 2.3 interface
Dual USB 2.0 On-the-Go (OTG) controller with an integrated high-speed PHY
Serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) controller
Parallel advanced technology attachment (PATA) controller
Four CAN 2.0A/B modules
64-channel intelligent DMA I/O controller
Sony/Phillips digital interface format (S/PDIF) serial audio interface
Secure digital host controller (SDHC) supporting MMC/SD/SDIO protocols
27×27 mm – 1 mm pitch 516-pin PBGA package
Pricing and availability
Samples of the MPC5123 processor are planned to be available in late third quarter 2008. Suggested resale pricing for the MPC5123 in 10,000-unit quantities starts at $20.00 (USD). Development kits bundled with the MPC5123 processor are planned to be available for a suggested resale price of $199 (USD).”

and the last Genesi Efika retail board (4watts total while _working_[NOT idol or in low power standby mode] with PCI gfx card installed)that came from their last developer board come in at $99 USD ,so expect any new retail board to come in well below that current %199 developer board in time….

sure the the ARM920T™ ARM® Thumb® Processor – 200 MIPS at 180 MHz,can beat the PPC on power while also working, but the expected 4watts total/average useage expected again from MPC5123, is well within the battery+ PV and/or fuelcell gives you a far greater expectation for gettign real work done.

an addition of an onboard 11n reprogramable wireless and gigE chipset might make this an even better fit for any home video IP streaming base OC….