Building a PowerPC

By ravish0906
in Hardware Hangout

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ravish0906

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HI all,

 

I am a student from India and have been entrusted with task of designing a PowerPC based PC for a project.

 

I am a noob in this area and would require the help of gurus here to build it from scratch.

 

Please advice me on the same. Basically i need help in following areas :-

 

1. Understanding how does a Processor interacts with hardware i.e. how to program processor to take input from user. Will I have to learn assembly language or i can do it with C++?

 

2. How will i interface various hardware devices with PowerPC processor?

 

3.  Deciding on which Processor to choose and thereafter choosing its compatible hardware.

 

Please guide me and show me a path.

 

Waiting eagerly for your response.

 

Regards,

Ravish

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ravish0906

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Hi Nik,

 

Even I thought so or rather read so on a number of sites but its all confusing out there.

 

Can u atleast help me out with basics of building a PC around a processor.

 

regards

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T3X4S

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Well, after you locate a good PowerPC CPU, you then need to locate a motherboard.

Most of the designs are going to be based around macs I think, as they were using PowerPC but jumped to intel when IBM wouldn't let them have the fastest chips.

Once you find a motherboard that will hook up with your CPU, the rest is business as usual - a PSU, hard drive, and any other components you need.

You will probably be using a linux distro - so you are OK there.

Finding a case might be tough because macs were all proprietary - but the stainless powermac is an awesome case - might be too new though because that was after the jump to intel chips.... I think.


I dont know how easy it will be to source things in India - but you can figure that out.

As far as you specific questions - you dont need to know any of that - the programming language is already done - if you hook up the components they already know what they are and how to talk.

No programming will be needed - unless your project calls for "reinventing the wheel" which I doubt it does.

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ravish0906

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Thax a ton Nik...you are a lifesaver.

 

How do i decide on which processor to buy...i mean what specs should i look for?

 

And what if the data input is not in some standard format acceptable? What if I have to interface an input device .. like a Real Time signal processing device to it...how do i go about that?

 

regards

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philcruicks

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Thax a ton Nik...you are a lifesaver.

 

How do i decide on which processor to buy...i mean what specs should i look for?

 

And what if the data input is not in some standard format acceptable? What if I have to interface an input device .. like a Real Time signal processing device to it...how do i go about that?

 

regards

If your installing Linux on there, then it'll be a relatively standard format, you can't run Windows on Power PC (which is why it seems odd you've been asked to use PowerPC architecture.

 

You'd then find a signal processing device that has Linux software and plug it in via USB, or maybe Serial/parell ports if it and or the motherboard are old. (TBH I'm not sure if there are any new PowerPC components out there, it really is dead tech.

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Aergan

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It might be cheaper (hilariously so) to look at Apple PowerMac G5's on eBay after looking at what an IBM circa 2007 onwards Power architecture setup is going cost you.

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ravish0906

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Thanx everyone....ill start looking for a suitable processor and related hardware right away and will keep consulting you all for further help.

 

Can you all please guide me to the next step....how to go about assembling it and make it work....how to work with assembly language to program my processor and make it interact with various hardware.

 

Do i really need assembly language or i can do it with C++ too?

 

Regards

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Grand Master

T3X4S

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ravish - you dont need any programming to connect the hardware -

Look at it this way:

Act as if you have a Powermac G5 that blew up.  You need to source Powermac G5 parts - so when looking at a motherboard - search for a Powermac G5 motherboard, as for the CPU - a Powermac G5 CPU. etc..  Just like what Aergan said above

That way, all of the parts will be of the same "family" and will communicate with no problems.  You dont have to do any programming.

It is no different than building a PC - which anyone can do.  You are just dealing with older, not as readily available hardware - but still exact same concept.

In fact, I think the only time you will run into a problem is getting the case - as a normal PC ATX case will not work... 

But that is your last thing to worry about - you can connect everything and see if it all works and will install an OS without a case.

 

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Andre S. Veteran

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Not sure what you mean by "making the processor interact with various hardware" - the processor is able to interact with whatever hardware is connected to the chipset just fine. If you mean writing driver-level code for a specific piece of hardware you'd have to provide more information about what device you're talking about.

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ravish0906

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Thanx Andre, Texas, Nik, Phil and Aergan.....Ill start looking for a processor as my first step.

 

Can u please suggest me some processor options to choose from which can handle real-time signal processing?

 

And also, can i use multiple processors?? Will i need multiple Motherboards for that?

If yes, then how will make them interact with each other? I mean which protocol/ format and what is the bus structure?

 

My questions might be wrongly framed or my understanding of concepts may be off guys.. am completely new to this topic and trying hard to learn it... please bear with me.

Thanx a lot.

Regards

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philcruicks

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What you need to decide on is an Operating System, the parts all work together just fine, what you need it a way for a human to interact with the computer, thats what an OS is for (Windows, Mac OSX, Lunix, Unix etc...) you need to find an OS that works with Power PC, as Windows won't, but other OS's will...you can't code in assembly or C++ to make this work.
 
As a Side note, is it worth double checking with your course tutor? you said your a student and this is for a project, it still seems very odd you have been asked to do this...might be worth double checking this is exactly what they want you to do.
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