**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Wed Apr 12 09:59:57 2006
Apr 12 14:09:15 <key2> hey
Apr 12 14:09:24 <key2> what's the virtex that has 4 PPC inside ?
Apr 12 14:31:57 <AchiestDragon> an expencive one in a 1700 pad or close bga package 
Apr 12 14:35:56 <AchiestDragon> according to the early data  was suposed to be the  2vp250  but thay never releaced that  the 2vp100 is the bigest and that has 2 ppc cpus 
Apr 12 14:39:59 <AchiestDragon> http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon_solutions/fpgas/virtex/virtex_ii_pro_fpgas/product_table.htm
Apr 12 15:35:57 <key2> AchiestDragon: and it's possible to run a SMP linux ?
Apr 12 15:36:17 <AchiestDragon> yes
Apr 12 15:36:43 <vmaster> huh?
Apr 12 15:38:11 <vmaster> are you sure about smp? iirc there's no cache coherency between the ppc cores
Apr 12 15:40:15 <AchiestDragon> depends on how you confugure the fpga to work with it
Apr 12 15:40:41 <AchiestDragon> well maybe not smb but multiproccessing is posible 
Apr 12 15:40:49 <AchiestDragon> smp rather
Apr 12 16:44:45 <AchiestDragon> at the price xilinx ask for those devices im supprised that anyone uses them  $700 for one with one 500mhz ppc that seriously affects what hardware there used in  
Apr 12 16:46:29 <AchiestDragon> you could use a faster ppc micro  and a fpga  in seperate chips and get better performance form it at a farction of the cost 
Apr 12 16:50:22 <AchiestDragon> think there commetial use is limited to high performance  ethernet routers as having up to 20  1Gbs ethernet ports on the same chip makes them good for that 
Apr 12 16:53:52 <AchiestDragon> nice chips though , if there price was in the $100 to $200 mark thay would be a good device and would find there way into lots of products 
Apr 12 16:55:14 <AchiestDragon> think thay will suffer the same fate as the transputer , the transputer was to be targeted with a £50 each tag , but dew to a buyout ended up with a £800 so it never got a good market share 
Apr 12 16:57:16 <AchiestDragon> that never got anyware as £800 for the chip  priced any product that used it  at more than 8 times the cost of one that would give the same performance 
Apr 12 16:57:31 <AchiestDragon> shame 
Apr 12 16:57:46 <key2> AchiestDragon: http://www.broadcom.com/collateral/pb/1455-PB02-R.pdf
Apr 12 16:57:48 <key2> have a look there
Apr 12 16:59:08 <key2> AchiestDragon: it says it has the network integrated, so basically, if I put a MAC addr in 2 or 3 chips like that, and link them together by a swithching chip, do you think I could do a cluster of linux on the same board ?
Apr 12 16:59:30 <AchiestDragon> should be able to 
Apr 12 16:59:51 <AchiestDragon> linux supports clusters over etherent 
Apr 12 17:00:05 <key2> ?
Apr 12 17:00:32 <key2> like for its thread or forks ?
Apr 12 17:00:41 <key2> it can make an other computer handle it ?
Apr 12 17:00:47 <vmaster> it has support for numa
Apr 12 17:00:55 <AchiestDragon> i have seen cluster software for linux that allows some tasks to be distributed over the ethernet 
Apr 12 17:01:17 <key2> wll the goal was to make a PBX with asterisk
Apr 12 17:01:49 <key2> should I put one linux on each quadproc and a loadbalancing in the swithching chip ?
Apr 12 17:02:02 <key2> or one asterisk and clustering with all the other quadproc with a linux on it
Apr 12 17:02:30 <AchiestDragon> is it beowolf , cannot remeber but i do remeber on that allowed that with povray 
Apr 12 17:03:03 <key2> AchiestDragon: the advantage of linking the chips together via Ethernet is the layout that is very simple
Apr 12 17:03:08 <key2> just use the RXs and TXs
Apr 12 17:03:20 <AchiestDragon> yes
Apr 12 17:03:22 <key2> instead of 64bit PCI
Apr 12 17:03:39 <key2> btw, what would u recommend for designing the layout ? Orcad or Mantor graphic ?
Apr 12 17:03:53 <AchiestDragon> protel dxp
Apr 12 17:04:12 <key2> AchiestDragon: better than Mantor ?
Apr 12 17:04:40 <AchiestDragon> its what  use , and i dont like orcad
Apr 12 17:06:46 <AchiestDragon> http://www.whipy.demon.co.uk/geep.pdf
Apr 12 17:06:46 <AchiestDragon> http://www.whipy.demon.co.uk/geep-sch.pdf
Apr 12 17:06:56 <AchiestDragon> current project so far
Apr 12 17:07:31 <key2> AchiestDragon: what does it do
Apr 12 17:08:58 <AchiestDragon> 200mhz arm , ehternet , rs232 , 2*usb , ac97 audio , 256mb ram , 512mb rom , ide,compact flash  and dvi, with a fpga that provides a 100mhz expantion bus 
Apr 12 17:09:17 <AchiestDragon> 512mb flash rather not rom 
Apr 12 17:09:21 <key2> what is it for ?
Apr 12 17:10:02 <AchiestDragon> its a controler , genaral purpous , but going to be using it with a expantion bord for the open jtag project 
Apr 12 17:10:48 <key2> it's gonna be expensive 
Apr 12 17:10:51 <AchiestDragon> that will provide  jtag upto 150mhz , a 32chan logic analizer or a 150mhz sample rate DSO dependant on the adoptors used
Apr 12 17:10:59 <key2> why would u have ac97 for jtag :)
Apr 12 17:11:41 <key2> and protel DXP, is it expensive ? :)
Apr 12 17:11:44 <AchiestDragon> the idea to kit out the board with most of the i/o was to make it usable for other projects 
Apr 12 17:12:41 <AchiestDragon> protel dxp is worth it as the cost of getting a 16 layer pcb wrong  would workout at about the same cost 
Apr 12 17:13:54 <AchiestDragon> orcad is a pita to use and have had bad reports about some of its features reliability
Apr 12 17:14:19 <key2> and MG?
Apr 12 17:14:29 <AchiestDragon> not used mg 
Apr 12 17:15:33 <AchiestDragon> protel dxp will do fpga simulation also 
Apr 12 17:15:43 <key2> MG too :)
Apr 12 17:15:46 <key2> orcad too :)
Apr 12 17:15:59 <AchiestDragon> will have to have a look at MG 
Apr 12 17:16:13 <key2> xilinx uses MG for it's fpga sim
Apr 12 17:16:17 <AchiestDragon> but already have dxp and it does what i want from it 
Apr 12 17:16:50 <key2> what about the autorouter ?
Apr 12 17:17:08 <key2> works well ?
Apr 12 17:17:33 <AchiestDragon> i hate autorouters , i perfer manualy routing  but the dxp router is one of the better ones i have seen
Apr 12 17:20:26 <AchiestDragon> and manualy routing from the netlist in dxp is easy and a plesure to use 
Apr 12 17:22:00 <key2> AchiestDragon: and for example, if I have a bus in my schematic, can I make DXP make the wires the same size ?
Apr 12 17:22:21 <key2> for buses with high bw
Apr 12 17:22:22 <AchiestDragon> yes and set it for equal track lenths 
Apr 12 17:22:28 <key2> ok
Apr 12 17:22:35 <key2> I guess I have to emule around then :)
Apr 12 17:22:51 <key2> what about the library ? good or has to be redone ?
Apr 12 17:24:16 <AchiestDragon> the libs are quite extensive and adding parts is easy enough , you set the bus track groups up in the schematic and pcb editor so there not dependent on the libs  
Apr 12 17:24:56 <key2> what version do you use ?
Apr 12 17:24:59 <key2> 2004 or 2005
Apr 12 17:25:05 <AchiestDragon> 2005
Apr 12 17:26:04 <key2> fuck
Apr 12 17:26:07 <key2> not easy to find :)
Apr 12 17:26:21 <AchiestDragon> a company i know went bust and i managed to get there copy off them so it did not realy cost me anything , other than what thay owed me  but still less than the asking price
Apr 12 17:28:57 <key2> any big difference between v2004 and 2005
Apr 12 17:28:59 <key2> ?
Apr 12 17:29:16 <AchiestDragon> ? i just have 2005
Apr 13 02:10:56 <key2> what's the cheapest ARM or PPC I can find for running linux on it ?
**** ENDING LOGGING AT Thu Apr 13 09:59:57 2006