IBM Open Source Firmware Download for PowerPC

Nora writes "IBM developerWorks has posted an open source Slimline Open Firmware (SLOF) download intended to aid the development of operating systems and virtualization layers for PowerPC-based machines. One thing that's kind of neat about it is that it is under a pretty liberal "BSD-like" license -- something I have not often seen IBM do. If I am not much mistaken (and please correct me if I am), this license makes it compatible with both GPL'd and BSD'd projects, among others. And in the interest of full disclosure, I'd like to add that I *am* affiliated with the developerWorks site."

Re:Apple?

[guet]

OS X on x86 will not use Open Firmware according to Apple's docs. Presumably they'll use other methods to try to stop it working on any old x86 without some hacking around (some small compatibility problems are probably enough to stop the majority of people running OS X on cheaper PCs).

However I'm sure IBM have released this to try to bolster the credibility of PowerPC as a platform now that the major desktop vendor is leaving.

The question is, is there any future in PowerPC on the desktop if Apple is no longer promoting it and IBM are not willing to put a lot of work into developing the chips for desktops/laptops? Their strategy does seem a little schizophrenic, as they promote linux on Power but have antagonized the largest vendor of PPC solutions.

Re:Very relevant....

[Wesley Felter]

The SLOF firmware was never relevant to Macs, thus it cannot become less relevant.

Meanwhile Apple's announcement has no effect on the embedded market that SLOF is intended for.

Re:Very relevant....

[Devil's Avocado]

None of the game consoles are using 970s. The processors in the game consoles will have significantly less integer power than the 970, which makes them far less attractive for multitasking, multi-user desktop computing.

The lead engineer of the Cell project spoke at my university a while back. He pointed out that the flight simulator demo on the cell ran 50 times faster than it did on the 970 where they developed it, but the Cell was somewhat slower than the 970 on integer benchmarks.