Re: new powerpc hardware

[Allen Briggs <briggs%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 03:29:03PM -0600, Al - Image Hosting Services wrote:
> I was under the impression that the 440 was some kind of a PowerPC clone.

There are several different families of PowerPC chips.

The ones I can think of off-hand (I haven't done much with PPC lately):

 * Motorola/IBM 60x / G2/G3/G4 series.
 * IBM 970 (Apple's "G5")
 * Motorola 82xx (really G2/G3 + peripherals)
 * Motorola 860 and variants
 * Motorola 85xx
 * IBM/AMCC 4xx (401, 405, 440, etc.)

Within each family, there are some similiarities, but sometimes some
significant differences, as between the 405 and 440.

The IBM/AMCC 4xx, especially, have a number of differences even between
different chips with the same number.  The 405 and 440 each have a
number of variants with the same CPU core and different integrated
busses and peripherals.  I think Motorola does the same thing with
the 860/82xx/85xx.

-allen

-- 
Allen Briggs  |  http://www.ninthwonder.com/~briggs/  |  
briggs%ninthwonder.com@localhost