PowerDev Meeting #5 is now scheduled for 6-7 September in Chełm, Poland. The Event has been included on the Freescale Training Event Schedule. Interestingly, we should mention that the PowerDev Meeting #5 webpages are hosted on an EFIKA Server.



The concept behind the logo is that each gear symbolizes an individual visitor or developer. If you put the gears together, that is people meeting people, a certain dynamic is achieved. There is energy and productivity - in short, you create Power.



Grzegorz (EFIKA Project #163) will be making a number of technical presentations. There will be many EFIKA/Open Clients, PegasosPPC/Open Desktop Workstations present. Please make a plan to attend the Event. It should be fun!

Update on PowerDev Meeting #4 in Prague 23-24 August : Peter Czanik who made the presentations in Budapest at PowerDev Meeting #3 will attend the Event in Prague with the MPC8610 and MPC5121e development systems. His discussion and presentations have been updated.

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PowerDev Meeting #4 is now scheduled for 23-24 August in Prague. The Event has been included on the Freescale Training Event Schedule.



The concept behind the logo is that each gear symbolizes an individual visitor or developer. If you put the gears together, that is people meeting people, a certain dynamic is achieved. There is energy and productivity - in short, you create Power.

Details about this PowerDev Meeting can be found on the Czech Pegasos User Group site. In addition to demonstrating MorphOS 2.0 on multiple Pegasos and EFIKA based systems, Luky will have MPC5121e and MPC8610 systems running the latest version of SUSE to present. Luky will also have the opportunity to present the first details about the new 8610 system we are developing. This new system will provide a high level of software compatibility with the former Pegasos/ODW.

Please make your plans now to attend the Event. It should be fun!

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Why not give it a try and let us know what you think. Thanks!

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Have a look at this gallery of pictures from the Spring of 2005. This was just before we shipped the first Open Desktop Workstation to Beijing for the opening of the MII National Linux Systems Development Lab (Genesi PR). In the gallery you will see a group of Freescale, ATI and IBM folks as well as those of us from Genesi/bplan. ATI was acquired by AMD a short time later. A few months after that the Computer Platform Division (CPD) at Freescale was closed primarily because Apple had left PowerPC for Intel. It is remarkable that this AMD-Genesi link still exists.



Pictured above there are two Open Desktop Workstations surrounded by a variety of collateral material in a Demo Stand that extolls the virtues of PowerPC based software.* Can you see the AltiVec handout? How about the one for the MPC8641D?

This past week Konstantinos Margaritis posted to Freevec MPC8610 AltiVec benchmarks against his earlier G4 (ODW) and a G5 (Power Mac) results -- Functions. The 8610 has proven to be quite the performer. The good news is despite the setback we had with the demise of CPD, the 8610 is positioned to deliver a solid comeback for the Power Architecture Technology. There are others that are developing hardware around the 8610. We won't be alone.

Developing solid general purpose host processors is an expensive and challenging business. Turning silicon into systems also has its pitfalls. We are looking forward to working with some of the same Freescale folks again. Who knows, we may see something like this once more...



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*Correction posted to us by Phil Brownfield of Freescale on 08/08/08: The lower system on the stack is a Genesi ODW. But the upper is a prototype of one of our 7448 reference systems in the same type of chassis. I put that LAMP demo together and drove it to Orlando, so I'm pretty sure my memory is right. The 7448 would have been the server and the ODW ran the client - as well as running a terminal emulator attached to the serial boot console of the 7448. Both were running Gentoo Linux, except for the still-under-development kernel on the 7448 system.

Thanks Phil!

Last November and December we wrote a few blogs about cloud computing. If you are interested they are here:

Seeing Through the Clouds
Kindle the Fire... Please!
More and More Stuff
Today's EarthLink Newsletter

This post and those of the past are as a few of the many water droplets or crystals that float together above the Earth's surface to form a true cloud. User generated content is seeding the next phase of the Internet. Making it all searchable and shareable is an ever increasing task.



Certainly Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is working toward a single brand and a total experience that takes you where you want or need to go whenever you decide to do whatever it is. The search query declares our interest. We don't even have to spell that correctly as so many others have or have not. Did you notice 'search' works better than a Dictionary? This is a service worth the advertisement. Higher quality advertising is the objective. Scale is important. Measurability is a good thing. Transactions are the goal. Wherever is next. Mobility creates an exponential function. That is what Android is to be.

Getting solid, scalable and secure applications online and running smoothly is a challenge -- especially when all the variables are in flux. Can we admit that absolute privacy is not a problem if we can carefully and safely trade it for convenience or better service? You know, what we want when and where we want it. And, isn't the cloud a good thing when we don't want to carry it all around? Perhaps, you have an ATM card or maybe one of these (verses carrying a sack of money or a thermos)...



Moving in and out of the clouds from wherever you are will depend on more than a browser. It will rely on the device you have. In this way, as users share and consume continuously and progressively, more clouds will appear. Google is great, but we have been running a few tests ourselves with eyeOS. Have a look: cloudcity.tv and cloudcity.me. If you have an EFIKA or Open Client, drop us an email if you want to give it a try.

Tomorrow's smartcardcloud works with the end user device to identify you to everybody else. The ATM and a whole bunch more will live in a device much more capable than the SIM in your mobile or a rechargeable smardcard. Credentials are key. It will be a remarkable device that will take us to and from the clouds where and when we want.



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The Ginkgo Biloba is the oldest living tree species. In the Plant Kingdom (scientific classification of all living things), the Ginkgo is classified in its own division, the Ginkgophyta, consisting of the single class Ginkgoopsida, order Ginkgoales, family Ginkgoaceae, genus Ginkgo and is the only surviving species within this group. A single tree can live as long as 1,000 years and grow to a height of 120 feet. We brought a seedling from France and planted it on the banks of the Allegheny River in northwestern Pennsylvania in 1996.



This past week we were able to open the Bounty System on power2people. We started with AROS bounties and are now adding a few GNU Linux projects. The first bounty to be assigned is for the AROS EFIKA Open Client port. Michal Schulz, who just finished the port for the SAM440, will do the work. We hope to distribute the AROS ISO for both the Open Client and the SAM440 on the same CD as the boot method is different.

Amiga-like operating systems are almost as uncommon as the Ginkgo. Around since the dawn of the computer era the 'Family Amiga' has bordered on extinction, but a few surviving species remain. In 1996, we did our best to secure the Amiga IP after Escom AG failed. Years later, natural selection seems to be favoring those that can adapt and are likely to produce descendants. Diversity is a good thing. So, stick around and let's all do our best to see what happens next. Best wishes to you Michal!

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It was a fun moment to run around the track at Panathinaiko Stadium. We did it together. Since ancient times olympic events have been hosted on the site. The modern Olympics began there in 1896. More recently, the marathon ended there in the 2004 Games. The Stadium was featured on all of the 2004 Summer Olympic medals, and will be continued to be featured on the medals soon to be awarded in Beijing.



We will have some news on all the MPC5121e based platforms coming to market soon and hopefully just in time...

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With the launch of the AROS bounty support on power2people we have raised the EFIKA port bounty to over $3000.

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That is the title of the article in the New York Times. Just in case you missed it here is a link to the article:

The personal computer industry is poised to sell tens of millions of small, energy-efficient Internet-centric devices. Curiously, some of the biggest companies in the business consider this bad news...

We have been at this a long time. It is good to see all this coming together. Why not stick around? It is about to get fun.



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Yes, it sounds like SceneCon was a big success. There was plenty of interest in MorphOS 2.0 and we demonstrated a beta of a Power Architecture native Flash plugin on MPC5200B, MPC5121e and MPC8610 based systems running SUSE 11.0 (SUSE/Genesi).

First, thanks for all of the positive responses to yesterday's post (Operation Crossroads Africa). It has been overwhelming. Thank you. The international Community of Developers and Users that are interested makes us feel very much part of a community.

With that in mind, please don't hesitate to stop by SceneCon if you are in Budapest this weekend.





Not only will Karoly Balogh be demonstrating MorphOS 2.0 on the EFIKA/Open Client, but Peter Czanik will be there with MPC8610 and MPC5121e development systems running openSUSE 11.0. Peter will have a native beta Flash plugin to demo on the EFIKA/Open Client and the 8610 based system. It should be a great Event!

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It has been nearly thirty years since we worked on building this school near Kitale, Kenya. The Project was organized by Operation Crossroads Africa.







Last month, Operation Crossroads Africa celebrated its 50th Anniversary. It is a great organization. You learn as much about yourself as you do about the people you meet. It can be a very memorable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

In 1980, personal computers were just getting started. The Internet phenomenon was yet to come. Next summer, we hope to be in Africa with a Freescale MPC5121e based low cost computer. Our support of Freescale, THTF and now Cherrypal will produce exceptionally robust, flexible and useful computing platforms based on this system-on-a-chip. Please let us know if you would like to help us in Africa next summer. The objective is to share your computing knowledge with others and help us deliver a few MPC5121e based systems. We intend to organize this in a manner similar to the Crossroads program. You will be gone a few weeks.

For the second consecutive year, Freescale was awarded the prestigious "Best Telematics Component Solution Award" at the eighth annual Telematics Detroit conference for the MPC5121e processor (Freescale PR). We are working on bringing the MPC5121e to a new field of success -- the personal computing space. We admit, progress seems slow, but we continue to advance one building block at a time. Please stay tuned!

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Menkaure, also known as Mycerinus, ruled from 2490 - 2472 B.C. Menkaure built the third and smallest of the three great Pyramids at Giza. The top of this Pyramid is just over 200 feet from the ground. Climbing to that height takes some effort.





The contrast between the thriving metropolis of Cairo and the apparent emptiness of the desert is impossible to miss. Facing toward the desert and hearing only the sound of the wind you can almost imagine being in another time.

Have you read the sonnet Ozymandias written by Shelley in 1817?

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The statue of Ozymandias symbolizes the hubris often found in humanity. Ozymandias came to mind when reading Intel's Gelsinger Predicts Intel Inside Everything.

Just as there are three great Pyramids at Giza, there are three great proven processing core designs: x86, ARM and Power Architecture. They will very likely continue to co-exist in the semiconductor industry until something better comes along. Turning sand into silicon to manufacture integrated circuits is big business. It is likely to get bigger as those at the base of the pyramid begin to move toward the top. In the meanwhile, the future will continue to be unpredictable as it was a long time ago and still is today.

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Our blog is an advertisement, so we don't advertise. We are not getting paid, but we wanted to run this ad below. You can click through if you want. It works. Why wouldn't an advertiser want as many people as possible adding such ads to as many user-generated sites as possible? The 'seller' can easily track the lead source. You too can become an Internet Advertising Agency!



eBay has made a good business in connecting buyers and sellers. At the same time, online fraud has continued to grow. Losses for financial institutions are significant and mirror that growth. A new medium for exchange is needed. We have been discussing this a bit lately (What is in your Wallet?).



The device goals have been made to match the specifications of at least the most recent Asus EeePC model – at this time the “901” model seems the best fit (the “1000” and “1000H” models differing only in screen size). Although these devices are by far the most “hyped” in today's market, there remains a stigma attached to them. They are perceived as “toys” with plastic frames, gaudy color schemes and the lack of real functionality.

The current state of the art for Netbook design has to be the HP 2133 Mini-Note, which takes a more professional aesthetic albeit with a few less features compared to the current top-of-the-line EeePC model. The HP Mini-Note also runs SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. Our goal is also to support SLED (the next version is 11.0). We developing this now with the Freescale MPC8610 ADS and openSUSE 11.0. It should all be ready at about the same time. We want to create the aesthetic and professionalism of the HP Mini-Note and introduce a few more special features.

So, please stay tuned. After all, why should Google make all the money they do with your AdSense? Much more can still be done. Buyers want what they want when they want it. That is why search has driven Google to where it is, but what happens when 'finding' can be managed and fulfilled better. We just need the right device with the right tools and features. Everything else is in place to get more connections going.

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It is hard to keep the excitement contained. The exposure Cherrypal and THTF received last week at FTF and in the technology media woke up a few slumbering keyboards. We had a busy weekend and it appears that we will be busy for some time.



A hand-held “tablet” device with basic applications such as a web browser and an email client, that enables further functionality through the playback of widgets is headed your way. The functionality of the final device will be defined by the capabilities of the SoC and peripherals chosen. The choice of peripherals will be driven by the desired feature(s). Nevertheless, the device goals are clear:

• A very low-cost, ultra-mobile and eco-friendly internet appliance
• Web 2.0 driven, but also a home for traditional apps
• Rich experience of music, movies and other forms of multimedia
• Communicate with family, friends and colleagues
• Internet-based and Peer-to-Peer gaming
• Safe, secure and protected form of computing

A variety of devices can be developed from the same basic platform and middleware. There will be many of them in lots of different configurations. Please stay tuned!

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The proliferation of social networking and user-generated content… combined with the impact of broadband and constant connectivity… creating new social communities and new business and consumer behaviors around the world. In the past few years… thanks to the growing availability of high-speed Internet access and search technology… user-generated content has become one of the dominant forms of global media. By 2011, social networks are projected to attract 101 million users in the U.S. …and earn 4.3 billion dollars in ad revenue. What was “child’s play” is now big business.

Freescale CEO Rich Beyer introduces the MPC5121e powered
sub-$100 laptop at the FTF2008 Keynote

A 2006 analysis by Media Metrix showed that half of MySpace users were over 35 years old… and the executive networking site, LinkedIn, reports the average user is 39-years old and has an annual income of 139 thousand dollars. 2007 saw the first Presidential debates where citizens submitted their questions as videos on YouTube. A cancer-survivor asked about healthcare reform… and a snowman asked about global warming… The debates heralded a new era in presidential politics. Online video by its nature is social and viral… and people naturally tend to forward video links to others. More than half of online video viewers forward links they find on to others… and 75 percent receiving links watch the videos that others have sent. And this model works for businesses as well… information and videos can be working for our businesses 24/7. We are definitely taking this to heart… We have established a Freescale Channel on YouTube to house videos of our product demonstrations…training tips…and customer success stories.

You can download and read the whole Keynote from the Freescale site. On the bottom of Page 20 you find the beginning of the text above. Start the Keynote video at 1:02:30...

In the meanwhile, the Register's Ashlee Vance has drawn attention to Cherrypal. Why not google the stories if you are interested. We will just have to rely on the Net Effect to carry our message for now.



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That is the current marketing slogan of a credit card issuer operating in the US, UK and Canada. Credit cards come in standard sizes and allow us to make purchases from merchants with money we borrow from a credit card issuer. As the card holder, we are responsible for paying the money back.

Money is certainly a useful thing to have. It provides a medium for exchange, so we don't have to barter. It gives us a means to compare the value of different items, and it can be saved to store value. Credit cards make the use of money easier. We act in partnership with the credit card issuer. They are in the business of generating profit from our interest bearing use of the money we borrow when we use the card.



There are many that suggest that the worldwide financial crisis we have been living through is a result of the unbridled boom in consumer borrowing and credit growth (primarily in the US, but leveraged worldwide). When things are looking up and confidence is high, people spend money and banks are happy to lend it. When they don't spend money, especially money they don't have, it makes it more difficult for the financial institutions that lend money to generate profits. Not to mention what happens when borrowers don't pay back the credits they have taken.

With the rash of worldwide bank losses (related to all those credits not paid back), bank assets are being written down. This has been a factor is driving the US Dollar to its historic lows relative to many other currencies. That is actually a good thing if the objective is to attract new capital and help increase the trade balance in the US (where the trouble started). The next step is to recapitalize the banks and then get the yield curve back to where it needs to be so banks go out and start lending money/providing credit again.

But, wait! The question is, what *will be* in your wallet when things start getting back to normal? Will we fail to the point of needing to carry shells that are broken up to make small disc beads (shown on the note above)?! Or, will we spring ahead to a new form of currency and credit? OK, maybe not new currencies, but maybe a new sort of credit built into the mobile device itself, you know, just like iTunes on the iPhone. Of course, this opportunity would be validated and managed by a new kind of service provider: banking-like services packaged with bandwidth and net access. That new money-bandwidth-storage 'lender' could come from anywhere, and why not the Solomon Islands? The weather is good.

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While the first one is still in progress in parts of the world, the second is well underway. The first is measured by our physical capacity to multiply our productivity through machines and regimentation, the second is measured by our intellectual capacity to grow through free and constant access to information and learning. Personal creativity is on the rise. There is and will be a progressively compounding effect.



In an interview following the WWDC Keynote, Steve Jobs discussed Snow Leopard and the parallel-programming breakthrough that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was poised to make with Grand Central. Grand Central Terminal is the largest train station in the world. It is in New York. Grand Central is aptly named as the software is devised to coordinate the activity of multiple cores working of different problems simultaneously. Presumably, these chips will be designed by the former PASemi team. We discuss this in the last blog.

It is probably a mishmash, but trains and walls conjure up too much of the first industrial revolution to us. We are looking for more individual empowerment. It seems the proletariat of the processor has taken hold! The industry is being herded in this direction as single processors have been pushed to a flash point. Did we forget we could write better software?!

The MPC5121e could be considered a multi-core SoC with the AXE and MBX Lite packed in with the e300. We have learned that optimized tools are not for people that understand multicore programming. The key is to make the algorithm better and then to select the language that best translates it into a digital form the computer understands. It is an art and not what you'll develop through a pretty GUI. Likewise, programming with altivec is a special talent and draws us back to what we really want to write about today.

Last Friday, Konstantinos Margaritis gave a lecture on the subject at the University of Peiraeus. The presentations are here (.pdf) or here (.odp). Konstantinos has made more than a few presentations on altivec over the years (e.g., Debconf 5). He originally organized freevec after the altivec classes he attended at EuroSNDF in 2004 (please see last four rows). He has been busy and productive. It is great to see what a single person and a single processor can do.

Let's not forget about the capacity of the human mind to be inventive when it is free. And, please let's not forget about a single Power processor with altivec such as the MPC8610. There is much more human capital ready to invest!

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You can watch the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) WWDC 2008 Keynote. If you are interested in the future of the information, communication and entertainment technology business, it is probably worth the time.

As emphasized by Steve Jobs, there are three legs to the Apple business: Mac, music and iPhone. It seems whatever the iPod was will soon be merged with the iPhone. The new $199/128€ 3G GPS-enabled iPhone will certainly help sell more Macs. The iTunes offering grows continuously and progressively (TV, movies, videos, games, talking-books, etc.). In a couple of years, it will all boil down to devices and distribution, digital that is (though contrary to convention the Apple Stores have done very well and will undoubtedly continue to do so). Apple will have much more than a cloud to depend on. We are on the road to assimilation (we have used Macs for years; we appreciate their success).

In the meanwhile, the PASemi designers now inside Apple are certainly working on the next big thing...



Broadband networks allow both data and application to travel between users. If all members on a network, that is, all computers and computing devices on the network, are constructed from a common computing module then we have a totally pervasive solution - everyone can get everything, everywhere. A common computing module with a consistent structure and the same instruction set architecture (ISA) was the objective of the CELL technology. The idea was that the members of the network, e.g., clients, servers, PCs, mobile computers, game machines, PDAs, set top boxes, appliances, digital televisions and other devices, would use the same core computer processor logic to insure compatibility. The consistent modular structure would enable efficient, high speed processing of applications and data by the network's members and the rapid transmission of applications and data over the network.

Which clouds will hold your silver lining? Certainly, one that makes you amazingly zippy! It seems where the CELL technology failed, Apple took note and will make the concept work.

All this suggests a new programming model for transmitting data and applications over a network and for processing data and applications among the network's members (vs. data just being transferred between stand alone devices that must run the same application software to process and display the data sent). This was the original CELL programming model. It was to be a software CELL that was transmitted over the network for processing by any network member (some to a higher degree and some to a lesser degree). Each software CELL was to have the same structure and contain both applications and data. The "old" stuff would still work, but it needed to be compiled in a new way (Apple has done this before). What is created is a dynamic not unlike the advent of the fax machine -- to send or receive a fax you had to have one (and if you don't too bad!). This means the code for the applications *must* be based upon the same common ISA. All computing resources on such a network would have to have the same basic structure and employ the same ISA so any particular resource performing the processing can be located anywhere on the network and dynamically assigned to the activity required.

The tug-of-war for the best way to reach the consumer is underway: datacenter vs. device. Yes, ultimately it is all about everything, it is just a question of how the network is the computer. We still contend the enduser holds the terminal for every departure and arrival in their hand (@me.com by the way). The device is the conductor of the charge. There will be many clouds and some will just keep on floating by as Apple continues their lofty ascent one step at a time.

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Life on the tundra is tough. In the winter it is very cold and windy and in the summer the mosquitoes are everywhere. Have you ever seen a glass of water tossed into the air and watched it drift away as ice fog before a drop hits the ground? It can be cold!



The Finnish word tunturia means a barren land (which may have been derived from the earlier use of the word in Lapland -- perhaps a Finnish friend can conform this). The tundra has a delicate ecosystem. Small changes to the environment can produce dramatic consequences over time. In Alaska, roads made through the permafrost 50-60 years ago have thawed quicker in the spring. This has led to erosion and the formation of lakes that follow an unnatural path.

This post is actually about a different Tundra. Earlier this week they made this announcement:

Ottawa, Ontario – June 3, 2008 - Tundra Semiconductor Corporation (Tundra), (TSX:TUN External), a leader in System Interconnect, has terminated its product acquisition agreement, announced in August, 2007, with IBM Global Engineering Solutions (IBM), effective June 1, 2008. The acquired product was to be based on an IBM Power Architecture™ 90 nm processor core. IBM recently notified Tundra that the performance of the core is lower than previously stated. Since the IBM core cannot meet the stated performance, the product is now unsuitable for Tundra’s intended target applications and market. In November, 2007, Tundra also signed a license agreement with IBM to bring new 65nm Power Architecture solutions to market as part of Tundra’s smart System Interconnect (sSI) strategy and roadmap. As a result of the decision to terminate the product acquisition agreement, and based on Tundra’s review of the current IBM performance data for the 65nm core, Tundra has also made the decision to terminate that license agreement.

Tundra intends to actively pursue alternative means of executing against its sSI strategy to bring intelligent System Interconnect solutions to broader global markets.

We genuinely appreciated Tundra's effort to secure a Power Architecture license (Power Up!). Another SoC producer would have added vibrancy to the delicate ecosystem around Power. Note to Power.org: we need more than standards. We need users.

The MPC5123 Starter Kit is under development. There will be a MPC5121e Starter Kit too. The 5121e includes the MBX Lite graphic core. The 5123 does not.

It sure does get cold out on the tundra, but don't worry! We still have enough people and power to keep things going. We are almost there...

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Fortunately, most of us will still be here tomorrow. Some of us will still be here for a long time. In the meanwhile, Managing Firm-Sponsored Open Source Communities - A Case Study on Novell and The openSUSE Project has been published. Jan Fredrik, the author, has hopefully earned high marks for his Masters thesis. It is worth reading as suggested.



Genesi has been involved in the openSUSE Project from the beginning. Prior to Novell's involvement, the first open source operating system running on the PegasosPPC was SuSE Linux 7.1 (2.4.2 kernel). Novell was an early supporter of the ODW. The main center of the openSUSE development is still in Nürnberg, Germany.

The future is unknowable, but it seems a remarkable transition is approaching. Not only is there a choice of useful and flexible open source operating systems and applications, but there is a broad commercial push toward low cost hardware. Yesterday, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) announced it has joined the growing band of hardware makers producing low power, portable laptops. OLPC, Asus, Intel, Dell and HP have all made related and recent announcements or are shipping product already. Just how open the hardware is will become a major issue.

In our eyes, the future of open source software does not rely on the community or even a specific company/project, as much as the individual, many of them, each with their own dreams and ambitions (Go Zig!). It is our feeling that economic development is dependent on legal protection of a system of property itself firmly bound to individual ownership. It is important to distinguish between the use and the idea of property. There is a difference between a 'house' and the 'legal concept' of a house. As a concept, a house can be sold, rented, or mortgaged, while a house where you live, but you cannot establish as your own is nothing more than shelter (read up on Hernando De Soto if that last thought interests you). Companies that can provide opportunity and a framework of ownership/participation in the context of success will enable entrepreneurs to transcend governments that fail to provide safety in ownership. It could very well be a brave new world (reference to Shakespeare, not Huxley).

One more thing: in the last post we wondered what would be announced by Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) in its quarterly report. Of greatest interest to us was that for the first time in Dell's history more than half of the revenue came from outside the USA. Other than a weak dollar it will be interesting to watch how companies like Dell and Novell grow market share in emerging markets and what role open source software and local entrepreneurs will play in their strategies.

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We have a very cool piece of petrified wood. It has been mistaken for last year's Bouche de Noel more than once. There is actually no wood left in petrified wood. Petrified wood is all stone.



Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) announced its latest quarterly results earlier this week. We took a few notes...

- revenue growth was less than half of what it has been.
- notebook and desktop margins and prices continue to fall.
- server revenue was flat, but HP is now #1 (IBM is #2).
- cameras margins were down.
- printers held steady, but margins were off too.
- storage revenue was up nicely (14% Y/Y).

Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) is probably not doing as well. We will find out about that next week (29 May). We are certainly watching to see how the HP-EDS merger shapes up and how that one-two punch will be taken by IBM (NYSE:IBM). With acknowledgment to Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) "the network is the computer" vision has come of age as utility/cloud computing/infrastructure-as-a-service is being positioned to save the industry. It is all about connecting everybody to everything...

Hey! Have you seen the new OLPC?!



Oh! And, Jon Stokes published a nice article titled RISC vs. CISC in the mobile era last week. In the meanwhile, Via launched the Naked Pico Challenge. Running a 500MHz chip without cooling should not be a challenge! We are looking forward to Jon's next article on the subject. Perhaps, the EFIKA will be mentioned. Jon bought one. The EFIKA runs at nearly the same speed on a larger process (130nm vs. 90nm) and requires no heat sink. It is not a challenge to make a processor which gives that level of performance, takes ~1W of power, and does not require a heatsink. Along that same path, Tranquil PC has introduced a $82 Intel Atom motherboard, though 20W may be a drawback for some.

The trick would be to tie all this back into petrified wood, but its only the industrial thinking that is becoming petrified. Big changes are coming and it looks like Apple is still way, way out front.

The Community is the Computer - a Super Computer. Go Zig!

R&B

PowerDev Meeting #2 is underway been very successful. You can could watch the event in progress - webcam (Update #2). Without folks like this there would not be a Genesi.



The concept behind the logo is that each gear symbolizes an individual visitor or developer. If you put the gears together, that is people meeting people, a certain dynamic is achieved. There is energy and productivity - in short, you create Power.

Vielen Dank für die herausragende Unterstützung rund um den PowerPC. Alles Gute für alle Teilnehmer und viel Erfolg für bestehende und zukünftige Projekte wünscht euch das Genesi Team.



The Community is the Computer - a Super Computer. Go Zig!

R&B

...and thanks to Gerald for the translation support - he is pretty super too!

...still on!

...and action!



We did not expect to read about it this this fast. We certainly have not made over power2people.org yet. An update is coming...



power2people was established to support a Project we originally started with Cornell University Graduate Students in 2006 around the EFIKA/Open Client (Genesi BoP Presentation). This merged with an EFIKA Project and an installation was made last summer in Morocco (EFIKA Project #338). Just Enough Computing was presented by Johan Dams at the International Workshop on Ambient Intelligence and Embedded Systems in Vaasa, Finland last September (presentation, paper). We featured Johan's Project in a few blogs and received some support from the OpenSPARC Marketing Team -- Thank You Sun Microsystems. Unfortunately, the U.S. State Department only funded the first phase of the Project. It has not gone further. It was a great Project.

More recently, we wrote a blog that anticipates a synthesis between our experiences and the experience of Mary Lou Jepsen who has left OLPC to form Pixel Qi. Pixel Qi will be working with Genesi on the new 5121e/5123 reference design we are developing with Freescale. Freescale announce the new SoC, reference design and starter kit at the Embedded Systems Conference last week (Freescale PR). We are really looking forward to working with Mary Lou.

We will be refining power2people.org to reflect the support we will be providing the AROS Community. It will all tie together to hopefully give low cost open source based computing another OS alternative. We hope to have this done by the time Bill Evans releases the AROS EFIKA port in May (before the 18th). We also expect that our support for AROS will help the NATAMI Project. AROS support for NATAMI and the Freescale ColdFire platform is also an objective.

The Community is the Computer - a Super Computer. Go Zig!

R&B