FreeBSD on MPC8343E PowerQUICC II (Polycom HDX 4500)

Dear FreeBSD Gurus!

Is someone here have experience with successfully installed FreeBSD on MPC8343EVRAGDB (MPC8343E PowerQUICC II) -based system?

Not sure about FreeBSD v.14 because a lot of 32-bit drivers/services may be deprecated, but v.13 may be working better on 32-bit devices, especially non Intel/AMD. This is wrong decision?

Recently one of Polycom HDX 4500 come into my hand and I try to use it as “small beastie 24’ LCD 16:9 screen box” for network testing/sysadmin needs because it is in iMac form-factor (so nice mobility), but + great camera and mic. (and secondary DVI monitor output).

In this system there are 3 PCB:
PCB, Brutus DI
lot of Davinci TMS320 real-time signal processors for audio/video coding (3 of TMS320 DM6467CCUT6, 1 of PI7C 8150BMAE (+ 37C56VK ALVCH162830) and a 6 of Hynix H5PS1G63EFR (1Gb DDR2 SDRAM);
With JTAG, I2C EEPROM PROG, unsoldered 3 x Davinci SERIAL pins, 3 x HD (?) connectors;
Reset button, power connector and 3 x pairs of LED work indicators.
The “PCB, Brutus DI” - one of the name on a back of PCB.

PCB, IKE AUDIO
(I think it is main PCB that combined with audio processing)
1 x MPC8343EVRAGDB 400/266 MHZ QMZTW1339 processor, 1 x Altera Cyclone II EP2C15AF484C8N K CBE9Y1419U, 1 x Entropic PNX1701EH/G NKH219.00 01 ktD1404 450MHz, 1 x Micrel KSZ8993ML;
2 x Hynix 240E H5DU5162ETR-E3C, 2 x Zentel A3S56D40FTP -G5, some propriétaire ROM chip, 3 x 45AER4K G4 LVC16245A, free CF card socket;
Big “VIDEO INTFC” (to connect to “PCB, Brutus DI”, see below), big “HDX INTFC” (to connect to EXTRA PCB, see above), 3 x fans connectors, 1 x COM (DB9) port, 1 x USB port, 1 x “VCR OUT” white/red connector, 2 x Ethernet RJ45 ports, 1 x 3,5mm audio out jack (linear?);
Reset button, unnamed button;
“SPDIF OUT” pins, “PNX DBG” pins, “PNG PGM” pins, “JTAG SCAN” pins, “GPP PGM” pins, “GPP JTAG” pins, “SCAN ENB” pins, “MANUAL PWR ON” pins, “uC BDM” connector, “MAIN OUT / LINE IN / VCR OUT”, “MAIN OUT / VCR IN / VCR OUT”, “MAIN OUT / PC IN / VCR OUT” configuration pins;
“PCB, IKE AUDIO” one of the mark on PCB;
(+ a lot of small size controllers, and unsoldered places for elements…;)

VIDEO PCB
2 x Sigma VXP GF9450C QLNHCE3 1416, 1 x Altera Cyclone II EP2C5F256C8N K CBD9Y1425U, 2 x proprietary ROMs,
1 x Analog Devices AD9887A KSZ-170, 1 x Pixelworks PW106B -20G H2355, 1 x Pixelworks PW106B-10G H2356, 2 x proprietary ROMs, 4 x Zentel A3S28040FTP -G5,
2 x XILINX Spartan XC3S1200E FGG400DG Q1425, 4 x 720 Digital Média Processor TMS320DM642AZDK, 16 x Zentel A3V56S40FTP -G6,
1 x PI7C 8150BMAE, 8 x SKhynix H5PS5162GFR near the socket like “HDX INTFC” that connected to “PCB, IKE AUDIO”.
2 x DVI - output, 1 x DVI - input, 1 x special “Polycom” labeled camera input (like DVI but +1/3 more number of contacts).
Power pins, a lot of LEDs (near each of processors), lot of unsoldered contacts and just numbered pins…

(some photo I add after completely tear down the unit…)

Thank You all for attention and detailed suggestions!
 
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According Official Polycom docs how to install Polycom’s software on a standard Dell’s server, I have a tough if the standard procedure (by pressing F11 and choosing USB-drive to boot) for Polycom software working, the Polycom software ARE NOT HARD LOCKING TO SOME SPECIFIC CPU.

Don’t think that Polycom engineers create different installation algorithms for different type of systems…
 
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On one interesting R&D I found:

3.4 System Architecture
The HDX system is an embedded PowerPC-based Linux system running Linux kernel 2.6.33.3. It’s us- ing the U-Boot boot loader. It comes with most of the standard Linux binaries including busybox, wget and even a gdbserver binary.

Hm… Is this mean that really possible to install FreeBSD if main components (CPU, mem, type of media, video and audio controllers, USB-controller, etc…) supported by FreeBSD ?
 
Freescale MPC8343E and Freescale MPC85XX (on which Mikrotik Routerboard RB800 based on and on March 2024 supported with some limitations by FreeBSD 13.0-REL powerpcspe port for PowerPC architecture) THE SAME PowerQUICC II Pro CPUs FAMILY with 32/32 KiB instruction/data L1 caches.

I have a tough that main differences between Freescale MPC8343E and Freescale MPC85XX (according popular resource) is NOT SO MUCH TO PREVENT FreeBSD 13.0-REL doing basic networking things.

Am I make a wrong decision?
 
Which lightweight GUI would be best for this system, in case all that I need would be:
- browser;
- IP-based inspection & measurements tools (from nmap and iperf3 to WireShark)

?
 
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