The Open Laptop Project

Let's make the laptop a kit that one is able to assemble at home - if so one desires.
 
I would. Currently I am trying to improve contacts towards a 64 core MIPS64 CPU source. Maybe that would be a good base for such a thing. As for graphics, less is more here IMHO, so my plans do not contain much beyond VGA by FPGA.
 
Perhaps if the board came with the CPU embedded, then one would have the options of APU, GPU, and others as a type of scientific do-it-yourself" kit. Oddly enough, I was thinking of the MIPS architecture as the second after POWER for the Open Laptop Project.
 
Board design is highly depending on the CPU being used, you will not see one board for different architectures which will do more than hobble along.
 
Yes, clang/llvm is ported to MIPS. You may look at /usr/src/sys/Makefile for the options to build a toolchain and pass that build command the correct arguments, and you end up with a clang/llvm from the base system capable of producing binaries for that architecture. Architectures can be found in /usr/src/sys/mips/config/. This makes building cross toolchains a breeze.
 
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Subject: Porting Debian to MINIX
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Would anyone be willing to do it? The starter device needs to be a GCW-Zero.
Now, for the company, would it be possible to make a single board computer
with the MIPS architecture for educational use? What is needed is a
sixty-four core board - possibly four sockets with sixteen cores or two
dual thirty-two core - that can be used as a workstation, a server, or a
user based system. LLVM/Clang as the compiler. It must be able to work with
MINIX, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and a Debian port to MINIX along with the
standard Debian MIPS port.
The graphics processing unit, audio processing unit, and network processing
unit will need their own dedicated memory.

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<div dir=3D"ltr">Would anyone be willing to do it? The starter device needs=
to be a GCW-Zero.<div>Now, for the company, would it be possible to make a=
single board computer with the MIPS architecture for educational use? What=
is needed is a sixty-four =C2=A0core board - possibly four sockets with si=
xteen cores or two dual thirty-two core - that can be used as a workstation=
, a server, or a user based system. LLVM/Clang as the compiler. It must be =
able to work with MINIX, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and a Debian port to MIN=
IX along with the standard Debian MIPS port.=C2=A0</div><div>The graphics p=
rocessing unit, audio processing unit, and network processing unit will nee=
d their own dedicated memory.</div></div>

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If the suggestion is taken, there may be a starting point. The OpenBSD and NetBSD developers will be needed.
 
This is one thing that I would be apprehensive to ask the foundation to do.
"You requested 64 cores[.] [T]he board to do this would need 8 sockets[,] also full architecture support from Godson and MIPS. You[']re talking 100K or more just in development cost for board not including support/development on OS."

cleardot.gif
 
That number sounds about right. BUT, you do not need 64 cores for a laptop for kids which learn to use technology. One core would do nicely. I started with something that was based on Z80, and you could learn a lot from some system like that, because you could understand each part of it. The 64-core MIPS chip (one socket, btw) would be nice to have in a laptop for me, but it would only be nice to have. For what I do, one core would still be enough, only the time for drinking coffee would be more than adequate.

Long story short, the open laptop needs a lot less CPU power than you currently have. Always know that what you need and what you want are different things.
 
The laptop project is using a different processor: PowerPC 6500e. The design here would be for you and others as a workstation/server to run FreeBSD for your own or to setup for other businesses.
 
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