Genesi Open Desktop Workstation, built around the Pegasos II

Pegasos is a MicroATX motherboard powered by a PowerPC 750CXe or PowerPC 7447 microprocessor, featuring three PCI slots, one AGP slot, two Ethernet ports (10/100/1000 & 10/100), USB, DDR, AC'97 sound, and FireWire. Like the PowerPC Macintosh counterparts, it boots via Open Firmware.

For hard disk drive booting the Open Firmware implementation called SmartFirmware requires an RDB boot partition that contains either an affs1 or ext2 partition.[1][2] Note that any changes to the ext2 on-disc format may prevent booting. It is, however, possible to add some ext3 features so long as the volume can still be recognized as ext2.

The Pegasos was sold by Genesi USA, Inc., and designed by their research and design partner bplan GmbH based in Frankfurt, Germany.

There are two versions of the system: The Pegasos I and the Pegasos II.

Pegasos I

The Pegasos I supports the IBM Microprocessor 750CXe CPU (G3), has 100 Mbit/s Ethernet onboard and uses registered 168-pin PC133 SDR-SDRAM. It was discontinued after a hardware bug in the MAI Logic ArticiaS northbridge was discovered. Later versions of the Pegasos I came with a hardware fix which was designated "April". Further improvements were made in an "April 2" design which solved further problems. It has been replaced by the Pegasos II.

Pegasos II

Pegasos 2nd version (G4), inner view
Pegasos II motherboard Version 1.0 (2B3)

The Pegasos II uses a Marvell Discovery II MV64361 northbridge, removing the need for the "April" chipset fix on the previous model, and additionally offers integrated Gigabit LAN and DDR support, and the ability to use the Freescale "G4" processor line.

The 750CXe (G3) CPU boards do not require a cooling fan, and thus has been marketed as "cool computing". The current G4 boards are based around the Freescale MPC7447 chip with a small fan. Passive cooling solutions are possible and sold with the "Home Media and Communication System", which is based on Pegasos II G4.

Genesi discontinued production of the Pegasos II in 2006, as the result of new European Union legislation requiring the use of more expensive and lead-free solder[3] under the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS).

Open Desktop Workstation

The Open Desktop Workstation, or ODW, is a standardized version of the Pegasos II. It was the first open source based PowerPC computer and gave PowerPC a host/target development environment. Genesi has released the complete specifications (design and component listing) free of charge. The ODW-derived Home Media Center won the Best in Show award at the Freescale Technology Forum in 2005,[4] have an ATI certification,[5] and a "Ready for IBM Technology" certification.[6]

Specification

Operating system support

Several operating systems run on the Pegasos Platform. Genesi is very eager to support any efforts to port and optimize operating systems or applications for their computers.

  • MorphOS is broadly compatible with legacy Commodore Amiga applications which profess to be "OS friendly" (meaning they do not access native Amiga hardware directly), as well as a growing number of native applications. Genesi is the primary sponsor for MorphOS.
  • Amiga OS 4.1 support was announced by Hyperion on 31 January 2009.
  • Linux distributions including Debian GNU/Linux, MontaVista Linux, openSUSE, Yellow Dog Linux, Gentoo Linux and Crux PPC are also available for the Pegasos. Support for the Pegasos as a platform device has been integrated into the Linux kernel mainline as of kernel version 2.6.13.
  • Mac OS – It is possible to run the Classic Mac OS and Mac OS X on the Pegasos using Mac-on-Linux, although doing so is reportedly in violation of Apple's EULA.[8]
  • NetBSD support introduced since release 5.0[9]
  • OpenBSD – Genesi hired a developer in 2002 to port OpenBSD to the Pegasos II. Both Pegasos I and Pegasos II boards were supported. The relationship ended poorly in 2004 with the developer not being paid for the work that he has done (due to Genesi's cashflow problems), and due to lack of documentation from Genesi/bPlan, support was completely removed after one release cycle.[10][11]
  • OpenSolaris – Genesi/Freescale is initial supporter of the OpenSolaris port to PowerPC and the Pegasos II being used as the reference platform for development.
  • QNX supports the Pegasos platform.[12]
  • Symobi is available as demo image.

Firmware

  • Pegasos I/G3 "PRE-APRIL", Board: 1A (0.1b73), CPU: 750 CX 1.0, SF: 1.1 (20020814)
  • Pegasos I/G3, Board: 1A1 (0.1b112), CPU: 750 CX 1.0, SF:1.1 (20021203121657)
  • Pegasos I/G3, Board: 1A1 (0.1b114), CPU: 750 CX 1.0, SF: 1.1 (20030317114750)
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.1, CPU: 744X 1.1, SF: 1.2 (20040224)
  • Pegasos II/G3, Board: 1.1 (0.2b1), CPU: 750 CX 1.0, SF: 1.2 (20040402193939)
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.1, CPU: 744X 1.1, SF: 1.1 (20040405)
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.1, CPU: 744X 1.1, SF: 1.2 (20040405)
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2, CPU: 744X 1.2, SF: 1.1 (20040505)
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.0 (2B3), CPU: 744X 1.0, SF: 1.2 (20040810112413)
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2, CPU: 744X 1.1, SF: 1.2 (20040810112413)
  • Pegasos II/G3, Board: 1.2, CPU: 750 CX 1.0, SF: 1.2 (20040810112413)
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2 (2B2), CPU: 744X 1.2, SF: 1.2 (20040810112413)
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2, CPU: 744X 1.2, SF: 1.2 (20050602111451)
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2 (2B5), CPU: 744X 1.2, SF: 1.2 (20050808153840)
  • Pegasos II/G4, Board: 1.2 (2B5),CPU: 744X 1.2, SF: 1.2 (20051216161829)

IKARUS low level console

Press Esc at a serial console (115200 baud) while booting.

  • a <addr> address
  • b
  • c CPU PVR value
  • g <> go
  • i <> in
  • l
  • m memory size?
  • o <> out
  • q shutdown
  • r read
  • s
  • v
  • w <32 bit value> write
  • x exit
  • z
  • + inc address
  • - dec address
  • Space
=B00000000,I00,O00;

References

  1. ↑ "Gentoo Linux Handbook Page —". Archived from the original on 2008-10-02. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  2. ↑ "PegasosQuickStart - openSUSE". Archived from the original on 2009-02-26. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
  3. ↑ Proven, Liam (2007-01-03). "The Amiga is dead. Long live the Amiga!". Archived from the original on 2009-02-24. Retrieved 2009-02-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ↑ "Freescale Technology Forum Best of Show winner exemplifies cool, innovative technology". Freescale.com. 2005-06-21. Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  5. ↑ "CERTIFIED BY ATI - Product List". Archived from the original on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2007-02-15.
  6. ↑ "IBM - Open Desktop Workstation". Archived from the original on 2007-02-03. Retrieved 2007-02-15.
  7. ↑ "Power Developer • pegasos2 2gb ram ? - Page 2". Powerdeveloper.org. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  8. ↑ "Terra Soft -- Linux for PS3, IBM Power, Mercury Cell, and Apple PowerPC". Archived from the original on 2007-02-22. Retrieved 2007-03-27.
  9. ↑ "NetBSD/ofppc". De.netbsd.org. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  10. ↑ "OpenBSD/pegasos". Openbsd.org. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  11. ↑ "'Re: Pegasos (Dale's Side of the Story)' - MARC". Marc.info. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  12. ↑ "QNX Partners". Qnx.com. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
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