# The Open Laptop Project



## sossego (Dec 28, 2015)

What can we do to benefit others? 
Are we being creative?


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## sossego (Dec 28, 2015)

We have the means to aide and assist.


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## sossego (Dec 28, 2015)

Let's make the laptop a kit that one is able to assemble at home - if so one desires.


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## sossego (Dec 28, 2015)

Who would like to have something like this?


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## Crivens (Dec 28, 2015)

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.


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## sossego (Dec 29, 2015)

http://wiki.dingoonity.org/index.php?title=Development:MXU


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## sossego (Dec 29, 2015)

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.


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## Crivens (Dec 29, 2015)

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.


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## sossego (Dec 30, 2015)

Thanks for that. Has llvm/clang been ported to this? References for initial start of design are: 
http://boards.dingoonity.org/index.php
https://community.imgtec.com/developers/mips/tools/compilers/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newlib


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## Crivens (Dec 31, 2015)

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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## sossego (Jan 3, 2016)

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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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## sossego (Jan 3, 2016)

If the suggestion is taken, there may be a starting point. The OpenBSD and NetBSD developers will be needed.


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## sossego (Jan 3, 2016)

Contacted the OpenBSD and NetBSD Foundations.


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## sossego (Jan 3, 2016)

An earlier reference: http://www.powerpc-notebook.org/why-powerpc/


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## sossego (Jan 3, 2016)

Contacted Andrew "Bunny" Huang


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## sossego (Jan 13, 2016)

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."


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## Crivens (Jan 14, 2016)

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.


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## sossego (Jan 15, 2016)

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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