PPC Instruction Set Now Open Source

Very interesting development. This opens the door to FPGA systems that could run OS4.

https://www.nextplatform.com/2019/08/2 ... wer-chip-instruction-set/

@ferrels

Very interesting indeed. I had no idea that you had to pay them license fees if you designed hardware that used the Power/PowerPC instruction set. Maybe that's why I couldn't find a finished PowerPC softcore design...

That's just one barrier, though. Designing a soft-core CPU is quite an undertaking.

Plus, the performance in a soft-core in an FPGA is still a fraction of what dedicated CPU hardware can do.

Hans

@Hans

Look no further. There's now a softcore design for Xilinx boards.

https://openpowerfoundation.org/the-ne ... power-foundation-journey/