A vendor of OpenFirmware-compliant PowerPC boards and systems is shipping a tiny CPU module that supports Linux, and targets thin clients, home-theater PCs, industrial robotics and control, VoIP and video phones, and security cameras. The Genesi Efika comes with OpenFirmware-compliant boot firmware, and can run Linux.

OpenFirmware is a hardware-independent bootloader developed by Sun, and used in several Apple products. Genesi makes a variety of “Pegasos” boards and systems based on PowerPC processors and OpenFirmware. IBM in October released a BSD-licensed implementation of OpenFirmware.

According to Genesi, Linux distributions known to work with its PowerPC-based Pegasos product family include MontaVista, Debian, Knoppix, openSuSE, Fedora, Gentoo, Yellow Dog, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Skol Linux, Holon, and Crux.

Genesi has not published the dimensions of the Efika. However, the board seems to be quite small, apparently being available packaged in a case roughly the size of a standard desktop mouse (pictured at right).

The Efika is based on a Freescale MPC5200B processor clocked at 466MHz. The MPC5200 is a 32-bit processor targeting networking, automotive, and industrial control applications. It has an FPU (floating point unit) and MMU (memory management unit), comes packed with I/O, and draws only 1 Watt, Freescale says.

Freescale's MPC5200 comes packed with I/O
Claimed features for the Efika board include:

• 128MB of DDR RAM
• 44-pin IDE connector
• 10/100 Ethernet
• 2 x USB ports
• 1 x RS-232 serial port
• Stereo audio I/O
• PCI/AGP rise slot

Availability

The Efika is available now, direct from Genesi's online store, priced at $15,000 for 50 units.

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