3.3. Commercially available boards

There are many off-the-shelf options including systems from Motorola and other parties. If you're planning on building your own custom hardware, consider using one of the Single Board Computer systems listed below instead. You might get by with just a custom daughter card, or might not need to do any hardware of your own at all.

All the boards listed below are known to run Linux, although the degree of support can vary. Mention to the vendor that you want to run Linux on the board, and they should be able to point you to the relevant files you need. The best supported boards are supported directly in the main kernel development tree, which is most evident by having a dedicated _MACH_... constant already assigned in include/asm-ppc/processor.h.

If you still think you want to do a full custom design, pick a board from one of the following sources with the closest feature match to what you plan to kick start your software development while your custom board is being designed and built:

3.3.1. Embedded Planet

http://www.embeddedplanet.com/

These boards are officially supported by the MontaVista kernel.

Use the new PlanetCore^? bootloader, as the old RPXU monitor times out on large tftp downloads.

3.3.1.1. Linux Planet

This is a complete development kit, including hardware and software.

3.3.1.2. CLLF

http://lists.linuxppc.org/listarcs/linuxppc-embedded/199910/msg00055.html

CLLF-860T users should see: http://lists.linuxppc.org/listarcs/linuxppc-embedded/200001/msg00143.html

3.3.2. Bright Star Engineering

http://www.brightstareng.com/

Has an onboard FPGA for configuring hardware, making it extremely flexible for interfacing to exotic devices. They have a Linux development kit available for it too.

If using a 2.2.x kernel, see: http://lists.linuxppc.org/listarcs/linuxppc-embedded/199912/msg00088.html

3.3.3. Simple Network Magic Corporation

http://www.snmc.com/

3.3.4. QS850 QuickStack ^? Network Interface/Network Management Module

http://www.snmc.com/products.html

The QS850 is a highly integrated and compact module for adding networking features to any embedded system. It provides a complete hardware and Linux-based software solution for Internet connectivity, Network Management, and Non-volatile File System services. See QSLinux.

3.3.5. TQComponents

http://www.tqc.de/

Have a range of very small mini-modules suitable for integration in a larger system, plus a starter kit for development. Supported by DENX Software Engineering, with pictures at: http://www.denx.de/

Also, see: http://lists.linuxppc.org/listarcs/linuxppc-embedded/199910/msg00088.html

3.3.6. MicroSys ^?

http://www.microsys.de/html/linux-e.html

A VMEBus board vendor who now provides Linux ports for their boards.

3.3.7. Motorola Computer Group

http://www.mcg.mot.com/

3.3.8. AG Electronics

http://www.agelectronics.co.uk/prod_ppc.html

A range of high-performance PowerPC-based products.

3.3.9. Force Computers

http://www.forcecomputers.com/

A range of high-performance PowerPC-based products.

3.3.10. Actis Computer - VSBC-6862

A VME based single board computer based on the Motorola MPC8260.

3.3.11. Total Impact - the briQ

http://www.totalimpact.com/

The briQ is a PowerPC based network appliance computer the size of a standard CD-ROM drive targetted at a range of applications such as firewalls, routers, security devices and web servers. It is available with either a PowerPC 750 (G3) or 7400 (G4) processor and can run any PowerPC-based Linux distribution available.