The present article is about the Pegasos computer platform. Pegasos may also refer to the horse Pegasus from Greek mythology.

Genesi Open Desktop Workstation, built around the Pegasos II

Pegasos is a MicroATX motherboard powered by a PowerPC G3/G4 microprocessor, featuring 3 PCI slots, 1 AGP slot, two Ethernet ports (10/100/1000 & 10/100), USB, DDR, AC97 sound, and FireWire. Like the PowerPC Apple Macintosh counterparts, it boots using an Open Firmware solution. Pegasus and Bellerophon, Attic red-figure In Greek mythology, Pegasus (Greek name: ) was a winged horse that was the son of Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and the Gorgon Medusa. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (495x660, 40 KB) Description pegasos 2nd version (G4) Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Pegasos ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (495x660, 40 KB) Description pegasos 2nd version (G4) Licensing File links The following pages link to this file: Pegasos ... A microATX tower, borrowed from Newegg microATX (also known as µATX) form factor is a small motherboard size of 9. ... A8N VM CSM, Asuss Flagship MicroATX motherboard An old Octek Jaguar V mainboard with an AMD 386DX-40 processor. ... 300 MHz Motorola PowerPC 750 processor with off-die L2 cache on the CPU module of a PowerMac G3. ... PowerPC G4 is a designation used by Apple Computer to describe a fourth generation of PowerPC microprocessors. ... A microprocessor (sometimes abbreviated µP) is a digital electronic component with transistors on a single semiconductor integrated circuit (IC). ... 64-bit PCI expansion slots inside a Power Macintosh G4 The Peripheral Component Interconnect, or PCI Standard (in practice almost always shortened to PCI) specifies a computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a computer motherboard. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section can be improved by converting lengthy lists to text. ... Ethernet is a large and diverse family of frame-based computer networking technologies for local area networks (LANs). ... Note: USB may also mean upper sideband in radio. ... AC97 (short for Audio Codec 97) is Intel Corporations Audio Codec standard developed by the Intel Architecture Labs in 1997, and used mainly in motherboards (also known as on-board or integrated), modems, and sound cards. ... The 6-pin and 4-pin FireWire Connectors FireWire is a proprietary name of Apple Computer for the IEEE 1394 interface. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... Open Firmware (also, OpenBoot) is a hardware-independent firmware (computer software which loads the operating system), developed by Sun Microsystems, and used in post-NuBus PowerPC-based Apple Macintosh computers, Sun Microsystems SPARC based workstations and servers, IBM POWER systems, and PegasosPPC systems, among others. ...

The Pegasos is sold by Genesi USA, Inc., and designed by their R&D branch 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 750CXe CPU (G3), has 100 Mbit/s Ethernet onboard and uses PC133 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. DRAM is a type of random access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor. ... A normal north/southbridge layout The northbridge is traditionally one of the two chips in the core logic chipset on a PC motherboard, the other being the Southbridge. ...

Pegasos II

The Pegasos II uses a Marvell Discovery II 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 - it has been marketed as "cool computing". The current G4 boards based around the Freescale MPC7447 ship 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.

Operating system support

The Pegasos supports the MorphOS operating system, which 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. MorphOS is a mixed proprietary and open source operating system produced for the PegasosPPC hardware platform by a core development team and contributors. ... The original Amiga 1000 (1985) with Commodore 1080 monitor The Amiga is a family of home/personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation as an advanced home entertainment and productivity machine. ...

Several Linux distributions including Debian GNU/Linux and Gentoo Linux 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. Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... Debian, organized by the Debian Project, is a widely used distribution of free software developed through the collaboration of volunteers from around the world. ... The Gentoo Linux operating system is a Linux distribution named after the Gentoo Penguin. ...

There is an effort to port NetBSD to the Pegasos. The current state is that a kernel from the ofppc port basically runs. Further work is required to make it usable. [1] NetBSD is a freely redistributable, open source version of the Unix-like BSD computer operating system. ...

In 2002 Genesi hired Dale Rahn, an OpenBSD developer, to port OpenBSD to the hardware of the Pegasos II. This attempt ended poorly in 2004 after cashflow problems at Genesi and disagreements between Rahn and Genesi regarding the need to respect the NDA of a component supplier. Links to all available comments on this situation can be found at the Phoenix Developer Consortium OpenBSD Wrap-up page. OpenBSD has developers from around the world. ... OpenBSD is a freely available Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), a Unix derivative created at the University of California, Berkeley. ...

It is possible to run Mac OS X on the Pegasos using Mac-on-Linux, but doing so is reportedly in violation of Apple Computer's EULA. [2] Mac OS X (officially pronounced Mac Oh-Ess Ten) is a line of open source graphical operating systems, with proprietary higher level API layers, developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Computer, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently shipping Macintosh computers. ... Mac-on-Linux is an open source virtual machine program for running Mac OS on PPC Linux computers. ... Apple Computer, Inc. ... A software license is a type of proprietary or gratiuitious license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software — sometimes called an End User License Agreement (EULA) — that specifies the perimeters of the permission granted by the owner to the...

Genesi/Freescale is initial supporter of the OpenSolaris port to PowerPC and Pegasos II being used as the reference platform for development. OpenSolaris is an open source project created by Sun Microsystems to build a developer community around the Solaris Operating System technology. ...

Other Details

The Pegasos is listed in IBM's Global Solutions Directory and as a Motorola MPC7447A Evaluation/Development System. Genesi was a Gold Sponsor at Motorola/Freescale Smart Networks Developer Forum 2004 and has since joined IBM's Power.org initiative with the goal to "OpenSource" the Pegasos II schematics on Jan 9th 2006. It is available as a member download from the Power.org website.

Other PowerPC hardwares

• Apple's PowerPC based Macs.
• Be BeBox.
• Culturecom E-Book, POS.
• Eyetech AmigaOne.
• Project BlackDog.
• Soft3 Samantha.
• TotalImpact briQ.
• YARC Hydra PowerPC RIP processor.

The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac The Macintosh, or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... The BeBox The BeBox was a short-lived dual processor PC, offered by Be Incorporated to run their own operating system, BeOS. The BeBox made its debut in October 1995 (BeBox Dual603-66). ... AmigaOne is the name used for a series of motherboards for PowerPC CPUs mainly intended to run AmigaOS version 4. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... briQ is a small PowerPC mainboard made by Total Impact. ...

External links

• PegasosPPC
• Genesi
• Pegasos Support Forum & Community
• Pegasos User Group Sweden
• Polaris (OpenSolaris PowerPC) development
• The Pegasos book - Free ebook about the Pegasos PowerPC and its operating systems (MorphOS, Linux, Mac OS X with Mac-on-Linux).