Modern computers with docs (was: Re: PM 6100/60, was: Powermac...)

On Tue, Jul 03, 2012 at 12:17:41PM -0500, Ryan Brooks wrote: AFAIK there is no American dealer. You can buy through Aliexpress or a couple different European shops. You should check the shipping costs and total things up to see which would be cheaper for you. AFAIK everything is totally open, everything is documented right down to the processor (full data sheet and 200+ page user manual). I think I was able to get all of the doc but checking now there are a few broken links. The Chinese websites are up and down but you will eventually catch it. A good starting point for info is http://dev.lemote.com/code/linux-loongson-community/wiki/WikiStart If the link doesn't work let me know, I am typing it manually in Mutt I have been following the OpenBSD mailing lists for many years and there has been some interesting discussion on this project. Some rather painful chip bugs apparently have been worked out in current models and Lemote seems to be tooling up for the next generation. I have no idea what format (laptop, mini etc) they're going to put the quad in but this box is good enough for what I want it for (cheap/good MIPS development box). If you follow all the various MIPS mailing lists you can find out some interesting tidbits. Plus the Lemote guys seem friendly and genuinely committed to keeping things open and putting out good stuff and fixing bugs. They work them pretty hard though so it can be a little slow, but they answer. OpenBSD has it as a "fully supported platform" and since the device is completely open and Lemote is actively supporting it and growing the platform I expect things to keep going in a good direction.