NetBSD on the last G4 Mac mini and making the kernel power failure proof

[MrRadar]

For those who are not familiar with the author of this blog, he is a PowerPC enthusiast and the maintainer of TenFourFox, a Firefox port to PPC OS X. He's also currently working on a new PPC JIT for (modern) Firefox on Linux (a project for which he is looking for volunteers to assist him[1]) to bring it to speed parity with Chrome on PPC (which already has a PPC JIT).

[1] https://www.talospace.com/2019/03/pitch-into-firefox-jit.htm...

[jchw]

I just picked up a G4 iBook and am grateful for TenFourFox. Combined with uBlock Origin legacy builds, it’s actually usable for some modern sites, which is pretty impressive.

[classichasclass]

Author here. Thanks for the kind word. :)

[krackers]

Do you mean webkit on ppc (since I searched but couldn't find a chrome port)

[dillonmckay]

What is the last supported OS X version for PowerPC processors?

[mikece]

Somewhere there are chip designers thinking they can create the first processor on which NetBSD cannot run. Have fun kids: many have tried that and failed!

[verisimilitudes]

Not every chip mimics a PDP-11 or can be made to resemble one. Chuck Moore's GA144 is an array of his F18A Forth chips, which are all rather small and simple stack machines that support such fine grained operations as looping the instructions that share a machine word.

Given that this is a heavily segmented machine, with very different primitive operations than a PDP-11, and also has a word size of eighteen, I don't imagine C would run very well on it at all, if you even wanted to try.

So, there you have it.

[quickben]

Mill architecture?

[oneplane]

As fun as this is (and as much as I appreciate putting good old hardware to use and as much as I like PPC): the power consumption alone wouldn't make this a winner :(

I have a PowerBook G4 DVI, iBook G4, B&W G3, GbE G4, Dual G5 here, I want to get rid of them but I like them too much. Yet I can't run them for fun all day long either because the amount of power they eat >:( The problems of a hardware connoisseur.

[classichasclass]

Author here. Power consumption on this unit is about 21W.

Is the CPU/watt ratio less than later units? You bet. But it's not bad, it's free, it's not in a landfill, and it's more than enough grunt for the basic tasks it's doing.

[dvdbloc]

I have the same problem with two G5 Xserves. They’re just too cool to get rid of.

[WWLink]

o_O Compared to what? G3s and G4s are pretty light on power usage - IIRC they use around 10-15w? The G3s were even less.

The i7 in my desktop uses at least 95w, and some reviews suggest it's more like 140w lol.

Edit: Unless you're pairing them with CRT monitors...

[microcolonel]

The fire extinguisher on the desk is a nice touch; though I'm not sure that's enough volume to extinguish a G4 fire.

[giobox]

I don’t recall the G4 PowerPC designs being unusually hot running by standards of the day? The G5 was of course, but it was much worse in this regard than the G4.