Daniël
Well-known member
So I've finally ordered a hot air station, and I'm slowly getting closer to finally being able to take the CPU board out of my trashed, dead iMac G3 Tangerine (whose logic board one day will be put in a desktop case, and used as a standalone desktop PPC machine, since it's just the CRT that's gone bad), and upgrade it to a 7410 G4 processor I've had lying around for way too long now.
But, that's not all I'm going to try. It's my intention to attempt to take the processor out of a dead Nintendo GameCube, and put it on an iBook G3 logic board. Now, before you call me absolutely nuts, let me explain. The IBM Gekko processor in the GameCube is based on the 750CXe, and looks identical to it. If my findings are correct, the chip should be the same size as the 750CX line, and have the same amount of pins, presumably all mapped the same except for maybe some special pins for the GameCube that the regular 750CX processors do not use. Either way, I'll be attempting to get one or two dead GameCubes to get the CPU out of, and then compare them size-wise to the CX in one of my iMac G3s. If the size is the same, I'll find a dead iBook G3 logic board with the CX(e) processor, and try my luck with that. There's really no point other than to be the first guy to try this, and potentially have the first ever Mac with a GameCube brain transplant
Also, I've found out that the IBM Broadway processor used in the Wii is a 750CL, a processor that wasn't ever used in any PowerPC Mac, but seemingly has the same pinout and size as the 750FX and 750GX chips, both found in either PowerPC Macs, or upgrade cards. Other than a few discrepancies, specifically the lack of dual PLL on the 750CL, it might just work on an iBook G3 logic board with a 750FX processor. In QEMU-KVM, the 750CL processor option actually did allow OS X to boot, but while About This Mac knew it was a 750 processor, CHUD Tools just reported the processor to be a "PowerPC ". So it's definitely an interesting thought to see what an actual 750CL would do in a Mac.
This would be the closest thing to Mac OS X running on a GameCube and/or Wii!
And yes, I am a mad PowerPC scientist. :wink:
But, that's not all I'm going to try. It's my intention to attempt to take the processor out of a dead Nintendo GameCube, and put it on an iBook G3 logic board. Now, before you call me absolutely nuts, let me explain. The IBM Gekko processor in the GameCube is based on the 750CXe, and looks identical to it. If my findings are correct, the chip should be the same size as the 750CX line, and have the same amount of pins, presumably all mapped the same except for maybe some special pins for the GameCube that the regular 750CX processors do not use. Either way, I'll be attempting to get one or two dead GameCubes to get the CPU out of, and then compare them size-wise to the CX in one of my iMac G3s. If the size is the same, I'll find a dead iBook G3 logic board with the CX(e) processor, and try my luck with that. There's really no point other than to be the first guy to try this, and potentially have the first ever Mac with a GameCube brain transplant
Also, I've found out that the IBM Broadway processor used in the Wii is a 750CL, a processor that wasn't ever used in any PowerPC Mac, but seemingly has the same pinout and size as the 750FX and 750GX chips, both found in either PowerPC Macs, or upgrade cards. Other than a few discrepancies, specifically the lack of dual PLL on the 750CL, it might just work on an iBook G3 logic board with a 750FX processor. In QEMU-KVM, the 750CL processor option actually did allow OS X to boot, but while About This Mac knew it was a 750 processor, CHUD Tools just reported the processor to be a "PowerPC ". So it's definitely an interesting thought to see what an actual 750CL would do in a Mac.
This would be the closest thing to Mac OS X running on a GameCube and/or Wii!
And yes, I am a mad PowerPC scientist. :wink: