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KiCad Schematics sources published, waiting funds for prototypes
13 hours ago • 0 comments
On the 24th of April 2026 we published on our GitLab repository https://gitlab.com/power-progress-community/oshw-powerpc-desktop-tyche/-/tree/main/KiCad?ref_type=heads the OrCad schematics source, converted to Altium and then imported into KiCad, thanks to our association members.
As KiCad cannot yet import OrCad schematics, this is a 2-hop OrCad→Altium→KiCad flow.
The KiCad pages are out of order. There are two KiCad directories in this repository: one exactly as imported from Altium (KiCad_outOfOrder), and another where our volunteers attempted to change the page numbers to match the filenames, but they did not reorder in the sheet page listing — they are still in the same random-looking order. We are investigating how to fix this at some point, as the file with “01” in the filename should come first, since it contains the table of contents, in order for everything to line up correctly. Other than the ordering issue, it looks reasonable.
If you would like to help check the quality of the conversion to KiCad and potentially work to improve it, please contact us.
Schematics Donation Campaign updated its goal and completed — PCB Donation Campaign updated its goal with around €3,500 still needed to reach it

On 6th April 2026, thanks to the funds collected for the Notebook CE certification and due to the temporary halt of Notebook motherboard production, the association used €2,130 from that previous campaign to pay and balance the Desktop Schematics design costs that are €6,250.

A further €8,000 from association funds was used to pay a portion of the PCB costs in advance. The total cost of the PCB design is around €12,500; since €8,000 came from association funds, we have reduced the goal of the PCB donation campaign to €4,500.

PCB Design of Desktop Powerboard Tyche

Starting from the source of the Electronic Schematics design design the PCB means prepare all physical PCB layers lanes and components disposition and connection to go in production with prototypes. Designer have take from NXP Devkit design ( 2023 version) everything is related to boot process and many parts from our Notebook design, except what is not needed for Dekstop version, like the Battery part.
To Donate
As you can see to reach the goal of this campaign we need to receive donations of around €3,100 to settle the balance with ACube for the PCB design before the end of May.
From March 2026 the PCB design has been completed and is in our hands, we are waiting funds to start prototype production.
To produce the first five prototypes, we need a total of around €9,000. Once we have the cash flow to balance the PCB design and to make this commitment to the manufacturer, we will sign the contract to proceed with production. To avoid further delays, we need significantly more donations.
Join us to Help on Debian PPC64 Big Endian packages
Do you have already installed Debian 13 PPC64 on your G5 or Debian 13 PPC on your G4?

More info how to do it on our forum.

In case you have not PowerPC hardware we can give you access to the Power9 VM we have free at OSU thanks to the support of , so you can test and fix the package inside this VM.

If you want to investigate which are the packages that are compiled successfully on PPC64
link build debian ppc64

powerpc ( 32 bit) https://buildd.debian.org/status/architecture.php?a=powerpc&suite=sid

To verify if a bug is already reported on the Debian bug tracking system

How to report a bug https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting
To fix and build a debian package

‘sbuild’, which is the software used to build Debian packages in a clean environment.

To get it working, all you need to do is create a file called ‘release-name-architecture.tar’ in the ~/.cache/sbuild/ folder, which contains a minimal Debian system.

To create these tar files containing Debian images, is suggested to use another little tool called ‘mmdebstrap’. It’s very similar to its cousin, “debootstrap”, which you may have heard of, but it’s a bit faster.

Finally, if you’re comfortable working with Git, we recommend the tool “dgit”, which essentially allows you to download and build any Debian package in a consistent manner, without having to worry about how the package maintainer themselves works with it.

So, in terms of the commands to use on your machine:
```
mmdebstrap --variant=buildd unstable ~/.cache/sbuild/unstable-amd64.tar
    dgit clone mbedtls
    cd mbedtls
    dgit sbuild
```
Contacts us
We are ready for prototype production!
03/28/2026 at 18:35 • 0 comments
The PCB design is finally complete, and we are officially ready for prototype production.

However, before taking the big step, we need to balance the PCB design costs:
- 3,050 euros at the end of April;
- 3,050 euros at the end of May;
To produce the first five prototypes, we need a total of around 9,000 euros. Until we have the cash flow to make this commitment with the manufacturer, we will not sign the contract to go into production.

Schematics are already published in pdf format on our gitlab repository

Why aren’t we publishing the PCB design yet?

We will only be able to publish the open-source design after paying the design costs and only when prototype production is underway. This is for two fundamental reasons:
1. Before paying, we do not own the rights to the source files.
2. The source files will only be considered final after physically testing the prototypes.
Furthermore, our manufacturer ACube Systems can only afford to produce the Desktop board for the first time if no one else beats them to the market. After all the hard work done to make this dream a reality, it is our duty to protect them.

A special campaign: win the historic laptop PCB!

Since the current donation flow is insufficient to cover the design costs and start production, we are exploring new ways to raise funds.

One of the ideas we are considering is a special giveaway: we will raffle off a PCB from our previous prototype (the laptop version) among all donors who contribute from now until we reach the 9,000 euro goal.

Please note: this is a “dummy” PCB (non-functional), produced solely to verify the physical dimensions of the board. It was never an operational prototype. We hope this piece of our journey’s history can motivate the community to help us cross the finish line!

T-shirts, gadgets, and the “DY Maker” spirit

We are preparing T-shirts and other gadgets dedicated to the PowerPC Notebook and Desktop projects, also linked to our association DY Maker mindset.

We collaborate with volunteers to create the opportunity to experience hands-on learning, to inspire creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving by trying to conceive, design, and produce what we need or desire. We encourage this culture from primary schools to University, with no age limit.

Soon we will ask you to vote on different options for T-shirts and gadgets. After that, we will open pre-orders for t-shirts, stickers, and much more!

Our recent events

We have been very active locally:
- March 13 – Bolzano, Italy: We shared our project with electronics students at Free University of Bozen · Bolzano – Faculty of Engineering – Electronics and Information Engineering, just as we did in Milan in May 2025. In agreement with the professors, we discussed possible university theses in collaboration with our association.
- March 14 – Trento, Italy: We were hosted by Hack in Povo in collaboration with LinuxTr e nt, where we presented the history of our projects.
Desktop board specifications
Our Desktop board is a Micro ATX measuring 244 mm in height and 172 mm in width. When it comes to audio, we didn’t hold back: it features optical digital audio inputs and outputs, 6 analog RCA connectors for 7.1 surround sound, and separate ground connections for the analog and digital sections to ensure maximum sound clarity.

Software and PCB source roadmap
Stage 1: Soon we will convert the Schematics source files from Cadence to Altium, and then to KiCad. In the meantime, there is a free viewer for Orcad sources at this official Cadence link. We also point out an interesting open project that has started importing Orcad sources directly into KiCad: OpenOrCadParser.
Stage 2: Thanks to your donations, once we have collected enough funds to balance the design and prototypes, we will merge and import the PCB source files from PADS directly into KiCad. This is now possible thanks to the brand new importers introduced in KiCad 10: learn more on the KiCad blog.

PCB Design of Desktop Powerboard Tyche

Starting from the source of the Electronic Schematics design design the PCB means prepare all physical PCB layers lanes and components disposition and connection to go in production with prototypes. Designer have take from NXP Devkit design ( 2023 version) everything is related to boot process and many parts from our Notebook design, except what is not needed for Dekstop version, like the Battery part.

Donate

We anticipate a robust boot-up because the components and firmware are similar to those of the stable T2080 RDB. The specific CPLD is programmed using the original CPLD source code of the T2080 RDB. Once NXP grants the necessary agreement, we plan to publish the source schematics and evaluate the use of a recent CERN Open Hardware License version.

Upcoming Project Phases

We continue to rely on the community’s support. Recurring donations are dedicated to the campaign aimed at recovering costs already incurred for notebook testing and CPLD firmware fixin

We are searching volunteers to test Debian PPC64 and fix packages

Finally, we need more volunteers to support the necessary software efforts, including Debian PPC64 testing, as we cannot ask for additional donations for this purpose.

Form Facttor: Micro ATX
CPU: NXP T2080, e6500 64-bit Power Architecture with Altivec technology
4 x e6500 dual-threaded cores, low-latency backside 2MB L2 cache, 16GFLOPS x core
RAM: 2 x DDR3 Slots
VIDEO
PCIE3 x16 VIDEO Card 1
PCIE2 x16 VIDEO Card 2
AUDIO: C-Media 8828 sound chip, audio IN and audio OUT jacks (3x2)
USB: 2 USB 3.0 ports
2 USB 2.0 ports
2 USB 3.0 ports internal for FRONT
STORAGE:
2 NVM Express (NVMe)
2 x SATA2
1 x SDHC card reader
NETWORK:
2 x Gigabit ethernet RJ-45 connecto