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Author Topic: 79 available systems for MorphOS 3.5  (Read 51821 times)

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Offline danwood

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Re: 73 available systems for MorphOS 3.2
« on: February 18, 2014, 11:53:43 AM »
Quote from: takemehomegrandma;759103
"Way too slow" for what exactly? :crazy:

Remember that the Sam 460 only has an embedded PowerPC 460 class CPU (no altivec etc) running at mere 1/1.1GHz that struggles in keeping up with even a Pegasos 2 (and the more recent 1.4GHz+ G4 Macs can be close to 2x as fast as the Peg2 in some areas). Its 4 lanes of PCI-e 1.1 interface provides a theoretical maximum of 1000MB/s bandwidth, to a graphics cards that has no 3D acceleration support, no overlay support and officially not even 2D acceleration support as of yet! Compare this to the much faster G4's of 1.42GHz/1.67GHz or even higher (up to 1.8/2.0GHz with 3rd party accelerators) with 1066MB/s AGP 4X, or up to 2.7GHz G5 CPU's with a 2133MB/s AGP 8X interface to graphics cards with real 2D acceleration, 3D acceleration, overlay, etc.

Bolting on a Porsche 911 Turbo engine (read: fast GFX card) to an old Fiat 126 (read: Sam 460), won't make the Fiat perform at a Porsche level, there are too many limiting factors, too many bottle necks. A Fiat 126 simply couldn't support an engine like that, couldn't make full use of it. And of course, if there is no driver, then it won't move at all! And here you are, touting: "A Porsche 911 Turbo engine is way too slow for a Fiat 126, I think it should have a Ferrari F1 engine instead", which really doesn't make any sense at all. And since there is no driver, your Fiat doesn't move anyway, and you spend most of your time standing beside it, looking at it, dreaming about it, and talking to others about it and its fantasy future and theoretical performance it *could/should* have on FiatWorld.net. It's a discussion club. And has been for years, and will be for years to come. While others have had much fun during all that time (and still have, and will have for a long time still), driving around in their BMW 535's (MorphOS on Mac's), fitted with the proper/suitable BMW 535 engines that was meant for the car. Sure, it's no Porsche 911, but it's no Fiat 126 either. And sure, they may be second hand, and yes, they are aging, but old as they are, they are for sure "reasonably priced cars" and with a driver like "the Stig" (meaning: the lightweight MorphOS can do some things that simply wasn't possible when that fat Mac dude was behind the wheel), it can for sure be a very fun ride for those interested in *actually riding stuff* instead of just talking/dreaming about it!

:)

That's why the MorphOS Team's Mac support was the winning strategy compared to OS4! 79 possible platforms to search for, with great diversity, ranging from very compact/low footprint like the Mac Mini (my personal favorite) via the "big-box" desktop G4's, to the big bad G5's! And don't forget: Two entire families of laptops! :cool:

The graphics cards works great, and thanks to competent drivers that can actually handle them, they do pretty much everything they are supposed to do! Games like Skyrim isn't realistically going to happen for anything Amiga anyway (and no, this is *not* because of absence of Radeon R9 (Volcanic Islands) GFX cards), and for whatever SW the Amiga platform has, the R200/R300 (and R500) is a perfect match! Sure, I wouldn't mind having Radeon Volcanic Islands support in MorphOS, but then I would like to have Intel Z87 + Core i3/i5/i7 Haswell support (with 64-bit and SMP) as well... ;)

:)

Well said, indeed I am still baffled why Vox when down the expensive, slower and less supported Sam460 to run MorphOS rather than just getting a Mini g4 for like $100?

Each to their own though, but the PPC Mac support is definitely a huge bonus of MorphOS.  When my A1XE was starting to act up I looked at my options, as you say the 460 is only around the same performance level as an A1XE/Pegasos, and in many ways inferior as it has less developed/finished drivers.  So the only option for an upgrade was to drop £3,000 on an X1000 which was out of the question so MorphOS on a cheap mini now satisfies my "NG" needs.
 

Offline danwood

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Re: 73 available systems for MorphOS 3.2
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2014, 11:58:44 AM »
Quote from: takemehomegrandma;759054

Sure, relying on HW that isn't being manufactured anymore will eventually become a problem
:cool:

Hasn't been much of a problem for Amiga users, we're using hardware much older than PPC Macs that are less than a decade old.  I don't see it being a problem for a good 5-10 years at least when the G5 support it totally finished.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2014, 12:09:59 PM by danwood »