Pros and Cons of Amithlon type systems

[fishy_fiz]

I skipped over much of this thread, but Im pretty well versed in Amithlon. It's quite possible to put together a semi modern system still. Im currently using a core2duo@3.86ghz as my dedicated amithlon machine and it absolutely flies. Unfortunately though a person is more or less restricted to pci for graphics unless they want to use vesa modes for modern machines. There simply isnt really any pci express cards that are fully supported. Quite a few will work, but only using Vesa. I personally opted for a g550 Matrox pci card, which is faster than the gf9600gt I also tried (albiet in Vesa).

Not exactly the point of the thread, but amithlon is for me is still my favorite Amiga based system for modern computing. It has the speed to compete (and often defeat) with any ppc AOS machines (including g4 macs), opening up a world of new capability to OS3.x. Now this isnt to start any sort of vs. type tangen, the "NG" options have thier own pros and cons, but for my tastes the almost d.i.y nature of OS3.x combined with the speed of amithlon makes it a very enjoyable system.

If I had to chose between my a1200+40mhz '040 + 32meg fast and my amithlon box it'd be a tough decision, but I suspect Id keep the amithlon box (being that it can do anything the a1200 can, but the reverse isnt true).

[fishy_fiz]

@XDelusion

Im pretty disorganised at the moment (usually happens on days that end in 'y'), hence my quietness of late with ports. Im getting there though, and am looking forward to getting back to some developing. Dosbox and prboom are definately on the cards for 68k though soon(ish). Im also somewhat more confident with my coding than I was last I tried, so Im looking forward to trying some bex86 amithlon compiles too. I really should get in contact with blacky stardust though, he had an amithlon native version of Vice (c64/128/vic20/etc. emulators) for me to try out some time back, but my amithlon box was pulled apart at the time so I never got to try it.

This thread has inspired me, time to get off my but and fix my amithlon boxes dh0: (smegger invalidated on me,... sodding FFS (the filesystem, not the curse )

As for sound on amithlon,..... Midi, I think so, but only if using a dedicated amiga ahi driver that supports it (ie. not linux drivers (amithlon sound device in ahi)). In regards to Nuldeh Pal (or whatever its called), I have used it before, but not for many years. It seems to works fine though but you need to set sound back to rtg afterwards or software will continue to try to use paula from then on end. (it's kinda vague in my mind, but I dont recall having any real problems after I read docs.)

[fishy_fiz]

bex86 = big endian x86. Amithlon native x86 basically. Being big endian makes it somewhat easier for x86 and 68k code to run concurrently.

Not something Id use for original projects, but for open source ones that are too demanding for real 68k hardware I may as well try to squeeze more speed from (or less overhead, either way its good)

[fishy_fiz]

No need to worry about roms with amithlon. Its different to uae in that you dont need to configure it to your liking. The kickstart rom comes with the package and is dealt with automatically.
Harddrive space: Thats up to to you, but amithlon files total about 3meg. Anything using UAE needs considerably more (although still a negligable amount). OS3.9 I believe is only about 25meg.
Hardware compatibilty: The one area that uae has an advantage. Amithlon is more or less restricted to p2/p3/p4/athlon/athlon xp/athlon64/core/core2duo/core2quad/phenom/phenom2/athlon2 type machines with tnt/tnt2/gf/gf2/gf3/gf4/gf5/matrox g100/g200/g400/g450/g550 for gfx and ac97/sb128/sblive/audigy/audigy2 (plus any hardware that a real 68k machine has drivers for). Other graphics cards are supported, but with limited support. There's also other sound support via linux drivers, but you then lose DMA for that device.
Installation: actually pretty easy to set up amithlon. The entire process, including updating kernel and installing OS3.9 takes about 10 minutes when you know what youre doing (although to be honest it can be a little confusing at 1st).
Compatibility: Amithlon has no custom chipset emulation, so relies on 68k uae for old games, etc.
Speed: No contest. Amithlon is, and probably always will be faster than any other amiga emulation. Not just because of lack of custom chips to emulate, but amithlon gives you direct hardware access, something no version of UAE does. Write to ram in amithlon and ram gets written to directly, no need to emulate memory busses, chipset timing, etc. Same is true with gfx, sound, nic, etc.
Screenomdes: Using Amithlon you can create your own using p96mode. With UAE youre restricted to the modes that come with the p96 driver.

As for amithlon's "special version" of os3.9, its actually pretty similar, just with a few extra files for amithlon devices and so on, not to mention it also comes with BB1.
 
In a nutsehll if you want a "serious" dedicated amiga os system amithlon is a better option. If youre more interested in old custom chipset games then some form of uae might be a better bet (although 68k uae works nicely using amithlon/os3.9).