My review of Pegasos+MorphOS

[takemehomegrandma]

@lempkee

Hi.

I did some testing aswell. And just for fun I also tested the old
Amiga Quake68k under emulation! :-) Lets start with that:

Quake68k (only software rendering, no sound)
320x200x8 - 8.0 fps
640x480x8 - 2.6 fps
800x600x8 - 1.8 fps (that was a real slideshow ;-) )

QuakeMOS (only software rendering, with AHI sound)
320x200x8 - 87.4 fps (!)
640x480x8 - 29.0 fps
800x600x8 - 19.8 fps

As I said, these numbers are all based on software rendering. I have
no supported 3D accelerator. :-(

I tested GLquake on my oldest PC with an old celeron @ 500MHz, 256MB
memory, Matrox Millennium G450, running WindowsXP Pro (!!), and I
scored just under 100 fps on that!
(EDIT) That was in 800x600x16 (/EDIT)

So I guess that a Pegasos with a lean OS and HW accelerated 3D will
score *well* above 100 fps! We will of course get modern performance as soon as modern 3D hardware gets supported.

[takemehomegrandma]

@Spidey

Me too is using MiamiDX (right now actually). What I like about Miami
is its simplicity, both in configurating it and using it.

The only issue I have against it, is that its a limited demo version
and that there obviously is no way to register anymore. :-(

(If only Holger Kruse would upload a keyfile to Aminet or
something ...)

[takemehomegrandma]

@Spidey

I downloaded Miami Deluxe from Aminet too. Some of the "DeLuxe" features are not enabled, and at least my Miami disconnects after about 30 minutes I think ...

[takemehomegrandma]

@ Bodie

You will find some more screenshots here:
http://www.morphzone.org/modules/gallery/

 :-)

[takemehomegrandma]

Full boot time is 23 seconds?

More like 2-3 seconds I would say.

[takemehomegrandma]

So if i get this correctly, the OS itself resides in an ISO file

Hehe, no, you use ISO files to burn CD's! It will not be possible to boot directly from the ISO CD images I'm afraid. You have to burn the OS to a CD first!

(Edit: I later learned that you actually CAN mount ISO images from *within* MorphOS :-))

[takemehomegrandma]

 

[takemehomegrandma]

Also, you can mount the iso image directly from within MorphOS and copy the files from there. However, having a bootable installation CD around is a good idea, in case you need to do emergency repairs.

Aha! That was new to me! :-o
Well then I guess I have learnt something today too! :-)

Thanks!  :-D

[takemehomegrandma]

Spidey wrote:
Hello Amon_Re,

"Full boot time is 23 seconds?"

Well actually it's 25 seconds.
I clocked it a few times afterwards and it was everytime 25 seconds.

But do you find a full bootup of 25 seconds long?
I clocked the time from exact the moment I pushed the power button until harddisk activity was over and I was able to play around on the Ambient screen.

I have to say I've got 512 MB of (registered, ofcourse :-)) Ram and this takes a lot of time of the initial startup.
The whole "post" startup takes about 23 seconds, the software startup is about 2 seconds.

I checked these figures with friends of mine (they own pc's). The fastest one is a friend with WindowsXP. His total booting time is 35 seconds.

Could you give examples of computer systems that have quicker startup times? (ofcourse games consoles don't count :-D).
I honestly don't know of a system that can startup quicker than what I have at home (with my hardware configuration) and that it is available for the consumer market.

Thanks in advance,

Spidey

You were right. Today I clocked my pegasos too. I pressed the timer button at the same time as I pressed the power button, and it took about 25 secs till I could use the system. That includes HD spin up etc. But I must say it looks longer on "paper" than it feels in reality. I hadn't reflected over the hardware init times before (mabye because I'm quite used to my PC (with a lot of SCSI units)). Anyway, it feels quite smooth!

The actual "boot" time (as in booting the OS) was still about 2-3 seconds though ...  :-)

[takemehomegrandma]

Could you give examples of computer systems that have quicker startup times? (ofcourse games consoles don't count ).

I don't feel that my PS2 is particularly fast in booting from a cold start. I haven't clocked it though. But I would not be surprised if the Pegasos will be faster!

[takemehomegrandma]

Amon_Re wrote:
Well, considering the size of MOS (i'd estimate that the OS itself isn't much bigger then 50MB), how long does the hardware init take?

Speaking of hardware init, does the Peg have a POST screen? I don't recall from what i saw @ WOASE.

As for WXP booting in 35secs, that's actually quite fast considering all the stuff XP pulls at booting (and Windows in general), for example, booting in Amithlon on a simple Duron 1.2Ghz from HD takes aprox 45seconds (Excluding Hardware init).

25 seconds certainly isn't long, but i'd like to know just what MOS does while booting

Amon_Re

The biggest part of the startup time is the HW init, thats for sure. The actual OS boot does just take about 2-3 seconds.

[takemehomegrandma]

@ Leo42

Please stop making ugly screenshots

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! :-)

[takemehomegrandma]

Spidey wrote:
Hi takemehomegrandma,

So your total boottime is around the same as mine?
Didn't you have 256 MB RAM? (I've got 512)
This would mean the startup isn't affected by the amount of memory??

Yes, SW boot time is quick ;-)

Spidey

Hi.

I have a 512 MB registered samsung module in mine. A big RAM: disk it is! :-)

[takemehomegrandma]

Spidey wrote:
Wow!

You got UAE running?!
Please help me out with it!!!
I'm asking questions everywhere.

Please see the thread at MorphZone

Thanks in advance!!!

Spidey

Wasn't this discussed on the beta2 mailing list a while ago?

[takemehomegrandma]

amigamad wrote:
Not much of a review sounds like a rush job to get this system out resulting in something which is near to crap at least os4 will be complete and working.If i want an unstable os ill use windows 98. :-D

Lets hope that OS4 will be 100% complete and working the day it arrives (if ever). I agree on that. It remains to be seen though.

MorphOS still has gaps and it's not 100% ready yet, but it's working and it's very much usable in it's current state. New updates comes on a regular basis. Any serious Amiga user will have no problem in filling many of the gaps themselves. I'm speaking out of my own experience. And MorphOS has a big advantage that is *very much* appriciated among us users. Do you know what it is? It's *here now*! :-)