Having had access to the source repository in the past, I can confirm that the OS4 sources are maintained under version control. There really is no alternative when working on projects that size.
I was just bemused by Iggy's statement which made it sound like version control was some sort of revelation that only the AROS team used.
Bemused as you may be, I have no interest in OS4, and have no idea how MorphOS developers coordinate their project, although it must be through a similar system.
What amazes me is that allowing contributors to alter existing code doesn't create chaos, obviously there is the option to revert to previous versions, but the loose coordination reminds me a lot of some of the bigger Linux distros.
And often their steps "forward" wipe out something I preferred in earlier revisions.
Obviously there is more centralized control in the OS4 and MorphOS development communities as to what is and what isn't adopted.
In any case, I have the AROS source code, and will move forward in attempting to get it to run stably on some PPC platforms I have an interest in.
lou originally mentioned the WiiU, and I have G4 powered PowerMac, iBook and PowerBook hardware as well as PowerMac G5 systems (both AGP and PCI-e), And while there is a SAM460 port, don't you think there ought to be X1000 and X5000 ports as well?
I'll leave the idea of an A1222 port to those that prefer to punch down instead of up.
Then finally, with the announcement of by Raptor engineering that they will be producing a single cpu variant of the Talos II called the Talos II Lite...
Well we will soon have a Power 9 system available in the same cost range as the X5000.
Think about that, the cheapest Power 9 variant is a quad core that supports 16 concurrent threads.
That's 8 times as many as the X5000/20 and four times as many as the X5000/40.
Heck, its even double the number that the proposed T2080 based laptop could handle.
With a better fpu than any other Power variant thus far.
Porting AROS hosted to a big endian Linux variant on a Power 9 system should not be too difficult.
The next move would be to figure out the changes needed to move it to a little endian Linux variant.
And finally to create a native little endian variant.
And native version of AROS on Power 9 should be able to match any capabilities that AROS has on an X64 system (including the eventual adoption of SMP).
In fact, with the Power 9 hypervisor, it might be a MORE capable system.
Power 9 has already been demo'd running X64 software, and it can run multiple sessions via the hypervisor with sessions being EITHER big endian or little endian.
So think about it, a processor that could run PPC OS4 or MorphOS AND either PPC or X64 AROS (or BOTH), ALL AT THE SAME TIME.
It could even run Windows, Linux or possibly MacOS (on an emulated platform or via a hacked copy of MacOS).
All of this concurrently. In fact, the first four NG OS' mentioned only require 4 thread, leaving 12 threads for Linux or other OS'.
And this is on the
cheapest Power 9 cpu.
There are Power 9 variants with up to 22 cores.
Only AMDs Epyc could beat that with 32 cores, but Epyc only supports 2 threads per core versus Power 9's 4 thread per core.
In other words, a single cpu Epyc system could support 64 concurrent threads.
A single cpu Power 9 system could support 24 more, or 88 concurrent threads.
Make these dual cpu systems and that number grows and the Power 9 system can support 48 more threads that the Epyc system.
And here's the kicker, an AMD Desktop Ryzen system maxes out at 16 concurrent threads (the same as the low end Power 9 four core) and can't be upgraded to the enterprise level multi-die Ryzen derivitives or Epyc.
But the Talos II CAN be upgraded. Your can start with the basic four core cpu on a dual or single cpu board (and the dual cpu board can still be used in single cpu configurations).
That gives you the same thread count as the best Ryzen desktop do.
Then you can upgrade all the way up, right to the 22 core cpu if you wish.
Giving you either and 22 core/88 thread machine or a 44 core/176 thread machine.
So, to those of you that contend that the PPC is dead, you have your heads up your rectum (and btw, yes, Power 9 IS a PPC).
This argument traces all that way back to my days building SS-50 bus computers and having arguments with S100 advocates stating their processors were faster.
Sure, and they had a much lower IPC/MIPS count.
And they went on to adopt CP/M (the progenitor of DOS), while we initially settled for Flex (which is pretty much a CP/M clone), but eventually once we had the 6809, we moved to multi-tasking OS' that supported multiple users.
So, the Motorola based community had real priority based preemptive multi-tasking before the Zilog/Intel community came up with kludges like MP/M.
Yes, even the lowly Tandy Color Computer could perform true multi-tasking, and the 68K when introduced was a quantum leap over Zilog and Intel offerings.
In fact, until the i386 was introduced, Intel cpus lacked the features necessary to implement some of the code that was running on the 68K.
SO, hey, the Amiga was the first multimedia computer marketed to the public with a SUPERIOR processor than those used on the first two generations of PCs (and it still easily match Intel's third generation).
The move to Power was intended to provide an alternative to X86, and up to the IBM 970 (aka the G5), it DID have full parity with Intel (in fact in some measures the G5 bests X86 cpus from the same era).
Using PPC as an accelerator for the Amiga was NOT a mistake, it was an effort not retain our exclusivity and not just fall in line with the competition.
If Apple had continued to support IBM/Power, desktop variants of systems above Power4 (the basis for the G5) could have been created that would have maintained that parity.
And IBM has soldiered on on it own, continuing to develop Power, now in its 9th iteration, and its still capable of matching or beating X64.
I'm feed up with having to resort to the "enemies" ISA.
From now on, I'm focusing on ARM and Power.
And if any of you had a clue what IBM has been focusing on as a successor to RISC, you might be question Intel's future dominance as much as I am.
ARM's everywhere in light weight portable devices, and Intel's been giving us more of the same for years.
If it wasn't for AMD we'd probably still be suffering with some lame P4 derivative, and in case anyone has forgotten, the 64 bit extensions to X86 are AMD64 extensions, the X64 ISA was AMD's creation, not Intel's.
They just implemented it as AMD's license requires sharing technology based on Intel underpinnings.
Intel didn't intend X86 to be extended to 64 bit, they wanted to move you all to Itanium. That failed, the P4 was pretty much a failure (both reminding me greatly of the Pentium Pro fiasco).
Hey, remember Intel started with the 4004, which was the first integrated one chip microprocessor, but that development was inevitable and early Intel products sucked.
There were PDP-11 micros produced soon after the 8088/8086 that could run circles around them.
Intel's cpus were best suited to use in calculators, and you don't even find them there anymore while the Z-80 and 68000 are still used in older TI Scientific calculator designs (and ARM dominates newer designs).
So DO I really HAVE to have an X64 system, and must I REQUIRE Microsoft software?
Hell, no, and the day those "must haves" die out will be the day the market opens up and a broader base of end user inspired solutions will appear.
This is not a vague prediction.
Intel stumbled more than once (especially with their ridiculous proposition that 10 GHz P4s were possible), and Microsoft?
Hey XP wasn't bad, Vista...well it looked good (but how many of you like it), Win 7 with Aero was a good recovery (but I hope you all realize that its really just an advanced version of Vista).
Win 8, 8.1, 10 (with its undeletable electronic "assistant"), hey I really tried, and 10 is almost tolerable (although why Aero was dropped is anyone's guess), but frankly, all three of these are uglier than Vista, and not as functional as Win 7.
I want OUT.
I not buying a Windows variant that builds on this crap, especially one that tries to force me to make all my software purchase through an approved "store".
So, from here out its Linux, and Power 9 or ARM, so I can free myself from these shackles.
You all do what you want, personally I want to divorce myself from these lame standards and their perpetual promises that they'll "get it right in the next generation".
Feh.
Jim
