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Operating System Specific Discussions => Amiga OS => Topic started by: Jezry on November 05, 2020, 09:17:04 PM

Title: Amiga os 4
Post by: Jezry on November 05, 2020, 09:17:04 PM
I have a question for all Amiga os 4 and beyond users.
Do you really need all that power from the new power pc boards
to do what you för with your Amiga os 4  computers?
Or would it have been suffiecient with a lot less?
Example the Efika board?
Regards Johan

Title: Re: Amiga os 4
Post by: utri007 on November 05, 2020, 10:12:58 PM
Effica has not enough memory. With more memory it would be OK for a very basic web surfing for a very patient man/woman.

All power is needed.
Title: Re: Amiga os 4
Post by: redfox on November 05, 2020, 10:19:12 PM
@Jezry

Update...  utri007 replied while I was typing my reply ...

I am a user, not a developer or betatester.  I own one of the older AmigaOS4 systems, a MicroA1 with IBM PowerPC 750 GX CPU and 256 MB RAM.  It is sufficient for my current needs, however, it would be nice to have more system RAM.  Due to limitations of my system, I cannot use some of the fancy eye-candy stuff that is available to other OS4 users.

My MicroA1 specs:
- IBM PowerPC 750 GX CPU
- 256 MB RAM
- onboard ATI Radeon 7000 chip with 32 MB graphics RAM
- onboard ethernet, PS/2 port for mouse, PS/2 port for keyboard, 4 USB ports
- Hard drive
- LiteON DVD/CD optical drive

My limitations are graphics and RAM.  The graphics on my system cannot be upgraded.  System RAM could be upgraded if I could find compatible RAM.

I run AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition Update 1 (the last version available to the public).
I also have the Enhancer Software Special Edition package.

I regularly use the following software:
- several different web browsers,
- Final Writer 97,
- NotePad,
- Cloanto Personal Paint 7 (aka PPaint),
- TVPaint,
- E-UAE to emulate Amiga 2000 and OS 3.1 for some old favourite games.

I do not know if OS4 could be ported to an Efika board or similar.  Perhaps someone in the know will respond.

---
redfox

Title: Re: Amiga os 4
Post by: nbache on November 05, 2020, 10:20:14 PM
One of my OS4 machines is an A1200 with a BlizzardPPC and a BVision, fitted with a total of 192 MB RAM (128  on the BPPC and 64 on the BVision, IIRC).

It runs OS4 quite okay, albeit far from the speed of newer machines.

Best regards,

Niels
Title: Re: Amiga os 4
Post by: LiveForIt on November 05, 2020, 11:05:09 PM
For high quality video playback, you need a fast CPU, well this might change, (as video decompression using GPU is being worked on.)
For Basilisk II emulation you need as fast CPU, (as it currently does not support JIT), if you like to mess around with DOSBOX, or EUAE faster is always better. (I don’t think virtualization is an option)

A fast CPU and disk is also nice when your compiling large C projects, it can save a lot of time. If you do any type of graphic 3d raytracing.

Web browsing it also helps with lots of RAM, and a fast CPU, also because we currently do not have support for JIT’ed JavaScript’s, and nor do we have support for web assembly. (I use Winsows10 PC for most of that, it’s safer.)
Title: Re: Amiga os 4
Post by: walkero on November 06, 2020, 10:06:46 AM
@Jezry
It depends on what you wanna do and how you use it.
If you want to use old 68k programs like Wordworth, Final Writer etc. you may not need all this horsepower.

But if you want to watch 720p videos you need a strong CPU and optimized player. If you want to play almost 4K video you need strong graphics cards with accelerated video playback. And the above can be done with live streams from the internet (YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo and many other) without any issues.

Also, if you want to use development IDEs like Codebench (http://codebench.co.uk/) for your development needs, and a strong Web browser for your internet needs, a strong CPU is needed. Even the usage of fast SATA against old IDE is something that makes things much faster. If you want to render your Lightwave scenes fast and even use applications like Blender, strong CPUs come handy with that as well. And best of all, if you want to do all the above in parallel, while you listen your music.

And finally, if you want to play full HD (1080p) video games with great graphics, or emulate older consoles like SNES, NEO GEO, PS1 and MAME arcade games, you surely need strong cpus for that.

For some games have a look at:
http://hunoppc.amiga-projects.net/
https://www.amigans.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2724
https://www.amigans.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2778
https://www.amigans.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2831

Feel free to ask for more details if you want.
Title: Re: Amiga os 4
Post by: AndyFC on November 07, 2020, 08:36:34 PM
@redfox I've got a 64MB PC100 SD RAM module for sale on ebay at the moment - is that the right RAM?
Title: Re: Amiga os 4
Post by: Jezry on November 07, 2020, 08:59:29 PM
Ok thanks for all the answers.
Regards Johan
Title: Re: Amiga os 4
Post by: walkero on November 10, 2020, 11:19:01 AM
@Jezry
In case you want to learn more on what you can do with OS 4, I wrote an article at the 15th issue of K&A Plus magazine (http://ka-plus.pl/en/issue-15/). I hope you find it interesting. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.