ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1

[AJCopland]

ArsTechnica has a review of AmigaOS 4.1 and a brief interview with Thomas Frieden on the last page.

As usual its an informative and interesting read.
The reviewer "Jeremy Reimer" seems to be a long term Amigan and obviously has a like for the system. He also wrote the History of the Amiga series of which there should be another installment coming soon (apparently).

Ars Reviews AmigaOS 4.1

[spihunter]

Interesting part about it running on the PS3. That would be pretty sweet.

[tonyyeb]

"A Hyperion developer told me that not only has the OS been run on a PS3, but they have even tested support for the seven SPU units in the Cell processor."

I'm more likely to buy a PS3 to run OS4.1 than a SAM400 I know that for certain!

[A1260]

I had a chance to look at a preview copy of the latest release, AmigaOS 4.1, and it is an impressive piece of work.

 :-)

[AmiBoy]

Interesting and well written article

[Trev]

"A Hyperion developer told me that not only has the OS been run on a PS3, but they have even tested support for the seven SPU units in the Cell processor."

Like tonyyeb, I'd rally behind a PS3 port as well, but this quote brings the claim into question. My understanding of the PS3 is that seven of the eight SPEs are active, meaning the PS3 can be produced cheaply using "faulty" Cell processors. (That's not a bad thing--witness the introduction of the Intel Celeron processor and the rise of budget PCs.) One of the seven SPEs is reserved for the hypervisor, so assuming OS4 is running on the PS3 in a system-friendly way, it should only have access to six SPEs....

[spihunter]

A port to the PS3 is the only way I could see OS4 bringing in any new users. Besides its tech specs, people view it as up to date hardware. As a bonus you also get to play all the PS3 games & BR movies :-P

The Sam is nice for current users but, no one outside of the community is going to pay $850 for a motherboard & OS4.1 :oops:

[Bezzen]

Well, I certainly wouldn't mind paying for a copy of OS 4.1 for my PS3.  :-D

[amigadave]

Okay, now they have gone and put their foot into it.

If they don't come out with AmigaOS on the PS3, I for one am going to be very *issed off!  

That would be an "Amiga Dream" come true and it is just plain EVIL to leak that information and tease us all without any real plan to release it.

I hope that some real announcement from Hyperion comes to confirm this report, or a direct quote from the developer is confirmed, with a name and date of when the quote occurred.

Exciting times for Amiga fans this year.  Just hope this one is not vapor.

[Crom00]

There is a market here as WalMArt in the US was selling low cost linux PC's. The selling point something like "cheap easy to use, works like a mac or pc, but no viruses,".


An official PS3 Amiga OS release could be a home run. Match made in heaven really. It wiould get some homebrew coders onboard for sure. Look the the avid community of XBOX homebrew development that spawned Xbox Media Center.

[redfox]

Thanks Jeremy.  Very interesting review and interview.

---
redfox

[jarroyo]

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in...

-Michael Corleone

[jarroyo]

Aside from the potential for more memory, the PS3 is superior, hardware wise, than the system Amiga Inc claims to be developing.

I doubt they will be able to get their hands on any PA Semi PPC processors now that Apple bought that company out...

[mikrucio]

wow how cool does os4.1 look! id buy if it came with some descent hardware.

[xeron]

Don't get your hopes up for a PS3 port. The way Sony allow you get your graphics on screen is so bloody slow and useless it makes the whole "OS on playstation" support pretty much a waste of time.