ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1

[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.

[cybernoid]

I'd like to see one day a portable Amiga.

I don't like consoles - prefer so a top-Acube-Quadra-X86-Uboot-protected with AmigaOS gcc-compiled for X86.

[spihunter]

@xeron,

So how is Yellow Dog Linux able to pull it off on the PS3?. Did Sony grant them some kind of special Kernel or something? :lol:

[dammy]

So how is Yellow Dog Linux able to pull it off on the PS3?. Did Sony grant them some kind of special Kernel or something?

Did Yellow Dog bypass Sony's Hypervisor?

Dammy

[hardlink]

Quote:

Did Yellow Dog bypass Sony's Hypervisor?

Dammy

I've even seen the expensive US$20K/license embedded hard real time operating system VxWorks running on the PS3 to use as a Cell development station, by the company hackers at Wind River, and they couldn't get around the Hypervisor.

[jorkany]

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!

I guess you're pissed off then.

[Hattig]

I have a PS3, and I'd lay down my money for OS4.1 (or 4.2 heh) for it, even if it had to run within the Hypervisor and hence had framebuffer graphics only. Maybe someone could write a compositing engine on one of the SPUs...

Not that there are NVIDIA graphics drivers for OS 4.x anyway, as far as I am aware? Weren't Sony going to expose a limited set of compositing functionality through the Hypervisor at some point for the Linux ports anyway? Not that I'd ever hold my breath waiting for it.

The good thing about the PS3 is its use of standard Bluetooth and USB, so I can sit back on my sofa with a standard Bluetooth keyboard and browse the web or chat online.

Can't complain about a 3.2GHz PowerPC core, even if it is in-order with low IPC. It'll beat a 667MHz G3-era core.

[xeron]

@spihunter

No, apparently the graphics performance is as crap as can be expected from a slow framebuffer.

[DavidF215]

@jorkany
And seems that AmigaOS has a high probability of working on the Cell processor now or in the near future--as hinted in his wording. So who has a motherboard with Cell processors besides the PS3?

[jorkany]

So who has a motherboard with Cell processors besides the PS3?

Mercury Systems of course. But I suspect the pockets of the OS4 community aren't quite $8K deep.

[Kaminari]

The SPUs are nothing more than streamlined FPUs (just read the Cell vs. Xenon comparisons on ArsTech).

If you ever had a use for an FPU on your Miggy, then you know that apart from some very dedicated work the interest of an FPU is marginal at best. By the way, the 360 has only two of them, yet it's more than enough for any power user (let alone the average gamer).

Unless you have a need for an Amiga-based datablade cluster, any reference to the PS3's SPUs is just a naive sales pitch.