Amiga.org
Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Hardware News => Topic started by: Kees on October 16, 2003, 03:17:56 PM
-
Philippe Ferrucci (aka Elwood (http://amiga.org/userinfo.php?uid=5753)) reviewed the AmigaOne. There are some pictures and some video's of AmigaOS4 booting on the AmigaOne to be found in his review.
Check out the review here (http://elwoodb.free.fr/articles/AmigaOne/) ...
-
Very nice, although the site seems to have maxed out its bandwidth since I can't see the images or download the movies. =(
-
The site loads for me ....
-
Yep - works fine here.
That's the first watchable clip of OS4 booting I've seen. It's looking very good. Any chance of the same with debug switched off?
About DMA:
You want to know if there is one, don't you ? With version 2.4.19 of the Debian kernel, I had copy problems using large files but now with kernel 2.4.21, DMA is enabled and there is no problem anymore. And just a note: the bus speed is set at 133Mhz (not like other hardware out there). And believe me, it's fast: my Debian is fully loaded (X-window included) in 30 seconds !!!
And I have a lot of loaded modules: Apache, PHP, MySQL... I can imagine how damn fast AmigaOS4 will be running at 933 Mhz...
I never managed to keep mine stable under 2.4.21 with DMA enabled. Do we have an official statement from Hyperion on this or is it just your personal experience?
Anyway, thanks for the review.
-
No problems with the bandwidth here.
That was a quick bootup if you ask me.
@ Wilse
That's the 1st clip I've seen of AOS4 running as well.
Thanks Elwood, for the review and the vids.
Will you be filming anymore? :-)
Graham C
-
Fast boot, and nice looking system! Makes OS4 more desirable than ever :-D
My A4000 begs for it (while waiting for the fastest G4 AmigOne)!
________
Cl77 (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Honda_CL77)
-
I never managed to keep mine stable under 2.4.21 with DMA enabled. Do we have an official statement from Hyperion on this or is it just your personal experience?
Personal experience.
@Crumpster
Will you be filming anymore?
Yes, I don't see any reason to stop now that I have a LCD display (no VBL anymore).
I'll do more videos when the graphics subsystem will be native. I think we'll see the difference !!! :-)
-
Hold on ... Radeon 7000? Does this mean that SNAP is done, before the PPC native graphics.library?
Chris
-
Wilse wrote:
I never managed to keep mine stable under 2.4.21 with DMA enabled. Do we have an official statement from Hyperion on this or is it just your personal experience?
I found that the latest UBoot in addition to the 2.4.21 kernel made mine stable with DMA on.
Rassilon
-
i have only got a 56k connection its as slow as a snail
:-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-(
-
@chris
Did I say that the video was made with the same hardware ?
No, the GFX card used for booting OS4 is a Vodoo 3 3000.
bye
-
Did I say that the video was made with the same hardware ?
No, you didn't. It didn't cross my mind that you might have changed the hardware :oops:
Chris
-
@Elwood,
Great video, thanks.
Watching the gui 'alive' dispells some of the irritation created by the clumsy looking screengrabs.
It does seem a little sluggish in the redraw area.
Is this is the stuff that will speed up with the native library?
Look forward to watching the next ones.
Valan
-
@Chris:
I changed the comment next to the video to reflect the Vodoo GFX board was used. Thanks.
@Valan:
>Look forward to watching the next ones.
Yes. This is exactly what everyone should do... :-)
-
have only got a 56k connection its as slow as a snail
Wow, I got 290 connect, fastest yet for me. :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
Well, it Was 3 am here ;-)
-
Elwood: Thanks for video!
Even though the graphic updates seem a bit slow at the time being, it's exciting to finally see Amiga OS4 in action. Really looking forward to see more! :-)
-
Wilse wrote:
I never managed to keep mine stable under 2.4.21 with DMA enabled. Do we have an official statement from Hyperion on this or is it just your personal experience?
IMHO, there're lot of parameters wich can affect stability, such as:
verson of X, number of pci cards and pci/network usage. I had problems with dma/xf4.3 on debian/ydl3 (2.4.21). Now I'm running ydl3/2.4.22, dma on - things are significantly stabler here.
Jack
-
I never managed to keep mine stable under 2.4.21 with DMA enabled. Do we have an official statement from Hyperion on this or is it just your personal experience?
Make sure you're using high quality IDE cables. My Athlon system was rather unstable when I had UDMA5 set, until I replaced my cables and it worked flawlessly ever since. Worth a shot.
- Mike
-
@Jack
This is true irregardless of which system you run. My Athlon kept locking up, crashing, dying. Turns out the video card and southbridge hated each other. Swap the mobo, and everything is fine.
-
Glaucus wrote:
Make sure you're using high quality IDE cables. My Athlon system was rather unstable when I had UDMA5 set, until I replaced my cables and it worked flawlessly ever since. Worth a shot.
On top of that, it might be better sticking to normal ribbon IDE cables rather than cylindrical ones. They might allow better airflow, but apparently there's a lot of crosstalk.
-
@Glaucus:
IIRC you have to use a special cable for UDMA modes 4 and 5 (it's the one with lots of small wires but the same amount of connections as the "normal" cables). This is the case even with PCs, I think it's got to do with the thicker wires causing interference on each other at high transfer speeds, the thinner wires don't have that problem.
@Downix:
???
-
That would be the 80 wire cables. The extra wires are ground, one for each data wire. They help reduce line noise and interferance, which at high data rates can adversly affect the data transfered on the cable.
-
@KennyR
On top of that, it might be better sticking to normal ribbon IDE cables rather than cylindrical ones. They might allow better airflow, but apparently there's a lot of crosstalk.
It might depend on the quality of the cable. I can't say I've ever had any problems whatsoever with mine.
...or it could be an urban myth. A lot of these tend to be spread about when so called engineers don't know what's wrong but want to seem knowledgeable.
:-P
P.S. Actually, see Argo's reply. That looks closest to the truth to me.
-
@CodeSmith
This is the case even with PCs, I think it's got to do with the thicker wires causing interference on each other at high transfer speeds, the thinner wires don't have that problem.
Well, you thought wrong. Like Argo pointed out the extra 40 wires are separate ground wires for each signal wire. Check pcguide Ultra DMA (80-Conductor) IDE/ATA Cables (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/conf_Cable80.htm) for details.
-
Do we have an official statement from Hyperion on this or is it just your personal experience?
Why should Hyperion make a statement about DMA in Linux?
-
On top of that, it might be better sticking to normal ribbon IDE cables rather than cylindrical ones. They might allow better airflow, but apparently there's a lot of crosstalk.
Well, funnily enough, the cable I was using was the cylindrical type. Also funny is that I replaced it with another brand of cylindrical cable. Both were rated for UDMA5 (80 wire). And yeah, the extra wires are ground wires as others have mentioned. It was just a matter of build quality.
- Mike
-
Well, I'm using pretty lighty uppy cylindrical cables in my A1 ... Stable as a rock... NO probs.. Apart from it being poxy linux.
(http://amiga.org/gallery/images/9/1_1361.jpg)
-
@CodeSmith
Someone talked about hardware conflicts, in reference to the A1, and I thought I'd point out a similar experience I had with an EPoX Athlon mobo and my Evil Kyro video card. Such bugs are not limited to those of us that run the alternate processors of the world, ya know?
-
It might depend on the quality of the cable. I can't say I've ever had any problems whatsoever with mine.
Serial ATA to the people! It really rocks compared to PATA (Parallel ATA). Not performance-wise (today's drives can't handle such high speeds) but it's sooo much more convinient with small cables than with those huge PATA-cables :-)
-
Wow thanks to the webmaster for those mpg's on OS4, it is also the first time I've seen OS 4 in action.
It will be a long time, probably, before an OS 4 show is in Tennessee, but maybe someday :-)
I cannot wait till the complete systems are on sale!
Or rather I should say, I can wait, now, because it so soon...you could tell when I couldn't wait cause I was cranky and had a tendency to shout.
This community always amazes me...still strong after so many years, and now two hardware/os platforms are just about ready for launch!
Looking like a great 2003/2004 for Amigadom.
You know what, I'm even going to do an AmigaGuide format of our books, not for sale...will give them away, but just as a nod to the community.
peace,
MarkTime
Delfania (http://www.delfania.com)
-
@ editor, nice :-D
Stable as a rock here @ 933Mhz even with unstable debian installed.
Note cables are now much tidier and are zip tied in place, now my radeon8500 is now working.
Cables are round sheilded and grounded dataline 80 cables!
(http://amiga.org/gallery/images/503/1_1218.jpg)
-
Is it just me, or is the AmigaOne EXACTLY THE SAME as a PC? Sans software (like there is any) everything about that video made me think it was just an expensive PC with an old mac processor....
The bios font was identical to any PC from about 1982 onwards... what has happened to our Amigan identity? No custom chips, no custom case, not even a custom bios... If I paint "Amiga" on my PC, is there a difference any more?
-
@RedWarrior,
Well you'll have to wait just a few more months, but when OS4 comes out, that is the difference.
or if you have a peg II, MorphOS 1.4
I think you have hit on many points about what made the Amiga experience unique in the past, but the process of rebuilding the Amiga platform must come in stages.
The PPC choice does ensure that the Amiga market is in a unique position. Not sure why you called it an 'old mac processor' since Amiga's never
were sold with a processor that hadn't also been used first in a Mac (the 68k line), unless you count the quikpak 060's, Mac's never used an 060.
But as for custom chips, well, Amiga simply doesn't have the resources to build a custom chip thats going to outdo the latest from ATI or nVidia, but
when you use MorphOS...and as you can see from the Video, OS4....you know you are using an Amiga, and one of the fastest Amiga's ever sold.
MarkTime
Delfania (http://www.delfania.com)
-
@RedWarrior
OK so what's your REALISTIC suggestions for the involved companies
on how to change things so that in your own subjective view,
the "Amiga spirit" is preserved? It's allways easy to complain,
but actually finding real world alternatives is usually a bit more difficult.
That being said, I myselfe was not all that satisfied with the
hardware part of the new Amiga untill the A1-light was presented.
As in my world a "real Amiga" has got integrated graphics of some sort,
and the fact that there are people who are talking about selling
them in keyboard cases does not exactly make things any worse
(in my book anyway :-) ).
-
Double post
-
Cool vid, look forward to seeing more :-)
-
The bios font was identical to any PC from about 1982 onwards...
If you insist, I can add the possibility to load another :-) It's below 1 k so it would still fit in the ROM. But using the font of the graphics card is the more natural thing to do.
... Come to think of it, Topaz-80 anyone :-)
-
I an a fan of Lucidia, personally. Or Intergalactic Highway.
-
@MarkTime:
Interesting responce. So if we admit that it's unrealistic to have a traditional, custom chip based Amiga computer these days, why would you say we're still chaining the Amiga OS to the PPC? Isn't that similarly unrealistic? If it makes a hell of a lot of sense to leverage the video and sound card market established by the PC, why affirmatively hamper your hardware by insisting on what's become a niche CPU that's underpowered and overpriced in comparison to more mainstream choices? I mean if one's irrational hatred of the Wintel market is just THAT extreme, why not an AMD Athlon? It'd still be inexpensive and powerful, and coupled with an efficient OS like the Amiga OS, you'd have a scorchingly fast PC!
If the OS is truly the difference, why worry about the hardware at all? Of course there should be a "reference platform" spec for the OS (BTW, no different than any other OS out there), and for the die-hards who simply can't bring themselves to buying a computer that doesn't have the official Amiga seal of approval, perhaps authorizing Amiga-branded hardware solutions that conform to that reference platform. But beyond that, let the entire hardware solution be a commodity, not just the bits and pieces that make it up. Let the OS go free and challenge the status quo on equal footing. It'll be cheaper for all and bring a lot of Amiga ex-patriates back into the fold for not a lot ot money. And that, I think, is the key to EVER expanding the Amiga OS userbase beyond the narrow confines of today.