Positive message!

[bloodline]

I've not posted for a while (getting on with real life and playing with my new Mbed and Arduino microcontrollers), but I thought I would share my view of the tech world right now, a quick look at what is coming our way in the next 12moths is really exciting, and should make you happy no matter what computing platform you prefer!

AROS finally moves on the the 68k as a complete system, very exciting for me as we can then use UAE with no copyright issues! Classic hardware gets an oS upgrade

AOS4 is getting a PPC classics version, again something to look forward to!

MOS is pushing ahead on the PPC Mac platform, so a nice cheap supply of hardware there!

MacOS X is merging the iOS and OSX lines... I guess we should see the next generation of user interfaces grow from this.

Windows, Steve Balmer has gone on record to say that the next version will be the most innovative yet (ok, Microsoft have said that before each Windows release), but with proects like MinWin and the need to get a differential in the OS Market, we could see something pretty cool come from this!

Not sure what the Linux/BSD crews are up to, but the fact that they are still here and major hardware vendors are activly supporting them, this has to be good news!


Obviously the AROS and OSX/iOS news are the big ones for me as those are the two I use/play with... But as you can see there is pretty much good stuff all around

[jj]

And queue the who cares about windows/macosx/linux, this is amiga site, posts
 
I for one agree with these thoughts. Computing is getting exciting again

[bloodline]

And queue the who cares about windows/macosx/linux, this is amiga site, posts
 
I for one agree with these thoughts. Computing is getting exciting again

I forgot to mention Hiku and Symbian/Meego etc (I have to my shame perhaps, included Android in the Linux, point)... There is so much happening right now, it does feel a bit like the 70s/80s again

If anyone here took the time look at the hobby microcontroller boards, there are some really powerful devices around to be had for a few quid, with complete cross platform (Mac/Linux/Win) development environments! Ordinary users can write their own RTOS on their own hardware platform... Indeed I have, and it's fun

[haywirepc]

It is a big like the 70's or early 80's again, but software is the new frontier...
 
Steven

[the_leander]

MinWin

?

Not sure what the Linux/BSD crews are up to, but the fact that they are still here and major hardware vendors are activly supporting them, this has to be good news!

They have OSS ATI drivers that are finally worth a damn

No more messing with binary blobs that only worked with very specific configs

[guest7146]

I've not posted for a while (getting on with real life and playing with my new Mbed and Arduino microcontrollers)

Ahh, a fellow embedded tinkerer!

I never really bothered with the Arduino stuff.  My interpretation of Arduino was that it provides a fast prototyping solution whereby you don't have to concern yourself with the intricacies of the development environment or the programming language, instead it's designed to be as easy to get up and running as possible, with a small burden in terms of program efficiency.
I have already invested a lot of time into the development environments I used and I'm already comfortable with the C language (and assembly but C is my language of choice) so I didn't feel like I "needed" Arduino.

However, the mbed products have caught my eye.  There have been quite a few good projects around those in Elektor magazine.  I haven't played around with them yet because I'm still tinkering with my new PIC32 development board, but I plan to have a look at them in the future!

I think that the Amiga community could benefit from members with Embedded electronics skills.  There are a lot of current Amiga related problems that could be solved with homebrew designs I think.  Open Hardware and Open Source Software designs would be the most helpful (take the recent Hxc floppy emulator as an excellent example).

I quite like the idea of an open hardware accelerator for classic machines.  That would be a good project I reckon.  Unfortunately my time is constrained by University work for the next couple of years but as soon as I finish, who knows perhaps I can start something like that, or contribute to someone else's project if they've already got something off the ground.  It's all very exciting, and Amiga computing is what you make of it really!

AH.

[bloodline]

?



They have OSS ATI drivers that are finally worth a damn

No more messing with binary blobs that only worked with very specific configs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MinWin basically stripping Windows back to the kernel and using a layered approach to add components... So simply put, making Windows a bit more like *nix

Yeah, I've seen quite a bit of hardware support for the open source OSs of late, and that is a VERY positive thing for everybody

[bloodline]

@AppleHammer

Arduino is just a nice complete development package, it uses C++ and a custom I/O library all wrapped up in a multiplatform package... My attraction to it was the USB link and MacOS development tools. The AVRMega328 mcu is a great and very cheap little microchip, that I have no reservations about using in a project.

The mbed is a bit of a dark horse... The development platform is web based so, no Internet, no development (unless you are prepared to mess around with some of te custom gcc build chains that are floating around). But other than that, it is a very very powerful platform (it is weird using floats on a microcontroller), plenty of IO and a built in USB support (USB is vital for any project )... The standard IO library is all object oriented and quite elegant.

My thoughts lean to using an ARM M3 microcontroller to emulate a 68k, it has enough CPU power and enough IO, and the chips cost about £10...

[motrucker]

?



They have OSS ATI drivers that are finally worth a damn

No more messing with binary blobs that only worked with very specific configs

I didn't know anyone had good driver for ATI cards - That truly is good news (in keeping with this positive theme ).

[bloodline]

I didn't know anyone had good driver for ATI cards - That truly is good news (in keeping with this positive theme ).

I think you mean AMD, ATI as a brand has been dead for quite a while now

[the_leander]

I think you mean AMD, ATI as a brand has been dead for quite a while now

Still says ATI on this here 200M

mototrucker, everything works on the driver now - so full hardware 2d and overlay and 3d support. It should be noted however that the 3d support for this particular chip (and I would imagine others as well) does need to be optimised somewhat.

But it does work quite nicely for all that

[Iggy]

Optimized? Hey its jusy amazing that enough information has reached open developers to do this at all.
For some reason ATI has always wanted to keep the exact way their products operate a deep dark secret (and Nvidai hasn't been much better). Then they've tried to force us into lame proprietary drivers.
It would be nice to have a competitive third company in the market that was serious about open drivers.

[the_leander]

Optimized? Hey its jusy amazing that enough information has reached open developers to do this at all.

Yes, optimised, as it stands the 3d portion is a little on the slow side.

As for amazing? A year ago the OSS driver was little more than a Vesa frame buffer with those words crossed out and replaced with "ATI display driver" put in in crayon. Since then, the full gamete of 2d capabilities has been added and yes whilst slow, usable 3d (more than fast enough to run compiz type effects, or basic games for instance) has come into being. It is a testament to their dedication that they've come this far, this fast.

For some reason ATI has always wanted to keep the exact way their products operate a deep dark secret (and Nvidai hasn't been much better). Then they've tried to force us into lame proprietary drivers.

In of itself I have no truck with this, as nVidia shows, it can be done well. However the proprietary drivers for ATI/AMD graphics products has always been a hateful, spiteful experience. One which, if you're exceedingly lucky, you might get working, but more often than not will leave you frustrated and cursing the Canuks who created them.

To have something that works out of the box, won't break every time you update the kernel is a wonderful thing

It would be nice to have a competitive third company in the market that was serious about open drivers.

Intel for starters, I believe that VIA's graphics drivers are with a few exceptions quite open too.

[persia]

Ah the tablet world, I love my tablets, both iPad and Android.  Now that I have a serious Android tablet it's time to get UAE up and running on it!  I may buy RIM's Playboy tablet too.  Lots and lots of good stuff happening...

[guest7146]

@AppleHammer

Arduino is just a nice complete development package, it uses C++ and a custom I/O library all wrapped up in a multiplatform package... My attraction to it was the USB link and MacOS development tools. The AVRMega328 mcu is a great and very cheap little microchip, that I have no reservations about using in a project.

Yep I think you're right - there is nothing wrong with using an Arduino as the base for an embedded project.  And, if I was starting out fresh now, I think the Arduino would be a good platform for introduction to embedded programming because most of the learning curve is associated with intricacies of the language/micro architecture and dev environments in the beginning.  The Arduino can help soften that learning curve, I think.

Also, I should add that I have absolutely nothing against AVR Micros.  I always tend to stick with Microchip PIC, but that's not because I'm one of those PIC fanboys, it's just because I started out with PICs and have had no good reason to change since.  

The mbed is a bit of a dark horse... The development platform is web based so, no Internet, no development (unless you are prepared to mess around with some of te custom gcc build chains that are floating around). But other than that, it is a very very powerful platform (it is weird using floats on a microcontroller), plenty of IO and a built in USB support (USB is vital for any project )... The standard IO library is all object oriented and quite elegant.

Yeah I'm not quite sure I like the idea of web based development.  It has some clear advantages of course, but there are some disadvantages as well.  All the same, it's an interesting platform and I'd like to take a look at it.

My thoughts lean to using an ARM M3 microcontroller to emulate a 68k, it  has enough CPU power and enough IO, and the chips cost about £10...

I agree, 68K emulation is the way to go.  Especially if a system capable of >68060 speeds can be designed.  That would be fantastic!

AH.