Amiga.org

Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => General Internet News => Topic started by: AJCopland on September 23, 2008, 02:54:36 PM

Title: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: AJCopland on September 23, 2008, 02:54:36 PM
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 (http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/a-history-of-the-amiga-part-1.ars) of which there should be another installment coming soon (apparently).

Ars Reviews AmigaOS 4.1 (http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/amigaos41-ars.ars)
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: spihunter on September 23, 2008, 03:09:28 PM
Interesting part about it running on the PS3. That would be pretty sweet.
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: tonyyeb on September 23, 2008, 07:17:39 PM
"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!
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: A1260 on September 23, 2008, 07:35:49 PM
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.

 :-)
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: AmiBoy on September 23, 2008, 07:49:18 PM
Interesting and well written article
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: Trev on September 23, 2008, 09:01:12 PM
"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....
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: spihunter on September 23, 2008, 09:46:05 PM
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:
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: Bezzen on September 23, 2008, 11:31:14 PM
Well, I certainly wouldn't mind paying for a copy of OS 4.1 for my PS3.  :-D
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: amigadave on September 24, 2008, 01:47:06 AM
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.
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: Crom00 on September 24, 2008, 02:10:10 AM
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.
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: redfox on September 24, 2008, 02:50:14 AM
Thanks Jeremy.  Very interesting review and interview.

---
redfox
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: jarroyo on September 24, 2008, 03:04:56 AM
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in...

-Michael Corleone
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: jarroyo on September 24, 2008, 03:10:45 AM
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...
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: mikrucio on September 24, 2008, 03:13:19 AM
wow how cool does os4.1 look! id buy if it came with some descent hardware.
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: xeron on September 24, 2008, 07:41:32 AM
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.
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: cybernoid on September 24, 2008, 12:51:46 PM
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.
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: spihunter on September 24, 2008, 04:48:35 PM
@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:
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: dammy on September 24, 2008, 04:57:06 PM
Quote
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
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: hardlink on September 24, 2008, 08:55:40 PM
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.
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: jorkany on September 24, 2008, 09:58:19 PM
Quote
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. (http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic_id=26994&forum=14&start=40&viewmode=flat&order=0#457032)
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: Hattig on September 24, 2008, 10:02:51 PM
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.
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: xeron on September 24, 2008, 10:23:36 PM
@spihunter

No, apparently the graphics performance is as crap as can be expected from a slow framebuffer.
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: DavidF215 on September 25, 2008, 05:23:24 PM
@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?
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: jorkany on September 26, 2008, 05:12:14 PM
Quote
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.
Title: Re: ArsTechnica reviews AmigaOS 4.1
Post by: Kaminari on September 26, 2008, 09:50:02 PM
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.