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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: giZmo350 on June 19, 2014, 12:40:10 AM

Title: AOS3.9 on PPC
Post by: giZmo350 on June 19, 2014, 12:40:10 AM

Just got to thinking.... if you can install a PPC card in your A1200/4000 (for example) and install OS3.9... why can't I install OS3.9 natively (not emulation) on a Mac Mini PPC or any other PPC machine other than the obvious reason of drivers? Just wonderin...  :confused:

Title: Re: AOS3.9 on PPC
Post by: nicholas on June 19, 2014, 12:46:12 AM

Quote from: gizmo350;767092

Just got to thinking.... if you can install a PPC card in your A1200/4000 (for example) and install OS3.9... why can't I install OS3.9 natively (not emulation) on a Mac Mini PPC or any other PPC machine other than the obvious reason of drivers? Just wonderin...  :confused:

Because PPC!=68k.

Title: Re: AOS3.9 on PPC
Post by: Ancalimon on June 19, 2014, 12:50:07 AM

Quote from: gizmo350;767092

Just got to thinking.... if you can install a PPC card in your A1200/4000 (for example) and install OS3.9... why can't I install OS3.9 natively (not emulation) on a Mac Mini PPC or any other PPC machine other than the obvious reason of drivers? Just wonderin...  :confused:

OS 3.9 is for 68k. It runs on the 040 or 060 which exists together with the PPC on BlizzardPPC or CyberstormPPC. PPC cpu is never used unless you have some software that uses it.

Title: Re: AOS3.9 on PPC
Post by: giZmo350 on June 19, 2014, 12:59:58 AM

Quote from: FaLLeNOnE;767096

PPC cpu is never used unless you have some software that uses it.

Ahhhhhh! OK, I get it! Thanks for reply!

Title: Re: AOS3.9 on PPC
Post by: LiveForIt on June 20, 2014, 01:53:42 AM

Quote from: gizmo350;767097

Ahhhhhh! OK, I get it! Thanks for reply!

That's kind of the major difference between AmigaOS3.9 and AmigaOS4.x.

That fact that one is native 680x0 whit PowerPC extentions WarpUP.

And the other AmigaOS4.x is native PowerPC, whit just in time compiler (JIT) for 680x0 hunk binary code.

You can install AmigaOS3.9 on MacMini but only if it runs in emulator like EUAE.

Title: Re: AOS3.9 on PPC
Post by: itix on June 20, 2014, 09:02:14 AM

Yes indeed. PPC "support" in OS 3.9 (and in general) was never very useful. There were only very little software and many of them were terribly buggy. And when they were not buggy they (PPC) were often slower than native versions.

For example PPC native JPEG datatype speed up decoding of large JPEG images but is slower with small JPEGs.