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Author Topic: I don't get it.  (Read 34858 times)

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Offline Amiga_Nut

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Re: I don't get it.
« on: June 25, 2010, 03:36:49 PM »
Quote from: Karlos;566276
It seems that the X1000 announcement has sent the forum into a timewarp backwards to 2003 or so. I've not seen so much amiga "sectarianism" for a long time.

So, the X1000. It's going to be expensive. We all pretty much understand that. What I don't quite get is why this seems to be such a catalyst for the old Red v Blue nonsense.

The only people that the X1000 was ever going to appeal to is people in the "Red" camp. I strongly doubt anybody in either the "Blue" or "Black" camp would ever buy it, not at any price. The obvious reason being that one's choice of OS dictates pretty much what you can use hardware wise. If you are a MorphOS guy, you are going to get a Peg, Efika or more likely a Mac of some description. End of story, really. Likewise, if you are an AROS guy you're going to choose whatever x86 based kit works for you.

So why all the angst of the X1000, it's price, performance? Personally I like 3.x and it's gang of unruly offspring. I probably use OS4 most of all the "next gen" stuff, but I'm considering a ppc mac at some point so that I can fiddle around with a more up to date MorphOS too.

But that's me. Many others are quite singular in their preference. Which is fine, I have no problem with that. However, if I were predisposed to just one of them, I really would not give a rats rectum about what any of the others are up to. Why would I?

Am I alone in wondering what all this recent nonsense is about?


MorphOS is not an Amiga, it's just another OS. Ditto AROS.

x1000 is a piece of hardware which had such a load of hyped build up that when it was revealed to be a 1.8ghz G5 and not much else (only 50% of which the OS4 can use anyway unlike OS X) at £1500 it seemed a joke with no punchline.

However even that's fine as a product, if you want one buy one be my guest.

My issue is with....

1. People assuming there is no cheap and x86-64 price/performance killing PPC alternative...there is it's called Xenon and runs at 3.2Ghz with the most efficient Power architecture available today for peanuts (Sony/Toshiba funded cost of CELL which IBM derived this CPU from)

2. That x1000 is from an engineering point of view the best machine possible (see 1. above) or that overpriced alternatives like G4/G3 based solutions are worth the price these days.

I guess maybe people would actually like to see a company full of hype actually provide a solution that is technically clever and up to date AND not price it out of the market. Not mass market but not 'screw you nerd! just sign here!' price/performance wise for a change.

It's not like there is any hardware worth purchasing since the original AmigaONE to run OS4 with is there?
 

Offline Amiga_Nut

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Re: I don't get it.
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2010, 04:41:47 PM »
Quote from: AJCopland;567206
So I'll just pop out and buy a Xenon CPU that I can actually run my own code on then... oh wait, no-one sells them except in the Xbox360 which is closed source. In fact even if you wanted too you can't buy them because the Xenon design is licensed only to MS. Sure you could have IBM make you a new CPU based on the PPC core used in the Xenon/Cell but then you've got a bespoke CPU designed for you and that isn't cheap.

Also you'll need a modified compiler for it since generic PPC code runs like crap on it given that it's an in-order architecture unlike every other PPC CPU released since the G3. It's also, just like the CELL, designed to perform best when you're utilising both of the hardware threads per-core. Which is something that AOS can't do either.

You could buy a CELL CPU from IBM but they're not cheap, not by a long way and they're being phased out.

Andy


Wrong. As the funding for the research that produced Xenon was from an irate combination of Sony and Toshiba Microsoft have no say in who IBM may sell Xenon to as it is linked 100% to the CELL's PPU and anyway it has been confirmed Xenon is not exclusive to Microsoft to me. It is completely their design to sell to anyone with enough intelligence to telephone IBM and ask for help. i7 = £400. Xenon = <£100 even on small scale given 50 million have no been fabricated by IBM.

And as for usefulness the secret x1000 co-pro based on transputers has no code support as standard in OS4 or half of the OTT priced dual core G5. And at 3.2ghz and LESS than the cost of a G4 CPU for SAM etc let alone G5 I think it's a bit silly to complain about OS4 not being optimised for it. If it was used for x1000 Hyperion would have accommodated it's architecture just like they will have to with x1000 to support the second core eventually.

Feel free to put forward a sub £100 CPU as powerful as IBM Xenon/Intel i7 which can run OS4 with minimal modification in your reply.....

As for CELL...seeing as PS3 will be around for a 10 year life cycle I suspect manufacture of said CPU will continue for at least another half a decade. CELL with 1 PPU and 7 SPUs is not really suited to an OS though, and costs more than Xenon anyway.