Next step for Amiga(like)OS?

[codenetfx]

Amiga Inc. and Hyperion are holding all the cards in this game and they are unlikely to make any progress. Amiga Inc. is pushing AmigaAnywhere (or trying to). Hyperion is pushing OS 4/4.1 for a platform that is out of production for over 10 years. MorphOS is still unstable on hardware it is supposed to run on. The only Amiga platform which can deliver Amiga is still 68K. And MiniMig. And Natami, once it enters production.

amigadave wrote:
With the court case dragging on interminably and the outcome seeming to not favor Hyperion, perhaps it is time for the AmigaOS4 team to consider another alternative.

I know there is a lot of bad blood between some of the users of AmigaOS4.x and MorphOS2.x, but I am not up to speed on any details of developer disputes between the AmigaOS4.x team and the MorphOS2.x team.  I am sure there must be some animosity between the two teams, but it is a shame that they cannot resolve their differences and work on a common goal and project.  Take all that talent and knowledge from both OSes and create a new Amiga compatible and "Amiga like" OS that is a step into the future for everyone.  Stop fighting each other and work together and maybe something worth attracting the buying dollars/pounds/euros of the few remaining Amiga fans and maybe a few curious Linux users, or dissatisfied Windows users.

I personally am leaning toward getting and using MorphOS2.x, but would much rather see a combined effort which results in something bigger and better than both AmigaOS4.x and MorphOS2.x.

Let's bring the two split parts of the Amiga community back together.

I know that this is all just wishful thinking, but what can it hurt to express it?  Please no "Red" or "Blue" trolls here.

[codenetfx]

I almost got the Efika board to run MorphOS but then I read a review and learned how unstable MorphOS actually is. Is there a hardware platform that MorphOS runs *reliably* on? (more or less)

[codenetfx]

I am using Macs (G4s and Intels). I also use Windows machines daily (for work). I have Amigas for games and tweaking. I wish I could buy a modern machine with a modern CPU and coprocessors for graphics, sound, networking, media DSPs...something like a real supercomputer not this consumer-oriented garbage with flashy stickers and a gutload of branding messages.

One can argue that modern graphics cards act as "coprocessors" and this is true but they are not standard equipment. Also, no OS/hardware out there supports coprocessors for the killer application of today (networking and media, such as MP3).

Promise of multicore design is to provide the same coolness of co-processor designs (provided you have software that supports it); you would get a very responsive system (orders of magnitude more responsive than the fastest machine today), but the trouble is that it will take years for software to support multicore designs. Windows (XP and Server) allegedly support multicore *and* dual CPU hardware, but I am yet to "feel" the difference beyond perf. improvement with more RAM added.

Mac is probably the closest to that goal but still does not have dedicated hardware for networking and will have an OS that supports multicore natively some time next year (Snow Leopard).

Multicore support is significant because old-fashioned software is wasting a lot of hardware you paid for in a new machine. When you push a lot of data through your wireless (or wired) LAN, you are using too many (single) CPU cycles *and* you are keeping the data bus very crowded and that chokes up the overall performance while other cores are idling. This is why even the GHz machines do not feel as fast as they should be.

A CPU/mobo designs which are 100 times faster on paper than CPU/mobo designs from 20 years ago, *should* feel at least several orders of magnitude faster than "old software" And yet it does not.

Intel's now obsolete supercomputer on a chip called i860 (64-bit RISC processor from 1992 or 1993, can't remember now) was a technology that could deliver Amiga-like graphics. i860 Graphics/DSP boards for 486DX-33MHz could deliver video quality of today back in 1993. i860 failed to capture marketshare because it did not have a lot of software written for it. Expansion boards were very expensive and that did not help either (this should sound familiar).

As of future Amiga design, it would have to include MC68K (likely a copy of MiniMig design) for compatibility.

The coolest thing that happened to Amiga (relatively) recently is the MiniMig - a proof that a legacy coprocessor design can be implemented in FPGA and "teamed" with a low-voltage MC68K to deliver a low-cost compatibility package. Natami is likely the next wave, when it becomes available.

Amiga as a platform does not have a bright future as long as software platform (OS) remains in limbo.

My hunch is that both Amiga Inc and Hyperion will go bankrupt within a short period of time. Their business models are not sustainable and their business style is not entrepreneurial but rather confrontational. Whoever wins that ridiculous battle, Amiga as a platform will lose. Delete Amiga Inc. and Hyperion from your bookmarks. It is a waste of time. And for God's sake, stop bidding up those PPC cards to ridiculous amounts on ebay. They are worth 200-300 bucks tops. 14 year old hardware.

Amiga's future is outside of the corporate world. MiniMig and AROS (both open source) prove that. A multicore design that includes powerful graphics card, sound card with an powerful DSP, network card with a dedicated CPU , built-in SCSI and SATA interfaces would be worthy of an Amiga - especially if it ran AROS.

Until then, grab a Mac and a Minimig (or a vintage Mig

[codenetfx]

 :-o

[codenetfx]

@Kronos: Your "7 point program" (in your signature) confirms that you cannot be serious with that claim about complexity of the ECS chipset.

Kronos wrote:

codenetfx wrote:
@amigadave

 MiniMig project shows that it is possible to implement a complex hardware design (custom chipset) on a single chip.

OCS ain't a "complex hardware design" by today's standard, not even at a stretch.....