UltimatePPC and everything else

[Piru]

MorphOS support etc. would be super.

I don't see how this could be happening though, considering we've pretty much given up the classic support. For instance PowerUP MorphOS is still available for download but isn't actively developed.

Why would you want to talk to Haage&Partner btw? All they did was screw everyone over left&right, and as far as I can tell they haven't had anything to do with amiga for ages.

[Piru]

Why limit the 68K side to only 128M ram?

The CPU slot maxes at 128MB.

It's the same with all CPU slot accelerators (Cyberstorm etc).

[Piru]

But is that really a limitation?

It is if you wish to DMA to the memory via the system bus. If you're happy with using a temporary DMA buffer and copying when needed then adding extra memory is no problem.

[Piru]

We will try to be as open as possible to allow smart people to boot whatever they can get running on the PowerPC.

I've just been reading up on the included CPU (QoriQ P1013 e500v2). It does have an FPU, but it's incompatible to pretty much any other PowerPC FPU out there (Power ISA).

TL;DR: Every binary using FPU needs to be recompiled to run on this CPU.

This will definitely create huge challenges if you ever attempt to run any existing PowerUP, WarpUP, MorphOS or OS4 binaries.

[Piru]

Challenges yes but not huge challenges, unless the entire program/library is written in PPC assembler.

I was talking about existing binaries of which you don't have source code for (for whatever reason) and thus cannot recompile.

[Piru]

Besides nobody plays MP3's anymore, streaming is the new MP3 hoarding so there is no need for PPC muscle and buggy NG Amiga OS that never leaves beta.

You think streaming doesn't use compression?

I have news for you: It's typically either mp3, vorbis or aac.

[Piru]

You just had to point that out did not you?

Sometimes someone says something so stupid you just can't help yourself.

Usually I just leave totally incorrect and illogical "facts" alone, but this was just so mindbogglingly bullshaitty I couldn't do it.

Sorry.

[Piru]

Can you please get BACK to MorphOS development?
I have a nice Powerbook just waiting for it....

No need to get back to it really, I'm doing it all the time. Just couple of minutes ago I improved the file types detected by Ambient for instance (but that'll go to MorphOS 3.1).

Leave the exotic HW guys alone

Hmm. Just because I pointed some mistake in something completely irrelevant I'm now someone harassing "exotic HW guys"? Oh please. If you have something to nag about please be logical about it at least.

As to my other (on topic!) posts in this thread, I think they've been balanced and fair.

or suggest them a better processor option, so they can achieve binary compatibility.

As far as I can tell there are no cheap solutions that provide the necessary features. Even if there were, I doubt they'd be willing to change their design at this point as it'd require quite extensive redesign. Finally, I have no doubts about the technical qualifications of these guys, they clearly know their HW stuff well.

[Piru]

Linux

Are you using Linux to test the design? If so, which distro?

At least Debian appears to be somewhat akward to set up.

[Piru]

- Support for WarpUp/WarpOS through support pledged by the original author

I believe it when I see it (specifically running various WOS apps utilizing the FPU).

[Piru]

I just love you positive attitude

This project is great, and it looks like they can really make it happen.

I don't know how much positive attitude is needed to turn a CPU to execute incompatible FPU code. Must be a lot.

[Piru]

compositing...

Really?

[Piru]

Morphos is a no-go for me because I simply do not have the hardware to run it on.

Faster MorphOS hardware is fraction of the price of this thing.

With some effort this could be a future

The FPU thing makes this a dead end, no matter how you look at it. Unless if the CPU is changed there is just no way I can see this project succeed, at least for the PPC side of things.

Even if this thing would eventually get support for some project, it'd mean that there would have to be two set of binaries released for each application, library etc. It still would not make earlier binary only releases work.

BTW is Sam Jordan aware that the chosen CPU has an incompatible FPU?

[Piru]

Yes. Fortunatly he is looking at possibilities instead of rejecting it at first hand.

You think I am making this up and didn't look at the specs before rejecting it? Also, isn't this kind of backward thing to do: First create the HW around some CPU and then try to figure out if it can be used at all?

[Piru]

we can trap all FPU instructions

That should work, assuming the other differences can be handled in a similar manner. It remains to be seen what kind of performance impact it might have. WarpUP-WarpOS/Demos/cybermand will be the judge of that I guess.

As I recall it for some reason WOS exposes the supervisor side of the CPU to any apps though (Super() call). Hopefully that isn't used much.