ARM for the future?

[runequester]

For years people have been discussing a potential alternative route to PPC for "Next Generation Amiga", a discussion that has only become more relevant since PPC effectively went dead for all interesting purposes a few years back.
 
Often has these discussions been focused on x86, but as many people has pointed out, its endianness would probably be a show stopper. Other people feels that x86 is a show stopper in its own merits, because of various historical/"nerd-religious"/emotional reasons.
 
However, there might be a better alternative, if a new platform jump is to take place; ARM!
 
I have written a few posts over at MorphZone about this, and I'm not going to cross-post, but point you to it:
 
http://www.morphzone.org/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7675&sortname=&sortorder=&sortdays=&viewmode=flat&order=0&start=0
 
(Don't miss the video with Windows and Office running on ARM!
 
So a lot has been happening on the ARM front recently, and a *solid* momentum and future for the platform is being built up.
 
So what do you think? Would ARM qualify as a new architecture for *miga?

I dont see why not. Linux already runs on it fine, and there's a massive amount of different boards available, low power requirements, low heat, and getting pretty good performance out of them.
 
It's definately the future

[runequester]

x86 benefited greatly by having AMD and Intel trying to outdo each other on the PC market. On the other side(PPC), there was no market to engage in that kind of competition.
ARM might just be able to outdo PPC there. Windows on ARM might be just what it needs. But it remains to be seen what kind of performance those ARM chips will provide and what kind of animal WinARM will be

As of January of this year, a total of 15 billion ARM processors have shipped. I think they are doing pretty well.
 
For the majority of people, life is about embedded devices, not clunky PC's.
 
Whether microsoft can actually adapt to that will be interesting.

[runequester]

Crap code is the refuge of corporations with customer bases willing to pay repeatedly for deteriorating performance and non-existing feature improvements.

[runequester]

Why is it obvious? It is not so obvious to me at least.
 
 
 
Don't think so. Classic Amigas have just not enough computing power to be a serious competition for MorphOS and AmigaOS 4. Natami (if ever released), won't help much.

I dont really think there's any real competition. People who are into this stuff seem to check out multiple options, and people who aren't into amiga, don't care about any of the options.

[runequester]

Curious:
When you say "stock A1200" do you mean "68K machine with extra ram etc" or "A1200 with 2 megs chip ram" ?

[runequester]

Im not going to name anyone, but it's amazing to see how many "amigans" seem to be more or less clueless about the very system they defend. It's also disappointing to see others trash amiga based systems they clearly dont use or know about, but will still happily talk rubbish about.
 
For a "community" that touts itself as being technoligcally savvy there sure is a large portion that is clueless (even if they like to think otherwise).

Its kind of a microcosm of computer users in general
 
You get the people who are classic hardware only
You get the Morph and OS4 and AROS people
You get the people who are here only to point out that amiga is dead (linux geeks, windows tools and mac fanboys included here)
and probably one atari guy who's too afraid to speak up, lest we all unite against him

[runequester]

There are probably more coders working just on the Linux kernel today then there were developers for Amiga software even at it's height to give you an idea of the scale of the mountain you're looking to go up.

Given that I don't think HP, Intel, IBM etc ever worked for the amiga, I'd wager you are right.

The linux kernel is a pretty amazing collaboration between disparate corporations and independents.

Amiga coming back was a great dream in 1997, which was realistically the last chance it ever had. In 2011 that same dream leaves a truly bitter taste in one's mouth. It's a retro hobby system and I'm sorry to have to repeat this, but that is all it will ever be at this late stage of the game. Minimig (and perhaps one day Natami if/when it's released) really do show the way to go in terms of the future of the Amiga. UAE for anyone else.

Keep it hobby, and it'll keep flourishing. Thats where we should be, and thats what we should work towards.

[runequester]

A hobby that still has some utility. I can deal with that. I don't think the amount of work going into this affects our hobbyist status. More its the fact that no one is likely to get rich developing for this market.

oh, I totally agree with you.