@Hyperspeed
if Phase5 made the PowerPC cards and software to control them (PowerUP) then why did some 3rd party group make another program to control the PPC (WarpOS)?
H&P (incl Sam Jordan, Steffen Haeuser et all) got some
PPC developer boards for preparing the first PPC software for the new PowerUP hardware, using the PowerUP (ppc.library) system software.
The early PowerUP beta software had some performance issues, which naturally were later ironed out. PowerUP relied much on the existing, industry standard file formats, compilers and tools (ELF, gcc, binutils, ixemul and GeekGadgets etc).
For some reason instead of waiting for the fix, Haage & Partner felt necessary to disassemble and reverse-engineer the PowerUP solution and replace it with their own. By doing this they thought they would fix the performance and other issues. Another motivation behind all this was the feeling of un-amigaism they felt against the tools (gcc) and file formats (ELF) used in PowerUP. Any further motives are everyone's best guess.
Some of the arguments are well visible in
the WOS announcement and other posts made by the WOS advocates.
However, they were gravely mistaken. The problems were NOT in software, but hardware (dual processor system without cache snooping requires full cacheflushes when swapping cpus. This can't be fixed with software, and WOS has exact the same performance issues as PUP. Only if the 68K cpu is completely disabled the HW can run full speed). The in-their-mind un-amigaish file formats and tools were actually the future (they're used in MorphOS
and AmigaOS4!).
Regardless they managed to push their own agenda and system further, and basically replacing PUP pretty much (mainly because many games and software titles were released for WOS).
Many old-guard hardcore developers tried to point out that what they were doing was rather stupid and pointless, and that their arguments about GCC and ELF ("
ELF is a monster !!!") being un-amiga and slow were just plain wrong. Backing their custom solutions, custom compiler (StormC 3 was really crappy) and other tools proved to be a mistake. Later StormC 4.x was based on GCC. AmigaOS would embrace and adopt ELF for executable file format. WOS would prove nearly impossible to support/emulate properly in the next gen systems (which WOS was claimed to be!), mainly due to some very low level hw access WOS revealed to user programs.
Many of the trenches that were laid back then are very much there still; much of the developers that felt PUP was the way were or are involved in development of MorphOS, while many of the WOS advocates are backing OS4. This doesn't apply to everyone naturally, but the ideological division between the groups is
eerily similar.
PS. I was/am PUP/MorphOS guy, so I surely am biased. I am sure others will provide alternative views.
