what is the EFIKA 5K2?

[AGSzabo]

its a ppc board that sells for $300

https://www.pegasosppc.com/store.php?category=19

will it run amiga os 4 or only morphos like the pegasos?

[maffoo]

It won't run OS4 as that would require a license.

It's a shame really, there are boards out there that could run OS4 if it weren't for the licensing issues...

[AGSzabo]

what boards? i know the troika amy 05, the powervixxen and the pegasos. what else? do you think of mac boards or what? well,  lets pray for that license..

[maffoo]

I was thinking of the Pegasos and Efika boards really, but a Mac port would be a great idea. There must be no end of people out there with old unused PPC Macs who would try OS4 just out of interest.

[Tigger]

AGSzabo wrote:
what boards? i know the troika amy 05, the powervixxen and the pegasos. what else? do you think of mac boards or what? well,  lets pray for that license..

Genesi has several boards, which are being produced, the Efika's (I think there are now going to be 3 models) and the price with the going into mass production is actually going to drop.   The Peg2 and they have the Quad G5 boards as well.  Mac we've discussed them alot.  Thats the desktop systems, though IBM, Freescale and Mercury all have other boards as well.  Shoot TIVO is PPC based, why doesnt it run OS4?   Because OS 4 is too expensive to be used for an embedded project like TIVO, and the Frieden boys havent ported there OS to anything thats actually being made right now despite the fact there hardware stopped being produced 18 months ago.
    -Tig

[JimS]

A local computer retailer (microcenter) is advertising PPC 1.4gHz mac minis at $449 USD.

[Tigger]

JimS wrote:
A local computer retailer (microcenter) is advertising PPC 1.4gHz mac minis at $449 USD.

Exactly.  If Hyperion said tomorrow.  OS4 runs on the Mac Mini, the OS is $125 with a USB dongle (to protect there product), there only problem with sales would be how to keep the USB dongles in stock.  There would be more people running it on the Mac Mini in a few weeks then run it on AmigaOnes.  Plus they'd get a working Firewire stack for free, how cool is that.
     -Tig

[humppa]

Exactly. If Hyperion said tomorrow. OS4 runs on the Mac Mini, the OS is $125 with a USB dongle (to protect there product), there only problem with sales would be how to keep the USB dongles in stock.

No. The problem before doing so would be to first convince Amiga Inc. to change/annul the OS4 contract. That contract requires hardware to be "marketed at the Amiga market". PPC Mac Mini's are therefore not included.

[Lando]

Tigger wrote:

JimS wrote:
A local computer retailer (microcenter) is advertising PPC 1.4gHz mac minis at $449 USD.

Exactly.  If Hyperion said tomorrow.  OS4 runs on the Mac Mini, the OS is $125 with a USB dongle (to protect there product), there only problem with sales would be how to keep the USB dongles in stock.  There would be more people running it on the Mac Mini in a few weeks then run it on AmigaOnes.  Plus they'd get a working Firewire stack for free, how cool is that.
     -Tig

A USB dongle would accomplish nothing apart from annoy people.  Anyone who was going to pirate it would just get the 'hacked' version from bittorrent with the dongle protection removed, so the only people being penalized by being forced to use the dongle would be the people who actually paid for it.  This would have the reverse effect, and actually encourage people to download it rather than buy it.

Regardless it's still better to sell 50,000 copies with a 50% piracy rate than sell 1000 copies with a 0% piracy rate.

[Tigger]

No. The problem before doing so would be to first convince Amiga Inc. to change/annul the OS4 contract. That contract requires hardware to be "marketed at the Amiga market". PPC Mac Mini's are therefore not included.

Thats your interpretation and if its true, none of the current efforts will work either.   ACK & Troika are back to buying COTS boards which aren't marketed to the Amiga market, and thus will fail.  No embedded hardware (the real home of OS4 (TM)) is marketed at the Amiga market.  So basically you theory is that the only hardware that OS4 can run on is the three Teron models that can no longer be manufactured?   And I though I was a pessimist.
    -Tig

[Tigger]

Lando wrote:

A USB dongle would accomplish nothing apart from annoy people.  Anyone who was going to pirate it would just get the 'hacked' version from bittorrent with the dongle protection removed, so the only people being penalized by being forced to use the dongle would be the people who actually paid for it.

I agree with you, with the exception that a USB dongle is as secure as the AmigaOne Rom Dongle.  The only reason that worked is that the board worked so poorly they were only sold to Amiga Users.   Thats copy protection for you, make you product so bad, noone else will want the hardware to run you OS.
    -Tig

[humppa]

Thats your interpretation and if its true, none of the current efforts will work either.

Yes, they will most likely fail.

ACK & Troika are back to buying COTS boards which aren't marketed to the Amiga market, and thus will fail.

No. This only applies to Troika's so called "high-end" board. ACK have own designs. Troika would probably license/relabel a 3rd party design and market it to the Amiga market. This is different from PPC Macs.

So basically you theory is that the only hardware that OS4 can run on is the three Teron models that can no longer be manufactured?

No, this is not my theory, see above. If a "company" such as ACK or Troika will have either an own hw-design or a licensed 3rd party hw-design and approach Amiga Inc, then there are possibilities that this hardware becomes "OS4-licensed". Still rather unlikely, but after all more realistic than Amiga Inc. granting a license for PPC Macs.

[Tigger]

humppa wrote:

No. This only applies to Troika's so called "high-end" board. ACK have own designs. Troika would probably license/relabel a 3rd party design and market it to the Amiga market. This is different from PPC Macs.

How??  ACK at this point has shown nothing.  The Troika board has been sold to lots of people already and both ACK and Troika are seeking to sell there boards to the Linux community (which is doomed to fail, because they are much more expensive then the Genesi and Apple alternatives).  I and other have offered to relabel macs and Pegasus' for the Amiga Market, there is no interest from Hyperion, a mac port would be hard, ask Benji, he told me that on more then one occasion, at Amiwest he told me it, and I and a bunch of others who actually develop for a living laughed at him.  Believing that a much more expensive and less powerful hardware is the solution is part of what got the Unholy Trio in trouble in the first place.

Still rather unlikely, but after all more realistic than Amiga Inc. granting a license for PPC Macs.

Why??   What possible reasoning do you have here?   In fact Hyperion has never said that they couldnt do it because of licensing issues, they say its TOOOOOO HARD.  Which is funny as hell, because if they aren't technically competant enough to port there OS to working hardware with fully functional Open Source OS already running on it, they cant begin to play in the embedded market.  
      -Tig