What is unique to AmigaOne?

[persia]

What is unique about AmigaOne that allows OS4 to run on it as opposed to any PPC base PC?

[actung_bab]

well l think it has a bootloader built into its bios chip
but not called bios but acts in simalar ways.
u can run os 4 classic on ppc classic amigas .
but what l think your asking is can u run it on say mac running ppc answer is no, as people that make ppc have only licence for classic amigas and a1s at the moment.

[Matt_H]

A more appropriate question would be "What is it about OS4 that prevents it from running on generic PPC hardware?"

There's the bootloader issue, because the bootloader is tied to UBoot, specifically the special OS4 dongle code in the A1's UBoot. That mix of propriatary and GPL code has caused some controversy and I'm starting to form a negative opinion about said mix, but I won't go into it here.

Then, of course, there's the driver issue. The A1 is the only machine that actually has drivers for all its components. The current release of OS4 supports only 2 graphics chipsets, a handful of IDE/SATA controllers, and 2 networking chipsets, all of which are now uncommon due to obsolescence. The odds of other machines having the components needed for a fully-functional system are minute, so an official "port" is needed to provide drivers.