MorphOS 2.0 Released

[amigakit]

MorphOS 2.0 has been released on time as promised.

Compatible with Efika motherboard

[mingle]

Well done to the MorphOS Team!

I don't have an Efika or Pegasos, but this seems to be a great achievement.

Any chance it'll ever run and other hardware, such as old G3/G4/G5 Macs? :-)

Cheers,

Mike

[takemehomegrandma]

@mingle

Who knows. Maybe one day in a distant future.

But it runs on Pegasos 1, Pegasos 2 and Efika ..--* NOW *--..!

:-D

 :pint:  :pint:  :pint:

[TheMagicM]

where are the $99 EFIKA motherboards??

[uncharted]

On the off-chance that any of the MOS devs read this - Congratulations on finishing 2.0, it's looking very nice.

Although I don't know if you should really be boasting about adding ED to the system ;-)

[takemehomegrandma]

TheMagicM wrote:
where are the $99 EFIKA motherboards??

The Efika is available brand new from many sources (with variations in location, price, terms, and bundled peripheral equipment):

Australians can try contacting ausPPC, he is a member of MorphZone.org, and he has this line in his sig:
"Want an Efika? I've got a bunch of 'em. Plus Pico PSUs & 9250s prefit into 5.25" cases. ausppc@gmail.com"

The (in our community) famous AmigaKit.com lists Efika motherboards in stock.

You can also buy complete systems or Efika motherboards from Vesalia who also has them in stock.

Scandinavian GGS Data was the one who shipped me my Efika. They are very flexible and good to deal with, and can build a system (even pre-installed with Xubuntu (or whatever) Linux) according to your wishes. I don't know whether they have boards in stock, or if they will restock if they haven't, but if you are Scandinavian and want to deal with a "local" dealer you could always try to e-mail gunne@ggsdata.se.

Americans could check out Directron.com, who are currently dumping their stock of Efika motherboards at only $99 a piece, they list them to be in stock. They also sell pre-built systems. Overseas customers and people with no credit card should try to e-mail them instead of using the web shop.

Also, Genesi has now reopened their web store, in time for MorphOS 2.0 release: https://www.genesi-usa.com/store.php  
This is the Efika motherboard built into a custom metal case with Pico PSU, HDD and GFX card. A complete and pre-assembled system in other word. They don't sell standalone motherboards.

Those were the options I can think of from the top of my mind... :-)

People wanting a second hand Pegasos 1 or Pegasos 2 (recommended) should try checking out the "For Sale" ads on various Amiga/MorphOS forums.

[DyLucke]

Sadly i do think Efika specs are too low for the actual
times, i don't intend to compare with current PC
monsters....

However a PPC603e 400mhz with only 128mb of RAM is way
too short.

Yep Efika is actually cheap and silent and low profiled
power comsumption. But despite Morphos can do very well
on that platform (i'm sure it will), specs are still
shooooooort. RISC PPC603e 400mhz 750mips.
That means equivalent to 2 Dreamcast cpus or 65% of a
GameCube cpu (360 and 1145 mips respectively)

Way behind from what we need actually, we need an Efika
with 3x processing power and at least 4x memory.
Morphos is a lightweighted system yep, but to be
competitive in these "heavy duty multitasking" days,
we need more power. Even opening an ordinary internet
page nowadays consumes huge amounts of memory and resources
bec they're heavy loaded of stuff. And i can't even
imagine browsing and playing some HD Divx and doing other
stuff at the same time with these specs. Sorry but i can't.
 
It's time to believe Morphos and Efika can be an
ALTERNATIVE to ordinary PC's, with less power yes
but with effective capabilities. And not just
a system to keep nostalgics alive.

Yes i'm maybe being too critic. But everytime
we get an alternative is totally outdated when it
sees the light.

I hope the manufacturer is working on a more powerful
Efika2 ASAP at least as powerful as the SAM440ep
and keeping the first Efika as Low-budget.
And Morphos 2.0 must have the ability to support this
new board.

Am i wrong?
By the way, why these two companies don't stop
of pulling on different directions and make some
common sense?

Greetings.

[redfox]

Congratulations to the MorphOS Development Team.
:cheers:

[amigadave]

Yes, a big congrats to the team for completing the next step in the development of MorphOS.

Does anyone know how and where to get the memory on an Efika mobo expanded to 512mb RAM?

Also, for comparison's sake, what is the speed difference between an Efika and the fastest PegasosII ever produced?

[Matt_H]

Also, for comparison's sake, what is the speed difference between an Efika and the fastest PegasosII ever produced?

600MHz, maybe?

In practical terms that's hard to say. MorphOS 1.4.5 is perfectly tolerable on a CSPPC and an Efika is twice the clockspeed and lacks other old hardware bottlenecks. Like all Amiga stuff, I'm sure it's responsive, but lacks raw crunching power for heavy duty stuff.

[djbase]

Its not only about the cpu speed. The Pegasos II has also better IDE controller, able to use USB2.0 cards and a G4 with AltiVec support. THe EFIKA is somewhere between a CSPPC 233 MHz and Pegasos G3/600 MHz.

[Jeff]

It looks like the final price for MorphOS 2.0 will be 150 Euro.

[djbase]

Jeff wrote:
It looks like the final price for MorphOS 2.0 will be 150 Euro.

Yes, not really cheap but you don't have to buy it.

I'm thinking about ordering an efika + video card from directron, but I don't want to lay out $95 for the case - that just seems unreasonable given it's size. Can anyone suggest a good, but cheap, case for an efika?

[edit:] bah! i figured out it's only $75 for the case and power supply if you order the video card separately... not a bad deal all around. can't wait to see it running...

[Jeff]

I appreciate the fact that the developers need to be paid for their work. This will only factor in if you want to know the total cost in advance before building a system. It's about the same as the cost of the hardware needed to run it if you recycle a couple of parts.

-Jeff