Aos 3 -> aos 4

[commodorejohn]

Someone manufactures PPC Mac clones? Probably Dave Haynie still have his Mac clone schematics so he will bring them on the market. Until this happens, the new Amiga hardware is getting developed all the time (including the Natami).

You do realize the Mac is entirely a software system, right? That's the whole reason they've managed two architecture changes and one massive ROM alteration so effortlessly, and the whole reason ShapeShifter works. Basically any PPC hardware could be made to run Mac OS 8-X with some modification, or more likely, another OS with a simple compatibility layer for Mac applications.

Probably at some point China will be forced to abide by copyright :lol:

Hah, not as long as we're so dependent on them for cheap manufactured goods, they won't

[drHirudo]

You do realize the Mac is entirely a software system, right?

If this was true then MorphOS and AmigaOS would have been ported to PPC Macs overnight. The fact that it took so much time to the Morphosians to port their OS to Mac, either conflicts your theory or speaks about the capabilities of the MOS coders.

[commodorejohn]

If this was true then MorphOS and AmigaOS would have been ported to PPC Macs overnight. The fact that it took so much time to the Morphosians to port their OS to Mac, either conflicts your theory or speaks about the capabilities of the MOS coders.

I'm speaking of the Mac operating system. Mac applications have always been entirely dependent on defined system calls (aside from a few badly-behaved programs that wrote to the hardware in the early days,) therefore all that needs to happen for a computer on the same processor architecture is for that computer to respond to those system calls in the defined way, via an intermediary compatibility layer that translates them into suitable requests for the native OS.

Porting an existing OS to new hardware is an entirely different kettle of fish - you have to figure out how to interface with the hardware and whatever it has in the way of a BIOS (no small task, especially when the hardware in question is as proprietary and undocumented as Apple's - they don't even use standard form factors, for crying out loud.)

[Piru]

No, 'cos UAE is no classic machine.

It actually is. These days WinUAE emulates ton of different kind of setups and does it really well. There really is no way to tell it apart from the real thing.

For example the audio output has improved tremendously as of late (due to support for the low latency interfaces).

BTW just gave the latest WinUAE with built-in AROS KS ROM replacement a go. As expected WB 1.3 doesn't quite work:

WB 3.1 however did much better, giving me the "Workbook" desktop. It did quickly crash however:


That being said it will mostly be used to launch bootable games and for that it's more than enough already. Really cool stuff.

[Piru]

Someone manufactures PPC Mac clones?

No. But the support for the existing base of PPC Macs will easily surpass that of Sam or X1000. Simple example: From where can you get spare parts or repairs for AmigaONE SE/XE?

Probably Dave Haynie still have his Mac clone schematics so he will bring them on the market.

I doubt that very much.

Probably some Chinese manufacturer will start producing Mac clones at some stage in the future, that will be compatible with MorphOS.

Highly unlikely.

[SamuraiCrow]

Something like Blitzen for copper?

Blitzen covers only the blitter functionality, IIRC.  For the Copper emulation, you'd need shader support which may someday come from Gallium3D drivers.  It's not there yet, drHirudo.

[Piru]

If this was true then MorphOS and AmigaOS would have been ported to PPC Macs overnight.

MorphOS was ported to Mac mini G4 in a very short period of time (minimal port was done in 48 hours) and largely by a single individual. Writing the drivers and polishing things enough to warrant a release took a bit longer.

The fact that it took so much time to the Morphosians to port their OS to Mac ... speaks about the capabilities of the MOS coders.

I agree. At least I'd like to think we're doing a professional job by not releasing alpha stage OS to paying customers.

[Piru]

Nalle Puh can do the work in software (cheaper).

But does it actually work these days? The word is that it doesn't.

[Kronos]

. The Pegasos was a nice machine 7 years ago, but the Sam 460 beats it.

The SAM might run at similar clockspeed, but that is a core 2 generations older than the G4 lacking Altivec.

So in reality you bound to see many reallife benchmarks were that old Peg2 beats the crap out of the brand-new SAM and some more were the SAM is slightly faster.....


Until you throw a MacMini/PMac or PowerBook clocked at 1.5GHz or higher into the mix ....

[itix]

I'd like to know why people using AOS 3 doesn't jump on the AOS 4 train?

Since H&P's Aminet CDs sold like crazy I guess OS4 could have done better if it was ported to 68k.

[TheBilgeRat]

I agree. At least I'd like to think we're doing a professional job by not releasing alpha stage OS to paying customers.

Nice  that seems reasonable!

[persia]

It is quite possible to write an OS to be processor neutral or at least easily portable to another architecture.  That's what OS X has done.  iOS is just a port of OS X to ARM.  If the authors of OS4 were thinking ahead they would have done so with OS4.  Sadly they weren't....

[Franko]

It actually is. These days WinUAE emulates ton of different kind of setups and does it really well. There really is no way to tell it apart from the real thing.

I think a couple of things, like the WinUAE titlebar and the fact that you'd be most likely running it on a PC might just be a wee bit of a giveaway...

[bloodline]

@Piru when 1.3 panics during boot (on the AROS ROM), simply type Loadwb and the boot continues

[commodorejohn]

I think a couple of things, like the WinUAE titlebar and the fact that you'd be most likely running it on a PC might just be a wee bit of a giveaway...

You could tape an "Amiga" banner to the top of the monitor, but unfortunately CUSA has the patent on that

[HotRod]

Better performance than a 50Mhz machine... wow! amazing! wonderful! let's bring more popcorn! We would seriously have a problem if performance/price ratio wasn't much better than 7 years ago... what? did I hear you say Pegasos2-G4/1Ghz for 500€? nahhh I'm sure our wonderful 2011 brand new boing ball hardware is way faster and cheaper than that 7 year old hardware released in small batches :-P

I was offcourse (but hey, I was expecting too much from you) talking about a CSPPC with AOS 4 on it. If that's what you're stuck it but it feels fast enough any of the SAMs, A1s or X1000 will be faster.

I can't believe that I have to explain this to you.