Amiga Multitask

[lassie]

I find it quite cool that Amiga in 1985 could multitask, with as low as 250 kb ram, not even Windows 3.1 could multitask, you could only use one program at the time. The Amiga was ahead of its time in 1985, and some years to come :-) I only wish i had an Amiga 1000 :-) it looks like a nice machine. Are any of you lucky enough to own an Amiga 1000?

[Thorham]

I find it quite cool than Amiga in 1985 could multitask

Preemptive multitasking is nothing special, any CPU that can save registers, program counter and stack pointer can do it. That means machines such as the C64, MSX, and other 8 bitters can do preemptive multitasking as well

[desiv]

That means machines such as the C64, MSX, and other 8 bitters can do preemptive multitasking as well

"Can do" and "actually did" are different.
I believe he is saying he is impressed that the Amiga actually did it..

And yes, it was impressive.  The Amiga OS was a very impressive step forward at the time.
No, it wasn't the only multi-tasking OS at the time, but for the market and the functionality, it was really incredible...

Yep, I have and love my A1000...
Great machine..

desiv

[psxphill]

And yes, it was impressive. The Amiga OS was a very impressive step forward at the time.

It was the first time most people got to use a pre-emptive multi tasking computer in the comfort of their own home. So in that regard it was impressive.
 
Windows was not a big deal for Microsoft in 1985, they joined forces with IBM to make OS/2 & that was supposed to be the next big thing. But five years later and people were still buying Windows and not OS/2. Microsoft chased the money and while it gained them customers, they didn't produce the most technically compelling products. But in business it's customers that are happy to keep giving you money that count.

[JimS]

I only wish i had an Amiga 1000 :-) it looks like a nice machine. Are any of you lucky enough to own an Amiga 1000?

I still have my original A1000 purchased new in 86 or so.... it's resting in it's box right now. ;-) retired after years of service.

[lassie]

I still have my original A1000 purchased new in 86 or so.... it's resting in it's box right now. ;-) retired after years of service.

Do you ever power it up to see if it still works

[Thorham]

"Can do" and "actually did" are different.
I believe he is saying he is impressed that the Amiga actually did it..

All I'm saying is that preemptive multitasking isn't impressive from the computer hardware's point of view, because just about anything can do it properly

[JimS]

Do you ever power it up to see if it still works

Not lately. I do remember that the internal floppy was dead. I used a HD and external floppy to run it. I found a second 1000 at the Goodwill for 7 bucks with the intent to salvage the drive... but when I tried that one out, and it worked, I couldn't bring myself to gut it.
My 2000 is also retired.... but it lives on as an HD image for UAE.

[ElPolloDiabl]

The Amiga 1000 looks nice. Don't forget you have to load the OS first, no rom.
Also upgrades are minimal.
Personally I would be depressed if I had one, I would just think about what direction the Amiga could have gone in.

[tone007]

The A1000 was stylish enough, I had one or two but didn't find much use for them since I already owned much more usable Amigas.  I guess it would've been different back in 1985.

[itix]

I find it quite cool that Amiga in 1985 could multitask, with as low as 250 kb ram, not even Windows 3.1 could multitask, you could only use one program at the time. The Amiga was ahead of its time in 1985, and some years to come :-) I only wish i had an Amiga 1000 :-) it looks like a nice machine. Are any of you lucky enough to own an Amiga 1000?

It was impressive but I have to admit it was impossible to run Deluxe Paint and Kindwords same time even with 1024 kB RAM.

[kamelito]

It was impressive but I have to admit it was impossible to run Deluxe Paint and Kindwords same time even with 1024 kB RAM.

 it was not because of the OS but because of these programs. Kamelito

[commodorejohn]

The Amiga 1000 looks nice. Don't forget you have to load the OS first, no rom.

You had to load Kickstart, but it did have a ROM, or they'dve had to include a front panel for you to toggle the loader in with ;P

[Zac67]

... not even Windows 3.1 could multitask, you could only use one program at the time.

To be precise, Windows 3.x did multitask, at least on a 386 - however, only on the much more primitive, cooperative level (which the application needed to allow and some just didn't). Amiga OS offered preemptive multitasking from the beginning - a feature which required 10 years to reach the mainstream Windows platform (Windows 95).

[bbond007]

To be precise, Windows 3.x did multitask, at least on a 386 - however, only on the much more primitive, cooperative level (which the application needed to allow and some just didn't). Amiga OS offered preemptive multitasking from the beginning - a feature which required 10 years to reach the mainstream Windows platform (Windows 95).

It would preemptively multitask DOS applications, just not windows applications until Windows 95. Even within Windows95 I believe all applications shared a common message queue, which was a point of failure for smooth multitasking.

Anyway, there is nothing really magical about preemptive multitasking in just 256K of ram(or less), and if you had a A1000 with just 256K of ram, you probably were not doing much multitasking anyway...

The preemptive multitasking was just one of the many cool features. The GUI, and API and custom hardware were equally important.

Cinemaware games were a good example of what could be achieved in the OS (with the hardware) without banging on the hardware directly...