Request about OS Development

[Papa6]

I'm a user from the Amiga500 days. I got my one and only Amiga500 in 1989/90'ish.

I have Amiga forever & I bought a licensed, legal version of AO 4.1 FE.

This may sound stupid but can the OS be developed for the x86_64 CPU's?

I know the OS is coded for a different architecture. But an x86_64 version, I could enjoy multibooting into the OS on my system at home.

:lol: just a thought I had is all.

-p6

[kreciu]

Good luck with this request. I think devs. think that if you run AmigaOS on intel world will end. Running AmigaOS on cheap and fast HW. Never.

[giZmo350]

I have Amiga forever & I bought a licensed, legal version of AO 4.1 FE.  

This may sound stupid but can the OS be developed for the x86_64 CPU's?


-p6

NO! That's what all the fuss is always about here! :roflmao:

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

To do "development" requires two things: developers and money. Both of which are in short supply.

[giZmo350]

To do "development" requires two things: developers and money. Both of which are in short supply.

Or perhaps a third option? Papa6, can you write up an "RFP"?

[LoadWB]

You must be new around these here parts.

[giZmo350]

You must be new around these here parts.

:roflmao::lol::roflmao::lol::laughing:

[rshimada]

This may sound stupid but can the OS be developed for the x86_64 CPU's?

There have been attempts.

One project that isn't dead yet is http://www.aros.org/introduction/

[pVC]

This may sound stupid but can the OS be developed for the x86_64 CPU's?

You would lose backwards binary compatibility with old Amiga software then, that's the major point why we are using PPC.

And backwards compatibility has been the major issue why AROS hasn't got more popular over all these years...

[LoadWB]

Eh, PPC doesn't run 680x0 natively, does it?  Doesn't MorphOS and AmigaOS4 have an emulation layer for this?  Why can't AROS?

[guest11527]

I
This may sound stupid but can the OS be developed for the x86_64 CPU's?

Well, this would make more sense than PPC, but - on an absolute scale - is still not a very sensible thing to do. Using x86 instead of PPC would have been an "ok" choice back then when porting the Os to another architecture seemed like a good idea, like 15 years ago, but nowadays, it looks simply insane to me.

Frankly, there are many better operating sytems for x86_64 on the market than AmigaOs, and given the non-availability of software for Os 4.x anyhow, why would one want to shrink the software pool once again by going to another platform (again).

[bloodline]

Eh, PPC doesn't run 680x0 natively, does it?  Doesn't MorphOS and AmigaOS4 have an emulation layer for this?  Why can't AROS?

AROS is "AmigaOS" on x86_64, and it is a really fun project, I have learnt so much from it and a really recommend trying it out!

Thomas is correct though, from an architectural pint of view the design goals of AmigaOS are far removed from what is needed in an operating system in 2017.

As for adding an inbuilt 68k emulator to a x86_64, I tried it, and hit two problems: endianess (which was quite easy, but very time consuming to solve) and address space size. Unfortunately as soon as the OS and the app operate in different size address spaces they can no longer share data structures, which is a a key architectural design feature of AmigaOS (other operating systems are far more strict about control of the address space).

You can read my issues here: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=72059

[LoadWB]

Obviously there's a difference in man-power and funding, but has anyone done an analysis of how Apple moved MacOS from PPC to Intel and the application of those ideas to AmigaOS?

[guest11527]

Obviously there's a difference in man-power and funding, but has anyone done an analysis of how Apple moved MacOS from PPC to Intel and the application of those ideas to AmigaOS?

Well, you kow how to become a millionaire? Be a billionaire, and inverst the billions into Amiga development - it's really so easy. Apple had money, funding, and a paying customer base. Now look. See the difference?

[ferrellsl]

AROS is "AmigaOS" on x86_64, and it is a really fun project, I have learnt so much from it and a really recommend trying it out!

Thomas is correct though, from an architectural pint of view the design goals of AmigaOS are far removed from what is needed in an operating system in 2017.

As for adding an inbuilt 68k emulator to a x86_64, I tried it, and hit two problems: endianess (which was quite easy, but very time consuming to solve) and address space size. Unfortunately as soon as the OS and the app operate in different size address spaces they can no longer share data structures, which is a a key architectural design feature of AmigaOS (other operating systems are far more strict about control of the address space).

You can read my issues here: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=72059

Who really cares about an inbuilt, seamless emulator for 68K apps on x86_64 AROS?  Are the folks who use x86_64 AROS really using 68K software?  That's a rhetorical question and the answer is no.  They're using AROS native apps.  So what's wrong with using the non-seamless UAE on AROS if they really, really want to run 68K apps on AROS?  That's what x86_64 users have been doing on Linux, MacOS and Windows for years and it works great.  So the argument that we shouldn't adopt the x86 architecture in order to retain 68K legacy compatibility is ridiculous.  You have to let go of the past to move forward.  Microsoft did....you can't run DOS apps on the current Windows nor Win16 apps without emulation or virtual machines.  Same goes for Apple.  You can't run classic OS9 or PPC apps on current Macs....both parties now rely on emulators or virtual machines for legacy support....DOSBox, VMWare, UAE, VirtualBox, etc...This obsessing over legacy compatibility has led to a dead end street.