They better check that thermostat down in hell, because, believe it or not, AmigaOS4 has found a computer to run on - a computer which we will actually be able to buy. I kid you not. "After months of designs and negotiations Amiga, Inc. and ACK Software Controls, Inc. are pleased to announce that new hardware is on its way for Amiga users. Initially, two systems will be produced that address two different market needs. The first is a consumer entry design that will offer a complete product with a target price point of USD 500, while the second will be of a power design that would have a target price point of USD 1500. The PowerPC architecture will continue to be the architecture of choice for these new systems. Manufacturing and final price information along with product launch schedules will be following in the next week." Sure they can fly.
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Actually, the developers of AmigaOS 4.0 made a comment about this:
It would be eminently suitable for - and relatively trivial to port to - the STI Cell processor used in the Playstation 3*
If it's a trivial port, why haven't they done it yet? I would buy a PSAmiga...
* http://os4.hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php%3Foption=conten... *
Member since:2006-01-04
If it's a trivial port, why haven't they done it yet? I would buy a PSAmiga...
The people who CAN (Hyperion and its contractors) have been stuck in license hell for a while. They've wanted to support certain things, but by contract are not allowed to until a license for that hardware is obtained. For a long time Amiga Inc. was not responding to license requests. If they ignore you, you have no license, and thus those who can are not allowed to port. A while ago Amiga Inc. suprised us by announcing the SAM440 board was to be licensed, when most of us thought we were just waiting around for the ship to finish sinking. Now this. Did the ship settle onto a sandbar or something???
If only there was a laptop option...
Member since:
2005-07-06
We can always hope it will be a nice little system for around $500. It will interesting to see the specs next week.
PS3's are nice but they seem to lack drivers (taking YDL as an example) that can take advantage of all the peripherals and subsystems. They are also probably harder to get than these new machines will be. 
Buying (more like FINDING) my Wii was a very frustrating experience. ;(
I wonder what the form factor will be?
Member since:2005-07-06
You're assuming that they're going to hack away at it. The problem is with PS3 is you're at the mercy as to whether Sony will provide the relevant specifications.
Now, in theory, since Amiga is closed source/proprietary, protection of PS3 technology is a assured, but its whether Sony is willing to co-operate. Add to that the fact that the PS3 processor isn't the easiest thing to write code for, I'm sure there was a reasonable logic behind the decision.
Edited 2007-04-23 16:30
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And you have major comprehension problems; this is the *second* time you have no interpreted the post properly; Amiga themselves pay for the porting of the operating system, Amiga themselves port the operating system to PS3. The *only* involvement that Sony plays is providing the specifications.
Ergo, it is Amiga who makes the decision whether to port it to PS3, it is Amiga who pays for the porting to PS3.
Goodness gracious me.
Member since:2006-01-04
I remember reading that, in Amiga Inc's licensing terms, hardware manufactures have to pay for the porting costs of OS 4 if they want to run it on their platform.
Not exactly true. Amiga Inc's licensing terms appear to be related to permitting it or not. Without an Amiga Inc. license, nothing is allowed to happen, so why bother. If you do somehow manage to obtain this mythical license, now you are allowed to participate in other aspects of the Amiga platform situation. Such as, Hyperion who have the OS software code, want to be paid for their programmers' time and effort to port to this hardware.
And the hardware manufacturer is not required to be the one doing anything. Of course Sony would not want to do that. Of course Apple would not. But an interested 3rd party can if he wants to. I want OS4 on an iBook. I don't have to wait for Apple to pay, I can pay, and be a reseller of ibook/OS4 packages to make my money back. And with a laptop, I think I would. Unfortunately Amiga ignored me on that proposal.
Member since:2007-02-17
Actually, PS3 is selling so bad at the moment, you could probably find them on store shelfs gathering dust. Wii is a whole other story, you don't want to know what I had to go through trying to get one for my nephew before Christmas and I still wasn't able to get him one. The PS3's price point and lack of games is not sitting well with gamers. Nintendo has always been good at attracting non-hardcore gamers and the Wii is no exception, it is crafted so that everyone can play not just hardcore gaming fans. Its like in the 80's with Atari, I used to see old people playing pac-man. Nintendo's first system was a monster and mostly due to their broad appeal.
Anyways on topic. If Sony would release the drivers (which I really don't see them doing until they pretty much milked the cow dry), using it as a computer isn't a good idea, especially with the amount of ram it has.
Edited 2007-04-23 17:51
Member since:2006-03-27
PS3's are nice but they seem to lack drivers (taking YDL as an example) that can take advantage of all the peripherals and subsystems.
Actually, it's Sony that doesn't want Linux (or any other OS) to take advantage of the PS3. Linux is running inside a sort of VM, so it just can't access the graphics chip; this ensures that you can't write a game for the PS3 without paying Sony.
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2005-07-07
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"Adam Kawalkcyk aka ACK Software Controls is a member of the AmigaOS 4 development team. He has access to the source code of AmigaOS 4 so he can write the drivers himself if he wants to."
Adam "Walter Mitty" K does not own the copyright to the AmigaOS4 source code, therefore he has no legal right to distribute it even if he did port it, without the consent of the copyright holders.
Said copyright holders are many and varied.
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If amiga INC realy need money, it could be a chance to buy the AmigaOS code and free it.
I'll never understand this open-source ideology. If you need money, then spend money on this thing and then give it away for free. That sounds like I have less money than when I started... How is one guaranteed to see profit there??
Amiga Inc. for years has ignored people wanting to give them money for AmigaOS licensing, a situation where Amiga doesn't have to actually do anything themselves other than collect royalty payments. I'd find it difficult to believe if Amiga Inc. would be willing to spend any money on it.
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Here are the keywords:
"on its way", "will offer", "target price point", "will be", "would have", "will continue to be",
and if by then you still didn't get the point:
"Manufacturing and final price information along with product launch schedules will be following in the next week."
All those things mean: "we have nothing yet but we're really excited", aka vaporware.
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runnin' on those.
http://www.templeoftech.com/viewarticlepage.cka?articleid=62&pageid...
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2006-03-27
This is nonsense. A $500 PPC computer will be slower than a $500 x86 laptop, and who is willing to pay $1500 for a computer with only 1/1000th of the software that any other $1500 computer can have?
With a PS3, instead, you can have dozens of games to play with, and a damn powerful processor if you really care about that.
Member since:2005-06-29
The PS3 is a game console made by a company who'd rather kill its own babies than being anything even related to the word "open" (I can know, I'm a MiniDisc enthusiast).
Other than that, despite the fact that the PS3's processor is PPC-based, it is not actually a PowerPC processor. You can't just get some G4 or G3 code and run it on a Cell. Porting AmigaOS4 (or any other OS for that matter) to it will be a huge task. Especially for a company like Amiga, Inc, who are probably even poorer than I am.
I'm getting a bit tired of people everywhere claiming the PS3 is the holy grail of alternative operating systems. It isn't, and it won't be.
Member since:2006-06-13
I think you are being overly critical there. The fact is that this Sony-produced unit has user-replaceable parts, support for memory sticks other than MS, support for Linux (I run Gentoo using freevo and it's damn near perfect without the video acceleration) ... if this is killing it's own babies then one must conclude that Microsoft and in particular Nintendo would rather kill their AND your babies before letting this happen.
And what will you be saying if RSX support is added in a future upgrade? Saying never is near sighted under any cirumstances, but saying never 5 month's into a 5+ year lifespan is foolish.
Edited 2007-04-23 18:51
Member since:2005-07-06
Other than that, despite the fact that the PS3's processor is PPC-based, it is not actually a PowerPC processor. You can't just get some G4 or G3 code and run it on a Cell.
The PPE in the Cell is a standard PowerPC v2.02 ISA compliant processor. You can run G3, G4 and even G5 binaries.
That said a re-compile is a good idea for performance reasons.
Porting AmigaOS4 (or any other OS for that matter) to it will be a huge task. Especially for a company like Amiga, Inc, who are probably even poorer than I am.
A research OS was ported a while back and the developer said it was easy. A 32 bit port to the PPE of OS4 should be relatively trivial.
Taking advantage of the SPEs is a different question but even there you're not starting from scratch as you have the IBM reference implementation.
Member since:2006-03-27
I never said that. I'm just saying that a really alternative computer which can compete with x86 PCs' price and speed is not going to arise, period.
If you want an "alternative" machine, of all the possibilities out there, the best you can get is a second hand PowerMac or a PS3.
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2007-04-23
The people running Amiga will never see any success...
They won't allow amigaos to run on anything but specifically designed PPC machines with custom firmware, this is meant to prevent piracy... What it really means is:
There is no cheap route of entry into the AmigaOS market, i know many people who would happily try amigaos, but won't stump up for a specific machine to run it exclusively. Many people would be willing to buy a cheap used ppc mac for trying amigaos.
Piracy increases userbase, microsoft didnt get where they are today without a huge amount of piracy boosting their userbase. More users means more software being produced, which provides more reasons to use the os. it was also piracy that made the amiga in the first place, 95% of amiga users i ever met bought the machines because pirating games was so easy.
If amigaos was ported to generic ppc, and/or x86 then the potential userbase would be much larger.
If amigaos was ported to some of the games consoles too, all the major consoles are ppc based now so it wouldnt be especially hard. lots of parents bought their kids amigas because they could be used for educational purposes, as well as playing games... a ps3 running amigaos fits this area too.
as it stands, amigaos will be a very niche platform, selling a very small number of units to what few amiga die-hards remain, it wont attract any new users.
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2006-12-31
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Now, here's the 64-bit question: Does Amiga still have a chance?
Sure, Amiga was king for multimedia applications back in the day, and it had a vivid fanbase. But then, it went nowhere as its owner changed from one hand to the next. With ten years and up stuck in developer hell, there's no sign that any real updating has taken place that would allow AmigaOS to even keep even with the others, much less offer anything novel. Now, Windows is the king of multimedia applications, Linux is the fad operating system of choice for trendy rebellion against the Man, and Amiga has nothing but nostalgia on its side.
Heck, if you go to www.amiga.com now, all the software that Amiga Inc. is selling is for Microsoft OSs. That's a sign of the times.
(Then again, I'll probably be getting an Amiga if they come out. I've been looking for a good Windows competitor for a long time.)
Member since:
2007-04-23
porting amigaos onto ps3 would be win - win situation for both parites
PS3 is great system and has guaranteed future for next few years. It wil take few years until all features of PS3 get utilized. Dont worry, its market success is guaranteed. It will take time, but with huge ps2 install base and future price drops it will get more attractive.
If Sony want to make PS3 more than game console, Linux wont do.
Let be honest, linux is not perfect companion for home console, but something smaller, more elegant, more fun is
and that is Amigaos.
AmigaOs is lightweight os just perfect for home computing (note, not personal computing but home computing) It is responsible for birth of demo scene etc.
I bet in Europe there are at least 500 000 people for whom Amiga is part of the better past. They are potential market. So Sony should embrace and make initial contact toward Amiga. Even finance port.
finally, dont forget that one of the fathers of Amiga, RJ MICAL is now important emplooyee at Sony, responsible for PS3, so imo he would be best person to initiate revival of Amiga on PS3, and bring two parties to the table.
Personally, I would spend 600 euros on ps3 and another 100 on amigaos (with hardware dongle or internet check, so piracy doesnt kill product) if they would work together.
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2005-07-13
i like PPC just as much as the next guy but heres the truth of the matter. you cant introduce an OS now a days to a platform thats not generic x86. the onl ypeople what will buy a PPC based solution ot run this are going ot be the old amiga fans and people with extra money who like ot tinker (hence my morphos box). if they want to make money they should make this avaibly to the masses. sometimes its about being revolutionary, but all the time its about staying in business...
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2006-02-05
i realise you may be bitter about paying a lot of money for what is now a dead audio format, but that's no excuse for spouting rubbish.
It would be a great idea for AmigaOS to port their OS to the PS3.
i would buy a console and games to have the chance to use a sexy bit of kit like the PS3 for general computing.
if they released a linux RSX driver i would do so tomorrow.
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http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3721&start=1...
This is from the guy that's funding the Clone A (Amiga 500).
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