Fleecy Moss has answered 10 new Amiga community questions addressing various topics at the AmigaWorld.net portal. This week AmigaOS4 events are sheduled for New York and Denmark.
AMP basicly means Multi-Processing with different types of CPUs.
Taos (the predecessor to intent, which is at the core of the AmigaDE) was the first heterogeneous multi-processing operating system. The Taos technology was already able to run applications across parallel networks of dissimilar processors since nearly a decade ago.
For the far future I hope such uses will get well integrated with distributed approaches. For example small devices and appliances which are able to wirelessly connect with a central computer or worldwide backbone of computers even. Here all the heavy calculating could take place and sending the results to such devices at very high speeds, allowing these devices to be smaller while still being extremely powerful.
IBM used to make custom computers (IIRC running with OS/2 1.3) with more than 4 Intel i286 processors all working independently. This is an example of an AMP system. I don’t remember if it was a mainframe though.
*** Some thoughts ***
IMO Hyperion is wasting time with 802.11 and Bluetooth. I’d rather have them work on important stuff like Creative Labs sound cards, Nvidia video cards (especially the 3D part) and a much needed port of Mozilla Firebird). BTW the 802.15 specification is gonna kill off Bluetooth.
Also AmigaOne boards should have SATA ports built-in. Since the new Amigas are gonna sports lower performing CPUs they need components that take less CPU juice. Let’s face it, PATA is a CPU hog. Ideally all new Amigas should have on-board SCSI, instead of PATA, but then people would eventually complain like most cheap ass self-righteous Mac bashing hypocrites would do.
I don’t think that the AmigaOS4 team will neglect other stuff just because they will support certain wireless technologies. The only problem may be 3D drivers for Nvidia video cards if Nvidia will not make available hardware documentation to do this. (2D will be taken care of by SciTech’s SNAP drivers)
Maybe 802.11 and Bluetooth will be important for within the markets the team will be targeting AmigaOS4.x at?
> Taos (the predecessor to intent, which is at the core of
> the AmigaDE)
To clarify I should add that Taos itself, even down to its kernel is written in Virtual Processor code and translator tools translate the OS for different types of processors.
I am certain the AmigaOS4 team isn’t going to neglect their OS. But let’s be realistic, they don’t have an army of a 1000+ engineers like MS does. I want them to support the hardware to the fullest not just a couple of features on each one.
As for the 3D factor well it’s hard to say. IMO adding 3D to an OS is a very large task and looking at Linux let’s just say I’m not too thrilled with the end results.
> I want them to support the hardware to the fullest not
> just a couple of features on each one.
The core OS is the priority. 2D drivers will be taken care of by SciTech and 3D drivers by Hyperion themselves. Various ATi graphic cards are planned to be fully supported.
I don’t think having many different engineers working on one OS module will necessarily yield into better results. Sometimes smaller specialized teams with clear goals are more effective. IMO else it wouldn’t make sense that we don’t have better mainstream solutions today…
> As for the 3D factor well it’s hard to say. IMO adding
> 3D to an OS is a very large task and looking at Linux
> let’s just say I’m not too thrilled with the end results.
Instead look at Hyperion’s AmigaOS track record. 3D games like Shogo, Quake2, Heretic2, etc were excellently ported by them (AmigaOS4 managers) to ancient bottle-necked Amiga hardware!
i just wonder, why will we have new Amiga’s? for office ??? without a decent office software even the best hardware or OS won’t be obselete. For gaming ? or as a server? i really do not get why… its sure that these new machines will be expensive comparing intel PC’s.. even to Macs.. so why ?
i suggest Amiga seek for a new(actually their first ground) home PC’s.. they shall try to produce a machine like Amiga500 again.. cheap+fast+reliable .. a new breed of Amiga500.. maybe this way they would succeed.. otherwise it will be only remain as a project or toy OS… well thats only my opinion… noone has to agree
They’re developing one at the moment actually – the “AmigaONE lite”, which is a tiny board with integrated networking, sound, graphics etc and will have a flash drive for OS4 (like kickstart, for speedy bootups). The board is actually smaller than the A1200 mobo!
But until then the A1 is really aimed at current Amigans and people who only recently stopped using the platform.
Really, I don’t think anyone would mess around with AmigaOS if the whole point was to make the best server or the best office computer or whatever. But it’s at least some dang good fun for those involved.
The AmigaOne G3 Lite will be a very nice board for some things, but speaking as someone who has his A1200 in a tower and a 540MB harddrive hooked up to his A500 (I want to play old games, I just can’t be bothered to swap floppies all evening) I must say that a replacement for the A500 will not be the grand unified saviour of the platform. I will buy one, but a lot of people want to have something they can at least put a second harddrive in. Remember that for gaming porpoises ( pun intended ) people have their living room stuffed full of X-Boxes, Gamecubes and Playstations, so something a bit more allround would be a good idea. And while Windows might be the preferred computer platform for gamers, but it really isn’t because it’s so easy to make good games for Windows. It really isn’t. I think there’s room somewhere in between these systems for a machine that is easy to program for, has ok specs, and isn’t trying to force its ways on the user at all times.
I don’t think there CAN be a grand unified solution for Amigans, but with the diversity Eyetech is about to offer at least _some_ people might be _slightly_ satisfied. If you think it sounds fun, join in. If not, well, too bad
An interesting read but what is AMP exactly?
SMP = Symmetric Multi-Processing
AMP = Asymmetric Multi-Processing
AMP is sometimes called ASMP
AMP(ASMP) – Asymmetric Multi-Processing
check out this link -> http://www.mackido.com/Myths/mp.html
That explanation works for me.
AMP basicly means Multi-Processing with different types of CPUs.
Taos (the predecessor to intent, which is at the core of the AmigaDE) was the first heterogeneous multi-processing operating system. The Taos technology was already able to run applications across parallel networks of dissimilar processors since nearly a decade ago.
http://www.poppyfields.net/acorn/docs/acorndocs/taos2.shtml
For the far future I hope such uses will get well integrated with distributed approaches. For example small devices and appliances which are able to wirelessly connect with a central computer or worldwide backbone of computers even. Here all the heavy calculating could take place and sending the results to such devices at very high speeds, allowing these devices to be smaller while still being extremely powerful.
IBM used to make custom computers (IIRC running with OS/2 1.3) with more than 4 Intel i286 processors all working independently. This is an example of an AMP system. I don’t remember if it was a mainframe though.
*** Some thoughts ***
IMO Hyperion is wasting time with 802.11 and Bluetooth. I’d rather have them work on important stuff like Creative Labs sound cards, Nvidia video cards (especially the 3D part) and a much needed port of Mozilla Firebird). BTW the 802.15 specification is gonna kill off Bluetooth.
Also AmigaOne boards should have SATA ports built-in. Since the new Amigas are gonna sports lower performing CPUs they need components that take less CPU juice. Let’s face it, PATA is a CPU hog. Ideally all new Amigas should have on-board SCSI, instead of PATA, but then people would eventually complain like most cheap ass self-righteous Mac bashing hypocrites would do.
I don’t think that the AmigaOS4 team will neglect other stuff just because they will support certain wireless technologies. The only problem may be 3D drivers for Nvidia video cards if Nvidia will not make available hardware documentation to do this. (2D will be taken care of by SciTech’s SNAP drivers)
Maybe 802.11 and Bluetooth will be important for within the markets the team will be targeting AmigaOS4.x at?
> Taos (the predecessor to intent, which is at the core of
> the AmigaDE)
To clarify I should add that Taos itself, even down to its kernel is written in Virtual Processor code and translator tools translate the OS for different types of processors.
I am certain the AmigaOS4 team isn’t going to neglect their OS. But let’s be realistic, they don’t have an army of a 1000+ engineers like MS does. I want them to support the hardware to the fullest not just a couple of features on each one.
As for the 3D factor well it’s hard to say. IMO adding 3D to an OS is a very large task and looking at Linux let’s just say I’m not too thrilled with the end results.
> I want them to support the hardware to the fullest not
> just a couple of features on each one.
The core OS is the priority. 2D drivers will be taken care of by SciTech and 3D drivers by Hyperion themselves. Various ATi graphic cards are planned to be fully supported.
I don’t think having many different engineers working on one OS module will necessarily yield into better results. Sometimes smaller specialized teams with clear goals are more effective. IMO else it wouldn’t make sense that we don’t have better mainstream solutions today…
> As for the 3D factor well it’s hard to say. IMO adding
> 3D to an OS is a very large task and looking at Linux
> let’s just say I’m not too thrilled with the end results.
Instead look at Hyperion’s AmigaOS track record. 3D games like Shogo, Quake2, Heretic2, etc were excellently ported by them (AmigaOS4 managers) to ancient bottle-necked Amiga hardware!
i just wonder, why will we have new Amiga’s? for office ??? without a decent office software even the best hardware or OS won’t be obselete. For gaming ? or as a server? i really do not get why… its sure that these new machines will be expensive comparing intel PC’s.. even to Macs.. so why ?
i suggest Amiga seek for a new(actually their first ground) home PC’s.. they shall try to produce a machine like Amiga500 again.. cheap+fast+reliable .. a new breed of Amiga500.. maybe this way they would succeed.. otherwise it will be only remain as a project or toy OS… well thats only my opinion… noone has to agree
have a nice day/week all
> they shall try to produce a machine
> like Amiga500 again
They’re developing one at the moment actually – the “AmigaONE lite”, which is a tiny board with integrated networking, sound, graphics etc and will have a flash drive for OS4 (like kickstart, for speedy bootups). The board is actually smaller than the A1200 mobo!
But until then the A1 is really aimed at current Amigans and people who only recently stopped using the platform.
Really, I don’t think anyone would mess around with AmigaOS if the whole point was to make the best server or the best office computer or whatever. But it’s at least some dang good fun for those involved.
The AmigaOne G3 Lite will be a very nice board for some things, but speaking as someone who has his A1200 in a tower and a 540MB harddrive hooked up to his A500 (I want to play old games, I just can’t be bothered to swap floppies all evening) I must say that a replacement for the A500 will not be the grand unified saviour of the platform. I will buy one, but a lot of people want to have something they can at least put a second harddrive in. Remember that for gaming porpoises ( pun intended
) people have their living room stuffed full of X-Boxes, Gamecubes and Playstations, so something a bit more allround would be a good idea. And while Windows might be the preferred computer platform for gamers, but it really isn’t because it’s so easy to make good games for Windows. It really isn’t. I think there’s room somewhere in between these systems for a machine that is easy to program for, has ok specs, and isn’t trying to force its ways on the user at all times.
I don’t think there CAN be a grand unified solution for Amigans, but with the diversity Eyetech is about to offer at least _some_ people might be _slightly_ satisfied. If you think it sounds fun, join in. If not, well, too bad
</rant>