Amiga & AROS Archive

In a new Amiga editorial for Suite101, John Chandler focusses on the Amiga solutions already available and what we can soon expect from Amiga Inc. Among this are AmigaDE enabled Zaurus PDAs and smartphones, AA availability in mainstream European shops and AmigaOS 4.0 scheduled for a pre-Christmas launch.

AROS, the AmigaOS clone which is being developed by Amiga enthousiasts, and who many regard it as the real future of the AmigaOS, now includes a simple WorkBench clone. Screenshots are available.

As Amiga Inc is about to re-enter the computer arena with new AmigaOS4 powered desktop systems as well as with 3rd party embedded products utilizing AmigaDE technology pre-installed, there are a growing number of people who wonder what an advanced classic AmigaOS currently offers. This was an important reason for me to write a simple to understand WinUAE tutorial, so this would hopefully help interested people with setting up a fun and easy to use emulated AmigaOS environment on widely available mainstream Windows computers. This article also includes many WinUAE screenshots and information on acquiring and using freely available software.

Amiga Inc have posted the list of changes for AmigaOS 4. The main point is that the Exec kernel, which is currently in 68k assembler, is being rewritten in C with major enhancements. Update: The Register is also covering the latest news regarding AmigaOS4 and other Amiga related products.

This article includes many exclusive pictures, 5 new AmigaOS4 screenshots and some exclusive AmigaOS4 information. Within the first section of this article I will try to give some relevant background information about the history of new Amiga products. Then sections will follow regarding the new PowerPC based Amiga hardware platform, the new AmigaOS4, how users can contribute and finally I will write about the potential niche markets for new Amiga systems.

CEO of Amiga Inc, Bill McEwen today unleashed his monthly executive update upon the Amiga Community. Many things were talked about but by far the most outstanding and obvious was Amiga Incs stride to know how many people will be ordering the AmigaOne/AmigaOS4 bundle.

Amiga.com has been updated as many people have noticed already. The update includes an improved front page with links to already existing pages such as, Amiga-Anywhere site, Amiga Dev site and the corporate site, which takes the form of their "old" website. The new link on the front page leads to the Official AmigaOS website which has a number of features such as News, Forums page, Events, Dealers and an About page. Also, its been announced that Computer City will port the Inga gaming system (a adventure game design tool) to all Amiga platforms. The tools is a full design solution for the amateur of professional adventure game creator.

OSNews reader Paul Cardwell writes: "Jarno van der Linden, one of the brilliant minds behind Amiga DE, has taken time to be interviewed by the GetBoinged! crew." Update: You can also read a new interview (includes AmigaDE/SDK screenshots) of the CTO of Amiga, Fleecy Moss, at TempleOfTech.

A lot of people have rushed to submit the news, but CattBeMac was the first one to do so. Hyperion Software has released some never seen before screenshots of the upcoming Amiga OS 4, with full support for transparency.

OSNews reader Rodney, writes: "The Amiga Coldfire project announced a radical move to create a 100% compatible classic Amiga that shall take advantage of modern technologies such as PCI, AGP and of course the Coldfire CPU. It is thought the project will first create a Coldfire accelerator card for the A1200, which will then aid the developers in creating a standalone motherboard which should than be ready for the general community. There has been a non-technical FAQ posted @ Amiga.org and a mailing list created. To avoid confusion, this has nothing to do with the AmigaOne from Eyetech and is not made to run the new operating system AmigaOS4, but as a replacement for OLD Amiga’s and to run the OS3x series of AmigaOS. In other words, a hobbyist’s machine!" Update: Fred Horvat wrote: "There's a similar project under way for the Atari computer platform."

The reporters of a French Amiga magazine called AmigaPower have been so kind to post some pictures of an AmigaOne computer running TurboLinux. Initial AmigaOne ATX motherboards come with a soldered 600 MHz G3 PowerPC CPU, built-in 10/100 ethernet, USB, AGP (2xSpeed), AC97 Soundchip, MC97 modem, UDMA100 IDE controller and costs 600 Euros (ex. VAT). A more expensive version is expected to be released later this year, having a socketed CPU and a 4xSpeed AGP bus, which will allow the installation of one or two G4 processors. Boards can be pre-ordered from Computer City, KDH Datentechnik and Vesalia.

I have watched the progress of the "new Amiga" (OS and hardware) over the past couple of years. Given the past history of Amiga, I am happy to see that the company has been taken over by true fans of the Amiga OS, who have a workable vision. In general, I think you came up with a good overall strategy:

A few months back, I started to read about the new AmigaDE environment, AmigaOne, and the new technology Amiga is using. After Tao released their Intent/AmigaDE ADK on a cover CD bundled with Digital Magazine (and being an old Amigaen), I wanted to dig a little deeper and find out what all the fuss is about. During my search on the web, I couldn't help being a little disappointed.

In Amiga's latest executive update, Amiga Inc's CEO concentrates on the development of the AmigaOS4 desktop operating system. Initially the new PPC based AmigaOS is being targeted at Eyetech's new AmigaOne ATX motherboard (an A1200/PCI bridge will become available later on, which will allow AGA chipset compatibility, but this is not needed if you don`t want it), bplan's new multi-processor supporting PEGASOS microATX motherboard, Elbox' new G3/G4 Accelerator cards and even old Cyberstorm/Blizzard PPC accelerators for classic Amigas. Merlancia Industries, with legend Amiga hardware designer Dave Haynie as their CTO are even developing new PPC laptops. New PPC native versions of popular Amiga software including MUI and IBrowse are under development, as announced in this executive update.