AmigaOS4.0 on PPC

I know all about the restrictive licensing issue between Amiga and Hyperion from reading some draft contract on google. I know that when they release AmigaOS4.0 control can revert out of their hands.

What I am talking about here is how we can continue putting the politics aside.

I have an AmigaONE XE and it is not very well. It faired a bit longer than my other machine ( which was bought to try out another Amiga-a-like OS on PPC ) on which the CPU set fire to itself.

I am getting a bit worried as to what I will do next. AmigaOS4.0 obviously runs on top of firmware on a PPC with a certain subset of devices but exactly what is stopping it being used on a firmware emulator ( if it is possible with U-Boot ) written for either a PPC emulator or another PPC board ( perhaps one of the up and coming hobbyist PPC boards )?

The way I figure it is I have paid to use this prerelease and it isn't really my fault the XE is out of warranty and I have treated it with care but it does seem to be freezing a lot more recently. If it goes the way of the P*****s board and ends up in a skip what do I do then?

Can I not ever run AmigaOS4.0 again?

The ideal scenario would be for me to have a PPC emulator on my Sony VAIO until new hardware becomes available. I *know* I'd have to say that it was running slower than native to onlookers ( or maybe just a backdrop saying it ) if I wanted to show it off. But do we have a contingency plan? A plan F?

@Mitch
if your A1 is freezing a lot check memory with mem tester 4.05
if it passes that check cooling etc

But why not?

I used to use the QL and my Sinclair QL is long gone to the QL scrapheap in the sky I bought a Q60 ( an 060 based QL with a 16 bit graphics card ) and ran SMSQ/E on that ( the QL operating system updated ) for a year or two.

Then that died.

Then I bought a QL emulator and run SMSQ/E on that from time to time. Without that I'd never be able to use it again.

You see my point? There are no plans to release a new QL, and people did think for a while that there might be a QL-PPC or a coldfusion QL but nothing.

I don't want to end up without AmigaOS4.0. So if all these other plans fall through then will someone consider either a co-operative emulator or a hostile one ( like shapeshifter ).

@Mitch
new hardware is around the corner so dont panic

Does anyone know where I can get more RAM for the AmigaONE if that is the problem?

@Mitch
look @ intuitionbase and there is a list of memory modules that work in the A1 then order one of those :)

Thank you for being informative, friendly and helpful.

@mitch

Memory module list

@Mitch
your welcome
@Orgin
even better the direct link

I don't think anyone answered your original question - which was "why can't you use an emulator to run OS4?"

Contrary to popular opinion, OS4 does not run "on top of" the U-Boot ROM like a BIOS. U-Boot does only what its name suggests - boots the system. By the time you see the "modules loaded, now launching Kickstart" message, U-Boot has been discarded and plays no further part in the boot process.

However, the "dongle code" is stored in the U-Boot ROM and is checked to make sure the OS is running on an A1 and not some other hardware.

Also, all the device drivers (disk drivers, Ethernet, USB, floppy etc) are hard-coded for the addresses of the hardware interfaces in the AmigaOne. All the drivers would have to be re-written for the target platform - or provided with a wrapper for the target platform's own drivers.

So although you could probably emulate the instruction set of the PPC on an x86 (or use the PPC of another platform), there are a lot of hard-coded references to the AmigaOne hardware within the OS, and you would have to find a way around them.

@tonyw
Gday tony nicely answered clears a few things up for some of the questions i have heard lately

Quote:

I know where you're coming from.

I had all my eggs in the TI 94/A basket and then TI abandoned us all to oblivion.

Luckily the Amiga came along at an opportune point but not before I had invested some, not inconsiderable, amount of money into the Texas.

Quote:

This is very much like the Kickstart and Workbench Disk scenario we have with the classic Amiga.

Is it not possible for Amiga to port OS4 to an FPGA board with a soft PPC - like the uC-Linux boards I see selling for $160?

Amiga Inc could license a dongle for it.

That last sentence "Amiga Inc could license a dongle for it" might prove to be the stumbling block.

So far Amiga Inc have not granted a license to run OS4 on any hardware other than the Eyetech AmigaOne. There are other platforms around, and there has been much discussion about this on other boards .

Quote:

This is where I get totally confused (and run back to my trusty A600!).

I was long under the impression that any board conforming to zico specifications would automatically get a license. I even bought a Matrox card for my Gateway to bring it up to zico specs and got rid of a perfectly good Voodoo 3. Now, here, people tell me zico is irrelevant and AmigaNG is only for PPC and only for one board - which I understand is no longer manufactured.

The one thing I understand about my A500 and 600 is that they are Amigas, they run kickstart and workbench and if they break I can buy one easily on Ebay.

I think a good FAQ on AmigaNG is required because the more I hear the more confused I get.

you are refering to things that are almost 5 years old, and are a bit irrelevant thesedays. plans have changed so many times, people are still confused, and use this confusion to point out how the saga of os4 is all a bit crap and so on. nonsence if you ask me.

os4 has always been about ppc, and tbh will never be anything but ppc (IMHO). where it goes after that is anyones guess.

Quote:

I can very well imagine how you must feel like. The world of Amiga has become very confusing nowadays. I am still in the process of acquiring information about next generation Amigas on the world wide web.
The SAM440-Amiga looks very promising and I would buy it directly when it is released. I have also found information about expansion hardware for older Amigas that is developed by a company called ACK software controls. This expansion card is planned for the Amiga 1200, 3000 and 4000 as I understand. I reckon that it is not possible to design such expansion hardware for the Amiga 500. The speed would not be very convincing.
I am pondering if I should expand my collection of Amiga computers. The Amiga 1200 looks like a good choice if I can later buy expansion hardware for it to run the new incarnation of Amiga OS.

The idea of compiling a FAQ that lists the most relevant information about next generation Amiga hardware is great.

Confused ?

Naaaah thats default installation !!

hehe

Quote:

Phishing...
ssolie: Stop right there. Atheist, this is a "friendly" forum which means making phishing accusations in public is not tolerated. If you really believe somebody is phishing or whatever hit the Report button, PM the person and discuss it, email them in private, PM a moderator in private, whatever. Just don't start this kind of finger pointing in these public forums. Thank you.

Mitch, RomanceClip,

Please let's not raise questions, concerns and/or fears about the future of HW that probably won't be manufactured again at all (IOW, has no future).


AOS4.0 and further has a home on Amy '05, OR Panda, OR Sam(antha), OR Moana, OR .........!

I DO NOT know the future but am CERTAIN, that the "Amiga" story is A) Not over yet and B) Has no end.

I subscribe to both, feel free however to yourself choose and stick to either one.



It's impossible to explain, but I know it's not going away.

No, it was a legit question.
ssolie: Cut out the phishing accusations. Mitch is correct and it was a legit question.

I don't think you need to be so paranoid. UAE was done without "developer" help from the Amiga. So have many other emulators.

I'll raise any concern that I have in this forum as I have no where else to air it and if I have the concern I would think many other people will have. I think by parting with a lot of money to buy into the AOS4 marketplace in the first place I have bought the right to pose questions.

If I didn't have one I'd probably accept resentment about me posing questions on behalf of other people but I asked for my own interests.

So no, I won't be silenced, but my question was answered.

ssolie: Sorry for the edit Mitch. I hope your question was answered. Please continue with the topic if you wish.