Is the Amiga's future as a virtual platform

[Posted on behalf of cogvos1]

To explain;

It is currently very difficult to get hold of Amiga system hardware. Systems (classic or A1) come up from time to time on forums or ebay but none are made other than the Minimig, which has sold out... As far as I can tell the only currently available 'system' is UAE based, either via cloanto or Win-UAE, E-UAE etc. OK this is a classic emulator but 10,000 people downloaded the latest Amikit, which is I guess more than the number of people who bought the A1?

It is possible to emulate a PowerPc - Sheepshaver does this.
An uae port is being written for Aros. E-uae runs on linux. Both are under test on Abox's SAM440ep.

If UAE included the ability to emulate a PowerPC, and run PPC code natively on a PPC system then OS4 classic might run on UAE.

If this was successful OS4 would run on any powerful HW, PPC or not. So all PC's, all Apples, the SAM440ep, etc etc. OK I'm probably simplifying here, but if it did the Amiga would be a virtual platform. Is this the future?