New hardware from Amiga.inc

So.. Ack Software Control Inc seems to have closed a deal with Amiga.inc and new hardware will be released.. Your thought on this? (read amiga.com for more info)

@Alkaron

I just posted it as news item.

BIG question is: what about SAM now?

Another BIG question: what about Hyperion vs. Amiga dispute now?

Saluditos,

Ferr?n.

@Ferry

Oh.. never thought of posting it as a news item, though is this gonna be a battle?

A.inc + Ack vs. Hyperion + Acube?

@Alkaron

I don't know if it is going to be a battle, that would be silly. The HW companies have sort things out in the market, there is no reason why AOS4 should not be on ACK, SAM and Trioka for that matter.

None of these companies swill make it unless they sell far wider than the Amiga Community market as it stands.

But it does look like we have gone from famine to feast.

@Alkaron

Quote:

Amiga Inc made a deal with ACK, Hyperion made a deal with ACube. Hmmm...

In Amiga Inc press release, I do not see anything about OS4 or Hyperion. Hmmm...

@Helge

I don't understand why you are splitting these companies up into "sides".

Just because ACube have a distribution deal for OS4 doesn't meant that they are fighting for their cause on their own.

Adam will need OS4 on his hardware, and Amiga have granted him that licence (by the look of it, although there is no mention).

All that remains now is for Adam to get hardware to Hyperion, and someone to pay for the port.

There is no "us and them" situation here.

Simon

@Rigo

Quote:

Spot-on.

If there is a problem we'll find out in the fullness of time. If there isn't we'll have three boards.

All the boards will need customers outside the community - it widens the PPC base, which is good, for us and all the HW companies, and good in the end for OS4.

I think people underestimate, especially cut-down versions, of OS4 in a variety of uses in a variety of boxes. Hollywood is a very good front end, easily updated and improved user interface for embedded HW/OS.

Hence also porting to PS3 will enormously widen that appeal and potential.

We either grow, or slip into the grave. The more boards the better, I just hope all the players are thinking the same thing.

@Alkaron
Yawn.

Sorry but the usual crap will follow this announcement. Best say nothing and wait and see, as per usual in world Amiga.

ace

@Rigo

Quote:

I am only worried that there is nothing about Hyperion and OS4 in this news.
The news is also not published on Hyperions website and nobody from Hyperion has commented on it.

Don't you think that Hyperion or the Frieden's would have already commented on this news when everything would be "well"?
Usually it would be good news for them to finally have OS4 on some hardware and an agreement on that from Amiga Inc.

But there is something fishy about it.

Quote:

We'll see how that develops. I hope I am wrong.

@Helge

I think it?s useless to speculate, and think they have at least solved some major problems, now let?s hope the hardware vendors can deliver on there contracts some quality products for AmigaOS4 community, hopefully some thing that will put any troll to shame.

@LiveForIt

I did not speculate. I have only explained why I can't get too excited about this news unless I hear a comment from Hyperion about all this.
It is very worrysome that there is no joint announcement between Amiga Inc and Hyperion. It is also worrisome that the news release does not mention Hyperion with any word.

I will keep my enthusiasm until I hear Hyperion's story about it.

I have no desire to dampen your enthusiasm about this news, just telling my opinion why I can't share this enthusiasm and happiness yet. I hope that a comment from Hyperion will soon destroy my worries.

@Helge

for the first time in my life i'm totally agree with you..

@Helge

So true. A machine with Linux+AmigaDE is not interesting at all.

@Elwood

Hopefully Amiga Inc have solved the problems with Hyperion by now.

I dont find the alternatives to working with Hyperion very promising and personally I probably wouldn't buy any of it.

Also I want to see the SAM board get a license, soon!

Well, I can only say that although it looks grim now, things will pan out, and you will get the news you want

Simon

@Troels

Quote:

well, as far as I remember (could be wrong, has happened before) the situation was clarified as not trouble, but something that needed lawyers to get involved with. I can believe it as this sort of thing happens all the time in business.

@agafaster

Quote:

A dollop of good sense is worth a mountain of speculation.

What is, I have little doubt, a renegotiation of contractual obligations (ably, and usually, handled by lawyers), has been turned into an imaginative battle royale for the ownership of AOS4 (on what legal grounds is never mentioned).

It could be worse, but a balance of probability very much places this as a storm in a teacup and a fairly normal development in business relations. It thus may be more, but probably is not.

Acube looks lined-up for a license, and now the ACK announcement. And some have speculated on OS5, which remains a possibility, though I would not even guess on likelihood.

Now would Hyperion take on the expense for a boxed OS4 that leaves out its recent partnership with Acube who is destined to be its world-wide distributor when it is clear that their main HW product is intended to run OS4?

That does not make sense to me. It seems much more likely that the Boxed edition is intended for SAM at least.

What of the ACK board, which also seems destined for AOS4, or maybe, as some have speculated, for OS5.

ACK may be more advanced than we might suspect and the current boxed OS4 edition might be also for it. A good thing for choice, and as I keep saying the present community market is too small for even one board, it makes very little difference if there is another, or even a third - even a PS3 port hardly matters in this.

The community is just too small to justify any of these developments singularly, multiplicity hardly effects anything much at all. Either the boards have other markets, or they fail. It is that simple (the relatively high price is first run price for the Amiga community, but also a stock for industry assessments and demonstrations).

Now one last thing. OS5.

OS5 will not be based on Tao, this has been stated categorically. But this is not to say that Tao VP code will not be involved (I dearly hope so for a variety of reasons).

Amiga Inc has also said that AmigaAnywhere will be ported to OS4. Others have said they are not interested in AA on Linux (and I concur - Linux would make me very unhappy).

On the other hand, OS5, running as an stripped down OS4 port to a specific piece of HW, hosting the AA environment, supplies a simple way of porting AA to OS4 proper (SAM model perhaps) - in fact no porting would be involved.

ACK running perhaps a cut down slimed OS4 in combination with AA and called OS5, that would to my mind all sensible sit together. It gives OS5 development room as a useful OS (when apps are developed), as a development machine for portable VP apps etc.,.

This would also fit into AI's long term plans.

While OS4 would stay PPC based (which makes sense especially with the PS3 market). OS5 need not be so confined, it could be (it is small enough) be ported to small devices as a foundation layer for the VP applications.

That would make a lot of sense. The interface between the VP compiled code and the HW specific drivers (the Indian specialty). Opens things up for AI as well as Tao, and Hyperion, ACK and SAM.

It would because of this be OS5 the OS4 component, once cut down, adapted to specific HW and ported to different CPU families would no longer be OS4 in any meaningful sense, and it would not be Linux overkill either.

If the above makes sense, we are certainly in for an interesting time.

@GregS

We must also not always think in hardware terms.

Portability is the step forwards. Imagine an usb-stick
with your own AmigaOS (? OS5+OS4+AA ?) on it that
you can use on any major hardware and/or OS.

I would love to have a laptop with an AmigaOS-stick and
i would not have to care what lies underneed the hood.

I see these new (ppc)boards as a sort of next step to this
path where they can maybe run OS5 aswel as OS4 side
by side. Maybe like my A1 that can run linux and OS4.
But this is my own speculation ofcourse.

@GregS

I have nothing agents having AA running on AmigaOS4, but to call that AmigaOS5 is just silly if you ask me,

@Dirk-B

Having AmigaOS4 recompiled for VP/AA if ever done will just complete silly if ask me, AmigaOS needs to be native to be efficient, and I don?t think you can have PowerPC binary compatibility on top of VP/AA anyway nor do AA provide the necessary memory protection and SMP features that AmigaOS needs in the future, AA is just binary converter that can convert VP code to native code, and at same time provide some basic functions to access the host throw some kind of predefined API like Ami2D, it has been commented that AmigaDE/AA has next to nothing in conmen whit AmigaOS API or OS infrastructure.

@All

What ever that is going to run on this new PowerPC computers is going to be AmigaOS4, there is no other option.

@GregS

My head is spinning! I think we should first learn to walk before building castles in the sky.
Amiga Inc need to put food on the table: SAM with OS4. Then we can talk. Who really wants Intent or OS5 now? I don't think many of us are interested in that. What we need is some REAL products, not marketing talk or lawyer speech.

@Liveforit
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I agree, because I don't believe too much that OS5 exists. What other OS can they use other than OS4? Workbench 1.3?

It is only strange that they don't talk about Hyperion in the news release. That makes me think that the announcement was not made in agreement with them. I don't think that Amiga Inc has access to OS4, Hyperion has stated that many times. Or are they only making this announcement to see how Hyperion reacts?
This announcement left me with more questions than I had before! The next weeks won't be for the faint of heart.