How hard would it be to port AmigaOS to the x86 architechture? The Macs have seem to find some compatability and are making a move. If the Amiga was on the x86 architecture it would open a lot of doors to the different types of hardware that could be available for Amiga users. Comments?

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@tbrminsanity

Run! Dear God! Run for your life!

At the very least... good luck...

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@tbrminsanity

My comment is:

Ohh no, not now again!

@tbrminsanity

.....

Search the forums please......

Oh! Anche check AROS. OS4 will be PPC.

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ikir

@smf

My comment is....

Do a forum search on x86!!

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@tbrminsanity

Very hard...

it would need a license for porting AmigaOS4 to the x86 platform...

Most commercial ports would need a new license to be able to run on the x86 platform...

And who would want x86 anyway

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@tbrminsanity

Quote:

tbrminsanity wrote: How hard would it be to port AmigaOS to the x86 architechture? The Macs have seem to find some compatability and are making a move. If the Amiga was on the x86 architecture it would open a lot of doors to the different types of hardware that could be available for Amiga users. Comments?

Try a quick search for "x86" on this site. You will find thousands of comments !!!!


Ciao
Gabriele

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@thread

I know the whole topic has been discussed a million and one times already but I still can't remember reading anywhere what it would take to port the OS to a new processor (not necessarily x86..)

I assume the vast majority of the OS is written in C/C++, what would the main difficulties be in porting the OS? I seem to remember around time OS4 was announced that it was being developed with portability in mind? (although I could be mistaken I guess, this might have been H&P's OS4)

Skunkfish

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@tbrminsanity


NOT AGAIN, PLEASE

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@Skunkfish

Quote:

Skunkfish wrote: @thread I know the whole topic has been discussed a million and one times already but I still can't remember reading anywhere what it would take to port the OS to a new processor (not necessarily x86..) I assume the vast majority of the OS is written in C/C++, what would the main difficulties be in porting the OS? I seem to remember around time OS4 was announced that it was being developed with portability in mind? (although I could be mistaken I guess, this might have been H&P's OS4) Skunkfish

Read my post above

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hnl_dk - Henning Nielsen Lund [Denmark]

Please send no PM to me, email me if you want to contact me. See you somewhere else.

Oh dear, that time of the week again is it? Sorry tbrminsanity but this topic comes up every few weeks, has been discussed to death and gets lots of people worked up.

To answer your question, an x86 port would be a big task. The MacOS team took years to do the conversion, and they have a decent sized team and lots of cash. The PowerPC and 68k procesors have more in common than the PowerPC and x86. Hence the transition from 68k to PowerPC was much easier. The X86 has a different endianness so there's problem with maintaining compatibility with 68k and PowerPC programs. How will you let non-x86 programs use the OS API and structures without slowing down new x86 apps? Will you sandbox old apps? What kind of emulator will be required for compatibility to old non-x86 apps? The list of design decisions goes on. The implementation time for these things is also long.

Note that the Intel Mac also has compatibility issues. I've been told that Matlab isn't supported on it. Something about the GUI system not working (and that's written in Java!). Porting your PowerPC/68k applications is also not a trivial recompile.

Hans

Last edited by Hans on 17-May-2006 at 12:56 PM.

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@hnl_dk

I was referring to technical rather than legal issues.. I know they've been discussed to death!

Skunkfish

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@Hans

I don't believe the MacOS x86 port took that long though? Wasn't MacOS X x86 developed years ago, alongside the PowerPC version?

Skunkfish

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@ikir

Quote:

Oh! Anche check AROS. OS4 will be PPC.

Hmm... "anche"?

Varthall

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@Varthall

Ehmmmmmm ROFL!!!

Check AROS "too"

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ikir

Sorry I asked.

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@tbrminsanity
You don't have to be sorry, it's just that is a bit recurrent topic that has been discussed over and over... if you have time you could read those topics, and if you find some new insight about it would be great to share it over, still it is a sensible topic since it's been discussed over and over along time

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@tbrminsanity

Quote:

How hard would it be to port AmigaOS to the x86 architechture

That's different ! The version hasn't been specified. So the answer is: It has already been "ported" and it's call AROS and WinUAE (and a few others).

The simplest way to have AOS4 on an x86 is:
- Take an x86 mobo.
- Locate the cpu.
- Get an AOS4 CD.
- Put the AOS4 CD on top of the cpu. And you have AOS4 on x86 !

Jerry

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@tbrminsanity

I think that you should check what Dave Haynie himself, nickname hazydave, wrote about the porting you're inquiring. It was a very long thread on this very forum, some months ago, and I strongly recommend you read Haynie's posts in order to have a really satisfactory overview with some technical insights. Do not trust anything said by people who predict incredible long times to accomplish the task, before you check out the whole picture. I am also in touch with some old Amiga developers in Europe, and they all agree with Haynie (including me).

Greetings from Italy.

Paolo

@tbrminsanity
Topic repeated ad nauseum. Locked.

Feel free to contribute to any of the already existing poerint or x86 threads, however.

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