@Hypex

Quote:

Hypex wrote: @TRIPOS Any hardware that Hyperion support with their OS4 system software.

Hmm, yeah... There was the Teron platform eons ago, with proper GFX support for a select few R200 based GFX cards. Then there was the Pegasos 2 support, with the same GFX cards, in the beginning of 2009. The Sam's ports were handled by Acube AFAIK. And almost half a decade ago there was the X1000 release, and to my understanding, AeonKit themselves had to develop drivers for this to some extent themselves, and they (not Hyperion) are for example the driving force in OS4 GFX driver development today.

My point is, in the context of this thread's topic, that perhaps you shouldn't get your hopes up too high about OS4 supporting new hardware (especially not about fantasy stuff like an open source PPC Laptop). Look at AeonKit, they have literally spent years waiting for Hyperion, more than half a decade in total and counting, and they have a huge pile of aging systems they can't sell due to the lack of OS4 support. Hyperion hasn't exactly 80+ supported systems on their resumé, in fact, the pace has slowed down noticeably on a yearly basis since the 4.1.2 release when the Friedens stepped down (facts that are probably related). And when it comes to a laptop it isn't just a straight port, new stuff not present in OS4 needs to be developed, such as energy management with throttling, multi-gesture track pad, and lots of work can be put into the WiFi system, etc. A lot to expect from an entity who hasn't even been able to stay in charge over the GFX system development of their own platform, due to a heart beat only noticeable when filmed in extreme time-lapse.

@TRIPOS

I'm already pretty indifferent about the whole idea but if it doesn't have established players behind it and there's no real demand, it sounds iffy at best.

Along these lines, does anyone have a ballpark idea of the cost to make such a device Amiga-ready - in terms of drivers etc.?

File under dev/null

Last edited by ne_one on 06-Oct-2016 at 03:12 AM.

@TRIPOS

Yes, as if it wasn't bad enough the Amiga community was already split, now we see AmigaOS4 development being split and diverging across third parties. GFX drivers. Enhancer package containing working versions of what should be working in OS4. And now 3d. This was fine when you payed for an Amiga GFX card and driver software. Workbench can't stand on its own anymore and soon will be less useful than Windows install with generic drivers.

I wouldn't say I have high hopes. I am interested if this comes out at all. And what you can run on it. Things like the X1000 were done backwards IMHO. If it was designed for OS4 it should have had hardware that worked on OS4. Instead, it has hardware they may seem standard in the PC world, but has funny quirks, and the developers have worked hard for years to get these devices working normally. BTW, what did the Friedens step down from?

It's true OS4 would need extra support and drivers for a laptop. And the excuse of plugging some device in the back which has a driver won't cut it here. Perhaps more reason why an OS4 laptop is less likely. Though there was the Limebook for a while. So perhaps there is a lttle flame of hope.

Who will bring out an OS4 laptop first? Hyperion? Linux PPC laptop? No it will be 1Mouse!

@ne_one

There's enough demand for non-Amigans to have created this effort. We didn't...

The only publically known info about costs to get AmigaOS ported is quite old now, but as I recall was 20000Euro one-time fee (an NRE type cost). I do not recall if that was full driver set or if it was only to get Exec to boot up to Workbench, with any non-essential items as separate to that.

It's planned to use a Freescale SoC CPU, so one would hope that some drivers from Tabor and Cyrus will transfer over with minimal effort, if they can maximize usage of built-in peripheral devices instead of going external chips, or for any external chips to hopefully have some overlap with items we already have drivers for. But likely will have some new items as well, as I would not be as excited by something that limits choices to only what we already have support for and nothing else.

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@billt

I'm not sure that drivers designed for e500v2 and e5500 cored cpus would be all that useful for developing support for an e6500 cored cpu (but then, who knows).

It would be a cool system though.

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@Beans

I'm talking about peripherals (built-into SoC), not the processing cores. Think SATA controller, ethernet, USB, SD, that sort of thing. It's beneficial to Freescale/NXP to keep those things the same amongst chips as much as possible, and consider that this is part of their goal with "Layerscape", to keep same peripherals even in ARM chips so minimize redoing the same drivers over and over again for every chip. Maximize driver reuse...

Last edited by billt on 11-Oct-2016 at 05:57 PM.

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@thread

Youtube presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luhj19QZ3b0

@ 36:18 Amiga PPC spotted

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@thread

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@billt

Quote:

There's enough demand for non-Amigans to have created this effort. We didn't...

The fact that the effort is crowd-sourcing the funding tells us that they are gauging demand, not working on the basis of a real need.

More power to them, but if this is primarily driven by the hobbyist element it falls into the passing curiosity category. There's never been a shortage of those.

Last edited by ne_one on 12-Oct-2016 at 11:01 PM.