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Amiga Technology Brief
Mulengro writes "Amiga has finally released the long awaited Technology Brief describing what they consider to be the way forward for Amiga. Sad fact is, there's possibly nothing really new there. " New or not, it still looks
like quite a force, at least in terms of multimedia (DVD, USB, peripherals galore). They say they have
chosen a CPU, but cannot talk about it.
>Look I have used Java, it is slow, anybody who says other wise is utterly clueless.
That means the Java *implementations* you have used are slow. It says nothing about the language itself.
Learn the difference, it's important.
(Note that I program almost exclusively in C++, I just hate inaccurate statements.)
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Toshiba makes 'em in the US.
Well this job advert does lend some weight to the idea of it being MIPS based...
The existing posts have missed the one important fact - the revolutionary thing is the Operating Environment. The fact they are using Linux is irrelevent from a technological point of view. The OE can, and will be ported to other OSs, possibly/probably even QNX.
Comments about it being another Linux distro are fair, but don`t expect it to be along the same lines as say RedHat. The AmigaObjects technology allows ease of use of Linux, without having to worry about prortability to other OSs, which as I say is the killer idea in Amigas plans.
In short Amiga plan to create a standard for network based computing (the concept Ellison/Oracle has been banging on about for the last few years)it utilizes Java simply for the existance of the Java Virtual Machine - why reinvent something when it already exists. The JVM is exactly the technology that is required for this AmigaObject concept. If the Transmeta chip is as good at emulation as is suggested, then performance worries of the JVM will be irrelevent (at least no more important than performace issues of x86 code on TM.)
gaming console.
It's really cheap, and it's not a PC.
Is that supposed to be an advantage? And didn't Be go that way already with known results?
If the target market is geeks/tinkerers, PCs are better because of open architecture and very rapid innovation. If the target market is teens/housewives for Internet surfing, email and games, then any number of contenders will kick Amiga's ass (Dreamcast and other coming consoles, very cheap PCs, cheap Macs, etc.)
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
In the article they talk about all of the multimedia capabilities of the new Amiga. They show DVD, TV in/out, AC3 decode, and MPEG-2 live stream capture among other things. I hope I can sit this next to my TV, play a movie, play Tribes, hear it all in Dolby Digital, and compile some code while drinking beer. Now there's a technology I want!
What's the big deal? Buy a PC right now, spend some money on cards/peripherals and you can have all you listed here and now. And, by the way, you don't really want to use your TV as a computer monitor -- that really sucks.
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
Interesting that you brought that up. What if the Amiga OE is so self-contained that it removes the need for the GNU toolset? We'll have a Linux system for which the name "GNU/Linux" would not be appropriate.
Sounds very interesting. Interesting enough to make me think twice about spending $2k on a new PC until I know more about when and how these are going to be released...
:)
Presuming they're running Transmeta's new processor (and I'm sure that's what everyone is thinking... in fact they hinted enough at it, I'm suprised if Transmeta is the chip maker, that they're not flipping out about it right now...), and the rumors about the ability of the processor to switch microcode on-the fly (running various instruction sets during various timeslices), this could be a true industry killer if they get good multimedia application support for native Amiga apps, run Linux apps, and have the ability to emulate other processors well enough that something like Sheepshaver and VMWare allow you to run Mac or Windows applications. Maybe not on the stock system, but if I can but a reasonably priced multimedia powerhouse, with even the option of running Mac and Windows software, that's something that would be hard to not buy.
Hardware Java is pretty slick too... sure beats running them interpreted or even JIT. Hopefully they'll (and I can't believe I'm saying this) be like Microsoft and extend Java so you're not stuck with the horrid AWT for your UI.
I think this is awfully exciting. Wonder if they're looking to hire people?
Y'all
From the rumour mill it is alleged that the CPU may be the new Transmeta chip:
I quote verbatim from www.theregister.co.uk
:quote
Posted 16/07/99 1:20pm by Mike Magee
Amiga Usenet exchange heightens Transmeta spexulation
An exchange between Jim Collas, president of Amiga, and another individual on Usenet has heightened speculation that the company may use the Transmeta processor in its Amiga MCC platform.
This morning, Amiga released its specs for its hardware platforms (see Amiga releases technical brief with 'exciting Linux CPU').
Yesterday, posting in the comp.sys.amiga.misc newsgroup, D Cousins speculated that Amiga was set to incorporate the Transmeta processor into its platform.
He pointed out that the die size, plus its ability to run emulations including classic Amiga apps, could make it a candidate.
Collas replied to that post saying: "I can't verify that any of this is true but this is a brilliant speculation. You can expect similar types of hardware/software integration and optimization in the new Amiga... this influenced the Linux decision. Unfortunately, I can't talk about certain partners yet so people will continue to reach conclusions without all of the information."
/quote
End Transmition
Maybe you live in interesting times
The Amiga had coprocessors because consumer technology didn't exist that filled their needs at the time. A 3DFX card or what have you in a PCI slot is actually a specialized coprocessor. A chip like the newest ATI offerings are a system on a chip featuring a video processor and a 3d graphics coprocessor. PCI is just the bus used to connect it. The Amiga had some bus to connect their custom chips through as well, never having owned one I don't know the name.
AmigaObjects[tm] are the foundation on which all Amiga Operating Environment services are built
snip
Networking is intrinsic to AmigaObjects, which means that AmigaObjects are free to move around on the network or use
network resources. The AmigaObject architecture by virtue of this flexibility enables a new class of "net-aware"
applications where there is no clear boundary between a device and the network.
I sure hope that these AmigaObjects have a good security structure, or the recent Viruses that have been popping up lately on Wintel will pale by comparison to what'll appear on the new Amiga
Of all the comments I've ever posted, this is definately one of them
Well duh, any other serious revolutionary CPU's out there (cept the K7 which I do consider revolutionary.. but in a different way).
Anyways for years Amiga has been quite serious when it comes to cross platform support. On the Amiga 5 years ago, (about the time I last saw a new amiga) it shipped with a windows and mac emulator, which worked pretty damn well. This amazingly was one of thier main selling points, a powerPC that kicked the ass off the powerPC (and it did) while still running Amiga programs too. From almost the very begining it could read dos fat formated disk. Well anyhow I don't know where I'm going with this anymore, just that I know Amiga considered cross platform support and big deal, and the TransMeta chip will reportably provide this.
That's pretty unlikely considering how SGI has made such overt leanings towards Linux and x86 architecture in addition the thier MIPS line. SGI just doesn't have a reason to make anything with Amiga written on it. Neither does Sun.
I read the internet for the articles.
That's Slashdot's "reparenting high scored responses" feature at work. I'm guessing your threshold is 1, and you're seeing replys to an AC's post which has been hidden by your threshold.
So under your very own supposition, the Amiga with QNX would not be an Amiga either because it was not coded from the ground up.
As for cutting corners. We've been waiting 5 long years for a new Amiga. If they had to do it from the ground up, they would have been out of date by the time they released it. And you would be posting here instead that it isn't meaty enough for you and that it won't fit in todays market.
A single company cannot compete with the graphics industry, and Microsoft. The best thing to do was to leverage the market and get a product out as fast as possible and garner as much mindshare as possible.
QNX would have gotten us a good computer, but it would not have gotten us the mindshare that Linux would provide. There is no point in putting out a superior computer and the only people who buy it is half the Amiga market. (there will still be people in the amiga community who will say it isn't "Amiga enough" for them. Linux is the best choice because it's the only market right now thats expanding at a furious rate.
Also you should be happy that the windowing system is something you can completely modify to your hearts content. Besides, by making it open source, people will be modifying the Amiga's GUI on the Amiga rather than an enlightenment theme that would pop up after the first screenshot that comes out.
In order for the Amiga to come back, you have to increase the community. If you don't, there will be no profits. Without any profits, you can't fund R&D for the next computer. Simple enough fory ou? Some dreams has to have sacrifices. The world and computers have changed from the late 80s.
sri
The hardware isn't the point here. It's the aim of the OS. Network computing isn't the future anymore - think about it. The Microsoft OS isn't the future anymore. By using a portable base and focusing on providing an optimal Java application environment, the Amiga is once again jumping five steps ahead of the next best thing.
Switching from QNX to Linux on a moment's notice doesn't seem so absurd if you look at the fact that this architecture obviates the need to rely on a particular underlying architecture. They could probably go Mach in a later OS update and the user would never notice.
I'm starting to get excited again. Given all the above and the promise of good multimedia support, something Linux still doesn't quite have, this could be a developer's best springboard for Things To Come.