Just as the discussion surrounding the Pegasos II and AmigaOS4 is settling down, a new possibility for hardware for AmigaOS4 has arisen. PPCNux reports [German] about an Amiga-branded G5 board- which is basically the motherboard of the iMac G5 without the AirPort slot, but with an Amiga sticker slapped on. Another reason why this is a fake is that the board lacks legacy ports, heresy for Amiga fans. PPCNux speculates that with the switch to x86, Apple might be left with excess stock on PPC hardware, and will be licensing them as Amiga hardware. This is supported by Hyperion’s statement that they “are working with several hardware companies that want to provide hardware for AmigaOS4.0.” Another possible indication is that Hyperion states that AmigaOS4 runs on the PPC 9xx series– the G5 is the 970. Speculation, and probably a prank at best, but an interesting idea nonetheless.
Why not simply get the OS done before speculating about these things…
I have read post after post concerning this AmigaOS4 but I still lack strong evidence that development efforts are getting anywhere…
AmigaOS 4 has been available in “pre-release” form on AmigaOne boards for some time (more than a year!) and Hyperion are readying to release OS 4 final, they are just waiting for the hardware, until then Pre-Relaese 4 is being made available to AmigaOne owners which is essential AmigaOS 4.0 Final minus a couple of features they want longer to test. It is also running on classic PPC Amiga’s and the ACK boards are being worked on as they are developed (The developer happens to work for Hyperion)
With the number of times that Hyperion gave ETAs, swearing blind each time that yes it would actually be completed, only to have them disappear for a few months then give excuses as to why it wasn’t released… I’d like to see them stop giving excuses and release their version 4.0 *FINAL* on the hardware they already have. Sounds more like they’re looking for more hardware vendors to give them licensing money.
Damien
Actually, AmigaOS biggest problem right now is the fact that there is no hardware available to run it on.
hmmm… Would it then be an idea to make it run on existing Apple PPC gear (including PPC970/FX/MP) if no other solution seems viable, at least for now??
And how often has Apple ended up with waay too much stuff on their hands? The company who likes to run out of stuff just before they release the next version of something. Not to mention that Apple has no reason in the world ever to do this. PPC is far from a viable solution for personal computers these days, why not give up and go with x86? I haven’t heard of a single viable good business reason to go with PPC.
* Hardware revenue needed to drive development
* Anti-piracy measure
* “enthusiasts only need apply”
There are going to be some seriously pissed off Apple PPC users at some point. Spare parts are likely to become an hot issue sooner than most expect. A replacement motherboard for a G5 might be a very expensive piece of hardware 24 months from now.(they ain’t cheap now)
Apple actually has little motivation to keep these parts available outside of their own warranty coverage.
In fact it would be to their advantage to have them disappear quickly.
Edited 2006-01-05 16:41
There are going to be some seriously pissed off Apple PPC users at some point. Spare parts are likely to become an hot issue sooner than most expect. A replacement motherboard for a G5 might be a very expensive piece of hardware 24 months from now.(they ain’t cheap now)
Parts are already pretty hard to come by now, especially if you’re not in the US. There was a story recently in the Sydney Morning Herald recently about an unfortunate guy who couldn’t get hold of a new power supply down under ( http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking/once-bitten-twice-apple-shy/200… )
“I had a brand new iMac G5 that I ordered before their arrival in the country. It lasted a few weeks then blew its power supply. It is now into its fourth week waiting for a replacement part to arrive,” he said in an email.
U.S. Law requires spare parts to be available for 5 years after the product is discontinued.
So, there will be spare parts for every Mac currently sold at least until 2010, and probably longer.
Good luck trying to uphold that in court over one minor part. Such is the problem of having only one vendor for your parts, at least in the PC world you can replace just about anything relatively easily, and if you end up having to throw money at it you can replace individual components rather than having to do the entire system.
Damien
Apple sells enough systems it’s NEVER one person with one part…
If Apple were to violate the 5 year law, there would be a class action lawsuit like the iPod Battery Lawsuit, and several others over the years.
This is a fictional worry.
Apple MUST supply spare parts for five years.
Companies must be able to service a product for 7 years after it is discontinued (unless they go out of business, then it gets complicated).
Apple won’t get rid of parts so that they can tell people “we can’t fix it, buy a new one”.
That’s ridiculous.
“That’s ridiculous.”
In the real world purchasing replacement parts for laptops, notebooks, and other out of warranty proprietary components, goes something like this…
Yes Sir, We have that refurbished motherboard available. The cost is only 854.00, plus core exchange.
Will that be UPS, or Fed-x?
Parts are available, but the price get’s beyond ugly.
Wait, what’s WRONG with PPC? It’s not Intel 80×86?
Wait, what’s WRONG with PPC? It’s not Intel 80×86?
In my opinion that is the good part of PPC. It is not x86
I don’t understand the blurb. “Another reason why this is a fake is that the board lacks legacy ports, heresy for Amiga fans.” Is it a fake (as the sentence states) or not (as the rest of the blurb argues)? What legacy ports are we talking about? Does the AmigaONE or the PegII have these legacy ports?
Of course it’s a “fake”, i.e. an iMac mobo with an Amiga sticker on it.
Looks much like my pictorial commentary on the idiotic compulsory “Amiga hardware” licensing:
http://pannbe.net/ingentingbakom/pix/skoj/newamiga.jpg
The problem is that nobody who matters will buy a licence from Amiga, Inc. in order to sell their newly relabeled hardware to AmigaOS users. Even if someone did, then we (AmigaOS users and potential new customers) would be limited to buying our hardware with brand new “Amiga” stickers on an artificially separated tiny pseudo-market. This compulsory licensing is the reason for the “AmigaOne” fiasco (and vice-versa), and it’s why we don’t “have” any hardware today and why AmigaOS4 is effectively dead until the licensing requirement is trashcanned.
http://www.petitiononline.com/amigaos , in case anyone still cares.
And just what, pray tell, does legacy ports have to do with anything?
The µA-1c has no floppy connector and there’s only a serial header on the motherboard (no actual plug in the back). The Amy ’05 won’t have legacy ports at all and nor will PowerVixxen (except when it’s attached to an A1200 naturally) when it’s running by itself.
At least I agree that it’s most likely a prank. More suited for wrongpla.net than here. Looks like that’s a new trend.
But there are a lot of really smart Amigans out there. I am sure someone like Dave Haynie or Greg Berlin could team up with a supplier of PPC chips and design a PPC970 Amiga board.
I put this in the prank category too, but it’s not nearly as clever as the iWin one started out before they went total bonkers. We all know Apple wouldn’t license anything here. It’d be the same business model Genesi mentioned with the open Peg, some 3rd party would have to license the OS and sell the hardware/software package. I’ll believe this after someone smacks me over the head with one of these boards plugged in and running OS4 at the time.
But remember that I’m a highly opinionated schmuck who can’t hear his own head smashing on the ground… But, one who doesn’t care about legacy ports.