Alpha AmigaOS

During the early 1990s a rumour was spread that Dec had expressed interest in licensing the Amiga Operating System. The legitimacy of this tale remains in question and Dec would not comment further.

When Dec created their Alpha processor (the most powerful CPU at the time) they examined several operating systems that could be ported to the new processor. At the time the Amiga OS was the only candidate that met the multi-tasking criteria, and they sought a source code license from Commodore. Unfortunately, Commodore refused and missed a golden opportunity to spread the OS to the expanding server market.

While the first part of the tale is not implausible, the second part is most likely a complete fiction. During the weeks or months that  Dec were negotiating with Commodore, they were already in the process of reverse engineering the operating system and had ported part of Exec to the Alpha. When negotiations failed, the company were forced to abandon the project.

Local Links
Quikpak Alpha AmigaOS
The Amigas secret love affair with the Alpha