Part 1 | AmigaDE & AmigaOS | Amiga OS 4 | Amiga OS 4.0 | Amiga OS 4.2 | Amiga OS 4.5 | Amiga OS 5

The AmigaDE® and the AmigaOS® are the two products offered by Amiga to allow for the realization of the dream of Digital Living. Both can happily exist independently of each other, but together they provide an unbeatable combination of power, performance and elegance. 

AmigaDE & AmigaOS

The AmigaDE is a universal content environment that can sit native on low-to-medium resource devices or sit hosted, in software, on medium to high end devices. Its purpose is to provide a consistent, interactive environment for users across many different devices and to provide a consistent development model for developers across those same devices. 

The AmigaDE uses the Tao-Group's intent® product set to provide a clean service abstraction that allows it to sit on both hardware and software hosts. In this context, one should consider the full device itself as a set of layers with hardware at one end and, a user experience at the other. Separating them is a set of layers which take the capabilities of the hardware, abstracts and packages them and then makes them available to system and third party applications, which in turn are experienced and manipulated by the user via a content environment. 

From the user's point of view, such static terms as 'desktop' and 'workstation' no longer need to define the digital experience. The AmigaDE is a digital environment in which any content can be executed subject to both its requirements and the capabilities of the host on which it is sitting. If the AmigaDE is hosted on a physical device which has a Geforce 2 graphics card, a 1 gigahertz Athlon and 256 megabytes of SDRAM, then it will be able to offer those services to any content that runs on it. If it is running on a PDA with a 100 megahertz processor, 8 megabytes of SDRAM and no hardware accelerated features, then it will only run content that is able to execute within those resource constraints. 

From the developer's point of view, such dynamic brokerage requires that they either create content for a specific level, in the knowledge that it will run on anything above that level, or they can take special advantage of the tailoring system, allowing the AmigaDE to dynamically modify the performance and presentation of content to the device profile. They can thus choose to target smaller markets as a subset or go for the broader market for increased sales. 

If one considers the device as a whole, then the AmigaDE starts at the user end and grows down towards the hardware end. Since every device has its own particular physical nuances, the AmigaDE uses its clean service abstraction wherever possible to take advantage of other operating systems that have already done all the hard work of abstracting the hardware. This allows the AmigaDE to spread rapidly to the maximum number of devices with the minimum amount of effort whilst offering the device builder (and through them the user) the choice of how they want to present and experience the AmigaDE. 

Some users can chose to run it co-operatively on top of an existing and well understood Operating System, such as Windows or Linux, whilst others can use it on its own, choosing a software host that best suits their needs to sit underneath it, perhaps a small realtime operating system. In this master mode, the software host remains hidden beneath it, and the user chooses only to interact with and work within the AmigaDE environment. The emphasis in this approach is on the word 'choice', something that no other operating system provides in such a complete way as the AmigaDE. 

Amiga is hard at work on the next version of the Software Development Kit (SDK) which allows developers a glimpse of more capabilities of the AmigaDE and introduces the multimedia services for the first time. This will ensure an abundance of content when the AmigaDE makes its first appearances in the consumer market. 

The AmigaOS, Amiga's other new product is intended to become the server core for Digital Living. This will be built up from the existing base provided by AmigaOS 3.9, the latest version of the venerable but neglected AmigaOS that started its life in 1984. 

The current AmigaOS, version 3.9 runs on the old AA hardware which, while advanced for its time, is now showing its age. After much discussion with the existing Amiga community, Amiga released the zico specification. Zico is an open description of hardware that Amiga encourages IHVs to use, and which provides a requirement for the first version of AmigaOS4, OS4.0 to run on. This provides such features as a PPC processor, PCI, AGP, USB, Firewire and other features standard in other computers but are new to the AmigaOS.

PPC was chosen both because it continues the relationship of Amiga with the Motorola processor family, and because with the Book E specifications, the PPC family now offers a very easy migration path from 32 bit to 64 bit processors. 

All of these hardware facilities are required to provide a first step towards the physical requirements that the new AmigaOS will have in its role of a next generation digital server. A clean implementation, with no performance losses due to being tied to the older AA systems, means full access to what the user pays for and a far better performance all around. 

Amiga is also aware that during the past five years, third party companies contributed to the extension of the Amiga AA platform by providing PPC accelerator cards in ingenious implementations to increase processor power past the discontinued 68k series. In considering the design of OS4, much thought was given as to whether it should also run on those cards. While Amiga had a great willingness to reward the owners of those cards for the loyalty they have shown to the Amiga, it was also painfully aware that many of the implementations were done in such a way that, while adding performance to the AA Amigas, the details of the implementations would be antagonistic to the performance of a new version of the OS, slowing it down and, in some cases, crippling it. 

Given that AmigaOS4 is the first step on the road to a product in which performance will be of paramount importance, it was decided that there would have to be a clean break. This was done with the zico specification and, because of the clean nature of that specification, the first zico compliant device, the Eyetech AmigaOne - the first, new Amiga certified hardware in over five years - has been designed in record time and will soon be available for shipping. 

However, Amiga is still mindful of the thousands of loyal users and developers who have invested significantly in the PPC accelerators. Amiga is looking to offer an opportunity for third parties to create a software compatibility layer that can map the clean OS4 to these PPC accelerators. 

AmigaOS4 itself will move the existing 68K-based OS3.9 to a PPC implementation. By order of impact upon user experience, each library and module is being examined and re-implemented in such a way as to take maximum advantage of the new zico standard motherboards and their sub system cards. This is a gradual process and will be spread out over a few releases of the operating system. Consequently, the first release (OS4.0) will contain a mixture of native PPC and 68K code which will run through a high speed PPC 68K emulator. As further releases come out, the proportion of PPC code to 68K code will increase until the OS no longer needs to run any emulated code within itself. 

In addition AmigaOS4 will also open up the capabilities of the zico standard, providing USB, Firewire and full access to the PCI and AGP world of plug in system cards. Amiga users will be able to take full advantage of the very latest in graphics,audio and networking technologies 

Most importantly, AmigaOS4 will see the first introduction of the AmigaDE for existing Amigans, with it running co-operatively on top of the Operating System, and then slowly being integrated until, with the release of AmigaOS5, both will effectively merge to become one. 

AmigaOS4 will not only be able to run existing AmigaOS applications (this requires an Eyetech AmigaOne with a AA system attached to it to provide the AA chipset), but also new AmigaOS4 applications. In addition, the presence of the AmigaDE means that AmigaOS users will also have access to the growing volume of AmigaDE applications, able to take full advantage of its host (one of the advantages of Amiga owning its own host) and as a side benefit, they also have access to the large volume of Java applications, since the AmigaDE also provides a high efficiency Java solution. 

In one go, Amigans, both users and developers will go from a small, isolated platform to one that reaches across the AmigaOS, AmigaDE and Java worlds, providing an abundance of content and a huge increase in market potential for developers. They can either develop for the AmigaDE, in which case they have a large market opportunity that spreads far beyond the number of AmigaOS users or they can concentrate on the AmigaOS and take maximum advantage of the advanced features of both the new hardware and the new OS. Again, the emphasis is on choice. 

The ultimate purpose of the AmigaOS product is to reach AmigaOS5, where all the services required by the digital core product set will be finally implemented. This includes brand new and, in some cases, revolutionary new services that will put the AmigaOS firmly out in front once again. These are being developed internally by Amiga in parallel with the AmigaOS4 product set and will be available later in 2002. More details will be released as the work progresses. 

For those requiring a small taster, there follows a preliminary feature list and version schedule. All things are subject to change. The first release of AmigaOS4 is targeted for Summer (in the Northern Hemisphere), with further releases every six months. 

AmigaOS 4

AmigaOS4 represents Amiga taking control of the AmigaOS and reinvigorating it as it drives it forwards as an integral part of the Amiga Digital Environment. 

The purpose of the AmigaOS4 family of releases is to; 

move the 68K OS3.9 to a native PPC OS, enhancing and where necessary reimplementing the OS to take advantage of the PPC CPU
add new functionality to improve the functionality and performance of AmigaOS
allow for full backwards compatability via the Eyetech AmigaOne (with a classic Amiga attached) or retargetable application compatibility via any AmigaOne
move the community to new, state of the art hardware
provide an attractive computing environment to non Amigans so as to encourage growth of the Amiga community
integrate the AmigaDE into the AmigaOS
provide a foundation for the development of AmigaOS5

AmigaOS 4.0

AmigaOS4.0 is the first release of AmigaOS4. It provides the first stage on the road to a PPC AmigaOS designed to take full advantage of the potential of the zico based computers being developed. 

It is designed to take the key elements of the current AmigaOS and reimplement them as PPC native systems, providing for the biggest increase in performance. The remaining elements will be left as 68k code for this release and be executed via a PPC 68k emulator, which will also be used for the execution of 68k based application code. In addition, it will add new features that have never before been available in the AmigaOS. 

The feature set for OS4.0 will include; 

ExecPPC allowing for the following execution of PPC, 68k and mixed (PPC+68k) executables. This will be PPC native.
A PPC 68k emulator - ExecPPC will be capable of executing 68k code, but it will be done via the native PPC 68K emulator. At no time will a real 68k processor be used
Virtual Memory System - OS4.0 will for the first time allow developers to create new applications that can take proper advantage of the MMU capabilities of the PPC and make use of Virtual Memory, particularly important with the new games and applications being created. This will be PPC native
Graphics system - all PPC native 
AmiRTG - high performance retargetable graphics system that provides full access to hardware acceleration features of modern graphics cards
Drivers - Voodoo3 and Matrox G450
Ami2D - low level access for high performance 2D functionality
Ami3D - low level access for high performance 3D functionality
Full Mesa 3.4 implementation for 3D development
Audio system 
AHI integration for samples and streaming
CAMD integration for MIDI
File system - PPC native 
AmiFFS2 - brand new reimplementation of the AmiFFS offering much higher performance and reliability
Connectivity - PPC native 
AmiNetStack - brand new high performance TCP/IP stack optimized for PPC, multiplayer gaming and content serving

AmigaOS 4.2

AmigaOS4.2 will build upon the foundation of AmigaOS4. It is designed to ; 

Integrate the Amiga Digital Environment (AmigaDE) into the AmigaOS
make OS4 fully device retargetable, allowing all applications to be able to operate without the need for physically attached older Amiga hardware
Open up access to the new hardware features offered by the zico hardware specification
Convert, reimplement and enhance more of the AmigaOS4.0 68k code to PPC

AmigaDE integration 
AmigaDE hosted directly in the AmigaOS
Full access to all content experience and development
Personal Java
SHEEP scripting language
Audio System - PPC native 
Retargetable Audio system (RTA)
AHI/CAMD drivers for EMU10K1 PCI cards
Multiple Audio Contexts
Advanced MIDI support
USB - PPC native 
USB2.0 OHCP stack
System device drivers - mouse, keyboard, hub
Amiga Device retargeting - PPC native 
Amiga.devices reimplemented as retargetable, removing the requirement for old Amiga hardware to be present
Further conversion of 68k code to native PPC - this will be done by order of contribution to execution performance, to give developers and users the most improvement.

AmigaOS 4.5

AmigaOS4.5 represents the final stage in the creation of a native PPC OS. Its tasks include; 

All remaining 68k OS code to be converted to PPC native
All hardware features of the zico specification to be made accessible to developers
New user environment

AmigaOS 5

AmigaOS5 represents a revolution in the development of 'other' operating systems and the evolution of the AmigaOS as it seeks to provide the best way forwards for users and developers. Its feature set includes; 

Brand new services model providing 
Virtual Memory
Memory Protection
Symmetric and Asymmetric modes
Contract QoS
64 bit
Fully distributed
AmigaOS4 sandbox
PDP sensory processing system - PDP stands for Physical to Digital to Physical and provides a scalable system that provides for capture, conversion, representation, manipulation and presentation of sense delimited observation and interaction
Orthogonal Persistence - all content is persistent, instead of having to be saved to and loaded from storage.
Safe and Unsafe environments - separate memory spaces in which developers can continue to use unsafe languages or develop using the new SafeC language and environment.
Semantic Context - an environment is which the user can layer any number of associations, relationships and meaning to their environment and content, and use that semantic information to organize and query.

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