Amiga Vendors?

On Thu, 11 Jun 2020 at 09:52, Ethan Dicks via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: Unfortunately, yes, I think you're right. Ditto the Acorn RISC OS platform -- I know, rare in the USA, but the origin of the ARM chip, so of historical importance. 1998 is when Acorn closed its workstations division, just before the Risc PC 2, codenamed Phoebe, was launched. http://www.beebware.com/beebware/press/200998sp.html The original RISC PC had 2 processor slots, but the 2nd was intended for co-processors, such as an x86-32 chip which allowed RISC OS to run DOS or Windows 3 (or a limited version of Win95) in a window on the RISC OS desktop. There was also a 3rd party multiprocessor board, the Hydra from Simtech, but the appearance of the DEC-designed StrongARM killed that off -- one 200MHz StrongARM was performance competitive with half a dozen ~25MHz ARM710 processors. http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/32bit_UpgradesH2Z/Simtec_Hydra.h… Among other improvements, including PCI slots, the Risc PC 2 supported 2 ARM CPUs in SMP. Acorn was working on a new OS that might have supported SMP, which RISC OS did not and still does not. https://archive.is/20130420024500/http://www.computeractive.co.uk/pcw/news/… Windows 95 wasn't a great OS, but it was good enough and ran on COTS x86 kit, supporting almost all hardware and software out there. NT 4 wasn't perfect either, but was just as easy to use and very solid if you could afford to buy and build the hardware to run the OS. Between them, these spelled the end of the Amiga, the Acorn RISC machines, BeOS, and very nearly for the Mac. At the time, I wished that Acorn did a decent modern laptop. ARMs ran much cooler than late-1990s x86 chips, and RISC OS was perfectly capable of handling the late-1990s internet -- web, email, instant messenging, etc., with good office productivity apps, image editing and so on. A RISC OS laptop could have been thinner, lighter, cooler-running and with a much longer battery life than a 486 or Pentium laptop. (I don't think anyone ever made Pentium Pro laptops, did they?) An out did occur to me about 20 years later: BeOS on a twin-CPU or even quad-CPU ARM workstation would have been a joy. Around then, CPUs were often the single most expensive component in a computer, and drew the most power. ARM boxes circumvented both of these. https://liam-on-linux.livejournal.com/55562.html -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053