On 09-Jul-97, jpero(a)mail.cgo.wave.ca wrote: Jason, Yes, the A500, A1000, and A2000 are still quite useful and still quite capable of running the newest version of the OS and such even though they are upwards of 10 years old! The fact that the A2000/A500 is now 10 years old and the A1000 is going on 13 years old doesn't point to it being very likely that the new company will continue production of spare parts for these machines though. I'd say about the only machines they are going to continue to support from the Commodore days are the A4000 and the A1200, which even leaves out my favorite, the A3000. Thankfully, it's still quite easy to pick up replacement chips for almost any of the Amiga's from companies such as 'Software Hut' or 'Paxtron'. In fact, Paxtron seems to still be on the lookout to buy just about any A2000 out there. Jeff jeffh(a)unix.aardvarkol.com -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amiga enthusiast and collector of early, classic microcomputers http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757

On Tue, 08 Jul 1997 07:45:33 +0500, you wrote: % % Amiga International is now a speperate, though wholy owned subsidiary of %Gateway 2000. It has recieved quite a bit of coverage in the last two issues %of 'Amazing Computing/AMiga'. In fact, Amiga International has just signed %two seperate agreements allowing for 'clones' based on the technology. From %what I've read, Gateway and Amiga have every intention of revamping the %machine and putting it back in production. BTW, the A1200's aren't %remanufactured...they are brand new units that they started new production %lines for a few months ago. Don't flame me, but my question is : is there a market out there for the Amiga? Even the video editing/effects market seems to have turned towards Apple machines. And even Apple itself is finding selling difficult in the face of the Wintel machines. Aren't the A1200 a little too 'old' technology for the new machines market where everyone must have a fast MMX Px with faster math copro for Quake? Unless they're selling them as NCs or Nintendo killers. And even as a Nintendo killer, I wonder how the A1200 stacks up against the N64 (not that I've actually seen one in action). I'm really curious. Ben

It was thus said that the Great Benedict Chong once stated: To bring this back to the list (as the Amiga is a Classic Machine according the the definition used here), while the current market for the Amiga might seem a bit thin, it might be a good idea to also licence the OS, as it was (and still is) one of the best kernel designs I've seen and had, in 1985, capabilities that we are only now being used in the main stream (read: Wintel market) as well as capabilities that Chairman Bill and the Gateites haven't incorporated. The Amiga OS on a modern CPU should literally scream. My own 7.1Mhz Amiga 500 seems snappy compared to the doggish NT box I use at work, and suffers Ah well ... -spc (I guess that's what makes it a classic)

It was thus said that the Great William Donzelli once stated: But that doesn't mean that the OS can't be ported to other chips. The operating system is (more or less) divided along three main components: Exec (more or less the kernel), DOS (the file system) and Intuition (the GUI). Exec isn't that big, and in one evening I had about half of it written in C (there were still some issues like memory management and task switching that obviously will be CPU dependant, but as it stands, the API is fairly neutral in that reguard). DOS was actually a port of Tri-POS (from England) and if I recall, was ported to Exec in about three weeks. Intuition might be the more difficult part, as it does rely upon the graphics subsystem, but from what I hear, some of the later versions (before Commodore went belly-up) had managed to get more abstraction. The other funny thing about the OS is that Exec was (obviously) written in 68K assembly, DOS in BCPL and Intuition in C. I don't see why it can't be ported. -spc (Nice system)