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ATI Radeon driver for AmigaOS4 to be developed by Forefront Technologies, Inc.
May 1st, 2002...
Forefront Technologies, Inc. has agreed to develop the ATI Radeon 2D video card drivers for
the next Amiga operating system. AmigaOS 4.0 will arrive with Amiga's first new system
hardware in almost a decade, the AmigaOne*. The ATI Radeon
will provide the highest graphics performance available for the new AmigaOS out-of-the-box.
AmigaOS 4.0 will be based on the same solid foundation as the previous versions of AmigaOS,
but will be ported to run natively on the PowerPC processor (used on the AmigaOne).
Additionally, it will receive many new features and enhancements to bring the operating
system up to date with modern standards.
Here's a look at some of the planned enhancements for AmigaOS 4.0:
- Exec SG (Second Generation)
Exec (the AmigaOS kernel) will be rewritten in C for portability to the PowerPC platform
and will received enhancements such as:
- Hardware Abstration Layer (HAL)
- Virtual Memory
- New shared library interface
- Resource tracking and management
- Optional memory protection
- M68K Emulation
To facilitate the move from the M68000 series CPU to the PowerPC CPU, an M68K emulator
will be included with AmigaOS4 to allow legacy OS-friendly applications to run on the
new hardware.
- Retargetable Graphics System (RTG)
Retargetable graphics means the AmigaOS graphic routines will no longer be tied to
a specific set of hardware. This will allow for use of modern, off-the-shelf graphics
cards such as ATI and Matrox. The RTG system will be a new version of Picasso96 (V3)
designed specifically for AmigaOS4 and will be PowerPC native.
- Retargetable Audio System (RTA)
Retargetable audio means the AmigaOS audio will no longer be tied to Paula. The RTA
system will be based on AHI but specifically for AmigaOS4.
- Intuition and Reaction PowerPC native
Intuition is Amiga's high-performance windowing system. Some on the planned enhancements
to Intuition include:
- Enhanced window borders
- Resolution-adaptive system gadgets
- User-selectable styles and configurable look
- GadTools enhancements (fe pop-up capability for cycle gadgets)
- Full user control of Workbench palette
Reaction is the BOOPSI-based GUI system included with AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9. Reaction will
find better integration with the operating system and extended capabilities in AmigaOS 4.0.
- Warp3D & OpenGL 1.3 Support
Warp3D is a low-level 3D API available both on the classic Amiga and AmigaDE. OpenGL
is a cross-platform (Linux, Mac, Windows, AmigaDE, etc) API developed by Silicon Graphics.
OpenGL support will be provided through a native version of Mesa 4.0.
- FastFileSystem2 (FFS2)
The Amiga's standard FastFileSystem will receive a complete re-write. The planned features
include:
- PowerPC native for optimal performance
- Fully backwards compatible for access to existing partitions
- >4GB partition support
- Up to 108 character file & drawer names
- Tools including: Salvage, Undelete, Unformat, Repair, RDBSalv, ReOrg/Defrag,
Check Integrity
- Standard Networking
While previous versions of AmigaOS supported networking, it was always provided through
add-ons which were not part of the base operating system. The new standard networking
stack is planned to have the following features:
- PowerPC native for optimal performance
- Compatible with the Amiga standard "bsdsocket" API
- DHCP cabable
- Internet superserver (inetd)
- IP filtering and network address translation (NAT, IP Masquerading, etc)
- PPP for dialup and PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet)
- SCSI Support
The classic Amigas had SCSI support, and it will not stop with AmigaOS4. Native support
for the classic Amiga PPC accelerators' onboard SCSI controllers will be included. Also,
PCI-based SCSI support for SCRIPTS SCSI will be included.
- USB Support
- PowerPC native datatypes
- New HDToolbox
- TrueType/OpenType Font Support
* Forefront note: We will be an official AmigaOne dealer! Read
about it here.
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