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2. Letter to the Editor concerning "Final Thoughts" in Edition 01/2001 (by Steffen Haeuser)

I cannot agree in any way with the conclusions of Martin Baute in last month's "Final Thoughts", that "OS 4.0 PPC" is a "very stupid idea".

Unfortunately AmigaDE will not be on hand for a long time (presumably end of 2001), but software companies need something to sell software for.

An announcement "We are creating an OS4.0 PPC" would be a signal to the market: "There still is something running on the Classic, go and buy Classic software" and with this a direct support for firms still active in the Classic market.

Ultimately a stabilization of the market would benefit AMIGA themselves for the AmigaDE (among other things by the boost of sales numbers for new hardware, which would be usable on both the Classic Amiga and DE, IMHO; as well AMIGA would cash in on an existing "Active Community" positively influenced by an announcement of OS 4.0 PPC).

My ideas for an OS 4.0 PPC are as follows:

• 68k emulator (which is mostly finished already)


• PPC-native versions of exec, dos, graphics, intuition


• New file system, which is not as lame as Seek (for 68k and PPC systems)


• PPC-native file system for at least the most important devices (CS PPC UW SCSI, Blizzard PPC SCSI, A1200/A4000 IDE)


• New Kickstart ROM (for 68k and PPC systems)


• A WB emulation fully integrated into the system, fully PPC-native


• A completely PPC-native sound standard, fully integrated into the system


• Extension of WarpOS: integration of virtual memory, at least application-based


• Extended lowlevel.library with PPC-native functions


• PCI drivers for the most important items in the OS

This would form the basis for an emulation layer of the Classic OS for AmigaDE later on - in my opinion this really makes sense, but the PPC port must be the first step.

It must not be a complete port of the OS. As shown in this "proposal" the "OS 4.0" improvement of the file system and a new Kickstart ROM (and integration of drivers for PCI solutions to come) certainly would appeal to 68k customers.

In short: I believe, an OS 4.0 is a very good idea.

Steffen Haeuser <MagicSN@Birdland.es.bawue.de>