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iFusion - The Powermac Emulator for Power Amigas
Ist took quite a long time , but it is finally here. It seems mainly because of the pressure from customers, because it is still far from being completed. Yet before I start listing what still needs to be done, lets look at what the current version does contain. You get an attractive CD case and a CD - nothing more - nothing less. The fact that only 1MB of data is contained on the CD shouldn`t really be of any concern.
The installation is done via the standard installer. Within a few seconds it is installed and awaiting configuration. For the configuration an installer script is also used, which asks questions leading you step by step through the configuration. You also have the option of configuring everything in a text editor. My configuration is as follows:
;--------------------------------------------------- ; iFUSION NewWorld Emulation Declarations ;--------------------------------------------------- ;Paths to externally loaded drivers FirmWare: drivers/OFDrvr Video: drivers/VideoDrvr Devices: drivers/BlockDrvr ;--------------------------------------------------- ; Hardware Configuration ;--------------------------------------------------- CPUID: 8 ;Processor Version=G3 RAM: 48 NVRAM: NVRAM ROM: ROM/rom_91 ;--------------------------------------------------- ; Amiga Device Configuration ;--------------------------------------------------- Device: Macintosh: -rw -direct Device: CD0: -cd Device: DH1: -rw -direct DisableSCSIDrvr: yes SCSIDEV: 0 scsi.device/1 -hw ;-------------------------------------------------- ; Video Display Configuration ;-------------------------------------------------- DisplaySize: 1024/768/75 Depth: 15 VideoRefreshRate: 30 VideoDirectModes: yes VideoRefreshModes: no VideoAmigaModes: no CacheVidMem: yes GammaCorrection: 1.0 1.0 1.0 ;-------------------------------------------------- ; Input Configuration ;-------------------------------------------------- MouseRes: 400 HardwareMouse: no KeyboardType: 5 ;-------------------------------------------------- ; Audio Configuration ;-------------------------------------------------- StartupSnd: startup-snd PlayStartupSnd: yes DisableSnd: no _ |
It shouldn`t be very difficult to modify this configuration to fit your own needs.
For the next step you require a MacOS CD (version 8.6 - 9.1are supported). On the MacOS CD the is a System folder that contains the actual MAC Rom named "Mac OS Rom" which simply needs to be copied to the ROM folder in the Fusion directory. In my case I renamed it to "rom_91"
You then need to make the following ENV variable settings.
Then copy both of the WarpOS libraries from the iFusion CD to Libs:
In the config file the first device listed is the boot device. Therefore put the cd-rom as the first device and then the hard disk partition (which needs to be amiga formatted). Double click on Run_Fusion and the emulation will start.
The Mac will boot from the CD and after a few moments we can begin with the installation of MacOS. If there is no previously formatted Mac partition you will be asked if you wish to format the drive (the Amiga one defined above). After a few more clicks the installation of MacOS is underway.
In my case - and also with others, the following happened. The sreen would go black, yet the installation would still continue. The cd-rom accesses were evidence of that, there was just nothing to see. Maybe the Mac goes into a stand-by mode. In any event one should not press any keys. Just let it do its thing, until there is no activity left to be heard. When this happens, press enter. The MAC can be forcably shut dow with the key combination L-Amiga + Shift + ESC. Once you have successfully installed MacOS you will need to change the config file one more time. The boot device is no longer the cd-rom, but the hard drive partition. So, move this to the first device and start the emulation again.
Once the Mac has booted, you can begin to configure the system and change the screen resolution to a more accceptable one. The standard initial screenmode is 640x480x256.
Under the Applemenu/Control Panels/Extentions on/off you can also select the unneeded system extensions and control panels. They just hog system resources. Currently you can forget about networking, Firewire, graphics card drivers and cd-rom software. Reboot and the Mac should be useing much less memory.
Compatibility:
The emulation is unbelievably compatible. Ich have not yet found a program the didn`t run. I have tested Photoshop 5.5, Bryce 3, ITunes, IMovie (we really need Firewire on Amigas), Norton Utilities 6, Tech Tools Pro 3, Corel Draw, Freehand 9, Actua Soccor, Myth. A very diverse collection of software and it all ran.
Speed:
The emulation has the following short-comings that pushes the speed downward:
The pure computing power is surprisingly high, when one takes into account what kind of hardware the P5 powerup boards are. (no 2nd level cache). It nearly gets actual 604e speed (see screenshot in comparision with a 8100 601).
The following features are not yet finished:
Since Blittersoft has purchased the Amiga licence for iFusion, it remains to be seen if these features and others will be implemented. Also an AmigaDE version (AmigaOS4.0?) is supposed to be in development. That is hopefully the case, since the hardware that currently is at the top of the line for the Amiga is hopelessly outdated for this OS. On a new G3/G4 based Amiga it would be an entirely different story.
Jochen Abitz <jockel-amiga@gmx.de>
English Translation: Jerry Withers <amiga@mediaone.net>
Postscript (Christian Aichinger):
iFusion was tested by Jochen Abitz with the following Amiga configuration:
Amiga 4000 with CyberStormPPC 604e/200, 68060/50, CyberVisionPPC, 100 MB Ram, 6 GB IDE-, 4,5 GB UW, 21" Monitor, Serielle 4D Maus, IDE-CDRom 32- fach, 32fach SCSI CDRom Teac, CDRW Philips CDD 3600, OS 3.9, 100 MB Zip SCSI.
