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{subhead}Amiga OS4 Development Update Summary{def}{p}
Article by Mark Tierno
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The following is a summary update of the work in progress for OS4, as
taken from the informatipon recently published by those working on 
it. I reduced it to more of a summary format to make scanning it
easier...
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{bold}AMIGA OS 4.0 DESIGN GOALS{nobold}{p}
 - 1 -  Migrate OS 3.9 from 68K to PPC{p}
 - 2 -  Untie the OS from the Amiga custom chipsets{p}
 - 3 -  Introduce modern functionality{p}
 - 4 -  Eliminate key performance bottle-necks{p}
 - 5 -  Prepare the Amiga OS as a host-OS for Amiga DE
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{bold}DEVELOPMENT UPDATE{nobold}
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{bold}Exec Second Generation (Exec SG){nobold}{pp}
Exec will be re-written for in C and new functionality will be introduced to
allow the deployment of OS 4 on any suitable PPC hardware including but not
limited to the Amiga One, Blizzard PPC, Cyberstorm PPC, Shark PPC from Elbox,
Pegasos from bPlan etc.{p}
 The following features are planned:{p}
 Hardware abstraction layer Virtual memory  New library interface Resource
tracking and management  Optional memory protection  WarpOS backwards
compatibility {p}
 The following design documents regarding Exec SG were already written and are
either finalised or being discussed:{p}
 - New library model (final draft){p}
 - Hardware abstraction layer (first draft){p}
 - Virtual environment (first draft){p}
 All design documents are available as PDF files.{p}
 Actual coding on the higher level functionality of Exec is already
under way.{p}
 Most of the `high level' functionality of Exec SG is already implemented (some
50 functions) which includes all list and tag functions and most notably the
memory subsystem and parts of the new library scheme.{p}
 The memory system is for now limited to the `classic' memory system i.e. the
MemHeader/MemChunk functionality. A more sophisticated system is planned and VM
support will also be added down the line.{p}
 Work is currently underway on the booting process.{p}
 All in all the work is around 50% done.
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{bold}68K emulation{nobold}{pp}
 Development status of the JIT emulator:   Nearly all 68040 integer
instructions are now emulated and work is about to start on FPU
emulation, OS integration and further performance optimisation.
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{bold}PPC native TCP/IP stack & PPP drivers{nobold}{pp}
 Early tests already suggest that this is the fastest TCP/IP stack found on the
Amiga.{p}
 Features are as follows:{p}
- implemented as a single shared library{p}
- compatible with the Amiga standard "bsdsocket" API, as defined by the AmiTCP product{p}
- enhanced API for more control over the inner workings and
configuration{p}
- built-in DHCP client{p}
- Internet Superserver (inetd){p}
- IP filtering and networking address translation{p}
- drivers for asynchronous PPP (dial-up networking) and PPP over
Ethernet{p}
 The TCP/IP stack (`Roadshow') and PPP drivers have been completed with the
following issues outstanding:{p}
- GUI (also required for the PPP drivers){p}
- SSL implementation/integration.{p}
SSL V2 is very close to completion.
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{bold}Re-implementation of the Amiga file system (FFS2) for PPC{nobold}{pp}
 FFS2 is a fully backwards compatible re-implementation in C of the Fast File
System. It supports media > 4 GByte, and a new variant of the file/directory
name storage format which allows for long file names (up to 108
characters).{p}
 Development status:  Completed and successfully tested.
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{bold}Recovery and Salvage tools for FFS2 and SFS{nobold}{pp}
 Salvage, Undelete, Unformat, Repair, RDBSalv, ReOrg/Defrag, Check Integrity
etc. with full support for FFS2 and SFS{p}
 Filesystem Check, Salvage (recovery by copying to another partition), Undelete,
Optimize ("ReOrg"/"Defrag"), Find Partitions and Unformat are done. The
filesystem Repair function still needs some work. Localization and user
documenation is not done yet.
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{bold}PPC native RTG system (Picasso 96 V3){nobold}{pp}
Development status:{p}
Permedia 2 driver: 85% completed{p}
Permedia 3 driver: 60% completed{p}
Voodoo 3 driver:    100% completed{p}
Matrox G450/G550:  work in progress{p}
ATI Radeon family:  work in progress{p}
Picasso 96 V3 will subsequently be ported to PPC with the use of the new Exec
SG library model for optimal performance.{p}
An arithmetically optimised PPC native version of layers.library is planned.
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{bold}Warp3D (3D driver system){nobold}{pp}
Permedia 2 driver: 100% completed{p}
Permedia 3 driver: work to start upon completion of 2D drivers{p}
Voodoo 3 driver:  100% completed Matrox{p}
G450/G550:  work to start upon completion of 2D drivers{p}
ATI Radeon family: work to start upon completion of 2D drivers
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{bold}OpenGL 1.3 support (Mesa 4.0){nobold}{pp}
 Support for OpenGL 1.3 will be provided by porting the open source project Mesa
(which now passes all SGI compliance tests) which will sit on top of Warp3D so
that graphics-card functionality not currently offered by the OpenGL API may be
supported nonetheless.{p}
 Work will start once Warp3D V5 has been completed.
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{bold}PPC native RTA system based on AHI{nobold}{pp}
 Developer: Martin Blom and others{p}
 A Retargetable Audio System allows the use of plug-in soundcards (PCI
or Zorro II).{p}
 Development status:   Martin Blom has started work on the Soundblaster Live drivers.
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{bold}PPC native Intuition and Reaction{nobold}{pp}
 The functionality of Reaction will be extended by providing more classes and be
integrating Reaction better within the OS.{p}
 The addition of the following classes is being contemplated:{p}
 -application.class - name not finalized. This class will be a "parent" and
likely unify window class and arexx class management together, ease management
of multi-window applications and support easy creation of applications as
commodities.{p}
 -speedhint.class - a new help display class based on the speenthint code from
window.class, however this will allow for a more powerful API and future growth
path.{p}
 -popwin.gadget - similar to chooser.gadget but allows a popup display
containing most any other gadget as a child - most useful for a popup listview.
For this gadget to function, Intuition needs to gain some new ability. The
safety of making these changes and therefore including the gadget will need to
be evaluated via beta testing.{p}
 - prefs.class - a new baseclass that allows for custom plug-in preferences
modules for any of the ReAction classes. Subclasses need to be written for the
existing ReAction classes and supported in ReActionPrefs.{p}
 The following functionality will also be implemented:{p}
 Drag and Drop support.{p}
 New `ghosted' look
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Intuition will sport the following new features:
 New DrawInfo pens,  Enhanced window borders Resolution-adaptive system gadgets
User-selectable styles for system glyphs and 3D frames with support for external
plug-ins Configurable look for proportional gadgets New-style (3D recessed)
`disabled' look for gadgets where applicable Gad-Tools enhancements (pop-up
capability for cycle gadgets etc.) Full-user control of Workbench
palette.{p}
 Work is expected to be completed in time for release of OS 4.0 with more work
already planned for subsequent updates of the OS 4.0.
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{bold}SCSI drivers for onboard (UW) SCSI controllers{nobold}{pp}
 The current SCSI drivers for the onboard SCSI controllers of the Cyberstorm PPC
and the BlizzardPPC are written in 68K code which cannot be emulated due to the
usage of MMU instructions and the different MMU pagesizes of the 68K and PPC
line of CPU's.   It is therefore necessary to replace these
drivers.{p}
 Support for other SCRIPTS based PCI-based SCSI controllers is planned to allow
an easy migration of SCSI hardware to non-SCSI systems such as the
AmigaOne.{p}
 The SCSI driver framework is completed with work in progress on implementing
the actual driver for the Cyberstorm PPC onboard SCSI controller.{p}
 Good progress is being made and the driver is expected to be finished
in time.
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{bold}WarpInput API{nobold}{pp}
 WarpInput is an API for multimedia controller devices (akin to DirectInput on
Windows) which allows a programmer to provide support through one API for a wide
variety of input-devices such as keyboard, mouse, joysticks(analog and digital),
track-ball, Playstation controller etc.{p}
 The design document is in its second draft and implementation has
started.{p}
 Work is underway to re-implement lowlevel.library in C.
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{bold}Minimal USB stack{nobold}{pp}
 Design documents are drafted and implementation work is underway.
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{bold}PPC native datatypes{nobold}{pp}
 PPC native datatypes for common formats such TIFF, JPEG, PNG and
BMP.{p}
 Completed but still need to be recompiled for OS 4.
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{bold}New HDToolbox{nobold}{pp}
 The new incarnation of HDToolbox will offer substantially more functionality
than the current version.{p}
 Development status:{p}
 - Lowlevel part ('the Engine'):{p}
 Some 80% of the written code was tested with a total of about 85% written.
Succesfully tested code includes: removing/adding partition and filesystem,
moving and sizing partition, saving RDB back to disk or to a file. The automatic
error reporting and correction of RDB structures is still missing. This is the
last remaining major item which remains to be implemented in the
Engine.{p}
 - Highlevel part (GUI):{p}
 The partitioning window is 100% complete owing to a new gadget designed by
Massimo Tantignone. So is the filesystem selection window barring the gadgets
related to the correction/error reporting of RDB values. Two windows remain to
be fully managed: the Installation window (already working but incomplete) and
the lowlevel SCSI utilities window which is fully designed but not yet working.
Also missing is a complete test of the GUI layout functionalities: the GUI will
try to open a custom screen if the current screen is not big enough but this is
not tested yet.{p}
 Still to do: support for localization and user documentation.{p}
 Overall the development status is estimated to be 85% completed.
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 {bold}Support for TrueType/OpenType fonts{nobold}{pp}
 Work on the initial version for OS 4 is around 95% completed.
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