Sorry guys, couldn't resist. Perhaps some of you have also seen this today, if you include Amiga-news.de in your regular daily amiga-related dose.

There it is: A perfect match for MorphOS: The e-Lap (Embedded Linux Application Platform), a reference platform to make PowerPC portable devices!

Of course, it was born and died in the same 2003 year (glorious times for PowerPC, I'd say). Thankyou so much, big blue.

Take a trip by reading that brief article, with gems like "I just can't help but wonder if this handheld was designed with Apple in mind", "I must admit I'm waiting with bated breath for an Apple handheld" and "The e-LAP it's almost an anagram for Apple".

And don't miss those inevitable amigan comments there. Lovely!

Quote:

How could a portable machine with a 320x240 screen resolution and 30MB of memory be a perfect match for MorphOS as we all know it?

MorphOS, as it is today, would be literally unusable, which includes virtually all of the existing MorphOS software. On the other hand, if you have to develop a custom user interface and special applications for this particular hardware, you most likely end up with something that pretty much hides the operating system as much as possible at which point MorphOS users might ask what the point of using a MorphOS derivative on such a machine would be in the first place...

I think it is important to understand what makes MorphOS special, then embrace those qualities and build on them instead of promoting to turn MorphOS into something very different that would alienate a lot of the core user base, yet have a very difficult time to differentiate itself from competing solutions (given the limited development resources).

Totally agree, Andre: Very, very few parts of a desktop operating system would fit in a mobile device (kernel, filesystem interfaces, parts of GUI perhaps), let alone this very humble one. But admit it was cutting edge back then.

You wouldn't put those pieces there, even if it was technically possible: A mobile device is not operated in the same way a desktop computer is, nor its uses are the same.

I see you noticed my sarcasm about that device. And remember those very, very old references from Genesi about its own mobile devices (SmartBoy?), that I never saw manufactured.

Just for those who are not aware: The fact that IBM's eLAP ("Arctic" or "Arctic-2") reference PDA had been Hyperion's famous "mystery device" has been known for more than 5 years.

Some references (dating back to 2005 in terms of OS4 and to 2003 in general):

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:amigaworld.net+405lp
http://www.google.com/search?q=site:amiga.org+405lp

In September 2006 Bill McEwen told this:

"We then went further and paid tens of thousands of more dollars to have OS 4 ported to the IBM PowerPC 405 embedded processor and had OS 4 running on the Arctic reference platform. This was in partnership with IBM and we were very excited about the prospects and looking forward to building several new hardware platforms in partnership with Hyperion."
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=499442

...and in October 2007:

"I recently read a post about how OS 4 should power a phone, and somehow this is supposed to be an epiphany that the Amiga OS could power more than a desktop. This has long been part of our core business plan, Amiga entered into and paid for an agreement to develop a pilot of an embedded version of OS 4 in 2005. Amiga lost a deal worth more than 250,000 units because the development was not properly handled."
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=503366
http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3975

Hyperion's old OS4 website (see "12. Scalability"):

http://web.archive.org/web/20071006072929/http://os4.hyperion-entertainment.biz/index.php%3Foption=content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=0&limit=1&limitstart=2.html

Some old comments from Rogue:

"we have it running on the IBM Arctic PDA, with a complete system booting from a 16 MB flashrom image including Workbench. I still have a video of it booting and being used. Yes it is small and efficient."
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=21040&forum=14&start=380#338223

"For the Arctic device, we had a kernel with all its modules plus a ram disk with workbench in a 16 MB piece of flash rom. The ram disk also contained a number of apps. I think we even had some 68k apps like TurboCalc and WBsteroids on it - I remember that I thought that the TurboCalc interface would need a good shrinkage if something like that would rever run on a PDA. The display driver was able to move windows around with content, a good deal smoother than the Linux that came with it."
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=21642&forum=2&start=40#348114

"the eLAP/Arctic port took some 60 hours or so, including new machine and CPU layer, Picasso96 touchscreen driver, and pen/stylus driver."
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=24944&forum=14#416296

"If that refers to the eLAP, then yes, but that was paid work. Other than that, we never did port it to anything that hasn't been planned as a release target."
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=27195&forum=17&start=80#460692

Unsigned development contract:
http://docfiles.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/washington/wawdce/2:2007cv00631/143245/4/0.pdf (pages 35 to 40)

Signed development contract:
http://docfiles.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/washington/wawdce/2:2007cv00631/143245/26/6.pdf (pages 1 to 11)

More talk:
http://www.google.com/search?q=site:amigaworld.net+%22arctic+agreement%22
http://www.google.com/search?q=site:amigaworld.net+%22arctic+contract%22


> e-Lap (Embedded Linux Application Platform)

Nice device, but rather bad article. Just one example: "Many high-end mobile phones, such as those made by Motorola, are powered by PowerPC processors." The LinuxDevices article linked at the end for reference is much better (read: more factual).

> it was born and died in the same 2003 year

I think the PPC405LP (and with it the eLAP) didn't die before 2004 when IBM sold its PPC4xx processor portfolio to AMCC.

> don't miss those inevitable amigan comments there. Lovely!

Indeed ;-) And it's a confirmation that Amiga Inc. really wanted this one with OS4.

Amazing, amazing amount of information, Andreas!

The bit that impressed me most is this: "the eLAP/Arctic port took some 60 hours or so, including new machine and CPU layer, Picasso96 touchscreen driver, and pen/stylus driver"

Only sixty hours for such an special device? Wow... It makes one feel that the rest of the world knows nothing about porting operating systems.

> remember those very, very old references from Genesi about its own
> mobile devices (SmartBoy?), that I never saw manufactured.

Thendic's SmartBoy was presented running WindowsCE (thus, no PowerPC) way before they got involved with MorphOS. In terms of "Amiga" for Thendic it was all about AmigaDE back then:

http://www.thendic.de/US/News/SmartBoy/smartboy.htm
http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/thendic.html
http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/smartboy.html
http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2007/05/amiga.html (may very well be a mock-up)

When they (Thendic France / Genesi) later got involved with MorphOS they changed the handheld's specs to be PowerPC based (miniaturized Pegasos II, thus probably G3 based) in order to run MorphOS on it. The Eclipsis was supposed to be developed by bplan:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030707130545/http://www.genesi.lu/eclipsis_us/eclipsis.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20030525120603/www.genesi.lu/eclipsis_us/eclips_2_b.htm
http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/bplan/eclipsis.html
http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-has-changed.html
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=856&forum=3&start=1

Then with the advent of the MPC5200B in 2005 Genesi resurrected its plans for a portable device (although not a handheld, but a sub-notebook) with the "4U2"/"Compoogle" to complement its Efika 5200B offering:

https://morph.zone/modules/news/article.php?storyid=966
http://www.genesi-usa.com/press/2005/11/29/
http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2005/11/compoogle.html
http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2005/12/keep-it-simple-and-say-it-over-and.html
http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2006/01/ucompoogle.html
http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2006/04/genesibook.html

And then came the MPC5121e and also vague plans to build a handheld (and other devices) around that:

http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2006/10/wanting-what-you-have.html
http://bbrv.blogspot.com/2008/06/cherrypal-et-al.html

> The bit that impressed me most is this: "the eLAP/Arctic port took some
> 60 hours or so, including new machine and CPU layer, Picasso96
> touchscreen driver, and pen/stylus driver"
> Only sixty hours for such an special device? Wow... It makes one feel that
> the rest of the world knows nothing about porting operating systems.

Just for relativization some porting time frame from "the rest of the world":

"MorphOS was ported to Mac mini G4 in a very short period of time (minimal port was done in 48 hours) and largely by a single individual."
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=642189

Some funny insider information:

http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=35180&forum=33&start=120#700027

:-)