Yokemate of Keyboards
Posts: 12179 from 2003/5/22
From: Germany
>> In my opinion, a "board specialized for MorphOS" (you didn't answer yet what that
>> means technically) wouldn't have any advantage over a board specialized for no
>> particular OS. What's important is that the on-board components and the controllers
>> integrated therein are publicly documented so driver development for any OS
>> wouldn't have to resort to reverse engineering or similar measures.
> by ussing the word "specialized" I have in mind all those boards like Samantha
> or Nemo on Amiga X1000 which were made with the main purpose and goal to
> run AmigaOs 4.x.
So your usage of the term "specialized" has only a marketing-oriented meaning, no technical meaning. Nothing on the Sam4x0 or Nemo boards is "specialized" for OS4 in any technical meaning of the term. They are general purpose computing boards based on Power Architecture SoCs which OS4 needed to be ported to, i.e. the kernel adapted to the specific Power ISA subset implemented by the PPC440(H6) and PA6T cores and drivers written for the various on-board controllers.
So in technical terms, any general purpose board would qualify as "specialized for MorphOS" as long as it is marketed as such and MorphOS gets ported to it.
And btw, whether or not the Sam4x0 boards really "
were made with the main purpose and goal to run AmigaOs 4.x" is not so clear as you make it sound. After all, ACube's slogan is
Power for your embedded ideas. Furthermore:
"
ACube Systems Srl is pleased to announce the official launch of the end-user version of its embedded motherboard Sam440ep [...]."
http://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=news&id=14
"
The Sam460ex is made both for embedded and consumer markets. It can be adapted to different needs."
http://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=hardware&pid=5
"
ACube Systems is producing PowerPC motherboards for desktop and industrial markets."
http://www.acube-systems.biz/index.php?page=news&id=116
Edit: ACube has now made a public statement comparing their Amiga sales to their non-Amiga sales:
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7001&forum=3&start=861
[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 19.09.2014 - 13:44 ]