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Qbox was no promise, but a draft idea. Well, sounded attractive to many (me included) and as the decided path which would be straightly followed, but this was rather wishful thinking.
You may consider "Q" as MorphOS' post Amiga-compatible API, hence we will see Q once MorphOS moves on to new shores (whatever that API/box will actually get called then).
http://via.i-networx.de/q86.htm

Andreas, Zylesea,
Its hard to tell what went on with all the attempts to re-write the history around this idea.
But...it WAS mentioned (without anyone denying at the time that this was the eventual upgrade path), its not here, and we're not getting it.

And that qualifies as a hefty promise that wasn't kept.

Well I do remember MorphOS promised SMP since day one en route,
with sandboxing as solution. So I was amazed to see MOS people saying its not
possible - allright in current state, but with sandboxing why not?

So what I read now it is ARM/x86 transition without any SMP / dual processing
even there is a development platform in form of dual core G5 Mac.
Another valid target before x86/ARM transition could be X1000 / X2000.

Hope this will be solved and that MorphOS will be modern AmigaOS like OS sooner then later.

Not that it is most important, but would bring some more power, HD 1080 videos and so on.

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Err... who said there'd be no SMP with a CPU architecture change? The whole point of an architecture change is to drop legacy compatibility, which enables things like SMP.

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You can play 1080p videos on MorphOS already on the faster G5s.

> The whole point of an architecture change is to drop legacy compatibility,
> which enables things like SMP.

Funny. I thought the whole point of dropping legacy compatibility was to change the architecture. Else you could break compatibility and implement SMP etc. on dual-G4 or dual-G5 :-)

Maybe this has been asked before, but would a partial shift make any sense? Like having a dual boot on G5: one with "classic" MorphOS and one with support of MP and SMP etc? As a way of testing and preparing people for the day when the "true" ISA shift is done? Plus, wouldn't it make people want to make programs for both systems and prepare them for the day they need to recompile it?

My 2 cents.

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And I thought it's actually about both.
More powerful hardware (x64) and API without legacy limitations.

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Actually, I am still not convinced that partial SMP and dual boxing could not be implemented on the PPC hardware.
With virtualization support, it would be easier on an X64 system, but we are not talking about retaining Abox after the ISA jump.

AND the latest PPCs feature a hypervisor, so it would be completely possible to run two boxed processes.

Here is one challenge, state it can not be done, as an absolute.
I don't think that is true.
The developers just don't have the will or interest in doing it.

And after having been beaten down for years by those making calls for an ISA change, I think they want to take the easy way out.

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I agree. If MacOS X can do it or Linux ...

X1000 supports hyper ... but Linux or OS4 doesm`t use it. That would be nice platform to start the sandbox building and making MorphOS platform (CPU) independent as much as possible. Next thing is really RadeonHD support. I am not here to decide for the team, but I speak how I would imagine doing things right ...

Update:

>> Radeon HD 3d drivers [...] appear to be pursued outside Hyperion

> Actually, there're two distinct projects for this. One is inside Hyperion (Gallium3D),
> while the other is inside A-Eon (Warp3D), i.e. outside Hyperion. Both are being done
> by the Frieden brothers, though.

Apparently, A-Eon has commissioned Hans de Ruiter to develop Warp3D support for Radeon HD cards with GCN1 GPU (HD77xx-79xx, R7, R9) in addition to support for Radeon HD cards with TeraScale 2 GPU (HD5xxx-HD68xx, maybe even HD73xx-HD76xx) worked on by the Frieden brothers:

http://www.a-eon.com/?news=01-04-2015

"Work on Warp3D for the Evergreen RadeonHD series is continuing and a driver should also be released soon. We are also fomulating new plans to invest in Warp3D's future."
http://www.a-eon.com/PDF/News_Release_Warp3D_SI.pdf


Edit: added correct GPU architecture names and the fact that the HD5xxx driver is also supposed to support HD64xx-HD68xx as announced originally, and maybe even the later HD73xx-HD76xx

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 26.05.2020 - 22:54 ]

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That hints at other 3D solutions from Hyperion not being completed any time soon, from a company that has gotten inside information from the Hyperion developers in the past.

It is really disappointing for AmigaOS4.x users to have no apparent progress made on 3D drivers after so many years of work. They simply don't have enough developers (or cash to pay developers) to get much work done for Hyperion (either that, or the guy(s) doing the work are just not up to the task, or knowledgeable in that type of work). I am glad I use MorphOS, but do wish that newer video cards and better 3D support were offered, so we could get some more advanced 3D games to run on the latest version of MorphOS.

new cards?
sam460_quake_3.png

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http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=7363&start=40#94760

"The Southern Islands driver is a very different driver to the Evergreen driver. They are both separate (costly) projects and consequently have different budgets."

"No plans to merge them - but it is for another good reason - to be revealed in the future."

Wonder if this is IP cracks/divides in the shadow of Hyperion's bankruptcy? Messy to have two separate solutions in parallell...

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Like I read on moobunny:

"A-Eonkit sells you a 3000Euro X1000
A-Eonkit sells you a 30Euro 2D driver
A-Eonkit sells you a ???Euro RC1 driver that doesn't work on the 3000Euro system they sold you
A-Eonkit makes you buy a new gfx card from hem"

"It takes guts to say to your customers 'Now you can throw away those old no longer supported cards and buy new ones !'"

Interesting indeed. Maybe this is why we are not seeing any testemonials or benchmarks, people expected the HW they had to be supported (the GFX cards that were bundled with their Sam/x1000 systems), instead support came for stuff nobody have?

http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=40078&forum=33

All very strange IMHO...

> "[...] A-Eonkit makes you buy a new gfx card from hem"

Graphics cards with Southern Islands GPU are widely available.

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While every progress is good, its a bit strange situation. Up to now, and even now x1000 is sold with 5000-6000HD cards. Now, Warp3D is first released for 7000 cards (even many users pushed development by paying for RadeonHD 2D drivers).

"Normal path" would be the same, but other way around - support what users mostly have, then push the limits upwards. Especially since 7000 cards are so big many SAM460 users will not be able to use them and even on x1000 people might need to sacrifice two slots.

Addendum:

> A-Eon has commissioned Hans de Ruiter to develop Warp3D support for
> Radeon HD cards with Southern Islands GPU (HD7xxx, R7, R9)

AmigaKit writes:

"we are only half way through paying for the development cost and that was a 5 digit sum. The project is currently in the red but it was something that had to be done at the time to get RadeonHD 3D running on the X1000 platform."
http://www.amigans.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2373

Grmmpf so they use me as a creditcard. I payed for goods in the amigakit-store said to be in stock 8 march, still not shipped. I hate that.

And about the graphic solutions for OS4.x .. Well in an ideal world it would be listed in a very overseeable way as on Morphos.de, that's as clear as it gets.
But on the other hand, back in the day you also had different solutions for the classic so what if the suddenly come up with a Morphos version of that warp3d nova driver. If that's even possible.

Anyway I am still not tempted to buy new OS4 capable hardware, my AmigaOne SE works just fine for what I use it.

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Bought a single slot Radeon HD7750, no problem in my Sam460 alias Amigaone 500.
My big card, Radeon HD7950, works ok by connecting it with a pci express flat cable.

The question is, put R&D in creating drivers or focus on one generation and let the users buy a relatively new cheap card.

Update:

> BCPL code [...] was kicked out of the OS (bar aux-handler and port-handler)
> with v2.0 in 1990

"Celebrate the retirement of the last piece of BCPL code in AmigaOs: The Aux-Handler is now completely in C."
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNN5HH1WAAEIWSq.jpg:orig
http://www.amiga-news.de/pics/OS3.1Update.jpg