The title is a little tongue in cheek obviously, but statements by an A-Eonkit employee is a bit head scratching.

The MorphOS Team have made it clear on multiple occasions that they have no interest in porting MorphOS to the Tabor board, including this very thread, but Follett still disputes this fact.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=799507&postcount=48

Quote:

When it is pointed out that he is actually disputing a MorphOS Team member, he doubles down.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=799514&postcount=50

Quote:

I find this all a little strange. Do A-Eonkit have some new relationship with the MorphOS Team we are not aware of? Or is Follett just spreading misinformation in order to promote the Tabor?

I'll vote for option 3:

- he is 100% clueless and out of the loop with some case of severe attention seeking disorder


Doesn't need much insiderinfo to see that Tabor is a brainfart turned turd that has allready cost an huge amount of money.

Also dead obvious that MorphOS team only opted for supporting SAM and X5000 because those atleast made some sense (at an inflated price, but still). Would make more sense to port MorphOS to some Power8-HW than Tabor.

I think it comes down to wishful thinking (I also commented on that thread).

I think the SAM was the Teams idea, while the X5000 was because Trevor asked them. I think they even got some (development?) boards as payment.

@ redrumloa

He is merely saying "there is always a chance", which is factually correct I suppose, albeit rather meaningless.

In theory, if A-eon were to decide at some point that the work to port an operating system to their hardware is as deserving to be paid for as the development of said hardware, then maybe a port could still happen.

@ASiegel

I agree. It has to be more than a couple of boards as they have to write a software FPU emulator. It's not just a big task, it feels a little pointless when there already exist such a huge hardware catalogue for MorphOS which is both more powerful and cheaper (albeit used). The only reason to buy a SAM or X5000 for a MorphOS user is because it's new (if you want to use a RadeonHD card you can buy a G5). From a MorphOS point of view, the gain just doesn't justify the work needed.

Quote:

As an end user I see absolutely no upside to this hypothetical scenario. Here's hoping it stays hypothetical!

@redrumla

But why oh why do you want a MorphOS port to this crippled board?

Quote:

Clearly, I don't! :-p

I am beyond ready to remove the shackles that is PPC and on to a proper CPU(X86-64), at whatever cost that takes to compatibility.

OS4 users want to stay with PPC forever if possible, more power to them. I don't!

> I think they even got some (development?) boards as payment.

Yes, according to bigfoot, they got a P5020DS as a loan as well as two CyrusPlus boards free of charge.

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=11&topic_id=11137&start=167

> if you want to use a RadeonHD card you can buy a G5

...with known limitations.

Quote:

For now. I'm sure that will be addressed eventually.

A-eon would probably like to have Tabor added to the list of MorphOS supported hardware.

But something more substantial than a couple of Tabor boards would likely be needed to convince the developers to work on a port our community isn't really interested in.

How about cash? If we paid a bounty to Mark for the G5 port, why not a similar amount for Tabor?

Or we could just ignore it (my personal preference).

>>> if you want to use a RadeonHD card you can buy a G5

>> ...with known limitations.

> For now. I'm sure that will be addressed eventually.

...except for the non-accessibility of the OpenFirmware and boot menu. I wasn't referring to driver-dependent limitations as they would be the same with MorphOS on Sam460 or X5000.

> If we paid a bounty to Mark for the G5 port, why not a similar amount for Tabor?

Or A-Eon pays for it, as ASiegel suggested, and just like Genesi did for the Efika 5200B port.

Quote:

Probably only two scenarios where the Tabor gets supported by the MorphOS Dev. Team.

#1 - A-Eon pays them cash plus free Tabor boards to port MorphOS to the Tabor.

#2 - The performance of the Tabor is not as terrible as predicted, the price is low enough to be attractive to many users that want new hardware, opposed to used systems, and the amount of work to write a special FPU emulated version of MorphOS which makes MorphOS run well on the Tabor, is less than expected, or feared, so some of the MorphOS Dev. Team members change their perception and volunteer to do the port. (going to X64 makes so much more sense)

Since number 2 option would probably not start until well after a port of AmigaOS4.1FE is finished, and there is a large possibility that a port of MorphOS will never happen, it would be smarter for A-Eon to pay for option #1 and get sales of the Tabor started sooner, rather than later. The problem with option #1 is there is no guarantee how many MorphOS users would buy a Tabor system or motherboard, even if a port of MorphOS is completed and runs well with the emulated FPU instructions. The price and performance would probably have to be close to, or better than many of the currently supported G4 MorphOS systems, which may not be possible.

I'm not sure the risk is worth the money spent for a port paid by A-Eon, but since they have already risked so much on the Tabor by committing to purchase 1,000 CPU's, I figure they either need to go "All In" and risk the further investment to get MorphOS ported to it, or try to sell those P1022 CPU's to another re-seller, or manufacturer that can use them (even if it is at a small loss), so they can switch to the better choice of the T2080 CPU.

It is hard for me to imagine A-Eon waiting 6 months to 2 years for AmigaOS4.1FE, or 4.2 to be ported to the Tabor and expecting users to purchase 1,000 Tabor systems, but maybe that is exactly what they will do.

I am not their target market, since I already own more compatible systems than I really need, and I will not be buying a Tabor system no matter what happens, or how it performs, at any cost. Just sharing my opinion of what the most probably options are, and still hoping that A-Eon can figure out a way to make their plans work out.

> it would be smarter for A-Eon to pay for option #1 and get sales of the Tabor
> started sooner, rather than later.

In case of the finished CyrusPlus/X5000, A-Eon obviously doesn't want to start board or system sales until OS4 is ready for it. Why should that be different for Tabor/A1222?

> since they have already risked so much on the Tabor by committing to purchase
> 1,000 CPU's, I figure they either need to go "All In" and risk the further investment
> to get MorphOS ported to it, or try to sell those P1022 CPU's [...], so they can
> switch to the better choice of the T2080 CPU.

The NRE costs they paid to Varisys for the board development exceed the 53,170 USD (current Freescale pricing) for the P1022 CPUs by an order of magnitude. They can't get this investment back. A T2080-based board would be a new development entirely.

Quote:
The product is being officially marketed as a the "AmigaOne A1222" so an official launch without any Amiga-branded operating system is extremely unlikely. Plus, the option to fast-track a port by contributing financially exists for other operating system options as well...

Quote:
Launching two fundamentally similar products at the same time is rarely a good idea.

While the offered performance levels are clearly different, some impulse buyers might still choose to buy the A1222 instead and consider upgrading later if they are given the choice. By delaying the launch of the cheaper option, you provide an extra incentive to potential buyers of the higher-end option.

Also, any mainstream computing publications would likely report about your niche products in a single combined article whereas two distinct launch windows would likely produce (nearly) twice as many articles and generate attention over a much longer period of time.

Quote:

Sweet baby Jebus! I figured it was bad for A-Eonkit but WOW!!

>> The NRE costs they paid to Varisys for the board development exceed the 53,170 USD
>> (current Freescale pricing) for the P1022 CPUs by an order of magnitude. They can't
>> get this investment back.

> Sweet baby Jebus! I figured it was bad for A-Eonkit but WOW!!

I'm surprised to see you acting surprised considering you thought NRE costs for Cyrus and Tabor combined amounted to 2 million USD :-)

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=11432&start=18

If A-eon wants to pay for a port, I dont see a problem. Its their money. If Devs think its a-ok, then I'm a-ok.

Quote:

"A-EON Technology Ltd is pleased to announce that Tabor, a new powerful, low cost, entry level PowerPC motherboard"

"The full system is designated the AmigaOne A1222."

http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=7559

Quote:

Exactly my view on the topic as well. The MorphOS Dev. Team has not let us down so far, and I have liked all their decisions and choices up until now (well, to be honest, I still am not too sure about the SAM port, and doubt that many MorphOS users will buy an X5000).

I have confidence in the MorphOS Dev. Team members to choose the right path for the future, and their ability to code further works of art, when it comes to new versions of MorphOS for any platform.

Quote:

I rather disagree. A port binds resources IMHO better spend elsewhere. Money may change a few things, but it doesn't make two hours out of one or two developers out of one magically. These resources _are_ limited.

Quote:

Yup, you pointed out it is "only" $1.2M. I was unaware of the Freescale pricing. Dividing the announced $1.2M by A-Eonkit by two and there is a world of difference between Varisys and Freescale.

Quote:
Please note that the quoted figure did not merely refer to non-recurring engineering expenses but also includes manufacturing costs.

Quote:
Actually, it does if the amount of money allows a developer to work on this to cover living expenses instead of any other freelance work that is entirely unrelated to MorphOS.

> I was unaware of the Freescale pricing.

Well, it's simply the Freescale price of one CPU reported there (which is fittingly valid for purchase of 1000 pcs.) multiplied by 1000. I don't know whether A-Eon could obtain better pricing from Freescale or some distributor, though.

> Dividing the announced $1.2M by A-Eonkit by two

Cyrus (Plus) is actually two different boards (not taking into account potential pin incompatibilities between P5020 and P5040 which could require some adaptations for the board in the X5000/40), so the development costs are likely unevenly distributed between Cyrus and Tabor. And, as ASiegel wrote, the $1.2M figure includes manufacturing costs.