home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- {center}
- {subhead} What Makes An Amiga{def}{p}
- Article by Mark A. Tierno
- {left}
- {p} {p}
-
- Between Amigas with and without QNX, Linux raising it's head, Phase 5
- and HP going independent, with their own versions of our beloved Ami,
- and every other attempt at stretching the definition of an Amiga, I
- thought it long overdue for a definition of just what IS an Amiga. What
- hardware and software components are required to make a computer an
- Amiga.
- {p} {p}
- That's what this article is all about.
- {p} {p}
- First, the Hardware. Two basic types of things leap immediately to
- mind. Autoconfig and Custom Chips. Long before Plug And Pray tried a
- mistaken leap at the idea, Autoconfig was making life easy; just pop in
- the board and that's it. So, our first requirement is our machine MUST
- have Autoconfig.
- {p} {p}
- As for Custom chips, in an age where the benefits of entire daughter
- boards devoted to just such things as 3D rendering, the concept of a
- custom chip remains the same. Design a series of chips and/or daughter
- boards, whose function is to unload some of the drugery from the CPU. Be
- they co-processors, custom chips, or entire boards, it's the same basic
- thing. In the Amiga this amounts to parrallel processing (since what
- are the custom chips but additional processors linked up in parallel)-
- long before desktop PC ever even thought of the idea. So here, Custom
- Chips and Parallel Processing are pretty much the same sort of thing,
- and our second requirement.
- {p} {p}
- Our last Hardware requirement is, of course, Multimedia compatible. As
- in built in television signal, compatible hookups to whichever happens
- to be the media players of the day, including the latest Audio, video or
- CD players, holographic projectors (thinking just abit farther ahead),
- and whatever.
- {p} {p}
- Software. This can be summmed up as Multitasking, lean memory use, a
- flexible interface, and complete adaptability. Multitasking everyone
- knows; just make it true pre-emptive and we're happy.
- {p} {p}
- Memory use, well no OS should keep bloating up to 50% of your system
- resources just to boot up; if you get a more powerful machine you
- deserve a similiar increase in performance and productivity, NOT just
- more power for an OS to eat up just for doing what it did before. More
- available power is no excuse for sloppy programming. In this regard,
- Amiga programmers have more personal pride in what they do than other
- platforms seem to do. Similarily, the OS should be just as stingy with
- CPU cycles.
- {p} {p}
- Then there's the interface. Be it a standard GUI, a basic shell
- interface, or the gee-wiz-bang interface of the future, it should be as
- simple and flexible to use as possible. Customizing your interface to
- suite your needs shouldn't involve any complex maze of settings, files
- to edit, and clumsy GUIs. It should be intuitive and as easy to use as
- any other appliance.
- {p} {p}
- Finally, we have adaptability. The Amiga OS is THE most hackable OS on
- the planet, as evidenced by the vast array of emulators for other
- platforms, file compatability, system hacks, and the variety of uses
- to which Amigas have been put to that the original designers had no
- idea would even be around. Put as many hacks in a Windoze or Mac
- system as your average Ami Power-User has and they'd come crashing
- down (Windoze can't even handle it's OWN hacks). Keep this adaptibility
- and you proof your system against any and all future developments
- (who ever foresaw Mpeg a decade ago? And yet an A4000 can get away
- with playing mpeg video without specialized hardware).
- {p} {p}
- That, in general terms, is what I believe constitutes an Amiga. Change
- the CPU, change the software around, but keep the above ideals and
- you've still got an Amiga. Be it the Amiga company or Phase 5, it can
- still be an Ami if your just but keep to these.
- {p} {p}
- Listen well Amiga, we're keeping a careful eye on you.
- {p} {p}
- Comments, ideas? email : {bold}letters@aio.co.uk{nobold}