AmigaOne
Encyclopedia
AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4, , is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner...
developed by Hyperion Entertainment
Hyperion Entertainment
Hyperion Entertainment CVBA is a Belgian software company which in its early years focused in porting Windows games to Amiga, Linux and Macintosh. Later on, they were contracted by Amiga Incorporated to develop AmigaOS 4 and retired from the gaming business...
. Earlier models were produced by Eyetech
Eyetech
Eyetech Group Ltd is a company founded in 1983, in order to provide commercial companies with automatical data collection systems. They had already been involved in the provision of the automatic toll collection systems used at the Dartford River Crossing, as well as many of the bar code based...
, and were based on the Teron series of PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
POP mainboards
Motherboard
In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...
. In January 2010, A-Eon Technology announced a new computer, the AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne X1000 is a PowerPC based computer intended as a high-end platform for AmigaOS 4. It was announced by A-Eon Technology CVBA in partnership with Hyperion Entertainment and is expected in late 2011...
, which they have claimed will feature a dual core PowerPC motherboard, and is also intended to run AmigaOS 4.x.
History
Originally, AmigaOne was the name of a project for new AmigaAmiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
hardware, managed by Eyetech
Eyetech
Eyetech Group Ltd is a company founded in 1983, in order to provide commercial companies with automatical data collection systems. They had already been involved in the provision of the automatic toll collection systems used at the Dartford River Crossing, as well as many of the bar code based...
and designed by the German company Escena GmbH. The AmigaOne motherboard was to be available in two models, the AmigaOne-1200 and the AmigaOne-4000. It was to have connectors for an optionally attached Amiga 1200
Amiga 1200
The Amiga 1200, or A1200 , was Commodore International's third-generation Amiga computer, aimed at the home market...
or an Amiga 4000
Amiga 4000
The Commodore Amiga 4000, or A4000, is the successor of the A2000 and A3000 computers. There are two models, the A4000/040 released in October 1992 with a Motorola 68040 CPU, and the A4000/030 released in April 1993 with a Motorola 68EC030....
respectively, in order to use the old custom chips of an Amiga. This AmigaOne project was cancelled in 2001, mostly due to the inability to find or design a suitable northbridge
Northbridge (computing)
The northbridge has historically been one of the two chips in the core logic chipset on a PC motherboard, the other being the southbridge. Increasingly these functions have migrated to the CPU chip itself, beginning with memory and graphics controllers. For Intel Sandy Bridge and AMD Fusion...
chip.
The main difference between the ATX
ATX
ATX is a motherboard form factor specification developed by Intel in 1995 to improve on previous de facto standards like the AT form factor. It was the first big change in computer case, motherboard, and power supply design in many years, improving standardization and interchangeability of parts...
-format AmigaOne SE and XE was that the AmigaOne SE had a soldered-on 600 MHz PowerPC 750CXe processor, whereas the AmigaOne XE used a CPU board attached to a MegArray connector on the motherboard. While the MegArray connector is physically similar to the Apple Power Mac G4
Power Mac G4
The Power Mac G4 was a series of personal computers that was designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple between 1999 and 2004. They used the PowerPC G4 series of microprocessors. They were heralded by Apple to be the first personal supercomputers, reaching speeds of 4 to 20 Gigaflops...
CPU daughtercard connector, it is not electrically compatible. There were G3
PowerPC G3
The PowerPC 7xx is a family of third generation 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors designed and manufactured by IBM and Motorola . This family is called the PowerPC G3 by its well-known customer Apple Computer...
and G4
PowerPC G4
PowerPC G4 is a designation used by Apple Computer to describe a fourth generation of 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors. Apple has applied this name to various processor models from Freescale, a former part of Motorola....
options with a maximum clock frequency of 800 MHz and 933 MHz. The G4 module originally used a Freescale 7451 processor which was later changed to a Freescale 7455, both without level 3 cache. The G4 CPU runs hotter and requires a better heatsink than that supplied on some machines. Consequently, the G4 was often supplied underclocked to run at 800 MHz. In 2007 Acube offered 1.267 GHz 7457(See below). The Micro-A1 was announced in two configurations, under the Micro-A1 I (Industrial) and Micro-A1 C (Consumer) labels. Only the C configuration was produced.
Both AmigaOneG3-XE and AmigaOneG4-XE has four 32-bit PCI-slots (3x 33 MHz, 1x 66 MHz) and one AGP-2x slot. The Micro-A1 has only one 32-bit PCI-slot and an integerated Radeon 7000 via AGP with dedicated 32 MB VRAM.
When the AmigaOne boards first became available, AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4, , is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner...
was not ready: they were supplied with various Linux distributions. From April 2004 onwards, boards were shipped for developers with prerelease version of OS4. The Final Update of OS4 was released in December 2006 for AmigaOne computers only, with the PowerUP
PowerUP (accelerator)
PowerUP boards were dual-processor 68k–PowerPC accelerator boards designed by Phase5 Digital Products for Amiga computers. They had two different processors working in parallel, sharing the complete address space of the Amiga computer system.-History:...
version being released in December 2007. AmigaOS 4.1 for AmigaOne was released on September 2008.
Models and variants
| AmigaOne model name | Vendor | Timescale | RAM (base) | OS Version | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AmigaOne SE | Eyetech | 2002–2004 | Varies | (pre)4.0, 4.1 | This ATX format motherboard was sold only to developers and beta testers. |
| AmigaOne XE | Eyetech | 2003–2004 | Varies | (pre)4.0, 4.1 | ATX format motherboard |
| Micro-A1 - C | Eyetech | 2004–2005 | 256 MB | (pre)4.0, 4.1 | Mini-ITX format motherboard |
| Micro-A1 - I | Eyetech | never produced | 256 MB | - | Mini-ITX format motherboard |
| AmigaOne 500 | Acube Systems | 2011- | 2 GB | 4.1 | Complete system |
| AmigaOne X1000 AmigaOne X1000 AmigaOne X1000 is a PowerPC based computer intended as a high-end platform for AmigaOS 4. It was announced by A-Eon Technology CVBA in partnership with Hyperion Entertainment and is expected in late 2011... |
A-Eon | 2012- | 2 GB | 4.1 or 4.2 | Announced February 20, 2010, complete system |
Current status
MAI Logic Inc. went bankrupt, and consequently the supply for the Eyetech AmigaOnes dried up. Eyetech Group Ltd stopped the sales of the MicroA1 and retired from the market.In February 2010, a new company A-Eon Technology in co-operation with Hyperion Entertainment, officially announced a new AmigaOne model, the AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne X1000
AmigaOne X1000 is a PowerPC based computer intended as a high-end platform for AmigaOS 4. It was announced by A-Eon Technology CVBA in partnership with Hyperion Entertainment and is expected in late 2011...
. The project has been delayed but new platform is expected to launch before the end of 2011.
In October 2011, Hyperion Entertainment announced they are launcing new AmigaOne netbook in mid 2012.
Other AmigaOS 4 compatible models
The Sam440Sam440
Sam440, also known by Sam or its codename Samantha, is a line of modular motherboards produced by the Italian company ACube Systems Srl. The Sam440ep version is a Power Architecture motherboard based on the PowerPC 440EP system-on-a-chip processor which includes a double-precision FPU. It is made...
mainboard (complete with AMCC PowerPC 440EP SoC) is an embedded motherboard launched by Acube Systems in September 2007. AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4, , is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner...
was released for the Sam440 in October 2008.
The Sam460ex
Sam460ex
Sam460ex is a line of modular motherboards produced by the Italian company ACube Systems Srl. The machine was released in October 2010 and can run AmigaOS 4 or Debian GNU/Linux....
mainboard (complete with AMCC 460ex SoC, PowerPC 440 core) is an embedded motherboard launched by Acube Systems in April 2010. AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4, , is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner...
was released for the Sam460ex in January 2011.
The Pegasos
Pegasos
Pegasos is a MicroATX motherboard powered by a PowerPC 750CXe or PowerPC 7447 microprocessor, featuring three PCI slots, one AGP slot, two Ethernet ports , USB, DDR, AC'97 sound, and FireWire...
II mainboard (complete with PPC G3 and G4 CPU) is a MicroATX motherboard launched by Genesi
Genesi
Genesi is computer company focused on building Power Architecture and ARM architecture computers. The organization is split into two units, Genesi USA, Inc. working out of Texas operating as the primary front-end for sales, customers and developers, and bplan GmbH based in Germany as the primary...
and discontinued in 2006. AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4, , is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner...
was released for the Pegasos II in January 2009.
External links
- Eyetech and Mai Logic - Mai Logic Incorporated And Eyetech Group Limited Partner to Capture New Amiga Territory
- The Register - Amiga returns with AmigaOne PPC hardware
- Eyetech - Archived page containing AmigaOne update and information on the AmigaOne partnership between Eyetech, Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga Inc.
- Amiga Inc - Amiga status announcement
- AmigaOne model comparison table