ACube Systems Srl

Last updated
ACube Systems Srl
Type Private
FoundedJanuary 2007;16 years ago (2007-01)
Headquarters,
Products Minimig, Sam440ep, Sam460ex, AmigaOne 500
Website www.acube-systems.biz

ACube Systems Srl is a company that started in January 2007 from the synergy of the Italian companies Alternative Holding Group Srl, Soft3 and Virtual Works. [1]

The three companies have been engaged in the areas of sale, distribution and engineering of hardware and software for mainstream systems and alternative platforms for years. They have joined their efforts in the realization of the Sam440ep platform. The ongoing dispute over ownership of AmigaOS cast doubts about the actual release of AmigaOS 4 for this new hardware, [2] support for Sam440ep was later introduced in AmigaOS 4.1. [3] Since November 2007 Acube Systems distributed AmigaOS 4.0 for Amiga computers with PowerPC CPU cards on behalf of Hyperion Entertainment. [4] [5] [6] They also built the first Amiga redesign in hardware, the Minimig. [7] In September 2011, Acube Systems introduced AmigaOne 500 based on Sam460ex mainboard. [8] [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amiga</span> Family of personal computers sold by Commodore

Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 16/32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphics and audio compared to previous 8-bit systems. These systems include the Atari ST—released earlier the same year—as well as the Macintosh and Acorn Archimedes. Based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, the Amiga differs from its contemporaries through the inclusion of custom hardware to accelerate graphics and sound, including sprites and a blitter, and a pre-emptive multitasking operating system called AmigaOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PowerPC</span> RISC instruction set architecture by AIM alliance

PowerPC is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. PowerPC, as an evolving instruction set, has been named Power ISA since 2006, while the old name lives on as a trademark for some implementations of Power Architecture–based processors.

AmigaOne is a series of computers intended to run AmigaOS 4 developed by Hyperion Entertainment, as a successor to the Amiga series by Commodore International. Earlier models were produced by Eyetech, and were based on the Teron series of PowerPC POP mainboards. In September 2009, Hyperion Entertainment secured an exclusive licence for the AmigaOne name and subsequently new AmigaOne computers were released by A-Eon Technology and Acube Systems.

MorphOS is an AmigaOS-like computer operating system (OS). It is a mixed proprietary and open source OS produced for the Pegasos PowerPC (PPC) processor based computer, PowerUP accelerator equipped Amiga computers, and a series of Freescale development boards that use the Genesi firmware, including the Efika and mobileGT. Since MorphOS 2.4, Apple's Mac mini G4 is supported as well, and with the release of MorphOS 2.5 and MorphOS 2.6 the eMac and Power Mac G4 models are respectively supported. The release of MorphOS 3.2 added limited support for Power Mac G5. The core, based on the Quark microkernel, is proprietary, although several libraries and other parts are open source, such as the Ambient desktop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amiga 4000</span> 1992 personal computer

The Amiga 4000, or A4000, from Commodore is the successor of the Amiga 2000 and Amiga 3000 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.

This is a list of models and clones of Amiga computers.

The Amiga is a family of home computers that were designed and sold by the Amiga Corporation from 1985 to 1994.

Amiga emulation refers to the activity of emulating a Commodore Amiga computer system using another computer platform. Most emulators run on modern systems such as Microsoft Windows or Macintosh. This allows Amiga users to use their existing software, and in some cases hardware, on modern computers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Das U-Boot</span> Open-source, primary boot the devices operating system kernel

Das U-Boot is an open-source, primary boot loader used in embedded devices to package the instructions to boot the device's operating system kernel. It is available for a number of computer architectures, including 68k, ARM, Blackfin, MicroBlaze, MIPS, Nios, SuperH, PPC, RISC-V and x86.

AmigaOS is the proprietary native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. Since its introduction with the launch of the Amiga 1000 in 1985, there have been four major versions and several minor revisions of the operating system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AmigaOS 4</span> Line of Amiga operating systems

AmigaOS 4 is a line of Amiga operating systems which runs on PowerPC microprocessors. It is mainly based on AmigaOS 3.1 source code developed by Commodore, and partially on version 3.9 developed by Haage & Partner. "The Final Update" was released on 24 December 2006 after five years of development by the Belgian company Hyperion Entertainment under license from Amiga, Inc. for AmigaOne registered users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AROS Research Operating System</span> Operating system

AROS Research Operating System is a free and open-source multi media centric implementation of the AmigaOS 3.1 application programming interface (API). Designed to be portable and flexible. As of 2021, ports are available for personal computers (PCs) based on x86 and PowerPC, in native and hosted flavors, with other architectures in development. In a show of full circle development, AROS has been ported to the Motorola 68000 series (m68k) based Amiga 1200, and there is also an ARM port for the Raspberry Pi series.

WarpOS is a multitasking kernel for the PowerPC (PPC) architecture central processing unit (CPU) developed by Haage & Partner for the Amiga computer platform in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It runs on PowerUP accelerator boards developed by phase5 which contains both a Motorola 68000 series CPU and a PowerPC CPU with shared address space. WarpOS runs alongside the 68k-based AmigaOS, which can use the PowerPC as a coprocessor. Despite its name, it is not an operating system (OS), but a kernel; it supplies a limited set of functions similar to those in AmigaOS for using the PowerPC. When released, its original name was WarpUP, but was changed to reflect its greater feature set, and possibly to avoid comparison with its competitor, PowerUP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AmigaOS</span> Operating system for Amiga computers

AmigaOS is a family of proprietary native operating systems of the Amiga and AmigaOne personal computers. It was developed first by Commodore International and introduced with the launch of the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985. Early versions of AmigaOS required the Motorola 68000 series of 16-bit and 32-bit microprocessors. Later versions were developed by Haage & Partner and then Hyperion Entertainment. A PowerPC microprocessor is required for the most recent release, AmigaOS 4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam440ep</span>

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 motherboard based on the PowerPC 440EP system-on-a-chip processor which includes a double-precision FPU. It is made by AMCC. Their primary targets are the industrial and embedded markets, running operating systems such as Linux and AmigaOS 4.

The following history of the AmigaOS 4 dispute documents the legal battle mainly between the companies Amiga, Inc. and Hyperion Entertainment over the operating system AmigaOS 4. On 30 September 2009, Hyperion and Amiga, Inc. reached a settlement agreement where Hyperion was granted an exclusive, perpetual and worldwide right to distribute and use 'The Software', a term used during the dispute and subsequent settlement to refer to source code from AmigaOS 3 and earlier, and ownership of AmigaOS 4.x and beyond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam460ex</span> Modular motherboards

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, MorphOS, or Debian GNU/Linux.

Warp3D was a project, founded by Haage & Partner in 1998, that aimed to provide a standard API which would enable programmers to access, and therefore use, 3D hardware on the Amiga.

Retargetable graphics is a device driver API mainly used by third-party graphics hardware to interface with AmigaOS via a set of libraries. The software libraries may include software tools to adjust resolution, screen colors, pointers, and screenmodes. It will use available hardware and will not extend the capabilities in any way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AmigaOS 4 version history</span>

A new version of AmigaOS was released on December 24, 2006 after five years of development by Hyperion Entertainment (Belgium) under license from Amiga, Inc. for AmigaOne registered users.

References

  1. "IntuitionBase - Your Guide to AmigaOS4.x and the AmigaOne".
  2. Proven, Liam (May 3, 2007). "The trials of the Amiga continue". The Inquirer. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2016.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. Reimer, Jeremy (September 23, 2008). "It's alive!: Ars reviews AmigaOS 4.1". Ars Technica. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  4. Klaß, Christian (November 26, 2007). "AmigaOS 4.0 für klassische Amigas ist fertig". Golem.de. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  5. "AmigaOS 4.0: Modernes Betriebssystem für Uralt-Rechner". Computerwoche. November 27, 2007. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  6. Fulco, Ivan (April 4, 2011). "Atari, Commodore, Spectrum Che mania il vintage hi-tech". la Repubblica.it. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  7. "ACube Systems Srl company". ACube Systems Srl. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
  8. "FILE N. 1: A new AmigaOne for all Amiga users" (Press release). Bassano del Grappa, Italy: Acube Systems. September 19, 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  9. "Amiga-System mit PowerPC-SoC". c't magazin. September 20, 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2016.

See also