AmigaOS 4

Last updated
AmigaOS 4
Boing Ball.svg
AmigaOS 4.1 Update 2.png
A screenshot of AmigaOS 4.1 Update 2
Developer Hyperion Entertainment
Written in C
OS family AmigaOS
Working stateCurrent
Source model Closed source
Latest release 4.1 Final Edition Update 2 / January 12, 2021;3 years ago (2021-01-12)
Available in Multi-lingual
Platforms PowerPC
Kernel typeAtypical microkernel
Default
user interface 		Workbench
License Proprietary
Official website www.amigaos.net

AmigaOS 4 (abbreviated as OS4 or AOS4) 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. [1] "The Final Update" (for OS version 4.0) was released on 24 December 2006 (originally released in April 2004) [2] after five years of development by the Belgian company Hyperion Entertainment under license from Amiga, Inc. for AmigaOne registered users. [3]

Contents

History

AmigaOne X1000 running AmigaOS 4.1 AmigaOne X1000 02.jpg
AmigaOne X1000 running AmigaOS 4.1

During the five years of development, purchasers of AmigaOne machines could download pre-release versions of AmigaOS 4.0 from Hyperion's repository as long as these were made available.

On 20 December 2006, Amiga, Inc. terminated [4] the contract with Hyperion Entertainment to produce or sell AmigaOS 4. Nevertheless, AmigaOS 4.0 was released commercially for Amigas with PowerUP accelerator cards in November 2007 [5] (having been available only to developers and beta-testers until then). The Italian computer company ACube Systems has announced Sam440ep [6] and Sam440ep-flex motherboards, which are AmigaOS 4 compatible. Also, a third party bootloader, known as the "Moana", was released by Acube on torrent sites; it allows installation of the Sam440ep version of OS4 to Mac Mini G4s. However this is both unofficial and unsupported as of today, and very incomplete, especially regarding drivers. During the judicial procedure (between Hyperion and Amiga, Inc.), [7] OS4 was still being developed [8] and distributed. [9]

On 30 September 2009, Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc. reached a settlement agreement where Hyperion is granted an exclusive right to AmigaOS 3.1 and market AmigaOS 4 and subsequent versions of AmigaOS (including AmigaOS 5 without limitation). [10] Hyperion has assured the Amiga community that it will continue the development and the distribution of AmigaOS 4.x (and beyond), as it has done since November 2001. [11]

Description

AmigaOS 4 can be divided into two parts: the Workbench and the Kickstart.

Workbench

The Workbench is the GUI of OS4, a graphical interface file manager and application launcher for the Operating System. It also includes some general purpose tools and utility programs such as a Notepad for typing text, MultiView for viewing images and Amigaguide documents, Unarc for unpacking Archives, a PDF reader, a number of small preferences programs for changing settings of the GUI and OS, among other programs.

Kickstart

The Kickstart contains many of the core components of the OS. Prior to version 4 of AmigaOS the Kickstart had been released mostly on a ROM (hardware included with the computer). In OS4 the Kickstart is instead stored on the hard disk. It consists mainly of:

Development process

There have been many different versions of the AmigaOS operating system (OS) during its three decades of history.

Versions 1.0 to 1.3


The first AmigaOS was introduced in 1985 [16] and developed by Commodore International. It was nicknamed Workbench from the name of its Graphical user interface (GUI), due to an error of Commodore Marketing and Sales Department, which labeled the OS disk just with the name "Workbench Disk" and not with the correct name "AmigaOS Disk (Workbench)". The first versions of AmigaOS (1.0 and up to 1.3) are here indicated with the name of their original disks to preserve original custom.

Versions 2.0 to 3.1

Workbench 2.0 improvements introduced a lot of major advances to the GUI of Amiga operating system. The blue and orange colour scheme was replaced with a grey and light blue with 3D aspect in the border of the windows. The Workbench was no longer tied to the 640×256 (PAL) or 640×200 (NTSC) display modes, and much of the system was improved with an eye to making future expansion easier. For the first time, a standardised "look and feel" was added. This was done by creating the Amiga Style Guide, and including libraries and software which assisted developers in making conformant software. Technologies included the GUI element creation library gadtools, the software installation scripting language Installer, and the AmigaGuide hypertext help system.

Versions 3.5 and 3.9

Evolution of AmigaOS 3.x AmigaOS 3 and clones.svg
Evolution of AmigaOS 3.x

After the demise of Commodore International, the later owners of the Amiga trademark granted a license to a German company called Haage & Partner to update the Amiga's operating system. Along with this update came a change in the way people referred to the Amiga's operating system. Rather than specifying "Kickstart" or "Workbench", the updates were most often referred to as simply "AmigaOS". Whereas all previous OS releases ran on vanilla Amiga 500 with 68000 and 512 kB RAM, release 3.5 onwards required a 68020 or better and at least 4 MB fast RAM.

Versions 4.0 and 4.1

In 2001 Amiga Inc. signed a contract with Hyperion Entertainment to develop the PowerPC native AmigaOS 4 from their previous AmigaOS 3.1 release. [17] Unlike the previous versions which were based on the Motorola 68k central processor, OS4 runs only on PowerPC computer systems. Amiga, Inc.'s (current Amiga trademark owners) distribution policies for AmigaOS 4.0 and any later versions required that OS4 must be bundled with all new third-party hardware "Amigas", with the sole exception of Amigas with Phase5 PowerPC accelerator boards, for which OS4 is sold separately. This requirement was overturned in the agreement reached between Amiga, Inc. and Hyperion in the settlement of a lawsuit over the ownership of AmigaOS 4. In 2014 Hyperion introduced AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition incorporating all previous downloadable updates and some new features like unified graphics library with RTG support and support for more than 2 GB RAM. [18]

Version 4.2

In May 2012 Hyperion announced that they were working on AmigaOS 4.2. It would introduce hardware accelerated 3D support, multi-core support, a vastly improved file system API and many other features. [19]

AmigaOS 4 prominent features

Prominent features compared to other operating systems or previous versions of AmigaOS: [20]

Appearance

Workbench screen in front, web browser screen behind AmiagOS 4 screen drag.png
Workbench screen in front, web browser screen behind

File handling

Other

Booted from AmigaOS 4.1 Update 1 Live CD AmigaOS 4.1 Update 1 Live CD.png
Booted from AmigaOS 4.1 Update 1 Live CD

Compatible hardware

Amiga

Released for Amigas equipped with third party PPC add-on boards:

AmigaOne

Released for AmigaOne motherboards:

Pegasos

Released for Pegasos systems:

Samantha

Released for Sam440 systems:

Versions

AmigaOS 4 version information
VersionRelease dateIntroduced features
4.0Developer Pre-release [29] April 2004First public release
4.0Developer Pre-release Update [30] 10 October 2004 AltiVec support, PowerPC-native Picasso96 and MUI, USB support for input devices
Developer Pre-release Update 2 [31] 27 December 2004Mass Storage Support for USB
Developer Pre-release Update 3 [32] 14 June 2005PowerPC native Warp3D drivers for Voodoo 3 (Avenger), Voodoo 4/5 (Napalm) and the Radeon 7x00 series of graphics cards; WarpOS support
Developer Pre-release Update 4 [33] 8 February 2006Petunia just-in-time 68k emulator; Warp3D with support for Voodoo 3/4/5 and ATI Radeon models 7000, 7200, 7500, 9000, 9200 and 9250; Intuition supports screen dragging
4.0The Final Update24 December 2006Virtualized memory and faster memory allocation system (Slab allocator); new icon theme (Mason icons)
4.0July 2007 Update [34] 18 July 2007Support for Shared objects; Python 2.5.1; merge of Tools and Utilities drawers
for Classic Amiga [35] November 2007July 2007 Update baseline
February 2008 update for CyberStormPPC and BlizzardPPC [36] 23 February 2008Addressed some issues and compatibility problems
4.1AmigaOS 4.117 September 2008 Memory paging; JXFS filesystem; Hardware compositing engine; Cairo device-independent 2D rendering library [37]
4.1Quick Fix [38] 21 June 2009Addressed some issues (Warp 3D drivers, IDE drivers, JXFS)
Update 1 [39] 14 January 2010Improved compositing effects (fading and drop shadows); New notification system Ringhio; DDC support; AppDir: handler and URLopen; new Startup preferences; new icon set; MiniGL V2.2
Update 2 [40] 30 April 2010Updated Python; Cairo 1.8.10 (partial hardware acceleration); AmiDock supports icon scaling
Update 3 [41] 29 August 2011USB 2.0 (EHCI) support; Updated MUI (for easier porting of MUI 4 applications)
Update 422 December 2011Emulation drawer with AmigaOS 3.x ROMs and Workbench files; RunInUAE contribution
Update 528 January 2012, 16 August 2012First public release for AmigaOne X1000, [42] later for other platforms. [43] Improved Warp3D and IDE drivers; optimized DMA copy support for Sam440ep and Sam460ex systems; improved Classic compatibility (support for Catweasel)
Update 6 [44] 30 November 2012Auto-update of system components through AmiUpdate
Update 7Internal update, not released for end users, features unknown
Final Edition (Update 8) [45] 18 December 2014Support for more than 2 GB RAM; [46] new unified graphics library with RTG support; improved console; new Intuition and Workbench features; updated Python port; improved DOS; updated context menus; new menus system with unlimited menus and sub menus; thumbnail previews of photos, images in menus; stand alone product, does not require previous releases and does not work as an upgrade over 4.1 Update 6 [47]
Final Edition Update 1 [48] 31 December 2016Support for Z3 RAM as regular Fast RAM; support for disks larger than 2 TB; numerous bug fixes [49]
Final Edition Update 2 [50] 23 December 2020Bug-fixes and stability improvements; updated USB-stack and other OS components
Final Edition Update 2 Hot Fix [51] 12 January 2021Addressed stability issues after Update 2

Future

For the AmigaOS 4.2, Hyperion Entertainment planned the following updates:

See also

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.

AmigaDOS is the disk operating system of the AmigaOS, which includes file systems, file and directory manipulation, the command-line interface, and file redirection.

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">Hyperion Entertainment</span> Belgian software development company

Hyperion Entertainment CVBA is a Belgian software company which in its early years focused in porting Windows games to Amiga OS, Linux, and Mac OS. In 2001, they accepted a contract by Amiga Incorporated to develop AmigaOS 4 and mainly discontinued their porting business to pursue this development. AmigaOS 4 runs on the AmigaOne systems, Commodore Amiga systems with a Phase5 PowerUP accelerator board, Pegasos II systems and Sam440/Sam460 systems.

The Amiga Fast File System is a file system used on the Amiga personal computer. The previous Amiga filesystem was never given a specific name and known originally simply as "DOS" or AmigaDOS. Upon the release of FFS, the original filesystem became known as Amiga Old File System (OFS). OFS, which was primarily designed for use with floppy disks, had been proving slow to keep up with hard drives of the era. FFS was designed as a full replacement for the original Amiga filesystem. FFS differs from its predecessor mainly in the removal of redundant information. Data blocks contain nothing but data, allowing the filesystem to manage the transfer of large chunks of data directly from the host adapter to the final destination.

The Smart File System (SFS) is a journaling filesystem used on Amiga computers and AmigaOS-derived operating systems. It is designed for performance, scalability and integrity, offering improvements over standard Amiga filesystems as well as some special or unique features.

Amiga, Inc. is a company that used to hold some trademarks and other assets associated with the Amiga personal computer.

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">Workbench (AmigaOS)</span> Graphical user interface for the Amiga computer

Workbench is the desktop environment and graphical file manager of AmigaOS developed by Commodore International for their Amiga line of computers. Workbench provides the user with a graphical interface to work with file systems and launch applications. It uses a workbench metaphor for representing file system organisation.

<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.

Amiga support and maintenance software performs service functions such as formatting media for a specific filesystem, diagnosing failures that occur on formatted media, data recovery after media failure, and installation of new software for the Amiga family of personal computers—as opposed to application software, which performs business, education, and recreation functions.

<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> Type of motherboard

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.

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.

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">AmigaOne X1000</span>

AmigaOne X1000 is a PowerPC-based personal computer intended as a high-end platform for AmigaOS 4. It was announced by A-Eon Technology CVBA in partnership with Hyperion Entertainment and released in 2011. Its name pays homage to the Amiga 1000 released by Commodore in 1985. It is, however, not hardware-compatible with the original Commodore Amiga system.

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commodore USA</span> US subsidiary of Commodore

Commodore USA, LLC was a computer company based in Pompano Beach, Florida, with additional facilities in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Commodore USA, LLC was founded in April 2010. The company's goal was to sell a new line of PCs using the classic Commodore and Amiga name brands of personal computers, having licensed the Commodore brand from Commodore Licensing BV on August 25, 2010 and the Amiga brand from Amiga, Inc. on August 31, 2010.

<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. ↑ ""Amiga Inc vs Hyperion Trial is Over - Part 2 of 4" (AmigaOS 3.1 source code [7:15])". YouTube.com. 2009-10-27. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  2. ↑ Administrator. "AmigaOS 4.0 Developer Pre-release goes gold". hyperion-entertainment.biz.
  3. ↑ http://www.hyperion-entertainment.biz/8080/news/2007-01-01%5B%5D
  4. ↑ "Announcement at Amiga Inc. official site". Amiga.com. Archived from the original on July 29, 2008. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  5. ↑ AmigaOS 4.0 for Classic Amiga gone Gold. [ permanent dead link ]
  6. 1 2 "ACube Systems Srl". acube-systems.biz.
  7. ↑ "Amiga Inc v. Hyperion VOF". News.justia.com. Archived from the original on 4 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  8. ↑ Hyperion Entertainment news. [ permanent dead link ]
  9. ↑ "AmigaOS 4 for distribution". ACube Systems. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
  10. ↑ "Hyperion, Amiga, Inc. Reach Settlement, All Legal Issues Resolved". OSNews. 2009-10-17. Archived from the original on 19 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
  11. ↑ "Hyperion Entertainment CVBA and Amiga Inc. reach settlement ". Hyperion Entertainment. 2009-10-17. Archived from the original on 23 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-18.
  12. ↑ "Friedens explain ownership of ExecSG and licensing to Hyperion Entertainment". amigaworld.net. 2006-11-06. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
  13. ↑ "DECLARATION of Hans-Jorg Frieden filed by Defendant Hyperion VOF". justia.com. 2007-05-21.
  14. ↑ "Second DECLARATION of Hans-Jorg Frieden filed by Defendant Hyperion VOF". justia.com. 2007-05-21.
  15. ↑ "Project Petunia". Almos Rajnai. 2006-12-30. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
  16. ↑ "History of AmigaOS". AmigaOS. 2011-05-28. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  17. ↑ "Amiga/Hyperion contract". 2010-10-10. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
  18. ↑ "News". hyperion-entertainment.biz.
  19. ↑ "AmigaOS 4 developer interview: Why it endures and what the future holds". Computerworld. 2012-05-31. Retrieved 2012-06-02.
  20. ↑ "YouTube video "Why use Amiga in 2009? - Long cut"". Youtube.com. 2009-03-23. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  21. ↑ "YouTube video Amiga OS4 Intuition". Youtube.com. 2007-01-19. Archived from the original on 2016-04-18. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  22. ↑ Feature Spotlight: The RAM Disk. [ dead link ]
  23. ↑ "AmigaOS 4 updating system". Amiupdate.net. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  24. ↑ Purdy, Kevin (2022-10-17). "37-year-old Amiga platform gets updates to Linux kernel, AmigaOS SDK". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
  25. ↑ "ACube Systems announcement". acube-systems.biz. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  26. ↑ "AmigaOS 4.1 for Pegasos II". Amigaworld.net. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  27. ↑ OEM Version of AmigaOS 4.1 for SAM440ep imminent. [ permanent dead link ]
  28. ↑ "AmigaOS 4.1 for Sam460ex". ACube Systems. 2010-05-13. Archived from the original on 17 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-13.
  29. ↑ AmigaOS 4.0 Developer Pre-release goes gold. [ permanent dead link ]
  30. ↑ First AmigaOS 4.0 Pre-Release update available. [ permanent dead link ]
  31. ↑ "New AmigaOS Update available". Hyperion-entertainment.biz. 2004-12-27. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  32. ↑ "AmigaOS 4.0 Prerelease Update #3 available". Hyperion-entertainment.biz. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  33. ↑ "AmigaOS4.0 Developer Prerelease Update #4 released". Hyperion-entertainment.biz. 2006-02-08. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  34. ↑ "AmigaOS 4.0 July 2007 Update Available". Hyperion-entertainment.biz. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  35. ↑ "AmigaOS 4.0 for classic Amiga computers compatibility list" (in Italian). Acube-systems.biz. 2009-12-22. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  36. ↑ "AmigaOS 4.0 February 2008 update for CyberStormPPC and BlizzardPPC available". Hyperion-entertainment.biz. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  37. ↑ Hyperion Entertainment announces AmigaOS 4.1. [ permanent dead link ]
  38. ↑ "New AmigaOS 4.1 Quick Fix available". Hyperion-entertainment.biz. 2009-06-21. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  39. ↑ "Update 1 of AmigaOS 4.1 available for immediate download". Hyperion-entertainment.biz. 2010-01-14. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  40. ↑ "Update 2 of AmigaOS 4.1 available". Hyperion-entertainment.biz. 2010-04-30. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  41. ↑ Steven Solie. "AmigaOS 4.1 Update 3 Released". hyperion-entertainment.com.
  42. ↑ "AmigaOne X1000 Update 5 CD goes gold!". Amigans.net. 2012-01-29. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
  43. ↑ "AmigaOS 4 Update 5 is out for all". Amigaworld.net. 2012-08-16. Retrieved 2012-08-18.
  44. ↑ "Hyperion Releases AmigaOS 4.1 Update 6". Amigaworld.net. 2012-11-30. Retrieved 2012-12-01.
  45. ↑ "AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition shipping now!". Amigaworld.net. 2014-12-18. Retrieved 2014-12-19.
  46. ↑ "Breaking the Memory Barrier - Hyperion Entertainment Blog". hyperion-entertainment.biz.
  47. ↑ "AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition available before the end of 2014". Amigaworld.net. 2014-10-26. Retrieved 2014-12-19.
  48. ↑ "Announcing AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition, Update 1". Hyperion-entertainment.com. 2016-12-31. Retrieved 2017-01-01.
  49. ↑ "Final Edition Update 1 is OUT". Amigaworld.net. 2016-12-31. Post 18 by zzd10h. Retrieved 2017-01-01.
  50. ↑ "Hyperion: Update 2 for AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition available for download" (Press release). Brussels: Hyperion Entertainment. amiga-news.de. 2020-12-23. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  51. ↑ "Hyperion: 'Hotfix' for AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition Update 2" (Press release). Brussels: Hyperion Entertainment. amiga-news.de. 2021-01-12. Retrieved 2021-01-13.

Notes

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.