I noticed some interesting comments in the September issue of CU Amiga. The first was that Amiga International have not actually given an official indication of the processor which will form the core of the next generation Amiga. I had it on good authority that the PowerPC was the official choice, and that companies such as Phase 5 and PIOS were pursuing the PPC path purely because it was in their best interests to carry on the work while the Amiga went bouncing between new owners. Apple successfully (arguably) switched over from the 680X0 line to PowerPC and so it didn't take much imagination to see the Amiga follow that very same route. Though, just as a sideline, how many PowerMacs use a dual 68k and PowerPC system? Hmmm... thought as much - where did the early dreams of 68k emulation on the PowerPC go to?
So, the PowerPC hasn't been chosen? Well, it has and it hasn't. Phase 5 and PIOS are not exactly going to ditch a PowerPC Amiga if the official destiny is with another processor, so rest assured I can safely say that a PowerPC Amiga is going to be a reality. But it doesn't have to be the sole reality, nor the official one. Just look at AROS, which aimed to have a portable Amiga OS running on a variety of platforms. While I haven't kept up with the progress of the project, it seemed to be doing pretty well and proved that portability of the OS was both practical and useful.
I do, however, believe in the PowerPC as a first step. It is a proven piece of powerful technology. Plus, the Amiga community already has a growing selection of development tools, first-generation hardware boards from Phase 5 and a good deal of support from commercial and shareware developers. Once the PowerPC Amiga has become a concrete reality (i.e. there is a system running a native PowerPC Amiga OS) we can take a serious look at other platforms. Paul Nolan, in CU Amiga, voiced the Alpha processor as one such alternative - and what an alternative! Alpha Amigas would be tremendously powerful, though I'm yet to be convinced they would be as cost effective, initially, as the PowerPC. Now I would like to mention another possibility, one which has, I believe, been mentioned a few times in the past but seemingly ignored. I speak of ARM processors.
For those who don't know, ARM produce a range of RISC processors which offer low-cost, high-performance capabilities. They are most notable for being at the heart of various Acorn machines, the Apple Newton and a recent device I shall mention in just a moment. Alright, running Amiga OS on an Acorn is hardly going to bring in large numbers of new users, and I can't seriously see a Newton running the OS either (stranger things have happened though...). Nope, the target audience is the users of a recent device which is, as some will know by now, the Network Computer.
Acorn and Oracle have already produced a Network Computer (NC) as part of a joint project. NCs are going to be BIG, potentially VERY big - and the best machines, in my opinion, are the ones using an ARM processor. See where I'm going yet? Yep, think about all those NCs being used at home, in offices, schools, etc. - Amiga OS is ideal for both the machines (which cost about as much as an A1200) and the users. Plus, the Amiga can take a crucial part in a new and expanding part of the computer marketplace. Now, do I hear any takers?
Well, I've recently been cast into the role of an unemployed graduate, so the time I'm not spending looking for jobs, laser-printing CVs or casting a concerned look at my bank balance is free for whatever I want. So I decided to make a serious effort to write some decent software for Aminet. The idea was sound - I have a final year computing project which is in dire need of some revamping and porting to the Amiga to get me started, plus I have several other ideas for useful programs which have yet to see even a glimpse of a design, let alone a compiler.
Out came the Amiga developer's CD-ROM, the main reason I bought a 4X speed SCSI CD-ROM drive (honest), and I set to work finding out what I needed to do to turn an ugly bit of ANSI C into a neat, Amiga OS compliant neural structure raytracing system. Hmmm, well it's useful and there was some nice tutorials and information which was of some interest. The sources were nice, in a "figure it out" kind of a way and I admit I can learn from these things pretty well... tutorials are for wimps. *grin* But really, it felt like hard work and there was always the sense of missing out the bigger picture. So what I really needed was extra information.
Turning to my, rather poorly stocked, Amiga-related bookshelf I find that most of the books I have feel that upgrades to Workbench 1.3 are the big thing. Oh dear, well... my A500 was the centre of my life for many years. The assembly books are great, but they don't really help in making a sophisticated program in C, and making a smooth transition to graphics cards, PowerPC or whatever is a no no. You can't get the RKMs any more, and I can't track down second hand copies either - not that they have OS 3.0 in, but that kind of stuff is in the developer's CD anyway. The mass of PD tutorial docs on Amiga C are poor too... mainly out of date and usually missing some useful stuff like graphics or whatever. My choice would be the Amiga Guru book by Ralph Babel, but I can only find a German supplier, and I cannot motivate myself to spend lots of money paying for changing money to buy a hefty book plus overseas shipping.
So what's my point? Well, as an armchair developer who hopes to eventually work with Amiga development in a full time capacity, I feel that support for non-commercial developers is lacking. Don't get me wrong, the Developer CD-ROM and third party information (for PowerPC, CyberGraphX etc.) is great, it's just that the book market is empty. Sure, you can get books on playing Amiga games, starting out as a new Amiga user and so on, but you just can't get up to date information to sit down and write anything serious. Which is a shame.
Hopefully, Amiga International will sort out the situation soon. I respect the fact that they have a million other things to do right now, but it seems to me that a very important part of the Amiga's future is being ignored. Get the Amiga RKMs updated and released, or rerelease the last ones. Get the Guru book in wider circulation. In fact, on the developer's CD there is a statement which says that Amiga Technologies (as they were at the time) were going to try and get the rights to republish the manuals on CD. What happened to this idea? It would be an ideal way to get the official information back into general circulation, and would bring many new programmers to the world of the Amiga.
Well, here ends my gripe. If anyone knows where, in the UK, I can find a copy of Ralph Babel's Guru Book or obtain copies of the last set of RKMs, please contact me. I would be truly grateful. In the meantime, I'm off to piece together the jigsaw of information gleaned from the sources I have... which should be interesting.