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Saxonia Issue 03 Part 015
The Pegasos and AmigaOne
By Rumrunner/VOID
l
Eurochart 47 was mostly filled up with articles resembling propaganda
directed towards the scene in order to get it to switch to these new two
platforms. While this might be meant as an enthusiastic approach from the
writer's side, I have some unanswerred questions which make me doubt that
this is the right thing to do.
First of all, when we all started with Amiga (and by Amiga I always mean
the real ones unless something else is specifically stated), we all knew
what kind of computer we got, except those who were able to buy the very
first Amiga 1000, and the first shiploads of Amiga 500 and 2000, ofcourse.
Most of us had already seen this computer in action at a friend's, who most
likely had seen it before he bought it at some of his friends. We all knew
what the computer was capable of, even when we knew nothing about coding,
making music or drawing pictures. What do we know about the AmigaOne or the
Pegasos. I for one know only what I have read in the Eurochart aswell as
what I have seen from screenshots on various pages, mostly promoting the
MorphOs. So I have only a small base to make considerations out of. While I
atleast know something about the Pegasos, I know nearly nothing about the
AmigaOne, so this computer will not be discussed that much.
What irritates me the most is that the makers of the Pegasos has gone for
the all-too common approach of using the regular pc-products, like PCI and
AGP-ports, aswell as sticking to the common pc-graphicscards. While these
products are not bad at all in most cases, they will not make a unique
computer which is exactly what the Amiga was when it was released (and a
long time after that). As a coder, what I would miss the most is the blitter
and copper. I am fully aware that the new graphicscards intended for pc has
custom-chips on them, but as they are mostly for 3d functions, I would have
no use for them. I simply don't consider 3d to be that biggie it seems that
sadly an increasing number of people think it is. Coppereffects are some
of what made the Amiga, scenewise we should remember productions like
Dexion's megademo one, in the part where there's a copperscroll aswell as
effects around this scroll. If I'm not mistaken, the two coders tell the
viewers that we're speaking of about 400k of copper. Looking outside the
scene, endless games, among them the best (in my opinion) like Turrican 2
uses coppereffects for background. Imagine the game with a dull single-
colour background and this about whether this would make the game as
pleasant to watch as it is.
While many might think of the blitter as a processor with no use today,
there are people (atlease one man, namely me) who finds much use for it.
With all the possibilities it gives, there are much to do with it if you
just use your imagination, Dr Doom/Iris has had some examples of this in
his coding articles in previous Eurocharts. While it ofcourse can be
useful having the processors on the ATI or a Voodoocard, it will make
socalled "Amiga"-demos more like pc-demos, I fear. And I have never been
into that kind of demos. My guess is also that the Amigasceners in general
are not into it either, as they would most probably have left the Amiga for
the pc a long time ago then.
Also, when different hardware is usable, like different graphicscards,
this makes it hard for the ones who really want to push the limits of their
computer. Writing real hardware-code becomes difficult, and using system-
api's you are never able to get the same performance as with hardwarecoding.
Honestly, what do you think would have become of the Amiga if the first
games and demos used intuition? We would never be here today then, that
I'm certainly sure about. People might argue that with the new computers
which are faster and have more supporting hardware, there's no longer a
need for hardwarecoding, I would say that even though you can do things
without banging the hardware, that needed this in the past, you still don't
see what your computer is capable of. I don't care if everything runs
smooth if that's all there is to it. Then it would be better to try getting
other effects or whatever equally smooth. The feel of buying a computer
that you will not have seen half of the capabilities of when you finally
let it go, is the feel of money wasted to me.
The advantage of using the common pc-chips for the computer is not a deep
secret to anyone. It's much cheaper than other more specialised piece of
hardware. This could ofcourse make it more attractive to outsiders to check
out what this scene is all about and then we would perhaps get more
newcomers. Well, I hardly think that this will happen if my nightmare about
the new "Amiga"-scene producing more or less pure pc-demos takes place. It
would be much easier for a curious person to just get a pc then. While our
enthusiasm might not manage to force us real Amigasceners into using much
more money on more expensive hardware, a gathered approach for "special"
hardware which then becomes less special should not be too much more
expensive than the other equipment. This however ofcourse is connected to
the people producing such hardware. There is no need to hide the awful
truth that there are companies who enjoy ripping as much as possible out
of the few enthusiasts left. Atleast in a short-term calculation, this
will equal profit. What would happen in a more long-term calculation is more
unsure though. Marketers always teach that the most important is to get the
customer enough satisfied so that he will return to you. Bog-high prizes
usually don't have that effect.
In the end, one of the big advantages with either the AmigaOne or the
Pegasos is that it will most likely be easier to get other kinds of
software for it. That way, it might be easier to get through without using
a pc or equal in for instance school-situations. These two computers are
most certainly more easy to port unix-utilities to than is the case with
Amiga, although, as already said it makes the computer less special than
the Amiga is.
I think that I will wait and see for a while before deciding whether to
go for either a Pegasos or AmigaOne solution. What I hope will happen is
the Pegasos-users settling with hardware that atleast give you some more
confidence that you can write hardwarecode without you being the only one
who are able to view it. If so doesn't happen, I have the last days thought
about older Silicon Graphics computers. While bog-expensive when new, some
of the older ones have still decent performance and are not especially
expensive anymore. A buddy in my class has such a computer, the O2, and
from what I have heard from him, this computer sounds more interesting than
AmigaOne and Pegasos. The processor is unknown to me, apparently it's
something called an R5000 running at 250 mhz (it's possible to change this
so there might be many other processors from the same series being used),
and if this has a decent instructionset, it would be possible to write
hardwarecode on it. The computer came with a soundmodule, which could be
changed for a videomodule adding composite and s-vhs in/out, so there are
not tons of configurations you need to write specific code for. The
graphicschip is what it is, and you should be able to write directly to it.
Furthermore, the computer has two scsi-slots one eighty pin and one 68pin
for cdrom and the likes. The computer (unfortunately) uses ps2 for mouse
and keyboard so the controlkey is not located where it should be (try
writing on a pc after having used the Amiga and you'll most likely get a
lot of capitalised letters), the Silicon Graphics Indy were like Amiga
here. Furthermore you have the common serial and parallell ports, although
they apparently are a little different from the common ones. The os on
this computer is Irix, which, like the name suggests, is a unix-system,
so most of the times, it's easy to get programs that you need, as long as
the code is spread with it, which is common among unix-variants. There are
also software specifically compiled for this computer. I would think that
a computer like this could be a fine scenemachine if the Pegasos and
Amiga-One fails.
But in the end, let's hope for the best. I will still make productions for
the real Amiga for a long time.
