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43-713: 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 . Unlike the original Amiga computers which used Motorola 68k processors, the AmigaOne line uses PowerPC processors. Earlier models were produced by Eyetech ; in September 2009, Hyperion secured an exclusive licence for the AmigaOne name and subsequently new AmigaOne computers were released by A-Eon Technology and Acube Systems . A week ago we shared with you our joy as we move towards

86-439: A PowerPC version of AmigaOS in 2001 and on November 3, 2001, they signed a contract with Hyperion (then a game developer for the 68k Amiga platform as well as Linux and Macintosh). Amiga, Inc. gave Hyperion access to the sources of the last Commodore version, AmigaOS 3.1, but access to the post-Commodore versions OS 3.5 and 3.9 had to be purchased from Haage & Partner , since they had developed them, but never returned

129-623: A 68020 or better and at least 4 MB fast RAM. In 2001 Amiga Inc. signed a contract with Hyperion Entertainment to develop the PowerPC native AmigaOS 4 from their previous AmigaOS 3.1 release. 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

172-481: A cost reduced version of original Sam460ex . Features that were removed included the Silicon Motion SM502 embedded MoC and 1× SATA2 port. In autumn 2015, A-Eon Technology Ltd announced a new motherboard with the project development name Tabor based on a P1022 1.2 GHz SoC. The motherboard design is a microATX form factor with single PCIe slot and SODIMM memory slots. The full system is to be designated as

215-613: A legal basis for a new generation of AmigaOne computers. In February 2010, a new Belgian company A-Eon Technology CVBA, in co-operation with Hyperion Entertainment, officially announced a new AmigaOne model, the AmigaOne X1000 , first presented at the Vintage Computer Fair at Bletchley Park in June 2010. The project was delayed but the new platform was launched in 2012 with AmigaOS 4.1.5. In September 2011, Acube Systems introduced

258-743: A list of proposed names which could be voted for and in January 2014 A-Eon Technology announced names for new models as AmigaOne X5000/20 , AmigaOne X5000/40 and AmigaOne X3500. The new motherboards were aimed as replacements for the AmigaOne X1000. The AmigaOne X5000/20 was released in October 2016 and - unlike the X1000 - sold via various distributors. ArsTechnica review of the AmigaOne X5000 commended its compatibility with old Amiga applications and games, but criticised

301-463: 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. The Micro-A1

344-467: A modern PowerPC OS, given that Hyperion claimed that they had the original AmigaOS 3.1 source code to reference (a claim later proven accurate). This was made worse by the apparent much more rapid progress and maturity of competitor and alternative AmigaOS clone MorphOS , which had been begun several years earlier. Perhaps the most important feature of OS4 as regards the legal dispute is the presence of an entirely new PowerPC native kernel . ExecSG replaces

387-462: A new PowerPC -native version of the classic AmigaOS ( Motorola 68k ) from the 1980s. This new PowerPC OS would run on the AmigaOne machines, now out of production, which could only run Linux while waiting for the new PowerPC OS to be released. The year after, Amiga, Inc. also announced a new AmigaOS 4 compatible system that would be available shortly. The new machine was neither Genesi's Efika, nor

430-509: 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). 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. AmigaOS 4 can be divided into two parts: the Workbench and

473-492: A suitable northbridge chip. Eyetech, who at this point had invested funds into the project, was forced instead to license the Teron CX board from Mai to form the basis of the new AmigaONE computer range. The first fruit of this partnership with Mai, AmigaOne SE , was announced with a connector for an optionally attached Amiga 1200, in order to use the old custom chips of an Amiga for backwards compatibility. However, no such solution

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516-570: 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. After Commodore filed for bankruptcy in 1994, its name and IP rights, including Amiga , were sold to Escom . Escom kept the Amiga products and sold the Commodore name on to Tulip Computers . Escom went bankrupt in 1997 and sold the Amiga IP to Gateway 2000 (now only Gateway). On 27 December 1999, Gateway sold

559-511: 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.), OS4 was still being developed and distributed. On 30 September 2009, Hyperion Entertainment and Amiga, Inc. reached

602-514: A time, the case seemed deadlocked with neither side being apparently able to prove the point either way. Without Amiga, Inc.'s permission, Hyperion Entertainment could not use the AmigaOS name or related trademarks. Hyperion's defense centered around the potentially contract-voiding nature of the Amiga, Inc./KMOS handover, the problems they faced in acquiring the post- Commodore OS 3.x source code which Amiga, Inc. claimed to own and have access to, and

645-421: A vastly improved file system API and many other features. Prominent features compared to other operating systems or previous versions of AmigaOS: Released for Amigas equipped with third party PPC add-on boards: Released for AmigaOne motherboards: Released for Pegasos systems: Released for Sam440 systems: For the AmigaOS 4.2, Hyperion Entertainment planned the following updates: History of

688-399: The AmigaOne 500 based on a Sam460ex mainboard. In October 2011, Hyperion Entertainment announced that it was launching an AmigaOne netbook in mid-2012, but it was announced at Amiwest 2013 that the netbook project had been cancelled. Also at Amiwest 2013, A-Eon Technology Ltd, a British computer company, announced three new AmigaOne motherboards , with the project named Cyrus. A-Eon had

731-560: The Kickstart . 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

774-456: The Amiga name and rights to Amino Development, who changed the company name to Amiga, Inc. once the assets had been acquired. The 'Amino' Amiga, Inc. and the 'KMOS' Amiga, Inc. are seen by Hyperion as legally distinct entities, implying that contracts with one are of no relevance to the other. Hyperion Entertainment released AmigaOS 4 (OS4) to the public in 2004. The five year development process led to accusations of vapourware and producing

817-404: The AmigaOS 4 dispute 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',

860-563: The AmigaOne A1222. The A1222 was released in early 2024. The Sam440 mainboard (complete with AMCC PowerPC 440EP SoC) is an embedded motherboard launched by Acube Systems in September 2007. AmigaOS 4 was released for the Sam440 in October 2008. The Sam460ex mainboard (complete with AMCC 460ex SoC, PowerPC 440 core) is an embedded motherboard launched by Acube Systems in April 2010. AmigaOS 4

903-586: The GUI and OS, among other programs. 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: There have been many different versions of the AmigaOS operating system (OS) during its three decades of history. The first AmigaOS

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946-502: The contract permits the purchase of the full sources of OS4 from Hyperion for US$ 25,000. The court filing says that Amiga, Inc. paid this sometime in April–May 2003, to keep Hyperion from going bankrupt, and that between then and November 21, 2006, Amiga, Inc. paid another $ 7,200, then $ 8,850 more which it says Hyperion said was owing. Furthermore, in the filing, Amiga, Inc. President Bill McEwen revealed that Amiga, Inc. still hasn't received

989-450: 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 (having been available only to developers and beta-testers until then). The Italian computer company ACube Systems has announced Sam440ep and Sam440ep-flex motherboards, which are AmigaOS 4 compatible. Also,

1032-532: 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. After the demise of Commodore International ,

1075-476: 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

1118-456: The name of their original disks to preserve original custom. 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

1161-456: The onboard IDE and Ethernet controllers, problems with USB device detection and initially no support for the on-board AC97 audio. Due to the mistaken belief that the on-board AC97 audio could not be supported, the AC97 codec was removed from later builds of the motherboard. The technical issues preventing AC97 audio support were later resolved. When the AmigaOne boards first became available, AmigaOS 4

1204-429: The original Amiga Exec and is claimed entirely the work and property of Hyperion's subcontracted developers Thomas and Hans-Joerg Frieden. Neither Amiga, Inc. nor Hyperion actually own ExecSG, so technically cannot demand or hand it over, leaving the OS with fragmented and confused ownership. In 2007 The Inquirer reported that the Amiga was inching closer to rebirth with the long-awaited release of AmigaOS 4.0 ,

1247-461: The project codenamed Samantha , (now known as the Sam440ep from ACube Systems ). The new hardware was from a new entrant, the Canadian company ACK Software Controls, and would have consisted of a budget and advanced model. Four days after Amiga, Inc. announced the new Amiga OS4 (OS4) compatible machines, they sued Hyperion Entertainment (Hyperion). Amiga, Inc. stated that it decided to produce

1290-467: The rebirth of the Amiga desktop platform. The AmigaOne and AmigaOS4 are projects that have occupied almost every day of our lives for the last two years. For the community, the wait and the false dawns have been unbearable. Originally in 2000, AmigaOne was the name of a project for new computer hardware to run the Amiga Digital Environment (DE), later plans replaced by AmigaOS 4 . Initially it

1333-610: 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. In May 2012 Hyperion announced that they were working on AmigaOS 4.2. It would introduce hardware accelerated 3D support, multi-core support,

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1376-451: The source code to Amiga, Inc. Amiga, Inc. also said that its contract allowed Hyperion to use Amiga trademarks in the promotion of OS4 on Eyetech's AmigaOne and stipulated that Hyperion should make its best efforts to deliver OS 4 by March 1, 2002, a port of an elderly operating system (68k) for an entirely different processor architecture (PowerPC) in four months, an optimistic target that Hyperion failed to meet. According to Amiga, Inc.,

1419-399: The sources for AmigaOS 4, that he's discovered that much of its development was outsourced to third-party contract developers and that it is not clear if Hyperion has all the rights to this external work. Eventually, after five years and $ 41,050, on 21 November 2006, Amiga, Inc. told Hyperion it had violated the contract and gave it 30 days to sort it out—to finish the product and hand over

1462-424: The sources. That did not happen, so the contract was terminated. on 20 December 2006. Hyperion claims in its defense that Amiga, Inc. rendered the contract null through dealings with KMOS, a company which acquired the Amiga assets and renamed itself Amiga, Inc. over 2004–05. Four days later, on 24 December 2006, Hyperion released the final version of OS4 – although according to Amiga, Inc., Hyperion claims that this

1505-489: The supply of Eyetech AmigaOnes dried up. Eyetech Group Ltd retired from the market in 2005, selling their remaining Amiga business to Amiga Kit . In September 2009, as part of the resolution of a dispute over ownership of AmigaOS Hyperion was granted (among other provisions of the Settlement Agreement with Amiga, Inc. ) an exclusive licence for the AmigaOne (or Amiga One) name. This Settlement Agreement thus created

1548-463: The very high price and lack of new software. Lastly, A-Eon Technology Ltd announced at Amiwest 2013 that A-Eon had signed a 1.2 million-dollar investment contract with Ultra Varisys for the ongoing design, development and manufacture of PowerPC hardware for its AmigaOne line of desktop computers. In January 2015, Acube Systems started selling AmigaOne 500 computers based on the Sam460cr motherboard,

1591-519: 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 (3× 33 MHz, 1× 66 MHz) and one AGP-2x slot. The Micro-A1 has only one 32-bit PCI-slot and an integrated Radeon 7000 via AGP with dedicated 32 MB VRAM. AmigaOne (SE and XE) motherboards had several hardware issues including conflicts between

1634-689: Was ever introduced. The main difference between the ATX -format AmigaOne SE and AmigaOne XE was that the SE had a soldered-on 600 MHz PowerPC 750CXe processor, whereas the 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 CPU daughtercard connector, it is not electrically compatible. There were G3 and G4 options with

1677-408: Was introduced in 1985 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

1720-562: Was managed by Eyetech 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 as expansions for the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000 computers. This would probably not have been actually possible. This AmigaOne project was cancelled in the design stage in 2001, mostly due to the inability to find or design

1763-439: Was merely an update of the developers' preview version of 16 April 2004. Since the contract ended, Hyperion had no rights to use the name AmigaOS or any Amiga intellectual property , or to market OS4 or enter into any agreements about it with anyone else. Nevertheless, AmigaOS 4 was still being developed and distributed. Furthermore, ACube Systems released a series of Sam440ep motherboards, which run AmigaOS 4. For

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1806-516: Was not ready: they were supplied with various Linux distributions. From April 2004 onwards, boards were shipped for developers with a pre-release version of OS4. The Final Update of OS4.0 was released in December 2006, for AmigaOne computers only, with the PowerUP version being released in December 2007. AmigaOS 4.1 for AmigaOne was released in September 2008. MAI Logic Inc. went bankrupt, and consequently

1849-758: Was released for the Sam460ex in January 2011. A cost reduced version, the Sam460cr, was released with AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition on January 8, 2015. The Pegasos II mainboard (complete with PPC G3 and G4 CPU) is a MicroATX motherboard launched by Genesi and discontinued in 2006. AmigaOS 4 was released for the Pegasos II in January 2009. AmigaOS 4 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

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