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AmigaOS
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Operating system for Amiga computers
CAPTION: AmigaOS
AmigaOS 4.1 Update 2.png
Screenshot of AmigaOS 4.1
Developer Commodore International, Hyperion Entertainment
Written in Assembly language, BCPL, C
OS family Amiga
Working state Project closed
Source model Closed source
Initial release July 23, 1985; 37 years ago (1985-07-23)
Latest release 4.1 Final Edition Update 2 / January 12, 2021; 23 months
ago (2021-01-12)
Platforms M68K: versions 1.0 through 3.9
PowerPC: versions 4.0 through 4.1
Kernel type Microkernel
Default
user interface Graphical (Workbench)
License Proprietary
Official website www.amigaos.net
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 (AmigaOS 3.5 and 3.9) and
then Hyperion Entertainment (AmigaOS 4.0-4.1). A PowerPC microprocessor
is required for the most recent release, AmigaOS 4.
AmigaOS is a single-user operating system based on a preemptive
multitasking kernel, called Exec.^[1]
It includes an abstraction of the Amiga's hardware, a disk operating
system called AmigaDOS, a windowing system API called Intuition, and a
desktop environment^[2] and file manager called Workbench.
The Amiga intellectual property is fragmented between Amiga Inc.,
Cloanto, and Hyperion Entertainment. The copyrights for works created
up to 1993 are owned by Cloanto.^[3]^[4] In 2001, Amiga Inc. contracted
AmigaOS 4 development to Hyperion Entertainment and, in 2009 they
granted Hyperion an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to AmigaOS
3.1 in order to develop and market AmigaOS 4 and subsequent
versions.^[5]
On December 29, 2015, the AmigaOS 3.1 source code leaked to the web;
this was confirmed by the licensee, Hyperion Entertainment.^[6]^[7]
[ ]
Contents
* 1 Components
+ 1.1 Firmware and bootloader
+ 1.2 Kernel
+ 1.3 AmigaDOS
+ 1.4 Graphical user interface
+ 1.5 File manager
* 2 Features
+ 2.1 Graphics
+ 2.2 Audio
+ 2.3 Storage
+ 2.4 Scripting
* 3 Technical overview
+ 3.1 Libraries and devices
+ 3.2 Handlers, AmigaDOS and filesystems
+ 3.3 Memory paging and a swap partition in later versions
* 4 Versions
+ 4.1 AmigaOS 1.0 - 1.4
+ 4.2 AmigaOS 2.0, 2.1
+ 4.3 AmigaOS 3.0, 3.1
+ 4.4 AmigaOS 3.5, 3.9
+ 4.5 AmigaOS 3.1.4, 3.2
+ 4.6 AmigaOS 4.0, 4.1
* 5 Influence on other operating systems
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links
Components[edit]
AmigaOS is a single-user operating system based on a preemptive
multitasking kernel, called Exec. AmigaOS provides an abstraction of
the Amiga's hardware, a disk operating system called AmigaDOS, a
windowing system API called Intuition and a desktop file manager called
Workbench.
A command-line interface (CLI), called AmigaShell, is also integrated
into the system, though it also is entirely window-based. The CLI and
Workbench components share the same privileges. Notably, AmigaOS lacks
any built-in memory protection.
AmigaOS is formed from two parts, namely, a firmware component called
Kickstart and a software portion usually referred to as Workbench. Up
until AmigaOS 3.1, matching versions of Kickstart and Workbench were
typically released together. However, since AmigaOS 3.5, the first
release after Commodore's demise, only the software component has been
updated and the role of Kickstart has been diminished somewhat.
Firmware updates may still be applied by patching at system boot. That
was until 2018 when Hyperion Entertainment (license holder to AmigaOS
3.1) released AmigaOS 3.1.4 with an updated Kickstart ROM to go with
it.
Firmware and bootloader[edit]
Main article: Kickstart (Amiga)
Kickstart is the bootstrap firmware, usually stored in ROM. Kickstart
contains the code needed to boot standard Amiga hardware and many of
the core components of AmigaOS. The function of Kickstart is comparable
to the BIOS plus the main operating system kernel in IBM PC
compatibles. However, Kickstart provides more functionality available
at boot time than would typically be expected on PC, for example, the
full windowing environment.
Kickstart contains many core parts of the Amiga's operating system,
such as Exec, Intuition, the core of AmigaDOS and functionality to
initialize Autoconfig-compliant expansion hardware. Later versions of
the Kickstart contained drivers for IDE and SCSI controllers, PC card
ports and other built-in hardware.
Upon start-up or reset the Kickstart performs a number of diagnostic
and system checks and then initializes the Amiga chipset and some core
OS components. It will then examine connected boot devices and attempt
to boot from the one with the highest boot priority. If no boot device
is present a screen will be displayed asking the user to insert a boot
disk, typically a floppy disk.
At start-up Kickstart attempts to boot from a bootable device
(typically, a floppy disk or hard disk drive). In the case of a floppy,
the system reads the first two sectors of the disk (the bootblock), and
executes any boot instructions stored there. Normally this code passes
control back to the OS (invoking AmigaDOS and the GUI) and using the
disk as the system boot volume. Any such disk, regardless of the other
contents of the disk, was referred to as a "Boot disk" or "bootable
disk". A bootblock could be added to a blank disk by use of the install
command. Some games and demos on floppy disk used custom bootblocks,
which allowed them to take over the boot sequence and manage the
Amiga's hardware without AmigaOS.
The bootblock became an obvious target for virus writers. Some games or
demos that used a custom bootblock would not work if infected with a
bootblock virus, as the code of the virus replaced the original. The
first such virus was the SCA virus. Anti-virus attempts included custom
bootblocks. These amended bootblock advertised the presence of the
virus checker while checking the system for tell-tale signs of
memory-resident viruses and then passed control back to the system.
Unfortunately these could not be used on disks that already relied on a
custom bootblock, but did alert users to potential trouble. Several of
them also replicated themselves across other disks, becoming little
more than viruses in their own right.^[citation needed]
Kernel[edit]
Main article: Exec (Amiga)
The Macintosh should have had multitasking. I can't stress enough
what a big contribution it makes to the elegant design of system
software. The Amiga has an excellent multitasking system, and I
think it will have twice the product life of the Macintosh because
of it.
-- Adam Brooks Webber, the programmer responsible for porting TrueBASIC
to the Amiga and Macintosh, Byte, September 1986^[8]
Exec is the multi-tasking kernel of AmigaOS. Exec provides
functionality for multi-tasking, memory allocation, interrupt handling
and handling of dynamic shared libraries. It acts as a scheduler for
tasks running on the system, providing pre-emptive multitasking with
prioritized round-robin scheduling. Exec also provides access to other
libraries and high-level inter-process communication via message
passing. Other comparable microkernels have had performance problems
because of the need to copy messages between address spaces. Since the
Amiga has only one address space, Exec message passing is quite
efficient.^[9]^[10]
AmigaDOS[edit]
Main article: AmigaDOS
AmigaDOS provides the disk operating system portion of the AmigaOS.
This includes file systems, file and directory manipulation, the
command-line interface, file redirection, console windows, and so on.
Its interfaces offer facilities such as command redirection, piping,
scripting with structured programming primitives, and a system of
global and local variables.
In AmigaOS 1.x, the AmigaDOS portion was based on TRIPOS, which is
written in BCPL. Interfacing with it from other languages proved a
difficult and error-prone task, and the port of TRIPOS was not very
efficient.
From AmigaOS 2.x onwards, AmigaDOS was rewritten in C and Assembler,
retaining 1.x BCPL program compatibility, and it incorporated parts of
the third-party AmigaDOS Resource Project,^[11] which had already
written replacements for many of the BCPL utilities and interfaces.
ARP also provided one of the first standardized file requesters for the
Amiga, and introduced the use of more friendly UNIX-style wildcard
(globbing) functions in command-line parameters. Other innovations were
an improvement in the range of date formats accepted by commands and
the facility to make a command resident, so that it only needs to be
loaded into memory once and remains in memory to reduce the cost of
loading in subsequent uses.
In AmigaOS 4.0, the DOS abandoned the BCPL legacy completely and,
starting from AmigaOS 4.1, it has been rewritten with full 64-bit
support.
File extensions are often used in AmigaOS, but they are not mandatory
and they are not handled specially by the DOS, being instead just a
conventional part of the file names. Executable programs are recognized
using a magic number.
Graphical user interface[edit]
Main article: Intuition (Amiga)
The native Amiga windowing system is called Intuition, which handles
input from the keyboard and mouse and rendering of screens, windows and
widgets.
Prior to AmigaOS 2.0, there was no standardized look and feel,
application developers had to write their own non-standard widgets.
Commodore added the GadTools library and BOOPSI in AmigaOS 2.0, both of
which provided standardized widgets. Commodore also published the Amiga
User Interface Style Guide, which explained how applications should be
laid out for consistency. Stefan Stuntz created a popular third-party
widget library, based on BOOPSI, called Magic User Interface, or MUI.
MorphOS uses MUI as its official toolkit, while AROS uses a MUI clone
called Zune. AmigaOS 3.5 added another widget set, ReAction, also based
on BOOPSI.
An unusual feature of AmigaOS is the use of multiple screens shown on
the same display. Each screen may have a different video resolution or
color depth. AmigaOS 2.0 added support for public screens, allowing
applications to open windows on other applications' screens. Prior to
AmigaOS 2.0, only the Workbench screen was shared.^[12] A widget in the
top-right corner of every screen allows screens to be cycled through.
Screens can be overlaid by dragging each up or down by their title
bars. AmigaOS 4 introduced screens that are draggable in any direction.
File manager[edit]
Main article: Workbench (AmigaOS)
Workbench is the native graphical file manager and desktop environment
of AmigaOS. Though the term Workbench was originally used to refer to
the entire operating system, with the release of AmigaOS 3.1 the
operating system was renamed AmigaOS and subsequently Workbench refers
to the desktop manager only. As the name suggests, the metaphor of a
workbench is used, rather than that of a desktop; directories are
depicted as drawers, executable files are tools, data files are
projects and GUI widgets are gadgets. In many other aspects the
interface resembles Mac OS, with the main desktop showing icons of
inserted disks and hard drive partitions, and a single menu bar at the
top of every screen. Unlike the Macintosh mouse available at the time,
the standard Amiga mouse has two buttons - the right mouse button
operates the pull-down menus, with a "release to select" mechanism.
Features[edit]
Graphics[edit]
Until the release of version 3, AmigaOS only natively supported the
native Amiga graphics chipset, via graphics.library, which provides an
API for geometric primitives, raster graphic operations and handling of
sprites. As this API could be bypassed, some developers chose to avoid
OS functionality for rendering and directly program the underlying
hardware for gains in efficiency.
Third-party graphics cards were initially supported via proprietary
unofficial solutions. A later solution where AmigaOS could directly
support any graphics system, was termed retargetable graphics
(RTG).^[13] With AmigaOS 3.5, some RTG systems were bundled with the
OS, allowing the use of common hardware cards other than the native
Amiga chipsets. The main RTG systems are CyberGraphX, Picasso 96 and
EGS. Some vector graphic libraries, like Cairo and Anti-Grain Geometry,
are also available. Modern systems can use cross-platform SDL (simple
DirectMedia Layer) engine for games and other multimedia programs.
The Amiga did not have any inbuilt 3D graphics capability, and so had
no standard 3D graphics API. Later, graphics card manufacturers and
third-party developers provided their own standards, which included
MiniGL, Warp3D, StormMesa (agl.library) and CyberGL.
The Amiga was launched at a time when there was little support for 3D
graphics libraries to enhance desktop GUIs and computer rendering
capabilities. However, the Amiga became one of the first widespread 3D
development platforms. VideoScape 3D was one of the earliest 3D
rendering and animation systems, and Silver/TurboSilver was one of the
first ray-tracing 3D programs. Then Amiga boasted many influential
applications in 3D software, such as Imagine, maxon's Cinema 4D,
Realsoft 3D, VistaPro, Aladdin 4D and NewTek's Lightwave (used to
render movies and television shows like Babylon 5).
Likewise, while the Amiga is well known for its ability to easily
genlock with video, it has no built-in video capture interface. The
Amiga supported a vast number of third-party interfaces for video
capture from American and European manufacturers. There were internal
and external hardware solutions, called frame-grabbers, for capturing
individual or sequences of video frames, including: Newtronic Videon,
Newtek DigiView,^[14] Graffiti external 24-bit framebuffer, the
Digilab, the Videocruncher, Firecracker 24, Vidi Amiga 12, Vidi Amiga
24-bit and 24RT (Real Time), Newtek Video Toaster, GVP Impact Vision
IV24, MacroSystem VLab Motion and VLab PAR, DPS PAR (Personal Animation
Recorder), VHI (Video Hardware Interface) by IOSPIRIT GmbH, DVE-10,
etc. Some solutions were hardware plug-ins for Amiga graphics cards
like the Merlin XCalibur module, or the DV module built for the Amiga
clone Draco from the German firm Macrosystem. Modern PCI bus TV
expansion cards and their capture interfaces are supported through
tv.library by Elbox Computer and tvcard.library by Guido Mersmann.
Following modern trends in evolution of graphical interfaces, AmigaOS
4.1 uses the 3D hardware-accelerated Porter-Duff image composition
engine.
Audio[edit]
Prior to version 3.5, AmigaOS only officially supported the Amiga's
native sound chip, via audio.device. This facilitates playback of sound
samples on four DMA-driven 8-bit PCM sound channels. The only supported
hardware sample format is signed linear 8-bit two's complement.
Support for third-party audio cards was vendor-dependent, until the
creation and adoption of AHI^[15] as a de facto standard. AHI offers
improved functionality, such as seamless audio playback from a
user-selected audio device, standardized functionality for audio
recording and efficient software mixing routines for combining multiple
sound channels, thus overcoming the four-channel hardware limit of the
original Amiga chipset. AHI can be installed separately on AmigaOS v2.0
and later.^[16]
AmigaOS itself did not support MIDI until version 3.1, when Roger
Dannenberg's camd.library was adapted as the standard MIDI API.
Commodore's version of camd.library also included a built-in driver for
the serial port. The later open source version of camd.library by
Kjetil Matheussen did not provide a built-in driver for the serial
port, but provided an external driver instead.
Example of speech synthesis with the included Say utility in Workbench
1.3
AmigaOS was one of the first operating systems to feature speech
synthesis with software developed by SoftVoice, Inc., which allowed
text-to-speech conversion of American English.^[17] This had three main
components: narrator.device, which modulates the phonemes used in
American English, translator.library, which translates English text to
American English phonemes using a set of rules, and a high-level SPEAK:
handler, which allows command-line users to redirect text output to
speech. A utility called Say was included with the OS, which allowed
text-to-speech synthesis with some control of voice and speech
parameters. A demo was also included with AmigaBASIC programming
examples. Speech synthesis was occasionally used in third-party
programs, particularly educational software. For example, the word
processors Prowrite and Excellence! could read out documents using the
synthesizer. These speech synthesis components remained largely
unchanged in later OS releases and Commodore eventually removed speech
synthesis support from AmigaOS 2.1 onward because of licensing
restrictions.^[18]
Despite the American English limitation of the narrator.device's
phonemes, Francesco Devitt developed an unofficial version with
multilingual speech synthesis. This made use of an enhanced version of
the translator.library which could translate a number of languages into
phonemes, given a set of rules for each language.^[19]
Storage[edit]
The AmigaOS has a dynamically sized RAM disk, which resizes itself
automatically to accommodate its contents. Starting with AmigaOS 2.x,
operating system configuration files were loaded into the RAM disk on
boot, greatly speeding operating system usage. Other files could be
copied to the RAM disk like any standard device for quick modification
and retrieval. Also beginning in AmigaOS 2.x, the RAM disk supported
file-change notification, which was mostly used to monitor
configuration files for changes.
Starting with AmigaOS 1.3,^[20] there is also a fixed-capacity
recoverable RAM disk, which functions as a standard RAM disk but can
maintain its contents on soft restart. It is commonly called the RAD
disk after its default device name, and it can be used as a boot disk
(with boot sector). Previously, a recoverable RAM disk, commonly called
the ASDG RRD or VD0, was introduced in 1987;^[21] at first, it was
locked to ASDG expansion memory products. Later, the ASDG RRD was added
to the Fred Fish series of freeware, shareware, and public domain
software (disks 58^[22] and 241^[23]).
Scripting[edit]
Main article: ARexx
The AmigaOS has support for the Rexx language, called ARexx (short for
"Amiga Rexx"), and is a script language which allows for full OS
scripting, similar to AppleScript; intra-application scripting, similar
to VBA in Microsoft Office; as well as inter-program communication.
Having a single scripting language for any application on the operating
system is beneficial to users, instead of having to learn a new
language for each application.
Programs can listen on an "ARexx port" for string messages. These
messages can then be interpreted by the program in a similar fashion to
a user pushing buttons. For example, an ARexx script run in an e-mail
program could save the currently displayed email, invoke an external
program which could extract and process information, and then invoke a
viewer program. This allows applications to control other applications
by sending data back and forth directly with memory handles, instead of
saving files to disk and then reloading them.
Since AmigaOS 4, the Python language is included with the operating
system.
Technical overview[edit]
John C. Dvorak stated in 1996:
The AmigaOS "remains one of the great operating systems of the past
20 years, incorporating a small kernel and tremendous multitasking
capabilities the likes of which have only recently been developed in
OS/2 and Windows NT. The biggest difference is that the AmigaOS
could operate fully and multitask in as little as 250 K of address
space. Even today, the OS is only about 1 MB in size. And to this
day, there is very little a memory-hogging CD-ROM-loading OS can do
the Amiga can't. Tight code -- there's nothing like it.
I've had an Amiga for maybe a decade. It's the single most reliable
piece of equipment I've ever owned. It's amazing! You can easily
understand why so many fanatics are out there wondering why they are
alone in their love of the thing. The Amiga continues to inspire a
vibrant -- albeit cultlike -- community, not unlike that which you
have with Linux, the Unix clone."^[24]
Libraries and devices[edit]
AmigaOS provides a modular set of system functions through
dynamically-loaded shared libraries, either stored as a file on disk
with a ".library" filename extension, or stored in the Kickstart
firmware. All library functions are accessed via an indirect jump
table, which is a negative offset to the library base pointer. That
way, every library function can be patched or hooked at run-time, even
if the library is stored in ROM. The core library of AmigaOS is the
exec.library (Exec), which provides an interface to functions of the
Amiga's microkernel.
Device drivers are also libraries, but they implement a standardized
interface. Applications do not usually call devices directly as
libraries, but use the exec.library I/O functions to indirectly access
them. Like libraries, devices are either files on disk (with the
".device" extension), or stored in the Kickstart ROM.
Handlers, AmigaDOS and filesystems[edit]
The higher-level part of device and resource management is controlled
by handlers, which are not libraries, but tasks, and communicate by
passing messages. One type of handler is a filesystem handler. The
AmigaOS can make use of any filesystem for which a handler has been
written, a possibility that has been exploited by programs like
CrossDOS and by a few "alternative" file systems to the standard OFS
and FFS. These file systems allow one to add new features like
journaling or file privileges, which are not found in the standard
operating system. Handlers typically expose a device name to the DOS,
which can be used to access the peripheral (if any) associated with the
handler. As an example of these concepts is the SPEAK: handler which
could have text redirected to spoken speech, through the speech
synthesis system.
Device names are case insensitive (uppercase by convention) strings
followed by a colon. After the colon a specifier can be added, which
gives the handler additional information about what is being accessed
and how. In the case of filesystem, the specifier usually consists of a
path to a file in the filesystem; for other handlers, specifiers
usually set characteristics of the desired input/output channel (for
the SER: serial port driver, for example, the specifier will contain
bit rate, start and stop bits, etc.). Filesystems expose drive names as
their device names. For example, DF0: by default refers to the first
floppy drive in the system. On many systems DH0: is used to refer to
the first hard drive. Filesystems also expose volume names, following
the same syntax as device names: these identify the specific medium in
the file system-managed drive. If DF0: contains a disk named
"Workbench", then Workbench: will be a volume name that can be used to
access files in DF0:. If one wanted to access a file named "Bar"
located in directory "Foo" of the disk with name "Work" in drive DF0:,
one could write "DF0:Foo/Bar" or "Work:Foo/Bar". However, these are not
completely equivalent, since when the latter form is used, the system
knows that the wanted volume is "Work" and not just any volume in DF0:.
Therefore, whenever a requested file on "Work" is being accessed
without volume "Work" being present in any drive, it will say something
to the effect of: Please insert volume Work in any drive.
Programs often need to access files without knowing their physical
location (either the drive or the volume): they only know the "logical
path" of the file, i.e. whether the file is a library, a documentation
file, a translation of the program's messages, and so on. This is
solved in AmigaOS by the use of assigns. An assign follows, again, the
same syntax as a device name; however, it already points to a directory
inside the filesystem. The place an assign points to can be changed at
any time by the user (this behavior is similar to, but nevertheless
distinct from, the subst command in MS-DOS, for example). Assigns were
also convenient because one logical assign could point to more than one
different physical location at the same time, thereby allowing an
assign's contents to expand logically, while still maintaining a
separate physical organization. Standard assigns that are generally
present in an AmigaOS system include:
* SYS:, which points to the boot drive's root directory.
* C:, which points to a directory containing shell commands. At boot
time, this is SYS:C, if it exists, otherwise SYS:. The command path
defaults to C: and the current working directory, so putting
executables in C: allows them to be executed simply by typing their
name.
* DEVS:, which points to a directory containing the system's devices.
At boot time, this is SYS:Devs if that directory exists, otherwise
SYS:.
* L:, which points to a directory containing AmigaDOS handlers and
filesystems. At boot time, this is SYS:L if it exists, otherwise L:
is not automatically created.
* LIBS:, which points to a directory containing the system's
libraries. At boot time, this is SYS:Libs if that directory exists,
otherwise SYS:.
* S:, which points to a directory with scripts, including the
startup-sequence which is executed automatically at boot time, if
it exists. At boot time, this is SYS:S if it exists, otherwise S:
is not automatically created.
* T:, which points to a temporary folder.
* PROGDIR:, a special assign that always points to the directory
containing the currently running executable. So, if you run
"SYS:Tools/Multiview" and "SYS:System/Format", PROGDIR: points at
SYS:Tools for Multiview while simultaneously pointing at SYS:System
for the Format command. This feature was introduced in Workbench
2.0.
Memory paging and a swap partition in later versions[edit]
AmigaOS 4 introduced new system for allocating RAM and defragmenting it
"on the fly" during system inactivities. It is based on slab allocation
method and there is also present a memory pager that arbitrates paging
memory and allows the swapping of large portions of physical RAM on
mass storage devices as a sort of virtual memory.^[25]^[26]
Co-operative paging was finally implemented in AmigaOS 4.1.
Versions[edit]
Main article: AmigaOS versions
Since the introduction of AmigaOS in 1985 there have been four major
versions and several minor revisions. Up until release 3.1 of the
Amiga's operating system, Commodore used Workbench to refer to the
entire Amiga operating system. As a consequence Workbench was commonly
used to refer to both the operating system and the file manager
component. For end users Workbench was often synonymous with AmigaOS.
From version 3.5 the OS was renamed "AmigaOS" and pre-3.5 versions were
also retroactively referred to as "AmigaOS" (rather than Workbench).
Subsequently, "Workbench" refers to the native graphical file manager
only.
From its inception, Workbench offered a highly customizable interface.
The user could change the aspect of program icons replacing it with
newer ones with different color combinations. Users could also take a
"snapshot" of icons and windows so the icons will remain on the desktop
at coordinates chosen by user and windows will open at the desired
size.
AmigaOS 1.0 - 1.4[edit]
AmigaOS 1.3 (1988)
AmigaOS 1.0 was released with the first Amiga, the Amiga 1000, in 1985.
The 1.x versions of AmigaOS by default used a blue and orange color
scheme, designed to give high contrast on even the worst of television
screens (the colors can be changed by the user). Version 1.1 consists
mostly of bug fixes and, like version 1.0, was distributed for the
Amiga 1000 only.
The display was highly customizable for the era. The user was free to
create and modify system and user icons, which could be of arbitrary
size and design and can have two image states to produce a
pseudo-animated effect when selected. Users could customize four
display colors and choose from two resolutions: 640 *200 or 640 *400
(interlaced) on NTSC, or 640 *256 or 640 *512 on PAL systems. In later
revisions, the TV or monitor overscan could be adjusted.
Several features were deprecated in later versions. For example, the
gauge meter showing the free space on a file system was replaced with a
percentage in AmigaOS 2.0 before being restored in 3.5. The default
"busy" pointer (a comic balloon showing "Zzz...") was replaced with a
stopwatch in later versions.
AmigaOS 2.0, 2.1[edit]
AmigaOS 2.0 was released with the launch of the Amiga 3000 in 1990.
Until AmigaOS 2.0 there was no unified look and feel design standard
and application developers had to write their own widgets (both buttons
and menus) if they wished to enhance the already-meager selection of
standard basic widgets provided by Intuition. With AmigaOS 2.0
gadtools.library was created, which provided standard widget sets. The
Amiga User Interface Style Guide, was published which explained how
applications should be laid out for consistency. Intuition was improved
with BOOPSI (Basic Object Oriented Programming System for Intuition)
which enhanced the system with an object-oriented interface to define a
system of classes in which every class individuates a single widget or
describes an interface event. It can be used to program object oriented
interfaces into Amiga at any level.
AmigaOS 2.0 also added support for public screens. Instead of the
AmigaOS screen being the only shareable screen, applications could
create their own named screens to share with other applications.
AmigaOS 2.0 rectified the problem of applications hooking directly into
the input-events stream to capture keyboard and mouse movements,
sometimes locking up the whole system. AmigaOS 2.0 provided
Commodities, a standard interface for modifying or scanning input
events. This included a standard method for specifying global "hotkey"
key-sequences, and a Commodities Exchange registry for the user to see
which commodities were running.
AmigaOS 2.1 introduced AmigaGuide, a simple text-only hypertext markup
scheme and browser, for providing online help inside applications. It
also introduced Installer, a standard software installation program,
driven by a LISP-like scripting language.
AmigaOS 2.1 introduced multi-lingual locale support through
locale.library and for the first time AmigaOS was translated to
different languages.^[18]
AmigaOS 3.0, 3.1[edit]
Version 3.0 was originally shipped with the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000
computers. Version 3.0 added datatypes support which allowed any
application that supported datatypes to load any file format supported
by datatypes. Workbench could load any background image in any format
if the required datatype was installed. A tiny application called
Multiview was included that could open and display any supported file.
Its capabilities were directly related to the datatypes installed in
Devs:Datatypes. The established AmigaGuide hypertext system gained more
usability by using document links pointing to media files, for example
pictures or sounds, all recognized by the datatypes.
AmigaOS 3.5, 3.9[edit]
Around six years after AmigaOS 3.1 was released, following Commodore's
demise, Haage & Partner were granted a license to update AmigaOS, which
was released in 1999 as a software-only update for existing systems,
that ran at least on a 68(EC)020 processor.
The AmigaOS look and feel, though still largely based on the earlier
3.1 release was revised somewhat, with an improved user interface based
on ReAction, improved icon rendering and official support for true
color backdrops. These releases included support for existing
third-party GUI enhancements, such as NewIcons, by integrating these
patches into the system. The 3.5 and 3.9 releases included a new set of
256 color icons and a choice of desktop wallpaper. These replaced the
default all-metal gray 4/8 color scheme used on AmigaOS from release
2.0 to 3.1.
The 3.9 release of AmigaOS was again developed by Haage&Partner and
released in 2000. The main improvements were the introduction of a
program start bar called AmiDock, revised user interfaces for system
settings and improved utility programs.
AmigaOS 3.1.4, 3.2[edit]
In September 2018, Hyperion Entertainment released AmigaOS 3.1.4; this
was both a software and hardware update for all Amigas. In 2019,
AmigaOS 3.1.4.1 was released as a software only update to Amiga 3.1.4,
mainly as a bug fix.^[citation needed]
It includes many fixes, modernizes several system components previously
upgraded in OS 3.9, introduces support of larger hard drives (including
at bootup), supports the entire line of Motorola 680x0 CPUs up to (and
including) the Motorola 68060, and includes a modernized Workbench with
a new, optional icon set. Unlike AmigaOS 3.5 / 3.9, AmigaOS 3.1.4 still
supports the Motorola 68000 CPU.
In May 2021, Hyperion Entertainment released AmigaOS 3.2, which
includes all features of the previous version (3.1.4.1) and adds
several new improvements such as support for ReAction GUI, management
of Amiga Disk File images, help system and improved datatypes.^[27] In
december 2021, an update was released named AmigaOS 3.2.1, with bug
fixes and other improvements.
AmigaOS 4.0, 4.1[edit]
Main article: AmigaOS 4
AmigaOS 4.0 (2006)
This new AmigaOS, called AmigaOS 4.0 has been rewritten to become fully
PowerPC compatible. It was initially developed on Cyberstorm PPC, as
making it independent of the old Amiga chipsets was nontrivial.^[28]
Since the fourth Developer Pre-Release Update a new technique was
adopted and the screens are draggable in any direction.^[29] Drag and
drop of Workbench icons between different screens is possible too.
Also in AmigaOS 4.0 were a new version of Amidock, TrueType/OpenType
fonts, and a movie player with DivX and MPEG-4 support.
In AmigaOS 4.1, a new Start-up preferences feature was added which
replaced the old WBStartup drawer. Additional enhancements were a new
icon set to complement higher screen resolutions, new window themes
including drop shadows, a new version of AmiDock with true
transparency, scalable icons and AmigaOS with auto-update feature.^[30]
In October 2022, AmigaOS developer Hyperion Entertainment released an
SDK for AmigaOS 4.1.^[31]
Influence on other operating systems[edit]
AmigaOS and compatibles
AROS Research Operating System (AROS) implements the AmigaOS API in a
portable open-source operating system. Although not binary-compatible
with AmigaOS (unless running on 68k), users have reported it to be
highly source-code-compatible.
MorphOS is a PowerPC native operating system which also runs on some
Amiga hardware. It implements AmigaOS API and provides binary
compatibility with "OS-friendly" AmigaOS applications (that is, those
applications which do not access any native, legacy Amiga hardware
directly just as AmigaOS 4.x unless executed on real Amiga models).
pOS was a multiplatform closed-source operating system with source
code-level compatibility with existing Amiga software.^[32]
BeOS features also a centralized datatype structure similar to MacOS
Easy Open after old Amiga developers requested Be to adopt Amiga
datatype service. It allows the entire OS to recognize all kinds of
files (text, music, videos, documents, etc.) with standard file
descriptors. The datatype system provides the entire system and any
productivity tools with standard loaders and savers for these files,
without the need to embed multiple file-loading capabilities into any
single program.^[33]
AtheOS was inspired by AmigaOS, and originally intended to be a clone
of AmigaOS.^[34] Syllable is a fork of AtheOS, and includes some
AmigaOS- and BeOS-like qualities.
FriendUP is a cloud based meta operating system. It has many former
Commodore and Amiga developers and employees working on the project.
The operating system retains several AmigaOS-like features, including
DOS Drivers, mount lists, a TRIPOS based CLI and screen dragging.^[35]
Finally, the operating system of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer bore a
very strong resemblance to AmigaOS and was developed by RJ Mical,^[36]
the creator of the Amiga's Intuition user interface.^[37]
See also[edit]
* Amiga portal
* Comparison of operating systems
References[edit]
1. ^ "Carl Sassenrath". Retrieved May 23, 2022.
2. ^ "The Amiga Workbench". Retrieved May 23, 2022.
3. ^ "Cloanto". Amiga Documents. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
4. ^ "Cloanto confirms transfers of Commodore/Amiga copyrights".
amiga-news.de. February 19, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
5. ^ "Hyperion, Amiga, Inc. Reach Settlement, All Legal Issues
Resolved". OSNews. October 17, 2009. Archived from the original on
October 19, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2009.
6. ^ Larabel, Michael (January 5, 2016). "Hyperion Confirms Leak Of
AmigaOS 3.1 Source Code". Phoronix.
7. ^ "Amiga OS Kickstart and Workbench source coded leaked | Vintage
is the New Old". Commodore.ninja. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
8. ^ Webber, Adam Brooks (September 1986). "Amiga vs. Macintosh".
BYTE. p. 249.
9. ^ Carl Sassenrath (1986). Amiga ROM Kernel Reference Manual.
Vol. Exec.
10. ^ Holloway, Tim (January 1991). "The Object-Oriented Amiga Exec:
The design of the Amiga operating-system kernel follows the rules
of object-oriented programming". Byte. McGraw-Hill (January 1991):
329-332, 234. ISSN 0360-5280.
11. ^ "Aminet - misc/antiq/ARP_13.lha". Aminet.net. Retrieved May 2,
2015.
12. ^ "Intuition Screens - AmigaOS Documentation Wiki".
wiki.amigaos.net. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
13. ^ Amiga ReTargetable Graphics. Amigau.com (November 25, 2009).
Retrieved on 2013-07-17.
14. ^ "NewTek". Archived from the original on February 23, 2008.
Retrieved March 7, 2008.
15. ^ "AHI -- Retargetable Audio for AmigaOS et al". Archived from the
original on March 14, 2006. Retrieved March 27, 2006.
16. ^ "AHI -- Retargetable Audio for AmigaOS et al". Archived from the
original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2010.
17. ^ SoftVoice Text-to-Speech Synthesis. "SoftVoice, Inc. -
Text-to-Speech Synthesis". Retrieved May 2, 2015.
18. ^ ^a ^b "Amiga Workbench 2.1". Archived from the original on
December 12, 2008. Retrieved November 23, 2008.
19. ^ Devitt, Francesco (June 30, 1995). "Translator Library
(Multilingual-speech version)". Retrieved April 9, 2013.
20. ^ "Workbench Nostalgia: The history of the AmigaOS Graphic User
Interface (GUI): Release 1.3".
21. ^ "back2roots.org". ftp.back2roots.org. Archived from the original
on December 3, 2013. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
22. ^ "Fish disk 0058 README file". de4.aminet.net. Retrieved September
23, 2022.
23. ^ "Fish disk 0241". de4.aminet.net. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
24. ^ From PC Magazine, October 22, 1996 Inside Track By John C. Dvorak
25. ^ Frieden brothers (2007). "AmigaOS4.0 Memory Allocation". Hyperion
Entertainment. Retrieved November 2, 2008.^[dead link]
26. ^ Frieden brothers (2007). "AmigaOS 4.0 new memory system
revisited". Hyperion Entertainment. Retrieved November 2,
2008.^[dead link]
27. ^ "Hyperion releases AmigaOS 3.2" (Press release). Brussels:
Hyperion Entertainment. amiga-news.de. May 14, 2021. Retrieved May
17, 2021.
28. ^ David Doyle. "Amigaworld.net - The Amiga Computer Community
Portal Website". amigaworld.net.
29. ^ Unknown. "IntuitionBase - Your Guide To AmigaOS4.x And The
AmigaOne". Archived from the original on October 4, 2011. Retrieved
May 2, 2015.
30. ^ Hans-Joerg Frieden. "Update 1 of AmigaOS 4.1 available for
immediate download". Retrieved May 2, 2015.
31. ^ Purdy, Kevin (October 17, 2022). "37-year-old Amiga platform gets
updates to Linux kernel, AmigaOS SDK". Ars Technica. Retrieved
November 4, 2022.
32. ^ "Amiga History Guide". Amigahistory.co.uk. Retrieved April 22,
2016.
33. ^ "Jon Watte, Metrowerks BeMeister". MacTech. Retrieved September
8, 2011.
34. ^ "AtheOS comments". ANN.lu. May 5, 2000. Retrieved December 1,
2008.
35. ^ "Home". friendup.cloud.
36. ^ Mical resume. "Mical Page". Mical.org. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
37. ^ "A history of the Amiga, part 3: The first prototype". Ars
Technica. August 22, 2007. Retrieved May 2, 2015.
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