Moving Forward
Eric Schwartz
AmiTech-Dayton Gazette -- October 2004
It's been another month. The Amiga One moves forward with a new smaller board on the way, along with OS4 still in progress. The Pegasos does much the same, as its users snap up info about high-profile applications of Pegasos hardware (using Linux for the most part) and specs for the slowly upcoming MorphOS 1.5. There's a lot of tension between the two camps, hoping for the success of their own, possibly praying for the downfall of the other. Both systems are more like than unlike, and that may well be the problem. As unlikely as it might be, I'd like to see both options become successful, as it makes for better computing in general. I predict that most worthwhile new software will be made available for both systems, unless one pulls far ahead in marketshare.
As I've mentioned multiple times before, I've had a Pegasos 2 system since slightly before the first of the year. Except for a quirk here and there, it performs admirably, though I know it is not doing all it should as yet. Part of the reason for this is a lack of software. Some pieces of software I use commonly on my Amiga 4000T cannot be used practically on the Pegasos, and there is not yet a suitable replacement. I have definitely tasted its power however. While usable on the Amiga, graphic software such as FXPaint, Photogenics and Image FX really come into their own with the CPU horsepower of the Pegasos, even though some software is not running natively on the PPC, but emulated through the JIT compiler. Another thing the Pegasos has done for me is become a center for media playback and emulation in a way my A4000 never could, not without a hefty upgrade anyway.
My Amiga has a 50 Mhz 68060, a 200 Mhz PPC, and a Cybervision 64 Video card. A 1 Ghz G4 PPC and a Radeon card beat that down easily. Add on top some MorphOS-centric software such as M player (a port of a Linux media player) and AmiNetRadio, and the Pegasos becomes quite good at handling all media formats the Amiga can, if not more, and taking on higher resolutions and bitrates with ease. The other hobby I've taken on with the Pegasos is emulation of other systems. This is doable on the Amiga as well, but the Pegasos horsepower and MorphOS ports really make it a worthwhile thing. I routinely emulate arcade machines with MAME, an Atari 2600 with Stella, a Commodore 64 with Frodo, and an Amiga with UAE. Actually the Amiga emulation is not very useful right now, as it seems to run too fast and/or choppy to be practical. Hopefully that is more of a software issue, and will be helped with some updates. I plan to demonstrate some (or all) of my emulation options at the November meeting.