AmigaOS
A commercial OS originally developed for the Motorola 68k based Commodore Amiga line of computers - now owned by Amiga, Inc. Based around an executive library kernel (Exec), the AmigaOS is a combination of 3 parts: Exec (the "kernel", which is not a kernel in modern sense, see Microkernel debate), Intuition (graphics and GUI, integrated into the system) and AmigaDOS (Disk Operating System, the Metacomco's Tripos modified to work with Exec). The design philosophies of AmigaDOS and Intuition are rather different, the former adopting a C-like API and the latter creating an object-oriented, message passing aware environment for the programmer. The system base is the only absolute address in AmigaOS (located at 0x00000004) - everything else is dynamically loaded. The OS is well known for delivering high performance due to its close connections with the Amiga hardware, while simultaneously having the flexibility to support retargetable graphics and audio subsystems, as well as the PowerPC family of processors.PowerUP and WarpOS extend Exec with the ability to run PowerPC programs side by side with 68k programs on machines with both types of processor installed.
A new version of AmigaOS, version 4.0, is slated to appear for PowerPC processors without the need of the Amiga's custom chipset. Created by Hyperion Entertainment under license from Amiga, Inc. This release is slated for release "when itīs done".
This page is linked from: AROS Dolphin Microkernel Debate Sheep Tripos UniqueOS Wouter van Oortmerssen