AmigaOne is a trademark available for licensing from Amiga, Inc. to computer hardware distributors and manufacturers who wish to sell PowerPC based motherboards for the purpose of running the upcoming AmigaOS version 4.
"AmigaOne" was originally the name of a project for new Amiga hardware, managed by the U.K. computer vendor Eyetech Group, Ltd., 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." It was to have connectors for an Amiga A1200 or an A4000 respectively, in order to utilise the old custom chips of an Amiga. This AmigaOne project was cancelled in 2001, due to problems and delays from the hardware design company.
Once the Escena design was consigned to the scrapheap, Eyetech looked for an alternative route for a future PowerPC platform for AmigaOS. The result was that they licensed a PowerPC reference platform from a company called MAI, known as the Teron range.
There are currently two AmigaONE boards on sale, the AmigaONE XE and SE, which are based on the TeronPX and TeronCX respectively.
The main difference between the two is that the AmigaONE SE has a soldered on 600Mhz G3 processor, whereas the AmigaONE XE uses a socketed processor, and is currently available with an 800Mhz G3 or 800Mhz G4. Future versions have been announced for release in the coming year, including a Mini-ITX board with onboard gigabit ethernet and firewire.
At the time of writing, a company called Hyperion Entertainment is working on an updated version of AmigaOS, using PowerPC upgraded Amiga 4000 computers. This is later going to be ported to the AmigaONE boards.
Due to the unavailability of AmigaOS for the AmigaONE boards, they are being shipped as "early adopter" boards, for people who want to get their hands on AmigaOS 4 as soon as it is released. Until that happens, they are able run Linux and MacOS.
Some features of the AmigaONE boards:
- Standard ATX formfactor
- Built in Ethernet, UDMA IDE, AC '97 sound
- CPU: 750CXe (G3-SE), 750FX (G3-XE), 7451 or 7455 (G4-XE)
External Links
