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41-517: At the time of AmigaOS 4.1 release in 2008, it was the only AmigaOS 4 compatible hardware available since the manufacturing of AmigaOne machines ceased in 2005; Sam440 was later succeeded by the Sam460ex (AmigaOne 500) and AmigaOne X1000 . Notable features of the Sam boards (including all versions): Sam440ep was the first modular motherboard produced by ACube Systems Srl. The specifications are

82-576: A 128-bit vector processing unit labelled AltiVec by Motorola while Apple marketing referred to it as the "Velocity Engine". The PowerPC 970 (G5) was the first IBM-manufactured CPU to implement VMX/AltiVec , for which IBM reused the old 7400 design they still had from the design they did with Motorola in Somerset. The Xenon CPU in the Xbox 360 also features VMX, with added proprietary extensions made especially for Microsoft. POWER6 , introduced in 2007,

123-526: A 64-bit floating point unit (FPU), derived in part from the 604 series . The 603 series had a 32-bit FPU, which took two clock cycles to accomplish 64-bit floating point arithmetic. The PowerPC G4 family supports two bus technologies, the older 60x bus which it shares with the PowerPC 600 and PowerPC 7xx families, and the notably more advanced MPX bus. Devices that utilize the 60x bus can be made compatible with either 6xx or 7xx processors, enabling

164-546: 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 was announced in two configurations, under the Micro-A1 I (Industrial) and Micro-A1 C (Consumer) labels. Only

205-522: A former part of Motorola . Motorola and Freescale's proper name of this family of processors is PowerPC 74xx . Macintosh computers such as the PowerBook G4 and iBook G4 laptops and the Power Mac G4 and Power Mac G4 Cube desktops all took their name from the processor. PowerPC G4 microprocessors were also used in the eMac , first-generation Xserves , first-generation Mac Minis , and

246-672: 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 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

287-560: 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 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

328-576: 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 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

369-423: A wide variety of offerings and a clear and cheap upgrade path while keeping compatibility issues at a minimum. There are primarily two companies manufacturing system controllers for 7xx and 7xxx computers, Tundra with their Tsi1xx controllers and Marvell with their Discovery controllers. The PowerPC 7410 "Nitro" is a low-power version of the 7400 but it was manufactured at 180 nm instead of 200 nm. Like

410-459: Is IBM's first " big iron " CPU to also implement VMX. With the AltiVec unit, the 7400 microprocessor can do four-way single precision (32-bit) floating point math, or 16-way 8-bit, 8-way 16-bit or four-way 32-bit integer math in a single cycle. Furthermore, the vector processing unit is superscalar , and can do two vector operations at the same time. Compared to Intel 's x86 microprocessors at

451-539: Is a MicroATX motherboard launched by Genesi and discontinued in 2006. AmigaOS 4 was released for the Pegasos II in January 2009. PowerPC G4#PowerPC 7450 .22Voyager.22.2F.22V.27ger.22 PowerPC G4 is a designation formerly used by Apple to describe a fourth generation of 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors . Apple has applied this name to various (though closely related) processor models from Freescale ,

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492-752: 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 a maximum clock frequency of 800 MHz and 933 MHz. The G4 module originally used

533-645: The AltiVec technology and its SMP capabilities. The PowerPC 7400 (code-named "Max") debuted in August 1999 and was the first processor to carry the "G4" moniker. The chip operates at speeds ranging from 350 to 500 MHz and contains 10.5 million transistors, manufactured using Motorola's 0.20 μm HiPerMOS6 process. The die measures 83 mm and features copper interconnects . Motorola had promised Apple to deliver parts with speed up to 500 MHz, but yields proved too low initially. This forced Apple to take back

574-529: The iMac G4 before the introduction of the PowerPC 970 . Apple completely phased out the G4 series for desktop models after it selected the 64-bit IBM-produced PowerPC 970 processor as the basis for its PowerPC G5 series. The last desktop model that used the G4 was the Mac Mini. The last portable to use the G4 was the iBook G4, which was replaced by the Intel-based MacBook . The PowerBook G4

615-404: The 7400 it has 10.5 million transistors. It debuted in the PowerBook G4 on 9 January 2001. The chip added the ability to use all or half of its cache as high-speed, non-cached memory mapped to the processor's physical address space as desired. This feature was used by embedded systems vendors such as Mercury Computer Systems . The PowerPC 7450 "Voyager"/"V'ger" was the only major redesign of

656-445: The 7447A, which introduced an integrated thermal diode as well as DFS ( dynamic frequency scaling ) Freescale was able to reach a slightly higher clock. The 7447B is effectively a 7447A with even higher frequency scaling, with clock rates up to 1.7 GHz officially and easily up to 2.4 GHz through overclocking . The 7457 and 7457A have an additional L3 cache interface, supporting up to 4 MB of L3 cache, up from 2 MB supported by

697-523: The 7451, codenamed "Apollo 6", just like the 7455. Early AmigaOne XE computers were shipped with the 7451 processor. The enhancements to the 745x design gave it the nicknames G4e or G4+ but these were never official designations. The PowerPC 7455 "Apollo 6" was introduced in January 2002. It came with a wider, 256-bit on-chip cache path, and was fabricated in Motorola's 0.18 μm (180 nm) HiPerMOS process with copper interconnects and SOI . It

738-464: The 7455 and 7450. However, its frequency scaling stagnated when Apple chose to use the 7447(s) instead of the 7457(s), despite the 7457 being the L3 cache-enabled successor to the L3 cache-enabled 7455 that Apple used before. The only companies that offer the 7457 in the form of upgrades for the Power Mac G4 , iMac G4 , and Power Mac G4 Cube are Giga Designs, Sonnet Technology, Daystar Technology (they use

779-472: The 7457 only for iMac G4 upgrades) and PowerLogix. The Pegasos computer platform from Genesi also uses 7447 in its Pegasos-II/G4. The 7457 is often used to repair an AmigaOne XE CPU module; some AmigaOS software with the 7457 installed may mistake the AmigaOne for a Pegasos II computer as there were never any official 7457 boards released by Eyetech . The PowerPC 7448 "Apollo 8" is an evolution of

820-559: 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 was managed by Eyetech and designed by

861-679: 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 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

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902-466: 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 the onboard IDE and Ethernet controllers, problems with USB device detection and initially no support for

943-609: The G4 processor. The 33-million transistor chip extended significantly the execution pipeline of 7400 (7 vs. 4 stages minimum) to reach higher clock speeds, improved instruction throughput (3 + branch vs. 2 + branch per cycle) to compensate for higher instruction latency, replaced an external L2 cache (up to 2 MB 2-way set associative, 64-bit data path) with an integrated one (256 KB 8-way set associative, 256-bit data path), supported an external L3 cache (up to 2 MB 8-way set associative, 64-bit data path), and featured many other architectural advancements. The AltiVec unit

984-677: 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 a suitable northbridge chip. Eyetech, who at this point had invested funds into

1025-524: The PowerPC 7447B announced at the first Freescale Technology Forum in June 2005. Improvements were a larger 1 MB L2 cache, a faster 200 MHz front side bus, and lower power consumption (18 W at 1.7 GHz). It was fabricated in a 90 nm process with copper interconnects and SOI. PowerPC 7448 users were: In 2004, Freescale renamed the G4 core to e600 and changed its focus from general CPUs to high-end embedded SoC devices, and introduced

1066-497: The advertised 500 MHz models of Power Mac G4 . The Power Mac series was downgraded abruptly from 400, 450, and 500 MHz processor speeds to 350, 400, and 450 MHz while problems with the chip were ironed out. The incident generated a rift in the Apple-Motorola relationship, and reportedly caused Apple to ask IBM for assistance to get the production yields up on the Motorola 7400 series line. The 500 MHz model

1107-564: The new board were still unsupported by AmigaOS (USB 2.0). Testing the 800 MHz variant of the Sam440ep-flex, Amiga Future highlighted CPU speed behind the MicroA1 (750FX 800 MHz), but surpassing it in graphics, memory and harddisk performance. AmigaOne 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

1148-490: 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 was not ready: they were supplied with various Linux distributions. From April 2004 onwards, boards were shipped for developers with

1189-541: 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, 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

1230-402: 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 the rebirth of

1271-468: 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 was ever introduced. The main difference between

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1312-508: 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 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

1353-552: The same as for the revisions before, except for: There is no graphics chip on the Sam440ep-flex, so you have to use a PCI-graphics board. The specifications are the same as for the flex prototype, except for: On 2 April 2009, ACube announced the availability of SAM440ep-flex revision 2, it has the same specifications as the flex prototype except for: OSNews review provided view by someone who never used AmigaOS computer before: Thom Holwerda commended silent CPU-fan-less operation, but criticized higher price. His evaluation of AmigaOS

1394-493: The time, this feature offered a substantial performance boost to applications designed to take advantage of the AltiVec unit. Some examples are Adobe Photoshop which utilises the AltiVec unit for faster rendering of effects and transitions, and Apple's iLife suite which takes advantage of the unit for importing and converting files on the fly. Additionally, the 7400 has enhanced support for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) thanks to an improved cache coherency protocol ( MERSI ) and

1435-471: 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 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

1476-438: Was improved with the 7450; instead of executing one vector permute instruction and one vector ALU (simple int, complex int, float) instruction per cycle like 7400/7410, the 7450 and its Motorola/Freescale-followers can execute two arbitrary vector instructions simultaneously (permute, simple int, complex int, float). It was introduced with the 733 MHz Power Mac G4 on 9 January 2001. Motorola followed with an interim release,

1517-557: Was mixed; although the platform offered "whole new world of technology to explore and play around with", it was still a relic of the past mainly due to lack of modern features like memory protection and unusual user interface. Review of the Sam440ep in the Amiga Future magazine noted performance comparable to older AmigaOne generation, but criticized non expandable RAM and lack of legacy interfaces (ATA, floppy). Also some features of

1558-527: Was reintroduced on February 16, 2000. Much of the 7400 design was done by Motorola in close co-operation with Apple and IBM . IBM, the third member of the AIM alliance , designed the chip together with Motorola in its Somerset design center, but chose not to manufacture it, because it did not see the need back then for the Vector Processing Unit. Ultimately, the G4 architecture design contained

1599-631: 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 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)

1640-600: Was replaced by the Intel-based MacBook Pro . The PowerPC G4 microprocessors were also popular in other computer systems, such as the AmigaOne series of computers and the Pegasos from Genesi . Besides desktop computers the PowerPC G4 was popular in embedded environments, like routers, telecom switches, imaging, media processing, avionics and military applications, where one can take full advantage of

1681-516: Was the first processor in an Apple computer to pass the 1 GHz mark. The 7445 is the same chip without the L3 cache interface. The 7455 is used in the AmigaOne XE G4, and the dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver 2002) The PowerPC 7447 "Apollo 7" is slightly improved from the 7450/55, it has a 512 KB on-chip L2 cache and was manufactured in a 130 nm process with SOI, hence drawing less power. It has 58 million transistors. With

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