AmiWest 2013 AmigaOS Team

AmiWest2013-AmigaOS-Team1200AmiWest 2013 is now over and it was a heck of a lot of fun. We managed to grab a team photo this time.

From left to right in the front row sitting down we have Ken Wilde and Lyle Hazelwood. Next row back we have Bill Borsari, Flip LaFramboise, Trevor Dickinson and Tony Wyatt. In the back row we have Matthew Leaman, Val Marti, Paul Sadlik, Steven Solie and Alex Carmona.

A special thanks to Mike Brantley for taking the photo. Mike also took a lot more photos at the AmiWest 2013 show.

I think the big smiles on those faces says it all really.

I also took some time to update the AmiWest 2013 crowd on the current status of the Amiga Operating System which I will now summarize here:

  1. The netbook project initially announced at AmiWest 2011 has been cancelled. Below is an excerpt from an email to me from Ben Hermans dated October 10, 2013 on this matter.

    Despite best efforts by Hyperion and A-EON we were unable to get acceptable and stable conditions and terms from the Chinese supplier (price point, paying terms, required upfront, etc.)…

    The project was therefore cancelled in favour of a more future proof solution.

  2. A-EON Technology announces the Cyrus Plus Beta Test Programme. Follow the link for all the details and how to apply.
  3. Gallium3D Update
    • Software rendering completed
    • Working on the WinSys part of the implementation
    • Challenges encountered along the way:
      • Must be re-entrant, thread safe and multicore capable
      • Must run on a bare minimum system
      • Efficient
      • Possible to load non-Mesa and non-Gallium drivers
  4. X-Kernel Update
    • Task scheduler rewritten in C
    • Removed reliance on data structures (e.g. ExecBase task lists and ThisTask pointer)
    • Moving scheduler to run on auxiliary cores
    • All cores schedule tasks independently
    • Load balancing between cores
  5. AmigaOS 4.2
    • Depends on Gallium3D release
    • May or may not depend on multicore support
  6. AmigaOS 4.1 Update 7
    • Will be needed for Cyrus Plus product release
    • Consolidates all previous updates
  7. AmigaOS 4.1 Update 6
  8. FUSE and NTFS-3G
  9. New development team members since AmiWest 2012

We also had a chance to have a team meeting on Friday night in one of the hotel rooms while at the show. We had the usual Airing of Grievances and a lengthy discussion on where we are going and how to get there. At one point we were interrupted by an outsider who likened the gathering to a secret Masons meeting.

If you would like to come to AmiWest 2014 and join in the fun then keep October 24, 25 and 26 open. There is also a programming seminar planned for October 23 and 24. See you there!

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