Subject: Re: DraCO's RISC chip for Amiga
From: Ole Andre Schistad <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 13:31:50 +0200 (MET DST)

On Sun, 30 Apr 1995 [email-masked] wrote:

> workstations.  The only problem is that this processor is not running 
> NT (if it is, please ignore my ENTIRE post), and therefore has, as of 
> this moment, exactly zero applications.

The DraCo is an amiga clone , and as such runs a customized version of
AmigaOS. It originally comes with an 060 , but can supposedly be upgraded
with RISC chips later. The RISC upgrade will almost certainly include
a 680x0 emulator . So LW will still run with the RISC upgrade , NT or
no NT. Unfortunately , emulating a totally alien instruction set
produces a huge overhead , and that's why a specific port of LW would
be nice . I doubt it's justifiable for NewTek to spend time porting
LW to work in a native-mode though , as the user base with Alpha'ed
DraCos will probably be very small.

> 
> Applications are written to an operating system first, and a 
> processor second, so Lightwave would have to be much more than 
> "patched" in order to run on this accelerator card.  This is the same 
> argument that causes NewTek to say that an NT/PowerPC port would be 
> much easier than a MacOS/PowerPC port.

Actually , the whole point of the DraCo is to allow people to
keep their old programs and AmigaOS , and still be able to upgrade to
state-of-the-art CPUs. Personally , I love the amigas operating system,
in spite of all its quirks (No resource tracking hence no proper kill,
flaky VMem etc) . A DraCo would be right up my alley , if only I could 
afford one. 

#include <stddisclaimer.h>
#define REALNAME 	Ole Andre Schistad
#define EMAIL		([email-masked] || [email-masked])
#define OCCUPATION	Comp.Sci student and 3D animation hobbyist.
main(){ printf("Hello World\n");return(-1);}
/* The world is an illusion. */