The
Amiga Digital Envrionment is a
cross-platform Operating System which can be scaled to suit any machine from
PDAs and
mobiles, to
Server computers and
Mainframes.
With this new product, Amiga Inc, the new owners of the much-loved Amiga line of computers promise "Write Once, Run Everywhere" functionality. They have already released their "Series Zero"
Games Pack, and have an
impressive developer system. You simply buy a copy of the AmigaSDK, which runs
hosted on
Linux or
Windows, and agree to sign an NDA. As it was in the good old 80s (the golden age of computing in many people's eyes), you just write the software pass it on to Amiga through the Amiga Developer's website, and they distribute it and pay you your share of the booty!
Current platforms/devices capable of running AmigaDE are:
- Sharp Zaurus PDA
- Sharp NG Cell Phone (as yet un-named)
- Psion
- Hosted on Windows
- Hosted on Linux
- Other PDAs, info not yet revealed
Eventually the OS will run on any processor architecture, without the need for any hosting. By the end of 2001, Amiga have deals in place to have 10 million Amiga-enabled devices out there in the world. Oh yes, it also runs any Java applications out of the box.
Also in the pipeline is the AmigaOne, the first new Amiga Hardware in 7 years. This will run AmigaOS 4.0, an updated version of the current AmigaOS to begin with, and an existing A1200 can be attached for access to it's custom chips for true backwards compatibility. AmigaOS and AmigaDE will eventually merge to give an OS that can run the new AmigaDE apps, Java apps, and ANY old Amiga software
The future is red-and-white-checkered.