Have you heard about the new virtual processor Amiga? This is to use OpenGL as its 3D graphics API and will use the Renderware and Lithtec engines.
Think about it write a OpenGL program once that will run on any CPU or any operating system that is supported without modification. Check www.amiga.com to see which operating systems and CPUS are supported.
Tell me what do you think OpenGL programmers?
I think that running on any CPU doesn’t help you a whole lot if you don’t have drivers for 3D accelerator cards.
Last I heard Amiga had announced a partnership with Matrox, and that was about it. Without NVidia and the other big players on board it’s not a very tempting OpenGL target platform.
Don’t get me wrong, I was an avid 'Miggy fan back in its glory days, and the Taos stuff is still very cool. But the current Amiga lot don’t seem particularly interested in the desktop - they seem to be leaning more toward appliances and embedded. Plus I’ve still not seen a word on C++ support (Java, ugh) which I personally find offputting.
Just my 2 verts. Always nice to add another member to the OpenGL family, anyhow.
When running the new AmigaOS (called Amiverse) on top of another operating system such as Windows xx/NT, Linux, Mac, Classic Amiga etc it will use the native operating systems OpenGL drivers.
Amiga designed desktops which run natively on the hardware will come with Matrox graphics chips. However there will be drivers developed for other manufacturers custom chips (3DfX, ATI etc) for use in Amiga systems designed by other manufacturers. Nvidia will not share their source but when Amiga have consumer products released maybe they will develope their own.
Another point is that the AmigaOS will be available for Dreamcast and other next generation consoles, weather that’s hosted or non-hosted I don’t no.
PS The OS is object orientated and the first version of the Amiga SDK out now (www.amazon.com) does come with a C/C++ compiler, virtual processor assembler and java environment (OpenGL support soon).
Thank for reading Mike.