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The AmigaOne XE G4

© John Chandler

I've been hoping to review an AmigaOne G4 since January. Until recently, only a few of these beasts had been sighted in the wild, but now they are shipping thick and fast. In fact, since the release of the first batch of OS4 screenshots, Eyetech have been overwhelmed by the demand for motherboards and complete systems. Eyetech sent mine out last week, with full marks going for customer service.

It's difficult to say exactly what I was expecting. Without AmigaOS 4 installed, it isn't quite a "true" AmigaOne just yet - but then, the hardware never was going to be an "Amiga" as we know such machines as the A1000, A500 or A1200. Just like the Pegasos, what we now have is hardware as an almost abstract entity - it's really just a generic PowerPC platform that happens to be the target of one of the early releases of a native PowerPC Amiga OS. No keyboard garage, no beige wedge, no Amiga badge, it could probably go unnoticed by even the hardiest Amiga user in a computer line up.

That's not such a bad thing, because finally we have escaped the limitations of a machine based around custom hardware, patched and hacked over the years to support devices that were never considered - graphics cards, PowerPC accelerator boards, USB, PCI cards. The slate has been wiped clean for a new wave of Amigas, a generation 2.

The downside is that writing an Amiga review is a little... well, tricky. At the moment, what I have sitting in front of me is a decent PowerPC Linux box with UAE, the Amiga emulator, installed. A first stage, if you will, waiting for the stage 2 of an AmigaOS 4 installation.

So, what do I have exactly? Well, the system is one of the EarlyBird "starter system" kits (i.e. free upgrade to OS4 when released) in complete form. This gives me:

• 800MHz PowerPC 7455 (G4) processor (underclocked from 933 Mhz)
• 512 MB RAM
• ATI Radeon 7000 graphics card
• Creative Vibra 128 sound card
• 3Com 3c905C-TX Ethernet controller
• 52x CD-ROM drive
• 40 GB hard disk
• 7 bay ATX tower case

Also supplied are a mouse and keyboard (both basic PS/2 affairs), an AmigaOne Boot Install CD, 8 Debian GNU/Linux PPC 3.0r1 CDs, an installation instruction sheet and a copy of the Hungry Minds Debian GNU/Linux Bible (658 page book with CD containing the x86 release of Debian). The inclusion of the book is a nice touch and should help those unfamiliar with Linux to get up-and-running quickly. I was also subscribed to the AmigaOne mailing list automatically, putting me in immediate touch with official and unofficial support.

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