MorphOS is an AmigaOS-like operating system designed for Power and PowerPC based computers. The core, based on the Quark microkernel, is proprietary; however, several libraries and other parts are open source, such as the Ambient desktop.
The project began in 1999. It was produced for the Pegasos computer, as well as PowerUP accelerator equipped Amiga computers, and a series of Freescale development boards that use the Genesi firmware, including the Efika and mobileGT. Since then, MorphOS has been ported to Apple's Mac mini, eMac, Power Mac G4 and limited support for Power Mac G5. It is binary compatible with software written for Motorola 68k-based Amiga computers.
History
The project began in 1999, based on the Quark microkernel. The earliest versions of MorphOS ran only via PPC accelerator cards on the Amiga computers, and required portions of AmigaOS to fully function. A collaborative effort between the companies bPlan (of which the lead MorphOS developer is a partner) and Thendic-France in 2002 resulted in the first regular, non-prototype production of bPlan-engineered Pegasos computers capable of running MorphOS or Linux. Thendic-France had financial problems and folded; however, the collaboration continued under the new banner of "Genesi". A busy promotional year followed in 2003, with appearances at conventions and exhibitions in several places around the world, including the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
After some bitter disagreements within the MorphOS development team in 2003 and 2004, culminating with accusations by a MorphOS developer that he and others had not been paid, the Ambient desktop interface was released under GPL and is now actively developed by the Ambient development team. Subject to GPL rules, Ambient continues to be included in the commercial MorphOS product. An alternative MorphOS desktop system is Scalos.
Beginning with the release of MorphOS 2.0 in 2008, development shifted from its original Pegasos and Amiga PowerUP focus toward broader support for PowerPC-based hardware, particularly Apple Macintosh systems. Subsequent releases added compatibility with the Mac mini G4, eMac, Power Mac G4, PowerBook G4, iBook G4, and selected Power Mac G5 models, significantly expanding the platform's potential user base. During the same period, the operating system gained a native TCP/IP stack, enhanced graphics and multimedia capabilities, improved hardware support, and new desktop applications, reflecting an ongoing effort to modernize the system while maintaining compatibility with classic Amiga software.
Characteristics and versions Developed for PowerPC central processing units (CPUs) from Freescale and IBM, it also supports the original AmigaOS Motorola 68000 series (68k, MC680x0) applications via proprietary task-based emulation, and most AmigaOS PPC applications via application programming interface (API) wrappers. It is API compatible with AmigaOS 3.1 and has a GUI based on the Magic User Interface (MUI).
Besides the Pegasos version of MorphOS, there is a version for Amiga computers equipped with PowerUP accelerator cards produced by Phase5. This version is free, as is registration. If unregistered, it slows down after each two-hour session. PowerUP MorphOS was most recently updated on 23 February 2006; however, it does not exceed the feature set or advancement of the Pegasos release.
A version of MorphOS for the Efika, a very small mainboard based on the ultra-low-power MPC5200B processor from Freescale, has been shown at exhibitions and user gatherings in Germany. Since the release of 2.0, MorphOS supports Efika.
Software
MorphOS can run any system friendly Amiga software written for 68k processors. It is also possible to use 68k libraries or datatypes on PPC applications and vice versa. It also provides compatibility layer for PowerUP and WarpUP software written for PowerUP accelerator cards. The largest repository is Aminet with over 75,000 packages online with packages from all Amiga flavors including music, sound, and artwork. MorphOS-only software repositories are hosted at MorphOS software, and MorphOS Storage. MorphOS is delivered with several desktop applications in the form of pre-installed software.
Components
ABox ABox is an emulation sandbox featuring a PPC native AmigaOS API clone that is binary compatible with 68k Amiga applications, and PowerUP and WarpOS formats of Amiga PPC executables. ABox is based in part on AROS Research Operating System. ABox includes Trance JIT code translator for 68k native Amiga applications.
Other AHI – audio interface: 6.7 Ambient – the default MorphOS desktop, inspired by Workbench and Directory Opus 5 CyberGraphX – graphics interface originally developed for Amiga computers: 5.1 Magic User Interface – primary graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit: 4.2 Poseidon – the Amiga USB stack developed by Chris Hodges TurboPrint – the printing system TinyGL – OpenGL implementation and Warp3D compatibility is featured via Rendering Acceleration Virtual Engine (RAVE) low-level API: V 51 Quark – manages the low level systems and hosts the A/Box currently
Ambient
Ambient is the built-in MUI-based desktop environment for MorphOS;http://morphos.de/files/src/3.11//ambient.tar.bz2 Source code of MorphOS 3.11 development started in 2001 by David Gerber. Its main goals were that it should be fully asynchronous, simple and fast. Ambient remotely resembles Workbench and Directory Opus Magellan trying to mix the best of both systems.
Features
Ambient does not strictly follow the Amiga Workbench interface paradigm, but many similarities exist: while programs are called tools, program attributes are called tooltypes, data files are projects and directories are drawers.
support for ARexx scripting language default icon library for hundreds of fileformats fully asynchronous, multi-threaded design fast asynchronous file input/output (I/O) functions and file notifications support for PNG and other Amiga icon formats built-in icon, workbench and wbstart libraries built-in applications like disk formatting and commodities manager panels which are used as program launchers
Ambient is localised for various languages; while it is an intrinsic part of MorphOS, it is also available separately. There are various visual effects in Ambient that take advantage of hardware accelerated visual effects within MorphOS.
Desktop icons The native icon format in Ambient is PNG, but there is built-in support for other Amiga icon formats. Ambient introduced a special icon format called DataType Icons where the icon is simply any image file renamed to include the .info extension. Those icons are read using the Amiga DataType system.
Original Amiga icons MagicWB NewIcons GlowIcons GlowIcons32 DT Icons PNG DualPNG SVG Colours 4 8 256 256 16M 16M 16M 16M 16M Alpha blending Icon size 36×40 46×46 46×46 128×128 128×128 128×128 128×128 Second state image Embedded metadata
Development status In 2005, David Gerber released Ambient source code under GPL and it is now developed by the Ambient development team.
Supported hardware Max. 1.72 GB RAM; virtual memory is not supported. Only Radeon cards have support; Nvidia cards are not supported.
Amiga Amiga 1200 with Blizzard PPC accelerator card Amiga 3000 with CyberStorm PPC accelerator card Amiga 4000 with CyberStorm PPC accelerator card
Apple Mac mini G4 eMac Power Mac G4 PowerBook G4 (except for 12" aluminum models) iBook G4 Power Mac G5 Power Mac G4 Cube iMac G5 (only model A1145 – G5 2.1 20" (iSight))
Genesi/bPlan GmbH Efika 5200B Pegasos I G3, II G3/G4
ACube ACube Systems Srl company and their Sam460 series mainboards
A-Eon Technology AmigaOne X5000 mainboard
Version history
Release history of 0.x/1.x series VersionRelease dateNotes0.1August 1, 2000Amiga0.2October 17, 2000Amiga0.4February 14, 20013rd Release Alt URL0.5May 1, 2001Amiga0.8August 2001Amiga, Pegasos I0.92002betaMorphOS 0.9 video1.014 October 2002Pegasos I1.1December 13, 2002Pegasos I1.2February 9, 2003Pegasos I1.3March 27, 2003Pegasos I1.4August 7, 2003Pegasos I1.4.4March 28, 2005Pegasos I/II1.4.5April 30, 2005Pegasos I/II1.4.5August 25, 2005Amiga
Release history of 2.x/3.x series