Comment by johnklos | Hacker News Reader

Comment by johnklos | Hacker News Reader

Putting aside all the drama surrounding the contested ownership of the rights to AmigaOS, I think it's amazing that I could install new 3.2 ROMs in an Amiga 3000, in 2022, install AmigaOS 3.2.1, install a TCP/IP stack, then install a web browser, with working SSL / TLS, that works with contemporary web sites (which I did). This is on a 25 MHz m68030 with 16 megs of memory.

I noticed Google centric .webp images didn't load. I checked Aminet, and, of course, someone has uploaded a datatype for webp images. Downloaded and installed it, and the browser (IBrowse), is loading .webp files.

Web browsing is slow on this machine, but for most other uses it's quite snappy. I can't help but think we've all gone so wrong because we have machines which can quite literally do tens of billions of instructions per second, yet rendering a web page can take half a gig and multiple seconds on what's an insane amount of computing resources.

We can learn lots from Amiga. The fact that it's usable in 2023 already tells us we haven't been looking far enough ahead.

Other than gaming and a few specialized workloads[0], many people would do just fine with such an Amiga today, which is something most OEMs don't want to hear about, naturally.

[0]- Naturally there is the issue of memory protection, but that could be solvable.

[0]- wouldn't it significantly slow down the system? is it even possible without a MMU?

Very late models did have an MMU, but it was only partially used due its history.

Naturally I am not advocating zero changes, also compare with similar SGI devices of the time.

Amiga 3000 was released in 1990, so that would be SGI IRIS 4D, IRIS Indigo, and IRIS Crimson timeframe.

Also keep in mind that Amiga designers were UNIX fans, and Amiga only turned out that way because of constraints that made them pivot their original plan, so an Amiga with MMU could be something into that direction.

The MC68030 also has an MMU, although some Amiga models used the MMU-less 68EC030. It's interesting that it can apparently do modern SSL/TLS at native clock speed, since that's what tends to limit the usability of older machines on the modern Internet.

I remember an old HP iLO that just didn't do TLS >1.0. Which for such a tiny OS really shouldn't be a problem. But they rather have you spend money on a new server.

I have this theory that the various new AI "Chat" services will bring new life for old machines, since their interface is mostly just plain text, they should work just fine even on the dumbest of terminals.

> I have this theory that the various new AI "Chat" services will bring new life for old machines, since their interface is mostly just plain text, they should work just fine even on the dumbest of terminals.

Except old machines tend to generate a lot of waste heat. Even if all you need is a text interface, you'll be better served by something modern sipping the milliwatts.

Yes, but I'm not saying that you should use these old machines just for that purpose. I'm saying that if you're already using these old machines, as a hobby, it's much easier to make an AI Chat client than it is to make a web browser.

>Except old machines tend to generate a lot of waste heat. Even if all you need is a text interface, you'll be better served by something modern sipping the milliwatts.

My accelerated Amiga 1200 draws some 15w.

In contrast, my Ryzen 5800x3d based machine idles at some 75w.

If it's about interacting with an instance of chatGPT that's running in the cloud, the Amiga would be far more efficient.

If you compare to Ryzen or GeForce, then sure. But those devices are not optimized for power usage, but for performance.

There are also modern low-power devices, like Raspberry Pi, that offer a better power/speed/price ratio (i.e. it's probably less wasteful to run a C64 emulator on an RPI than to run the original C64)

How much does a Raspberry Pi cost nowadays? Are they readily available?

https://rpilocator.com

Seems like >30 EUR

If the original Raspberry Pi isn't available, the various "alternatives" still exist: for example OrangePi.

Note this excludes the for-profit models like Raspberry Pi 400, which tends to be the best rpi atm, as the whole keyboard acts as heatsink.

Today, I'd look at VisionFive 2 (RISC-V SBC).

An rpi4b, which is quite the overkill to reach a cloud instance of chatGPT, idles at 2.5W.

Your Ryzen 5800x3d is irrelevant for this context.

Ah yes, but your 1084s draws 75w drawing the twice the power of an LCD. :)

I use a LCD, but there's a OSSC in between.

>the Amiga would be far more efficient.

That's not what efficiency means.

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