QNX, Phase 5 to bring Neutrino OS to upgraded Amigas

QNX Software Systems today cocked a snoot at Amiga by announcing a tie-in with German hardware developer Phase 5 to port the QNX OS to Phase 5's PowerUP PowerPC-based Amiga upgrade cards, as predicted here Phase 5 also announced its upcoming multi-CPU PowerPC-based AmiRage K2 system, which will run QNX. QNX CTO Dan Dodge described the deal as a sign of the company's "growing commitment to the Amiga community", though it's a clear move to exploit the growing anger among Amiga traditionalists against Amiga's decision to drop QNX from its next-generation Amiga Operating Environment (AOE) and replace it with Linux. As Wolf Dietrich, general manager of phase 5 digital products, put it: "QNX provides all the software functionality -- and more -- to fulfill the expectations of the many users who still believe in the original Amiga vision: a vision of technical superiority, innovation, and just plain fun." The PowerUP version of QNX will ship in the autumn, and include Phase 5's 680x0 emulation software. The OS will be bundled with upcoming PowerPC 750-based cards and be offered free of charge to owners of existing 603/604-based boards. Phase 5's deal with QNX provides it with a licence to develop further versions of the QNX OS. One will operate on the AmiRage K2, which will ship later this year with up to four PowerPC 7400 (aka G4) CPUs, the company said. Essentially, the AmiRage is Phase 5's attempt at building a next generation Amiga of its own -- again, an attempt to cash in on discontent with Amiga and its president, Jim Collas. It is expected to ship early 2000, the company said. The AmiRage will ship with 64MB RAM; 32MB video RAM; 6GB hard drive; USB, MIDI and IEEE 1394 ports; three 32-bit and three 64-bit PCI slots; 10/100 Ethernet and IrDa ports; video in and out; and a dedicated multimedia DSP system. ®