Amiga DE

Amiga DE is an updated version of Tao Group's Elate operating system. As part of the agreement, Tao Group provided the embedded OS, while Amiga Inc. develop the 'Usability Layer', drivers, and codecs required for a consumer market. Over time Amiga Inc. will gradually implement larger portions of their code to customize it for the specific market. Through a series of developer releases (Amiga SDK), Amiga Inc. have provided an early idea of the capabilities of the operating environment. The company have also released several game packs for non-developers, including the Party Pack, Amiga DE Player and the Entertainment Pack #1.

At the moment a large portion of the Amiga DE is protected by NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement), which prevents anyone discussing the final feature list. It is known that Amiga Anywhere will feature extensive 2D (Ami2D) and 3D (Ami3D) support, as well as a built-in Java virtual machine.

Amiga... Anywhere?

As the name suggests, Amiga Anywhere will be marketed as a cross-platform solution, providing the ability to execute applications on any hosted environment. The table below shows a selection of the platforms that Amiga Inc. have indicated will be/are supported:

The great name change

Over the past two years, Amiga Anywhere has been through several name changes. The table below shows its previous titles, the time period and the reason for the change.

The distinction between the Amiga DE & Amiga Anywhere is particularly confusing. In a June 2002 Executive Update, Bill McEwen indicated the Amiga DE was the full development environment that would be used for development, while the Amiga Anywhere Content Engine refers to the platform specific engines that run on top of the various hardware.

Market

In early 2000, Fleecy Moss indicated that Amiga DE was aimed at two markets. Although a great deal has changed since that time, it remains an accurate description of Amiga Inc's intent.

Domestic Digital Habitat
An unusual name for a common concept. DDH describes the convergence market as a whole, developing for palmtops, mobile phones, and set-top boxes. Technology for Technophobes.

Pathfinder
Describes the general desktop users' who will use the Amiga DE. Several options are available, allowing the user to run the OE as a hosted environment (on AmigaOS, Windows, Linux, etc.), as a library (or .DLL) that is executed when a game is executed, or as a standalone operating system. AmigaOS 4.2+ will contain a 'Amiga DE' layer, allowing the operating system to take advantage of multi-platform applications.