MorphOS is an Amiga-like GUI based upon the Quark microkernel that has gained increasing mindshare since its release in 2000. It is the first operating system that has delivered on its promise to provide a native Amiga-compatible PowerPC operating system. It has been developed by a number of former-phase5 employees and was designed to be fully compatible with existing PowerUP applications, resulting in speculation that it is partially based upon the failed phase5-Escom 1996 alliance that would have resulted in the development of the Power Amiga.

Although it is still in beta, MorphOS provides limited AmigaOS emulation through a virtual emulation and limited hardware access. This will allow the majority of Amiga applications to be executed without the need for custom chipsets or a physical 68k CPU. WarpOS emulation has also been written to provide support for a large percentage of PowerPC games. The aim is not to provide complete compatibility with the AmigaOS, instead it will offer a means of running API-friendly applications and games. UAE can be used for applications or games that cannot be executed under the MorphOS emulation.

In addition to AmigaOS compatibility, MorphOS is designed to be forward looking in its design. This will allow it to perform functions expected of a modern OS, such as memory protection, symmetrical multi processing (SMP), resource tracking, Asynchronous message system, and virtual memory (optional). While these features are not currently implemented, the groundwork has been set to implement them later. Given the announcements by bPlan and several comments on the MorphOS, it is obvious that the MorphOS team intend to port the OS to standalone PowerPC systems, such as the Pegasos.

To read more about MorphOS, click the button below:

Additional references
MorphOS Overview (April 2000)
Ralph Schmidt responds to criticism that MorphOS is 'stolen' AmigaOS code
Amiga Magazin's MorphOS article (German)

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