 The p.OS operating system was ProDAD's attempt at a
successor to the AmigaOS. In development since 1996, pOS was
intended for several processors, including Amiga 68k/PPC, Apple
Macintosh, Intel/Windows, PIOS TransAM, and possibly A/BOX. This would have been achieved using a
Java-like approach, providing the ability for a native pOS
application to on a range of CPUs without recompilation.
The major advantage of pOS is the compatibility with standard
Amiga systems whilst providing upgrade possibilities to faster
processors. The pOS system will be entirely based upon retargetable
graphics and sound, with built-in networking and multi-processing,
as well as multi-monitor support being planned. The finished
version will also include an entirely new DOS system that has been
dramatically improved, BCPL coding that has plagued the AmigaOS
since version 1 is replaced with C. Data compression and
decompression during read and write is alleged to be standard
feature, as well as a partition limit is 1.09*10^12 bytes (1
terabyte).
pOS for the Amiga
ProDAD claim that the Amiga version of pOS will require a 68020
processor with 4 MB, or more. At the moment it runs alongside the
AmigaOS rather than a complete replacement. The pre-release CD
features a number of pOS applications and features to get a taster
of the OS, including a fully featured task manager, task bar, pOS
shell, HTML viewer, UNIX emulation, a Directory Opus-style file
manager, a FFS compatible filesystem, and an updated version of
Amiga datatypes.
pOS has gained some support over the last year since the
pre-release CD was launched. Several major applications have been
released, most notably Finale's Web Cruiser suite, including
a web browser, news and e-mail reader. A UAE port is also
available. However, the World of Amiga 1998 announcements made it
difficult to accept a 3rd party imitation and the OS was
abandoned.
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