vvid (no.delete@this.thanks.com) on August 8, 2014 4:35 am wrote:
> Ungo (a.delete@this.b.c.d.e) on August 6, 2014 6:04 pm wrote:
> > Running the same kernel on two different
> > CPUs and trying to make it all act like a true, tightly coupled SMP system (albeit one where some
> > processes can only be scheduled on one CPU type) would actually be far more difficult.
>
> Well, I commented about dual-processor system acting as
> "hardware-VM", running different OSes simultaneously.
> But if you want "SMP", Phase5 PPC accelerators could run both PPC + 68K
> software in a single AmigaOS environment simultaneously (in 1997).
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarpOS

I'm already familiar with the mid-1990s attempts to graft PowerPCs into Amigas. Environments like WarpOS were not SMP at all. The PowerPC was essentially an accelerator peripheral. It did not run AmigaOS, or really much of an OS at all. It just sat there waiting for RPC requests made by 68K processes living inside the actual AmigaOS environment.

The Amiga PPC accelerators weren't a good approach technically on any level, hardware or software. They were always ugly, obviously doomed hacks which existed mainly because the people behind companies like Phase5 were really desperate to try to save the Amiga somehow, and they weren't in a position to deliver a real PowerPC Amiga.

(IMO, the hybrid x86/ARM Mac idea would also be an ugly, doomed hack. Even if Apple pulled off tight integration between the two sides.)