Supported Computers

From MorphOS Library

Originally published at: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=65055

Author: takemehomegrandma

This is a list of complete computer setups for MorphOS use. More detailed harware support information is available at http://morphos-team.net/hardware

MorphOS has certain limits for the main memory on all supported systems. Quark kernel can use up to 2GiB of memory and ABox up to 1.7GiB. If more than 2GiB of memory is installed, it is just ignored. Some systems also have lower physical limits.


Genesi Hardware

In the beginning of the MorphOS journey, Genesi and bPlan played an important role of the early MorphOS development in many fundamental ways. Providing resources was one, providing a new HW platform was another. Although Genesi and the MorphOS Team later moved in separate directions, a legacy remains in the shape of two official Genesi systems that MorphOS runs on, and a few mainboards (motherboards) besides that.

Of course, those mainboards were also used as a central component by *several* third party resellers when they put together their own various systems (of various configurations) for their customers that probably still is available from time to time on the second hand market. Those systems are not listed here though.

These mainboards that MorphOS runs on are:

  • Pegasos 1 ("original"/unfixed), 750CXe G3 @ 600MHz
  • Pegasos 1 (April 1), 750CXe G3 @ 600MHz
  • Pegasos 1 (April 2), 750CXe G3 @ 600MHz
  • Pegasos 2, 750CXe G3 @ 600MHz
  • Pegasos 2, MPC7447 G4 @ 1.0GHz
  • Efika 5200B

As previously mentioned, many systems were put together by numerous third party dealers based on these motherboards.

Official systems based on these were:

(BTW, The Efika mainboard, the case, and a bundle of board and case, can still be purchased new from Directron.com)

Mac mini

We are many who has fallen in love with the Mac Mini, a very small footprint, highly integrated, silent, yet very powerful G4 computer. All models works fine with MorphOS, but if you can, you should look for the 1.5GHz silent upgrade version that has 64MB Video Memory. You *can* use MorphOS with the 32MB coming with the other versions (depending on how you use the computer, you may want to turn off some visual "bells and whistles" that MorphOS offers), but with 64MB you will have your back covered in a better way. And this is not something specific to the Mac Mini, but to MorphOS in general — if you have the option to get 64MB or more of Video Memory, do it!

Here is a list of supported Mac Mini machines, with links to the great "everymac.com" site with loads of additional, detailed information on each and every one of these:

eMac

The eMac line, originally released exclusively to the education market and later available to the consumer market as well, features an all-in-one case design and affordable performance. It's especially "affordable" today, when you most certainly will pick one up for $0 (or thereabout). It has a CRT built in, which may show some blurry signs of age by now. But hey, its extremely low cost in combination with MorphOS and a G4 performance that "traditional Amigan's" only dreamt of, may very well make this machine interesting.

Here is a list of the supported eMac machines (those not listed here aren't supported), with links to the great "everymac.com" site with loads of additional, detailed information on each and every one of these:

Power Macintosh G4

NVIDIA cards are not supported by MorphOS and would need to be replaced with a suitable Radeon card instead. Special Mac versions of Radeon cards should be used. A GFX card with 64MB or more VMEM is recommended.

Audio is currently only supported for PowerMac3,4 to 3,6 models.

DP = Dual Processors, but MorphOS only supports using one CPU, the other one will be sitting idle.

"Mac Server" is essentially the same HW as PowerMac but with server SW bundled. Doesn't matter if you are going to use it with MorphOS (right?).

Here is a list of supported Power Macintosh G4 machines, with links to the great "everymac.com" site with loads of additional, detailed information on each and every one of these:

PowerBook

MorphOS supports all G4 PowerBooks equipped with a Radeon graphics card. Audio isn't currently supported on Titanium (Ti) models.

The MorphOS PowerBook support includes most of the things you would need/expect from an OS supporting Laptops. Touchpad has some extra functionality on models 5,6-5,9.

Here is a list of supported PowerBook G4 machines, with links to the great "everymac.com" site with loads of additional, detailed information on each and every one of these:

iBook

Here is a list of supported iBook machines (in short: all G4 iBooks), with links to the great "everymac.com" site with loads of additional, detailed information on each and every one of these:

Power Macintosh G5

NVIDIA cards are not supported by MorphOS and would need to be replaced with a suitable Radeon card instead. Special Mac versions of Radeon cards should be used.

DP = Dual Processors (MorphOS only supports using one CPU though)

Here is a list of supported Power Macintosh G5 machines, oldest models first, then ascending in performance:

Power Macintosh G4 Cube

MorphOS runs on "the Cube", but some HW features are not supported. Network can be made working with some tweaks, but the USB audio presents a problem (link).

Here is a list of the Cube machines, with links to the great "everymac.com" site with loads of additional, detailed information:

ACube Systems Hardware

MorphOS 3.8 added the support for Sam460cr and Sam460ex mainboards.

Official systems based on these are:

A-EON Technology Hardware

MorphOS 3.10 added the support for AmigaOne X5000 mainboard.

iMac

Support for these particular iMac models is unofficially enabled in MorphOS.