Amiga Corporation moves ahead with AmigaOS and RTG development

The old “two more weeks” line may be wearing thin. At Kickstart UK Amiga Expo 3, Mike Battilana shared more detail than usual about Amiga Corporation, AmigaOS and the work now taking shape behind the scenes. Amiga Corporation says its new RTG graphics system for AmigaOS 3 is already working, giving us the clearest sign yet of where the operating system is heading next. The company isn’t only looking at graphics. Networking, file-system changes, version numbers, future hardware and even possible source-code licensing are all part of the wider AmigaOS 3 plan. For now, though, RTG is the big technical story.

A new RTG system is already running

RTG stands for retargetable graphics. In simple terms, it lets Amiga software use graphics hardware beyond the limits of the original Amiga chipsets. That matters if you’re running an expanded Amiga, an accelerator-based system or newer Amiga-compatible hardware. Amiga Corporation says its own RTG subsystem is already operational. This isn’t just an idea sitting on a roadmap. There’s working code.

Having its own RTG layer also gives the company more control over graphics support inside AmigaOS 3. Instead of relying entirely on separate third-party solutions, future releases could ship with graphics support designed as part of the operating system itself. There’s also an obvious hardware question.

Retro Games Ltd has already said that its ARM-based THEA1200 will support RTG graphics. That doesn’t mean it will use Amiga Corporation’s new system, though. No such link has been confirmed.

So, for now, the safest way to look at this is simple. The RTG work belongs to the wider AmigaOS 3 development effort. Whether it appears in specific machines will depend on later agreements and technical decisions.

What happens to the Hyperion-era AmigaOS code

Another big part of the story is the AmigaOS 3 code previously developed under Hyperion. Following Hyperion’s exit from the 68k Amiga market, Amiga Corporation expects to receive the relevant AmigaOS 3 material. There is one complication.

A small amount of code came from AmigaOS 4 and was later backported into the 68k version of AmigaOS. That code isn’t automatically included. The amount involved is relatively small, estimated at around 800 to 1,000 lines, but the number of lines isn’t the whole issue. Some features added during later AmigaOS 3 development may depend on that code.

That means more work is needed before everything can be pulled together cleanly. Amiga Corporation also expects to receive a build based on AmigaOS 3.1.4 with selected improvements from later releases. File-system changes are among the areas involved.

That could give the company a practical starting point. Rather than rebuilding every recent change from scratch, it may be able to keep useful parts of the later development work and then build from there.

Networking should stay inside AmigaOS

Networking is another area Amiga Corporation wants to keep as part of the operating system. AmigaOS 3.9 already included a TCP/IP stack, so the idea isn’t new. The current plan is to make sure IPv4 networking remains available in future releases instead of forcing users to hunt down separate packages just to get a machine online.

That sounds like a small detail, but it says quite a lot about the direction of AmigaOS 3. The goal appears to be a more complete base installation. Install the operating system, and the main pieces should already be there. That includes networking.

The version numbers might finally change

Then there’s the naming problem. AmigaOS version numbers have become a little awkward over the years, especially when newer releases use numbers that don’t always look newer at first glance. Amiga Corporation is considering different options.

One possibility would be something like AmigaOS 3.10. Another idea is a year-based system, perhaps using a name such as AmigaOS 3.2028. Nothing has been decided yet. Still, the fact that versioning is being discussed suggests the company isn’t thinking about just one isolated update. It’s looking at how future releases could fit together over a longer period.

New hardware can wait

Amiga Corporation has also talked about making its own hardware. That doesn’t seem to be the immediate priority. Software comes first. The company wants to improve AmigaOS and make it more useful to existing hardware partners before putting major resources into a machine of its own.

That makes sense from a development point of view. A stronger operating system can support several machines, while new hardware would immediately bring another long list of engineering, manufacturing and support problems.

So don’t expect an Amiga Corporation machine to suddenly appear just because hardware has been discussed. At this stage, AmigaOS is clearly getting most of the attention.

Source-code access is being considered

There’s also a longer-term question around the AmigaOS source code. One possible path starts with free operating-system updates. Later, Amiga Corporation could move towards some form of dual licensing. A full open-source release has also been discussed as a possible future option, but it isn’t a confirmed plan.

And there’s an important distinction here. Releasing source code wouldn’t automatically give developers the right to use Amiga names or trademarks. Those are separate issues. The company has also raised the possibility of working with the AROS project on technical planning.

None of this means AmigaOS is suddenly changing direction overnight. What we can say is that several pieces are now moving at once. A new RTG system is running. AmigaOS 3 code is being gathered together. Networking is expected to remain part of the system. Versioning is under review, and future licensing options are on the table. The next step is turning those plans into a consistent AmigaOS release people can actually install and use.