MagiC

MagiC with its variants is a multitasking -enabled, TOS - compatible operating system for both Atari computer and some Atari clones as well, in the form of emulations for Apple Macintosh computers and Windows PCs.

Properties

The kernel of MagiC is largely written in assembler 68000 and provides, inter alia:

  • Extensive TOS compatibility
  • Limited MiNT / MultiTOS compatibility
  • Preemptive multitasking
  • Diverse ( rechargeable ) file systems
  • Much higher speed than TOS

Disadvantages

  • MagiC as a commercial product is not free.
  • Since MagiC is a reinvented the TOS system, it is not 100 % compatible to TOS. The hardware of an Atari ST / TT is not emulated, mainly games prevents to operate under MagiC.
  • Drivers and file systems of MiNT can not be used.
  • In contrast to the free Aranym emulator MagiCMac or MagiCPC not run on any operating system such as Linux.
  • In contrast to the open-source systems and MiNT XaAES MagiC is apparently no longer being developed. In addition, most of the by MagiC introduced new concepts (such as dialogs in windows and standardized print dialogs) have been replicated in XaAES.
  • For modern Macintosh computers with x86 processors, there are, in contrast to the free emulators, no native version of MagicMacX (see below). The emulation of 68k to PowerPC therefore runs within the Rosetta emulation of PowerPC to x86, ie with non- optimal speed.

History and versions

Atari

MagiC came under the name Mag! X about 1992 in version 1.0 even before Atari MiNT on the market. At that time there was a multitasking -capable TOS -compatible operating system that ran exclusively on the Atari ST.

About the intermediate version 1.1 only offered the 2.0 version proper, ie preemptive multitasking, while MiNT was more technical. Even the Atari TT was now supported.

Version 3.0 brought a reentrantes DOS with parallel DMA transfer, a 3D user interface on color monitors, the Iconify of windows and other MiNT functions and should actually the Atari Falcon support, but did not succeed; Instead, various other improvements have been made. Since all other Atari devices had already been technically overhauled and replaced by the Falcon, the Falcon owners MagiC could not even use. As of version 3.0, the program is now called instead MagiC Mag! X.

Version 4.0 offered at last the long -promised support for the Atari Falcon. Some Falcon owners complained but instabilities and crashes.

The, released in 1995, version 5.0 offered reloadable file systems with async file access via DMA, a VFAT file system that supports long file names, threads, signals, and was, with emulator base, both the Apple Macintosh and a year later on the Windows PC ported. As of this time, had by the demise of Atari, the native, ie the Atari version, no great significance.

Atari, Mac and Windows PC

The emulations hot MagiCPC or MagiCMac and consist of a "native" emulator part due to the 68k processor used but the CPU does not need to emulate the classic Mac, and an Atari part in 68k code. The beginning of 1995 released version MagiCMac 1 had the Atari programs run only in the current resolution of the Mac and supported in addition only the black and white resolution of ST ( "ST high"), the integration into the host operating system was still incomplete.

The emulation allows " clean " written TOS programs, or for Atari programs written to run on the host system. Programs which accessed directly on the hardware of the Atari ST / TT / Falcon, did not run on the emulator. To follow all the music programs such as Cubase, Notator SL and AudioTracker were not executable.

Furthermore prepared for the conversion of in Signum, scripts, Phoenix and QED ( text editor ) files emulators could of course be used to "native" to continue working with the data on the Macintosh or Windows PC.

In the summer of 1996 appeared MagiCMac 2 with unchanged Atari kernel ( version 5), but with much improved integration into the Mac OS. Also, now the colored original resolutions of the Atari ST were emulated.

Also in the summer of 1996 and also with the same Atari kernel appeared MagiCPC. Emulates the Atari was on Windows 95 and NT 4

And now even clones

Version 6.0 was released in 1998 and offered a new window manager in 3D design, arbitrary, and proportional system fonts and " shared libraries ". In addition, the boot process was visually upgraded. The version 6.1 with support for VFAT32 partitions, and deeper MiNT compatibility (1999) was also still on the Atari clones Hades ported ( with 68060 processor ) by Medusa Computer Systems. At this time the Atari market, however, was already very small, even for the clones.

The latest version for Atari, only with internal improvements and bug fixes to the previous version is " 6.2", and this kernel is still used in the emulations. This means that the kernel is no longer maintained since 2001.

Only Mac OS X

Since MagiCMac intervened deeply in the operating system of the Macintosh, the program was no longer running under Apple's new Unix operating system Mac OS X. Was published in 2001 by MagiC the variant MagicMacX for all Apple computers running Mac OS X. This newly written emulator was much slower than its predecessor MagiCMac, which led to fierce criticism.

2004 appeared the next update - version 1.2 - for MagicMacX.

Since September 2009, a free updater ( MagicMacX2Update ) is available for version 1.2. MagicMacX 2.0 requires at least Mac OS X 10.4 " Tiger " and is a universal binary, ie runs natively - without sacrificing speed - both PowerPC and Intel Macs. In addition, the dialog box has been revised and corrected minor errors.

MagiCDesk

All versions of MagiC were using a graphical file and program manager, the so-called Shell supplied. When Windows PC, this usually means Explorer for Mac traditionally Finder, and when he called Atari desktop. MagiCDesk or (formerly ) MagxDesk ​​offers the usual features such as parallel Copy / Move / Delete / Format etc, controlled long file names and aliases ( = symbolic links), management of color icons, but can in functions (but also the memory requirements ) with the alternative desktops jinnee and not compete Thing.

Atari TOS Motorola 68000 Rosetta (software) Atari TT030 Steinberg Cubase Data conversion Finder (software)
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