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Intent 2

by snout on 25-07-2003, 12:30
Topic: MSX Revival
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Source: Gigamix online

Tao Systems have released a new version of Intent, their platform independant Operating System. Intent can function as an extra layer on top of an ordinary OS like Windows, Windows Mobile, Linux, Symbian or Nucleus. Intent can also run natively, directly on hardware, without needing any OS. This way software developed for Intent runs on several different platforms without modifications. Furthermore Intent adds an open documented development platform for multimedia and internet, which makes it interesting for e.g. smartphones.

Intent 2 features a brandable control center programmable in a variety of languages like C, C++, JAVA, JavaScript or Binary portable assembler. It contains a browser optimized for small screen devices, a sound system containing a wavetable MIDI player and an audio part that can handle MP3, WAV, ADPCM, OGG etc. Graphical capabilities are boosted by an engine capable of 2D, 3D, vector and video streaming. An OpenGL ES 1.0 API is included, and so is an anti-aliased font engine.

Intent supports several processor architectures including ARM (7, 8, 9, XScale, TI OMAP, Motorola, ...), SH (2, 3, 4, DSP, Mobile), MIPS (R3/4/5000), PowerPC (Motorola and IBM), ST (20 and 40), Meta and x86.

MSXPLAYer, the official MSX Emulator runs on Intent OS and probably Intent will play a role on the one-chip MSX as well. A lot of information in this newspost was taken from the Intent 2 Whitepaper which can be found on the Tao website.

Relevant link: Tao Systems UK

Comments (3)

By Latok

msx guru (3929)

Latok's picture

25-07-2003, 16:03

I tell you. These kind of newsposts will later turn out to be an interesting document in the history of the new world standard Tongue Seriously, I do believe Intent will play a significant role in the future.

By jalu

Master (158)

jalu's picture

25-07-2003, 21:40

Well, if this is a development that can stop the Microsoft domination of today's Information Technology, I'd be very happy with it...

By mth

Champion (507)

mth's picture

26-07-2003, 01:44

Microsoft only dominates the desktop. They do not dominate the server nor the embedded market. Although they are certainly trying...

Anyway, Linux and Java are currently popular with consumer electronics companies that want to avoid Microsoft. Java phones are already very popular in Japan. Recently a group of large CE companies joined forces to make Linux work better in CE devices, see http://www.celinuxforum.org/

From what I heard about it, Intent is good technology. But it doesn't seem to have the same hype that Linux and Java enjoy. Intent does have a decent Java VM, so it can use existing content.