The Be FAQs

The Be FAQs
The BeOS

How much of the BeOS is portable and how much is tied to the PowerPC processor line?

The BeOS:
Technical Tidbits

FAQ Number:
FAQ-0157

Last Modified:
2/3/98

Keywords:
BeOS, Technical, Tidbits, design, port, processor, PowerPC, Intel, Alpha, MIPS, Hobbit

At Be, we believe there is no such thing as portable code, only code that has been ported. In other words, we believe in doing rather than theorizing.

With that in mind, more than 95 percent of the BeOS has been ported (rather than being re-written from scratch). The PowerPC chip is the second processor the BeOS has been implemented on, the first being AT&T's Hobbit (also called CRISP) processor, which was the basis for our original (and never released) hardware design. And we are in the midst of porting again, to the Intel platform.

Does the portability of the BeOS mean you will be porting it soon?

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The Be FAQs

How much of the BeOS is portable and how much is tied to the PowerPC processor line?