Slough-based Alpha Microsystems UK popped a few balloons yesterday to celebrate its – belated – tenth anniversary, and also used the occasion to unveil Release 2.0 of its proprietary Amos operating system. The company decided to overhaul the original version in response to developments currently taking place on the processor technology front, citing optical devices, high speed communications, very, very large disk drives – and the relatively humble fax – as chief catalysts. Essentially, the revamped Amos 2 kernel now offers an extended file system, freeing users from the 32Mb restrictions of the original version and providing them with the ability to handle data files of 2Gb and over. The other main bonus is file security: protection on files running under the Amos 2.0 system has been extended to offer five different security levels and protection modes, which can be varied in the standard fashion according to the status of individual users. Amos 2.0 also offers an expanded file directory which features date and time stamping, updates and backups and record size information, and new a backuprestore facility which combines all the utilities currently available onto a single back-up program. The company was keen to emphasise that Amos 2.0 is fully compatible with the original version which it will continue to support – and that upgrading will be a thoroughly painless exercise: users simply back up and reformat the disks, load in the operating system and replace the disks, without having to recompile their programs. Alpha Micro’s European chief, Mike Osler was quick to dismiss suggestions that, in an era of emerging standards, and – in particular – Unix, that proprietary operating systems were fast becoming a thing of the past, and was equally keen to deny suggestions that the firm was seeking partners: in its tenth year Alpha Micro was, he insisted, wonderful, terribly clever – and independent.
