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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2014}}
[[File:CyberStormPPC604e 128MB 68060.jpg|thumb|CyberStorm PPC604e board]]
'''Phase5 Digital Products''' is a defunct German [[computer]] hardware manufacturer that developed third-party hardware primarily for the [[Amiga]] platform. Their most popular products included [[CPU]] upgrade boards, [[SCSI]] controllers and [[graphics card]]s.

== Notable products ==
Like other third-party Amiga developers, Phase5 developed a range of CPU boards utilizing [[Motorola 68000 family]] processors, which powered Amiga systems at the time. Such boards also typically featured onboard RAM controllers with access to faster and greater capacity memory.

Notably, Phase5 were unique amongst Amiga developers in offering the [[PowerUP (accelerator)#Blizzard PPC|Blizzard PPC]] and [[PowerUP (accelerator)#CyberStorm PPC|CyberStorm PPC]] products. These boards had a unique dual-CPU design utilizing both a Motorola 68k processor and a higher performance [[PowerPC]] processor. They operated in a novel fashion where both CPUs could execute [[parallel computing|concurrently]] while sharing the system address space. This architecture was enforced by the fact that [[AmigaOS]] was still 68k-based at the time and the required emulation software had not yet been developed to run natively on the PowerPC architecture. This design suffered from the need to flush [[CPU cache]]s following [[context switch]]es between 68k and PowerPC code. From a software development standpoint, this made mixing code ad hoc and often impractical. Minimizing such context switches required a large amount of effort and planning, making adoption of mixed binaries somewhat unpopular.

Phase5 developed a PowerPC kernel called [[PowerUP (accelerator)#PowerUP software|PowerUP]] which ran alongside the 68k-based [[AmigaOS]]. Effectively, a programmer could then utilize the PowerPC CPU as a [[coprocessor]]. German company [[Haage & Partner]] developed a competing multi-tasking kernel called [[WarpOS]] for the Phase5 PowerPC boards which operated in a similar manner, but was not code-compatible with PowerUP.

The most common current reference to Phase5 is in the [[Linux]] port to [[APUS Computer|APUS computer]] systems. Phase5 PowerPC boards are also able to run [[AmigaOS 4]] and [[MorphOS]].

== Corporate history ==
Phase5 was founded in 1992 as subsidiary company of [[AS&S]] (Advanced Systems & Software) by Wolf Dietrich and Gerald Carda, which were the owners of AS&S. Phase5 focused on the development of general Amiga hardware, but mainly CPU boards, [[SCSI]] controllers and [[graphics card]]s.

The company Phase5 Elektronikfertigungs GmbH (hardware manufacturing) was founded in 1996 as a subsidiary, which produced all of the Phase5 expansions from that time on.

Following the initial PowerPC boards plans were announced on 22 July 1999 for new PowerPC boards based on the [[PowerPC G3|G3]]. These were to be developed with [[QNX]] Software Systems with the intention of building an alternative to the official Amiga solution of the time, to be known as AMIRAGE K2.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/amirage.html | title=Amiga History Guide }}</ref> These products were never released.

On 9 February 2000 the company filed for [[insolvency]] and on 27 April 2000 the company was liquidated. [[DCE (company)|DCE]] bought licenses before liquidation and produced some of the Phase5 hardware products under its own name. The [[A\Box]], a concept for a complete computer scheduled for 1997 and based on [[custom chip]] technology, was planned but never released.

Much of Phase5's skill and experience was retained in a new company, [[bPlan]] GmbH, which in partnership with [[Genesi]] produced the [[Genesi Pegasos|Pegasos]], a final realisation of several attempts to build an alternative Amiga system.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Amiga}}
* [http://phase5.a1k.org Phase5 Unofficial Support Homepage]
* [http://powerup.amigaworld.de PowerUp Support Homepage]
* [http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/search.pl?company=phase5 Amiga Hardware Database] - Descriptions, photos, drivers and benchmarks of Phase5 products.
* [http://amiga.resource.cx/company/company.pl#phase5 Phase 5 corporate history]
* [http://www.dce.de DCE]

{{Amiga companies}}
{{Amiga hardware}}

[[Category:Amiga companies]]