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Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 16/32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphics and audio compared to previous 8-bit systems.
- Emulation on The Amiga
MS-DOS compatibility was a major issue during the early...
- AmigaOS
It includes an abstraction of the Amiga's hardware, a disk...
- History of the Amiga
The Amiga is a family of home computers that were designed...
- Amiga 2000
The Amiga 2000 (A2000) is a personal computer released by...
- Amiga 500
The Amiga 500, also known as the A500, was the first popular...
- Amiga 1200
The Amiga 1200, or A1200 (code-named "Channel Z"), is a...
- Portal:Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by...
- Emulation on The Amiga
The Amiga is a family of home computers that were designed and sold by the Amiga Corporation (and later by Commodore Computing International) from 1985 to 1994. [1] [2]
The Amiga 2000 (A2000) is a personal computer released by Commodore in March 1987. [2][3][4] It was introduced as a "big box" expandable variant of the Amiga 1000 but quickly redesigned to share most of its electronic components with the contemporary Amiga 500 for cost reduction.
- 3.5" SCSI hard disk drive (A2000HD only)
- 256 or 512 KB Kickstart ROM
The Amiga 500, also known as the A500, was the first popular version of the Amiga home computer, "redefining the home computer market and making so-called luxury features such as multitasking and colour a standard long before Microsoft or Apple sold these to the masses."
- History
- Design Improvements
- Popularity and Criticism
- Technical Information
- Bundled Software
- See Also
The A1200 was launched a few months after the Amiga 600, using a similar slimline design that replaced the earlier Amiga 500 Plus and Amiga 500. Whereas the A600 used the 16-bit Motorola 68000 of earlier Amigas, the A1200 was built around the 32-bit Motorola 68EC020. Physically, the A1200 is an all-in-one design incorporating the CPU, keyboard, and...
The A1200 offers a number of advantages over earlier lower-budget Amiga models. It is a 32-bit design; the 68EC020 microprocessor is faster than the 68000 and has 2 MB of RAM as standard. The AGA chipset used in the A1200 is a significant improvement. AGA increases the color palette from 4096 colors to 16.8 million colors with up to 256 on-screen c...
Although it is a significant upgrade, the A1200 did not sell as well as the 500 and proved to be Commodore's last lower-budget model before filing for bankruptcy in 1994. This is mainly because the 1200 failed to repeat the technological advantage over competitors like the first Amiga systems. The AGA chipset was something of a disappointment. Comm...
Processor and RAM
The A1200 has a Motorola 68EC020 CPU. It is noteworthy that, like the 68000, the 68EC020 has a 24-bit address space, allowing for a theoretical maximum of 16 MB of memory. A stock A1200 has 2 MB of in-built "chip RAM". (Chip RAM cannot be expanded beyond 2 MB). Up to 8 MB of "fast RAM" can be added in the "trap-door" expansion slot, which approximately doubles (~2.26×) the speed of a stock machine. Various CPU upgrades featuring 68020, 68030, 68040, 68060 and even PowerPCprocessors were made...
Graphics and sound
The A1200 shipped with Commodore's third-generation Amiga chipset, the Advanced Graphics Architecture(AGA), which features improved graphical abilities in comparison to the earlier generations. However, the sound hardware remains identical to the design used in the Amiga 1000, though the AGA chipset allows higher sampling rates for sound playback, either by using a video mode with higher horizontal scan rateor by using the CPU to drive audio output directly.
Peripherals and expansion
Like earlier models, the A1200 features several Amiga-specific connectors including two DE9M ports for joysticks, mice, and light pens, a standard 25-pin RS-232 serial port and a 25-pin Centronics parallel port. As a result, the A1200 is compatible with many existing Amiga peripherals, such as external floppy disk drives, MIDI devices, sound samplers and video capture devices. Like the Amiga 600, the A1200 features a PCMCIA Type II slot and an internal 44-pin ATA interface, both most commonly...
Some software officially bundled with the A1200 included Deluxe Paint IV AGA (a 2D image and animation editor) and Final Copy (a word processor). The Amiga Technologies/Escom version was bundled with applications such as Scala (multimedia authoring software) and Wordworth (a word processor), and games like Pinball Mania and Whizz. In the UK the Ami...
Oct 23, 2017 · Learn about the development and commercial history of the Amiga, a home computer product line from the 1980s to today. The web page covers the origins of the Amiga chipset, the acquisition by Commodore, the early years of competition and challenges, and the later developments and spin-offs.
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Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 16/32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphics and audio compared to previous 8-bit systems.
