Amiga 1000
Encyclopedia
The A1000, or Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...

 Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

 1000, was Commodore's initial Amiga personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

, introduced on July 23, 1985 at the Lincoln Center in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.
Machines began shipping in September with a base configuration of 256 kB of RAM at the retail price of 1,295 USD. A 13 inches (330.2 mm) analog RGB monitor was available for around 300 USD bringing the price of a complete Amiga system to 1,595 USD. Before the release of the Amiga 500
Amiga 500
The Amiga 500 - also known as the A500 - was the first “low-end” Commodore Amiga 16/32-bit multimedia home/personal computer. It was announced at the winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1987 - at the same time as the high-end Amiga 2000 - and competed directly against the Atari 520ST...

 and A2000
Amiga 2000
The Amiga 2000, or A2000, is a personal computer released by Commodore in 1986. It is the successor to the Amiga 1000.-Features:Aimed at the high-end market, the original Europe-only model adds a Zorro II backplane, implemented in programmable logic, to the custom Amiga chipset used in the Amiga 1000...

 models in 1987, the A1000 was simply called Amiga.

In the US, the A1000 was marketed as The Amiga from Commodore, however the Commodore logo was omitted from the casing. Additionally the Amiga 1000 was exclusively sold in computer stores, rather than the various non computer-dedicated department and toy stores the VIC20 and Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

 were retailed in. These measures were an effort to avoid Commodore's "toy-store" computer image created during the Tramiel
Jack Tramiel
Jack Tramiel is an American businessman, best known for founding Commodore International - manufacturer of the Commodore PET, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Commodore Amiga, and other Commodore models of home computers.-Biography:...

 era.

Design

The A1000 had a number of characteristics that distinguished it from later Amiga models: It was the only model to feature the short-lived Amiga "checkmark" logo on its case; the case was elevated slightly to give a storage area for the keyboard when not in use (a "keyboard garage"); and the inside of the case was engraved with the signatures of the Amiga designers, (similar to the Macintosh
Macintosh 128K
The Macintosh 128K machine, released as the "Apple Macintosh", was the original Apple Macintosh personal computer. Its beige case contained a monitor and came with a keyboard and mouse. An indentation in the top of the case made it easier for the computer to be lifted and carried. It had a selling...

) including Jay Miner
Jay Miner
Jay Glenn Miner , was a famous integrated circuit designer, known primarily for his work in multimedia chips and as the "father of the Amiga"...

, and the paw print of his dog Mitchy. The A1000's case was designed by Howard Stolz As Senior Industrial Designer at Commodore, Stolz was the mechanical lead and primary interface with Sanyo
Sanyo
is a major electronics company and member of the Fortune 500 whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo targets the middle of the market and has over 230 Subsidiaries and Affiliates....

 in Japan, the contract manufacturer for the A1000 casing.

There are two distinct variants of the Amiga 1000 using different television standards, namely, NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...

 and PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...

. The NTSC variant was the initial model manufactured and sold in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. The later PAL model was manufactured in Germany and sold in countries using the PAL television standard. Notably, the first NTSC systems lack the EHB video mode which is present in all later Amiga models.

Because AmigaOS
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...

 was rather buggy at the time of the A1000's release, the OS was not placed in ROM. Instead, the A1000 included a daughterboard
Daughterboard
A daughterboard, daughtercard or piggyback board is a circuit board meant to be an extension or "daughter" of a motherboard , or occasionally of another card...

 with 256 KB
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...

 of RAM, dubbed the "Writable Control Store" (WCS), into which the core of the operating system was loaded from floppy disk (this portion of the operating system was known as the "Kickstart
Kickstart (Amiga)
Kickstart is a commonly used term for the bootstrap firmware of the Amiga computers developed by Commodore.Most Amiga models were shipped with the Kickstart firmware stored on ROM chips...

"). The WCS was write-protected after loading, and system resets did not require a reload of the WCS. In Europe the WCS was often referred to as WOM (Write Once Memory), a play on the more conventional ROM (Read Only Memory).

Many A1000 owners remained attached to their machines long after newer models rendered the units technically obsolete, and it attracted numerous aftermarket upgrades. Many CPU upgrades that plugged into the Motorola 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...

 socket functioned in the A1000. Additionally, a line of products called the Rejuvenator series allowed the use of newer chipsets in the A1000, and an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n-designed replacement A1000 motherboard called The Phoenix utilized the same chipset as the A3000 and added an A2000-compatible video slot and onboard SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...

 controller.

In 2006 PC World
PC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...

 rated the Amiga 1000 as the 7th greatest PC of all time http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126692-page,8-c,systems/article.html. In 2007 it was rated by the same magazine as the 37th best tech product of all time http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130207-page,9-c,technology/article.html. In 1994, as Commodore filed for bankruptcy, Byte magazine called the Amiga 1000 "the first multimedia computer
Multimedia computer
A multimedia computer is a computer that is optimized for high multimedia performance, enabling rich multimedia experience.Early home computers simply lacked the power and storage necessary for true multimedia...

... so far ahead of its time that almost nobody – including Commodore's marketing department – could fully articulate what it was all about."http://www.byte.com/art/9408/sec14/art1.htm

Technical information

The Amiga 1000 has a 68000 CPU running at 7.15909 MHz (on NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...

 systems) or 7.09379 MHz (PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...

 systems), precisely double the video color carrier frequency for NTSC or 1.6 times the color carrier frequency for PAL. The system clock timings are derived from the video frequency, which simplifies glue logic
Glue logic
In electronics, glue logic is the custom logic circuitry used to interface a number of off-the-shelf integrated circuits.This is often achieved using ordinary 7400- or 4000-series components. In more complex cases, programmable logic devices like a CPLD or FPGA might be used...

 and allows the Amiga 1000 to make do with a single crystal
Crystal oscillator
A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency...

. The chipset was designed to synchronize CPU memory access and chipset DMA
Direct memory access
Direct memory access is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory independently of the central processing unit ....

 so the hardware runs in real-time without wait-state delays.

Though most units were sold with an analog RGB monitor, the A1000 also had a built-in composite video
Composite video
Composite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF carrier. In contrast to component video it contains all required video information, including colors in a single line-level signal...

 output which allowed the computer to be connected directly to a TV or VCR.

The original 68000 CPU can be directly replaced with a 68010, which can execute instructions slightly faster than the 68000 but also introduces a small degree of software incompatibility. Third-party CPU upgrades, which mostly fit in the CPU socket, use faster 68020/68881 or 68030/68882 microprocessors and integrated memory. Such upgrades often have the option to revert to 68000 mode for full compatibility. Some boards have a socket to seat the original 68000, whereas the 68030 cards typically come with an on-board 68000.

The original Amiga 1000 is the only model to have 256 kB
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...

 of Amiga Chip RAM, which can be expanded to 512 kB with the addition of a daughterboard
Daughterboard
A daughterboard, daughtercard or piggyback board is a circuit board meant to be an extension or "daughter" of a motherboard , or occasionally of another card...

 under a cover in the centre front of the machine. RAM may also be upgraded via official and third-party upgrades, with a practical upper limit of about 9 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...

 of "fast" RAM due to the 68000's 24-bit address bus
Address bus
An address bus is a computer bus that is used to specify a physical address. When a processor or DMA-enabled device needs to read or write to a memory location, it specifies that memory location on the address bus...

. This memory is accessible only by the CPU permitting faster code execution as DMA cycles are not shared with the chipset.

The Amiga 1000 features an 86-pin expansion port (electrically identical to the later Amiga 500
Amiga 500
The Amiga 500 - also known as the A500 - was the first “low-end” Commodore Amiga 16/32-bit multimedia home/personal computer. It was announced at the winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1987 - at the same time as the high-end Amiga 2000 - and competed directly against the Atari 520ST...

 expansion port - though the A500's connector is inverted). This port was utilized by third-party expansions such as memory upgrades and SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...

 adaptors. These resources are handled by the Amiga AutoConfig
Autoconfig
Autoconfig is an auto-configuration protocol of Amiga computers which is intended to automatically assign resources to expansion devices without the need for jumper settings...

 standard. Other expansion options were available including a bus expander which provided two Zorro-II slots.

Specifications

Attribute Specification
Processor
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...

Motorola 68000
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor...

 at 7.16 MHz (NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...

) or 7.09 MHz (PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...

)
RAM 256 kB
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...

 of Amiga Chip RAM; upgradeable with an additional 256 kB by dedicated cartridge
ROM
Read-only memory
Read-only memory is a class of storage medium used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be modified, or can be modified only slowly or with difficulty, so it is mainly used to distribute firmware .In its strictest sense, ROM refers only...

8 kB bootstrap ROM

256 kB WCS reserved for OS (loaded from the Kickstart floppy disk at power-on)
Chipset Original Chip Set (OCS)
Video
12-bit color palette (4096 colors)

Graphic modes with up to 32, 64 (EHB mode) or 4096 (HAM
Hold-and-Modify
Hold-And-Modify, usually abbreviated as HAM, is a display mode of the Commodore Amiga computer. It uses a highly unusual technique to express the color of pixels, allowing many more colors to appear on screen than would otherwise be possible....

 mode) on-screen colors:
  • 320×200 to 320×400i (NTSC)
  • 320×256 to 320×512i (PAL)

Graphic modes with up with up to 16 on-screen colors:
  • 640×200 to 640×400i (NTSC)
  • 640×256 to 640×512i (PAL)
Audio 4 × 8-bit PCM channels (2 stereo
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...

 channels)

28 kHz maximum DMA
Direct memory access
Direct memory access is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory independently of the central processing unit ....

 sampling rate
Sampling rate
The sampling rate, sample rate, or sampling frequency defines the number of samples per unit of time taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. For time-domain signals, the unit for sampling rate is hertz , sometimes noted as Sa/s...



70 dB S/N ratio
Signal-to-noise ratio
Signal-to-noise ratio is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. It is defined as the ratio of signal power to the noise power. A ratio higher than 1:1 indicates more signal than noise...

Removable storage 3.5" DD
Double density
Double density, often shortened DD, is a capacity designation on magnetic storage, usually floppy disks. It describes the use of an encoding of information, which can encode on average twice as many bits per time unit compared to single density...

 floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...

 drive (880 kB capacity)
Audio/video out Analog RGB video out (DB-23M
D-subminiature
The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector. They are named for their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the smaller connectors used on computer systems....

)

Composite video out (RCA
RCA connector
An RCA connector, sometimes called a phono connector or cinch connector, is a type of electrical connector commonly used to carry audio and video signals...

)

Audio out (2 × RCA)
Input/output ports Keyboard port (RJ11)

2 × Mouse/Gamepad ports (DE9
D-subminiature
The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector. They are named for their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the smaller connectors used on computer systems....

)

RS-232
RS-232
In telecommunications, RS-232 is the traditional name for a series of standards for serial binary single-ended data and control signals connecting between a DTE and a DCE . It is commonly used in computer serial ports...

 serial port
Serial port
In computing, a serial port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time...

 (DB-25F)

Centronics style parallel port
Parallel port
A parallel port is a type of interface found on computers for connecting various peripherals. In computing, a parallel port is a parallel communication physical interface. It is also known as a printer port or Centronics port...

 (DB-25M)

Floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...

 drive port (DB-23F)
Expansion slots 86-pin expansion port
Operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

AmigaOS
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...

 1 (Kickstart 1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3 and Workbench 1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3)

Bundled Software

As well as the operating system, the machine came bundled with a version of AmigaBASIC
AmigaBASIC
AmigaBASIC was an interpreted BASIC programming language implementation for the Amiga, designed and written by Microsoft. AmigaBASIC shipped with AmigaOS versions 1.1 to 1.3...

 developed by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

and a speech synthesis library developed by Softvoice, Inc. http://www.text2speech.com/#aboutsv.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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