- March
A600 launched . The CPU was still the Motorola 68000. So whats
the difference between A600 and A500? First of all it had a surface-mount
technology (lower cost for Commodore). RF and Composite output were also
added. It was also the first Amiga with an IDE controller (2 1/2")
and a PCMCIA slot. The major disadvantage was that it did not have a numeric
keypad. An A600HD was launched later that year.
- Rumours about a new Amiga, with an advanced chipset, able to support
up to 16.7 million colors, were true! Commodore announced the release of
the new AGA chipset (Advanced Graphics Architecture).
- September
At the World of Commodore Show (Pasadena California) in
September 11, 1992, Commodore introduced the first machine with the AGA
chipset. As Commodore announced it was "the company's most significant
new technology advancement in its Amiga line since the product's introduction
in 1985."
At the W.O.C. they also announced AmigaDOS TM Release 3 Operating System
and "AmigaVision TM" Professional Authoring System.
- December
The first machine with the new AGA technology was the A4000/040. (USA
$3699).
Amiga 4000
![[Amiga]](images/a4000.gif)
| Processor |
68040/25MHz |
| Custom Chips |
(6) Super Gary, Super Ramsey, Super Amber, Lisa, Alice, Paula |
| RAM |
6Mb Ram (2Mb Chip / 4Mb Fast] |
They replaced the SCSI controller with an IDE
one (they included a SeaGate ST3144A
3.5" 120mb HD - The HD was preformatted, with an 8
Megabytes Workbench partition and an 116 Meg Work partition). The floppy
drive was a dual speed high density one. They also used the SIMM
technology for the memory upgrades, but all fast ram simms must be on
the same type. (Commodore used a 4mb SIMM for the internal 4mb)
- At the Christmas of 1992, the low-end AMIGA 1200,
an A500 like Amiga with the AGA chipset, was released as a low-cost
machine, with full 32 bit technology and 2mb Chip RAM. The machine
nearly missed the vital Christmas season, and although it did just make
it, not enough parts had been ordered to build an adequate number. Christmas
1992 is a disaster. No one wants an ECS machine and few can get one
of the new "AA" systems. (now called "AGA")".
David Haynie, an ex-engineer at the Pensylvania production plant, states
all this at his movie, named "The Deathbed Vigil".
- The AMIGA 1200, was one of the most successful AMIGA computers. (USA:
$599). It also had the IDE controller and the PCMCIA slot of the A600,
plus a 32-bit trapdoor expansion. It included Amiga Dos v3.0.
Amiga 1200
![[Amiga]](images/a1200.gif)
| Processor |
680EC020 / 14MHz |
| RAM |
2 Mb Chip Ram, expandable to 10 Mb of total Ram |
- Both Amiga 4000 and Amiga 1200 used the AGA chipset, able to display
256 colors on hi-res displays, from a palette of 16,7 million
colors. There is also a HAM-8 mode able to display 256.000+
colors (very close to 24bit display!). Compared to the old ECS chips the
new AGA chips are very fast, even on 256 colors!
- Both Amiga 4000 and Amiga 1200, make use of AmigaDos v3.0! AmigaDos
3.0 adds CrossDos as standard (a useful commodity that helps you
read and write on PC disks). It supports all the new AGA graphic modes.
WB 3.0 also supports "datatypes" a new facility that allows
programs to access data in an unlimited number of formats, as long as you
install a datatype that understands the format. Another useful adition
is the Localization, so WB3.0 and programs using it can easily be
on multiple languages. A lot of usefull programms such as Multiview
(a viewer for every datatype) and Installer (a easy to use install
utility), are also supplied. A new filesystem is also included, the DCFS.
(Directory Caching File System). You could also now use what every picture
you like for a window or workbench background.
- A4000 with the Motorola 68040 wasn't
so cheap that everyone could afford it. So a little bit later, Commodore
launched the cheap-version of the A4000/040, the A4000/030, with
a Motorola 68EC030.
- Commodore was a very profitable company, especially in Europe and it
had a major power in computing, especially in Germany. But what happened
these years on the story background? Commodore wasn't producing any hardware
(except the basics) and they also cut the production of the A500 plus and
later the A600. Why? Well, no one really knows...
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