in the 1970s to develop custom integrated circuits, and led development of the Atari 2600's TIA.
TRIPOS was a multitasking system that had been written in BCPL during the 1970s for minicomputer systems like the PDP-11, but later experimentally ported to the 68000.
Nolan Bushnell had sold the company to Warner Communications in 1978, and the new management was much more interested in the existing lines than development of new products that might cut into their sales.
Almost as soon as its development was complete, the team began developing a much more sophisticated set of chips, CTIA, ANTIC and POKEY, that formed the basis of the Atari 8-bit family. With the 8-bit line's launch in 1979, the team once again started looking at a next generation chipset.
Miner left the company, and, for a time, the industry. In 1979, Larry Kaplan left Atari and founded Activision.
The best-selling model, the Amiga 500 was introduced in 1987 (along with the more expandable Amiga 2000) and sold four to six million units in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
MAME (the arcade machine emulator) is also available for Amiga systems with PPC accelerator card upgrades. == Amiga software == In the late 1980s and early 1990s the platform became particularly popular for gaming, demoscene activities and creative software uses.
In 1982, Kaplan was approached by a number of investors who wanted to develop a new game platform.
When Kaplan left the company late in 1982, Miner was promoted to head engineer and the company relaunched as Amiga Corporation. A breadboard prototype was largely completed by late 1983, and shown at the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
When Kaplan left the company late in 1982, Miner was promoted to head engineer and the company relaunched as Amiga Corporation. A breadboard prototype was largely completed by late 1983, and shown at the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
The terms required the loan to be repaid at the end of the month, otherwise Amiga would forfeit the Lorraine design to Atari. ===Commodore launch=== During 1983, Atari lost over $1 million a week, due to the combined effects of the crash and the ongoing price war in the home computer market.
When Kaplan left the company late in 1982, Miner was promoted to head engineer and the company relaunched as Amiga Corporation. A breadboard prototype was largely completed by late 1983, and shown at the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
In January 1984, Jack Tramiel resigned from Commodore due to internal battles over the future direction of the company.
The two companies were initially arranging a $4 million license agreement before Commodore offered $24 million to purchase Amiga outright. By late 1984 the prototype breadboard chipset had successfully been turned into integrated circuits, and the system hardware was being readied for production.
It became an unofficial and enduring theme after a visually impressive animated demonstration at the 1984 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1984 showing a checkered ball bouncing and rotating.
The Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985.
Based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, the Amiga differs from its contemporaries through the inclusion of custom hardware to accelerate graphics and sound, including sprites and a blitter, and a pre-emptive multitasking operating system called AmigaOS. The Amiga 1000 was released in July 1985, but production problems kept it from becoming widely available until early 1986.
The BCPL parts were later rewritten in the C language, and the entire system became AmigaOS. The system was enclosed in a pizza box form factor case; a late change was the introduction of vertical supports on either side of the case to provide a "garage" under the main section of the system where the keyboard could be stored. The first model was announced in 1985 as simply "The Amiga from Commodore", later to be retroactively dubbed the Amiga 1000.
Bad or entirely missing marketing, forcing the development team to move to the east coast, notorious stability problems and other blunders limited sales in early 1986 to between 10,000 and 15,000 units a month. ===Commercial success=== In late 1985 Thomas Rattigan was promoted to COO of Commodore, and then to CEO in February 1986.
The Original Chip Set (OCS) appeared with the launch of the A1000 in 1985.
It requires AmigaOS v2.04 or higher. Different network media were used: == Models and variants == The original Amiga models were produced from 1985 to 1996.
Several companies and private persons have also released Amiga clones and still do so today. === Commodore Amiga === The first Amiga model, the Amiga 1000, was launched in 1985.
It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000.
Website (Archive.org, October 2017) Amiga Software Database Amiga Hardware Database Big Book of Amiga Hardware RUN Magazine Issue 21, September 1985 article on the introduction of the Amiga Amiga.org: community forums and support English Amiga Board: Amiga community forums and support The Hall of Light: the database of Amiga games The Amiga Museum Computer-related introductions in 1985 American inventions 68000-based home computers Home computers Personal computers
Based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, the Amiga differs from its contemporaries through the inclusion of custom hardware to accelerate graphics and sound, including sprites and a blitter, and a pre-emptive multitasking operating system called AmigaOS. The Amiga 1000 was released in July 1985, but production problems kept it from becoming widely available until early 1986.
By the end of the year, they had sold 35,000 machines, and severe cashflow problems made the company pull out of the January 1986 CES.
Bad or entirely missing marketing, forcing the development team to move to the east coast, notorious stability problems and other blunders limited sales in early 1986 to between 10,000 and 15,000 units a month. ===Commercial success=== In late 1985 Thomas Rattigan was promoted to COO of Commodore, and then to CEO in February 1986.
The best-selling model, the Amiga 500 was introduced in 1987 (along with the more expandable Amiga 2000) and sold four to six million units in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Poor marketing and the failure of later models to repeat the technological advances of the first systems resulted in Commodore quickly losing market share to the fourth generation of video game consoles, Macintosh, and the rapidly dropping prices of IBM PC compatibles, which gained 256 color graphics in 1987.
These new designs were released in 1987 as the Amiga 2000 and Amiga 500, the latter of which went on to widespread success and became their best selling model. Similar high-end/low-end models would make up the Amiga line for the rest of its history; follow-on designs included the Amiga 3000/Amiga 500 Plus/Amiga 600, and the Amiga 4000/Amiga 1200.
In 2006, PC World rated the Amiga 1000 as the seventh greatest PC of all time, stating "Years ahead of its time, the Amiga was the world's first multimedia, multitasking personal computer". Commodore updated the desktop line of Amiga computers with the Amiga 2000 in 1987, the Amiga 3000 in 1990, and the Amiga 4000 in 1992, each offering improved capabilities and expansion options.
The NewTek Video Toaster was made possible by the genlock ability of the Amiga. In 1988, the release of the Amiga A2024 fixed-frequency monochrome monitor with built-in framebuffer and flicker fixer hardware provided the Amiga with a choice of high-resolution graphic modes (1024×800 for NTSC and 1024×1024 for PAL). ==== ReTargetable Graphics ==== ReTargetable Graphics is an API for device drivers mainly used by 3rd party graphics hardware to interface with AmigaOS via a set of libraries.
The best-selling model, the Amiga 500 was introduced in 1987 (along with the more expandable Amiga 2000) and sold four to six million units in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The Amiga 3000 was introduced in 1990, followed by the Amiga 500 Plus, and the Amiga 600 in March 1992.
OCS was eventually followed by the modestly improved Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) in 1990 and finally by the partly 32-bit Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) in 1992.
In 2006, PC World rated the Amiga 1000 as the seventh greatest PC of all time, stating "Years ahead of its time, the Amiga was the world's first multimedia, multitasking personal computer". Commodore updated the desktop line of Amiga computers with the Amiga 2000 in 1987, the Amiga 3000 in 1990, and the Amiga 4000 in 1992, each offering improved capabilities and expansion options.
It competed with the Turbo-Grafx CD and Sega CD system add ons when it was being sold. Commodore's last Amiga offering before filing for bankruptcy was an attempt to capture a portion of the highly competitive 1990s console market with the Amiga CD32 (1993), a 32-bit CD-ROM games console.
MAME (the arcade machine emulator) is also available for Amiga systems with PPC accelerator card upgrades. == Amiga software == In the late 1980s and early 1990s the platform became particularly popular for gaming, demoscene activities and creative software uses.
Popular creative software included 3D rendering (ray-tracing) packages, bitmap graphics editors, desktop video software, software development packages and "tracker" music editors. Until the late 1990s the Amiga remained a popular platform for non-commercial software, often developed by enthusiasts, and much of which was freely redistributable.
The Amiga 500+ (1991) was the shortest lived model, replacing the Amiga 500 and lasting only six months until it was phased out and replaced with the Amiga 600 (1992), which in turn was also quickly replaced by the Amiga 1200. The CDTV, launched in 1991, was a CD-ROM based all-in-one multimedia system.
The Amiga 3000 was introduced in 1990, followed by the Amiga 500 Plus, and the Amiga 600 in March 1992.
Finally, the Amiga 1200 and the Amiga 4000 were released in late 1992. In addition to being popular for gaming, the Amiga found a prominent role in desktop video, video production, and show control, leading to video editing systems such as the Video Toaster.
OCS was eventually followed by the modestly improved Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) in 1990 and finally by the partly 32-bit Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) in 1992.
In 2006, PC World rated the Amiga 1000 as the seventh greatest PC of all time, stating "Years ahead of its time, the Amiga was the world's first multimedia, multitasking personal computer". Commodore updated the desktop line of Amiga computers with the Amiga 2000 in 1987, the Amiga 3000 in 1990, and the Amiga 4000 in 1992, each offering improved capabilities and expansion options.
An on-line archive, Aminet, was created in 1992 and until around 1996 was the largest public archive of software, art and documents for any platform. == Marketing == The name Amiga was chosen by the developers from the Spanish word for a female friend, because they knew Spanish, and because it occurred before Apple and Atari alphabetically.
Commodore ultimately went bankrupt in April 1994 after a version of the Amiga packaged as a game console, the Amiga CD32, failed in the marketplace. Since the demise of Commodore, various groups have marketed successors to the original Amiga line, including Genesi, Eyetech, ACube Systems Srl and A-EON Technology.
This is widely regarded as the turning point, as further improvements to the Amiga were eroded by rapid improvements in other platforms. On April 29, 1994, Commodore filed for bankruptcy and its assets were purchased by Escom, a German PC manufacturer, who created the subsidiary company Amiga Technologies.
His December 13, 1994 "Adios Jay" Interactive Live Show was dedicated to (then recently deceased) Jay Miner.
The CD32 was a next generation CDTV, and it was designed to save Commodore by entering the growing video game console market. Following purchase of Commodore's assets by Escom in 1995, the A1200 and A4000T continued to be sold in small quantities until 1996, though the ground lost since the initial launch and the prohibitive expense of these units meant that the Amiga line never regained any real popularity. Several Amiga models contained references to songs by the rock band The B-52's.
It requires AmigaOS v2.04 or higher. Different network media were used: == Models and variants == The original Amiga models were produced from 1985 to 1996.
The CD32 was a next generation CDTV, and it was designed to save Commodore by entering the growing video game console market. Following purchase of Commodore's assets by Escom in 1995, the A1200 and A4000T continued to be sold in small quantities until 1996, though the ground lost since the initial launch and the prohibitive expense of these units meant that the Amiga line never regained any real popularity. Several Amiga models contained references to songs by the rock band The B-52's.
An on-line archive, Aminet, was created in 1992 and until around 1996 was the largest public archive of software, art and documents for any platform. == Marketing == The name Amiga was chosen by the developers from the Spanish word for a female friend, because they knew Spanish, and because it occurred before Apple and Atari alphabetically.
Following Escom's purchase of Commodore in 1996, the Boing Ball theme was incorporated into a new logo. Early Commodore advertisements attempted to cast the computer as an all-purpose business machine, though the Amiga was most commercially successful as a home computer.
Escom, in turn, went bankrupt in 1997. The Amiga brand was then sold to a U.S.
The technology was later used in the Casablanca system, a set-top-box also designed for non-linear video editing. In 1998, Index Information released the Access, an Amiga-clone similar to the Amiga 1200, but on a motherboard that could fit into a standard 5¼" drive bay.
It features either a 68020 or 68030 CPU, with a redesigned AGA chipset, and runs AmigaOS 3.1. In 1998, former Amiga employees (John Smith, Peter Kittel, Dave Haynie and Andy Finkel to mention few) formed a new company called PIOS.
The company was renamed to Met@box in 1999 until it folded. The NatAmi (short for Native Amiga) hardware project began in 2005 with the aim of designing and building an Amiga clone motherboard that is enhanced with modern features.
Amiga Active, was launched in 1999 and was published until 2001. Several magazines are in publication today: Amiga Future, which is available in both English and German; Bitplane.it, a bimonthly magazine in Italian; and AmigaPower, a long-running French magazine.
The best-selling model, the Amiga 500 was introduced in 1987 (along with the more expandable Amiga 2000) and sold four to six million units in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
These new designs were released in 1987 as the Amiga 2000 and Amiga 500, the latter of which went on to widespread success and became their best selling model. Similar high-end/low-end models would make up the Amiga line for the rest of its history; follow-on designs included the Amiga 3000/Amiga 500 Plus/Amiga 600, and the Amiga 4000/Amiga 1200.
Wintel PC manufacturer, Gateway 2000, which had announced grand plans for it.
In 2000, however, Gateway sold the Amiga brand without having released any products.
On Amiga 1000 (and first Amiga 500 and Amiga 2000 model), the power LED had no relation to the filter's status, and a wire needed to be manually soldered between pins on the sound chip to disable the filter.
They are, in order of production: 1000, 2000, 500, 1500, 2500, 3000, 3000UX, 3000T, CDTV, 500+, 600, 4000, 1200, CD32, and 4000T.
In 2006, PC World rated the Amiga 1000 as the seventh greatest PC of all time, stating "Years ahead of its time, the Amiga was the world's first multimedia, multitasking personal computer". Commodore updated the desktop line of Amiga computers with the Amiga 2000 in 1987, the Amiga 3000 in 1990, and the Amiga 4000 in 1992, each offering improved capabilities and expansion options.
In particular, AROS for Amiga 68k hardware aims to create an open source Kickstart ROM replacement for emulation purpose and/or for use on real "classic" hardware. === Magazines === Amiga Format, continued until 2000, some six years after Commodore filed for bankruptcy.
Amiga Active, was launched in 1999 and was published until 2001. Several magazines are in publication today: Amiga Future, which is available in both English and German; Bitplane.it, a bimonthly magazine in Italian; and AmigaPower, a long-running French magazine.
The PowerPC based AmigaOne computers were later marketed since 2002.
The company was renamed to Met@box in 1999 until it folded. The NatAmi (short for Native Amiga) hardware project began in 2005 with the aim of designing and building an Amiga clone motherboard that is enhanced with modern features.
In 2006, PC World rated the Amiga 1000 as the seventh greatest PC of all time, stating "Years ahead of its time, the Amiga was the world's first multimedia, multitasking personal computer". Commodore updated the desktop line of Amiga computers with the Amiga 2000 in 1987, the Amiga 3000 in 1990, and the Amiga 4000 in 1992, each offering improved capabilities and expansion options.
Currently runs on both Amigas equipped with CyberstormPPC or BlizzardPPC accelerator boards, on the Teron series based AmigaOne computers built by Eyetech under license by Amiga, Inc., on the Pegasos II from Genesi/bPlan GmbH, on the ACube Systems Srl Sam440ep / Sam460ex / AmigaOne 500 systems and on the A-EON AmigaOne X1000. AmigaOS 4.0 had been available only in developer pre-releases for numerous years until it was officially released in December 2006.
Later, the developers decided to create from scratch a new software-form processor chip, codenamed "N68050" that resides in the physical Altera FPGA programmable chip. In 2006, two new Amiga clones were announced, both using FPGA based hardware synthesis to replace the Amiga OCS custom chipset.
The video was discovered on two old Amiga floppies in a drawer in Warhol's studio and repaired in 2006 by the Detroit Museum of New Art.
and Hyperion Entertainment (the Belgian company that is developing the OS), the commercial AmigaOS 4 had been available only to licensed buyers of AmigaOne motherboards. AmigaOS 4.0 for Amigas equipped with PowerUP accelerator boards was released in November 2007.
The design for Minimig was released as open-source on July 25, 2007.
As of mid 2007 it has been shown in its development form, with FPGA-based boards replacing the Amiga chipset and mounted on an Amiga 500 motherboard. === Emulation === Like many popular but discontinued platforms, the Amiga has been emulated so that software developed for the Amiga can be run on other computer platforms without the original hardware.
Version 4.1 was released in August 2008 for AmigaOne systems, and in May 2011 for Amigas equipped with PowerUP accelerator boards.
In February 2008, an Italian company Acube Systems began selling Minimig boards.
In 2009 a version for Pegasos II was released in co-operation with Acube Systems.
Version 4.1 was released in August 2008 for AmigaOne systems, and in May 2011 for Amigas equipped with PowerUP accelerator boards.
In 2012, A-EON Technology Ltd manufactured and released the AmigaOne X1000 to consumers through their partner, Amiga Kit who provided end-user support, assembly and worldwide distribution of the new system. === Amiga hardware clones === Long-time Amiga developer MacroSystem entered the Amiga-clone market with their DraCo non-linear video editing system.
Website (Archive.org, October 2017) Amiga Software Database Amiga Hardware Database Big Book of Amiga Hardware RUN Magazine Issue 21, September 1985 article on the introduction of the Amiga Amiga.org: community forums and support English Amiga Board: Amiga community forums and support The Hall of Light: the database of Amiga games The Amiga Museum Computer-related introductions in 1985 American inventions 68000-based home computers Home computers Personal computers
Print magazine Amiga Addict started publication in 2020. == Notable uses == The Amiga series of computers found a place in early computer graphic design and television presentation.
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