The A500, also known as the Amiga 500, was the first "low-end" Commodore Amiga 16-bit multimedia home/personal computer model. It was released in 1987, at the same time as the high-end A2000, and competed directly against the Atari 520ST. Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore International, a West Chester, Pennsylvania based electronics company who was a vital player in the home/personal computer field in the 1980s. ... The original Amiga (1985) The Amiga is a family of home/personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation as an advanced game console. ... In computer science, 16-bit is an adjective used to describe integers that are at most two bytes wide, or to describe CPU architectures based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. ... Multimedia is the use of several different media to convey information (text, audio, graphics, animation, video, and interactivity). ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The A2000, also known as the Commodore Amiga 2000, was the high-end Amiga personal computer that was released in 1987 at the same time as the low-end high-volume model A500. ... The Atari 520ST Atari 1040STF with SC1224 color monitor The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially popular from 1985 to the early 1990s. ...

An Amiga 500 computer system, with 1084S RGB monitor and A1010 floppy disk drive.

Technical specifications: Commodore Amiga 500 system File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Commodore Amiga 500 system File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

• Motorola 68000 (32-bit CISC microprocessor with 16 registers lacking MMU for memory protection and virtual memory) running at 7.16 MHz (NTSC version), 7.09 MHz (PAL version)
• Default operating system AmigaOS 1.2 or 1.3 (having 32-bit pre-emptive multitasking microkernel) depending on the revision
• 512 KB of Chip RAM by default (sound buffers, graphics buffers and software existed in the same memory space)
  • upper limit of 16 MB of memory due to MC68000 limitations (24-bit external address bus)
• OCS/ECS chipset
• 50 Hz PAL and 60 Hz NTSC TV output by default versions available; 50/60Hz mode switchable by software in later revisions
• software-switchable low-pass audio filter (power LED shows filter status, darker when off)
• IRQ sharing (like the PCI bus)
• IRQ system had 7 priority levels of interrupts
  • No limit on number of interrupts available
  • Resources handled by Autoconfig, very similar to ACPI, resources were not numbered or labelled, just given as amounts and addresses
• No specific I/O ports, instead using memory mapped I/O space separately for each hardware device (thanks to Jay Miner)

Amiga 500 was used a lot for gaming, and there were a variety of Atari-style game controllers that could be used. One of the most popular ones was TAC-2, The Totally Accurate Controller mk2 by Suncom. The Motorola 68000 is a 32 bit CISC microprocessor, the first member of a successful family of microprocessors from Motorola, which were all mostly software compatible. ... A Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) is an instruction set architecture (ISA) in which each instruction can indicate several low-level operations, such as a load from memory, an arithmetic operation, and a memory store, all in a single instruction. ... MMU, short for Memory Management Unit, is a class of computer hardware components responsible for handling memory accesses requested by the CPU. Among the functions of such devices are the translation of virtual addresses to physical addresses (i. ... AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga and AmigaOne personal computers. ... Pre-emptive multitasking is a form of multitasking. ... Graphical overview of a microkernel A microkernel is a minimal form of computer operating system kernel providing a set of primitives, or system calls, to implement basic operating system services such as address space management, thread management, and inter-process communication. ... A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix kilo-, meaning 1000) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to either 1024 or 1000 bytes. ... Chip RAM is the name given to RAM with dual port access in the Amiga computer that could be accessed by the custom chipset as well as the CPU. The custom chipset was able to perform DMA transfers to and from this RAM, and would even lock-out the CPU... A megabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to approximately one million bytes. ... An address bus is (part of) a computer bus, used by CPUs or DMA-capable units for communicating the physical addresses of computer memory elements/locations that the requesting unit wants to access (read/write). ... The Commodore Amiga Original Chip Set (OCS) is a chipset used in the earliest Amiga computers, from the 1985 Amiga 1000 onwards. ... ECS is an acronym for Enhanced Chip Set. ... The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the SI unit of frequency. ... For other meanings of PAL see PAL (disambiguation). ... NTSC is the analog television system in use in Korea, Japan, United States, Canada and certain other places, mostly in the Americas (see map). ... Braun HF 1, Germany, 1958. ... External links LEd Category: TeX ... In computer science, an interrupt is a signal from a device which typically results in a (register) context switch: that is, the processor sets aside what its doing and does something else. ... In computer science, an interrupt is an asynchronous signal from hardware or software indicating the need for attention. ... The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification is an open industry standard first released in December 1996 developed by HP, Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix and Toshiba that defines common interfaces for hardware recognition, motherboard and device configuration and power management. ... Input/output, or I/O, is the collection of interfaces that different functional units (sub-systems) of an information processing system use to communicate with each other, or to the signals (information) sent through those interfaces. ... Jay Glenn Miner (May 31, 1932 - June 20, 1994) was a famous microprocessor designer, known primarily for his work in multimedia chips. ... For the concept Atari (当たり) in the board game of Go, see Atari (go term). ... Totally Accurate Controller MK2, manufactured by Suncom Technologies. ...

List of Commodore microcomputers

MOS Technology 6502-based (8-bit):   MOS/CBM KIM-1 | PET/CBM | CBM-II (aka B/P series) | VIC-20/VC-20 | C64 | SX-64 | C16 & 116 | Plus/4 | C128 Image File history File links CBM_Logo. ... Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore International, a West Chester, Pennsylvania based electronics company who was a vital player in the home/personal computer field in the 1980s. ... The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology in 1975. ... 8-bit refers to the number of bits used in the data bus of a computer. ... The KIM-1, short for Keyboard Input Monitor, was a small 6502-based microcomputer kit developed and produced by MOS Technology, Inc. ... The PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was a home-/personal computer produced by Commodore starting in the late 1970s. ... The Commodore CBM-II series was a short-lived series of personal computers from Commodore International, intended as a follow-on to the Commodore PET series, released in 1982. ... VIC-20 with accessories. ... For the hip hop group, see Commodore 64 (band). ... The Commodore SX-64, also known as the Executive 64, was a portable, briefcase/suitcase-size luggable version of the popular Commodore 64 home computer and holds the distinction of being the first full-color portable computer. ... The Commodore 16 was a home computer made by Commodore with a 6502-compatible 7501 CPU, released in 1984. ... Commodore Plus/4. ... The Commodore 128 is a home/personal computer, also known as the C128. ... M68K-based (16/32-bit):   Amiga 1000 | Amiga 500 | Amiga 2000 | Amiga 500+ | Amiga 2500 | Amiga 3000, UX, T | Amiga 600 | Amiga 1200 | Amiga 4000 The Motorola 68000 is a 32 bit CISC microprocessor, the first member of a successful family of microprocessors from Motorola, which were all mostly software compatible. ... In computer science, 16-bit is an adjective used to describe integers that are at most two bytes wide, or to describe CPU architectures based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. ... 32-bit is a term applied to processors, and computer architectures which manipulate the address and data in 32-bit chunks. ... Amiga 1000 (1985) The A1000, or Commodore Amiga 1000, was Commodores initial Amiga multimedia home/personal computer, released in the summer of 1985 at an original retail price of US$1,295 without a monitor. ... Missing image A500 The A500, also known as the Amiga 500, was the first low-end Commodore Amiga 16_bit multimedia home/personal computer model. ... The A2000, also known as the Commodore Amiga 2000, is the high-end Amiga personal computer that was released in 1987 at the same time as the low-end high-volume model A500. ... The Commodore Amiga 500 Plus, (A500+) is a enhanced version of the original Amiga 500. ... The Amiga 2500, also known as the A2500, was an enhanced version of the Commodore Amiga 2000. ... The A3000, also known as the Commodore Amiga 3000, was a much more serious proposition to build a professional multimedia computer than the previous A2000 effort. ... The A3000UX is a model of the Amiga computer family that was released with Commodore Amiga Unix installed instead of AmigaOS, a full port of AT&T Unix System V Release 4. ... The Amiga 3000T is the tower version of the Commodore Amiga 3000. ... The A600, also known as the Amiga 600 (codenamed June Bug after a B-52s song), was an Amiga personal computer launched in March 1992. ... The Amiga 1200, or A1200, was Commodore Internationals third-generation Amiga computer, aimed at the home market. ... Amiga 4000T The A4000, or Commodore Amiga 4000, was the successor of the A2000 and A3000 computers. ...

The A500 designation was also used on an internal Acorn Archimedes development machine [1]. The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltds first general purpose home computer based on their own 24-bit ARM RISC CPU, and spawned a family of very capable machines with various options. ...

The A500 often featured the words "The B-52s Rock Lobster" written on the motherboard, in reference to the popular song of that time period. The B-52s are a rock band from Athens, Georgia, the first of many from the college town that has become one of the most important centers in alternative rock. ...