NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Amiga 600

The Amiga 600, also known as the A600 (codenamed "June Bug" after a B-52's song), was a home computer introduced at the CeBIT show in March 1992. The A600 was the final model of the original A500-esque line based around the Motorola 68000 processor, it was essentially a redesign of the A500 Plus. It was intended by manufacturer Commodore International to revitalise sales of the A500 line before the introduction of the 32-bit Amiga 1200. Image File history File links Amiga_A600. ... TRS-80 Color Computer II The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ... The B-52s are a New Wave rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, an important center of alternative rock. ... TRS-80 Color Computer II The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ... A crowded exhibition hall during CeBIT 2000. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... 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 Motorola 68000 is a 32-bit CISC microprocessor from Motorola. ... The Commodore Amiga 500 Plus, (A500+) is a enhanced version of the original Amiga 500. ... Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore International, was an American electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which was a vital player in the home/personal computer field in the 1980s. ... An Amiga 1200 with a standard mouse and two external floppy disk drives. ...

A notable aspect of the A600 was its small size. Lacking a numeric keypad, the A600 was 14" long by 9.5" deep by 3" high and weighed approximately 6 pounds. This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

It came with AmigaOS 2.0 and was generally considered more user-friendly than its older brethren. It was aimed at the lower "consumer" end of the market, with the higher end being dominated by the A3000. AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. ...

According to Dave Haynie, the A600 "was supposed to be $50–$60 cheaper than the A500, but it came in at about that much more expensive than the A500."^[1] This is supported by the fact that the A600 was originally to have been numbered the A300, positioned as a budget version of the A500+. In the event, the cost led the machine to be marketed as a replacement for the A500+, requiring a change of number. Early models feature motherboards with the A300 designation. Dave Haynie Dave Haynie is the former Commodore International chief engineer on high end and advanced projects. ...

The Managing Director of Commodore UK, David Pleasance, described the A600 as a "complete and utter screw-up". It was unexpandable, did not improve on the A500's CPU, was more expensive than the A500, and lacked a numeric keypad, meaning that games such as F19 Stealth Fighter, Railroad Tycoon and productivity software could not be used without a numpad emulator. David Pleasance was the Managing Director of Commodore UK, the UK subsidiary of Commodore International, at the time of its bankruptcy. ... Screenshot from Railroad Tycoon Railroad Tycoon is an economic simulation and computer strategy game. ...

The A600 was the first Amiga ever manufactured in the UK. The factory was in Irvine, Scotland. The first ever production A600 — serial number "1" — sat in the Commodore UK Managing Director's office. Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification - by Kenneth I...

It had a failure rate under warranty of 0.78%, much better than the A500's rate of 8.25%.^{[citation needed]}

Processor and RAM

The A600 used the Motorola 68000 processor, running at 7.09 MHz (PAL) or 7.14 MHz (NTSC). The Motorola 68000 is a 32-bit CISC microprocessor from Motorola. ... For other uses, see PAL (disambiguation). ... NTSC is the analog television system in use in Canada, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, the United States, and some other countries, mostly in the Americas (see map). ...

Standard RAM was 1 MiB, though many people upgraded to the maximum of 2 MiB "chip" RAM. An additional 4 MiB of "fast" RAM could be added if the PCMCIA slot was employed. Even more "fast" RAM could be added with a processor upgrade. Random access memory (usually known by its acronym, RAM) is a type of data store used in computers that allows the stored data to be accessed in any order â€” that is, at random, not just in sequence. ... A mebibyte (a contraction of mega binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated MiB. 1 MiB = 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes = 1,024 kibibytes The mebibyte is closely related to the megabyte (MB), which can either be a synonym for mebibyte, or refer to 106... Portable Computer Cards (PC cards) are interchangeable peripherals designed to be inserted into laptop computers in order to enable extra hardware functions. ...

The original design did not intend processor upgrades expansion as the 68000 was soldered to its motherboard. Despite this, unofficial processor upgrades included the Motorola 68010, 68020 (at up to 25 MHz), and 68030 (at up to 50 MHz) processors. Additionally, up to 32 MiB of "fast" RAM could be added with some processor upgrades. The Motorola MC68010 processor is a 16/32-bit microprocessor from Motorola, released in 1982 [1]. It is largely similar to the Motorola 68000 CPU with the exception of the addition of several instructions for breakpoint and register control (ccr instead of sr), as well as the ability to save... Motorola 68020 The Motorola 68020 is a microprocessor from Motorola. ... Motorola 68030 Processor from a Macintosh IIsi The Motorola 68030 is a 32-bit microprocessor in Motorolas 68000 family. ...

Graphics and sound

The Fat Agnus display chip drove screen modes varying from 320×200 pixels to 1280×512 pixels. Generally only 32 colours (or 64 "half tone") were available, although a memory-intensive 4096 colour "HAM" mode could be used at lower resolutions. At its highest resolutions, only 4 colours could be displayed at once. Agnus is the name of a range of custom chips that were featured in the Amiga home computer. ... A 4,096 color HAM picture from 1989 Hold-and-Modify (more commonly known as HAM) is a screenmode of the Commodore Amiga computer. ...

Peripherals and expansion

One 3.5" internal floppy drive was standard and a second could be added externally. Two DE9 ports for joysticks, mice, and lightpens were included, plus a standard 25-pin RS-232 serial port and 25-pin Centronics parallel port. A male DE-9 connector. ... Joystick elements: 1. ... Operating a mechanical 1: Pulling the mouse turns the ball. ... A lightpen is a device similar to a touch screen, but is facilitated by use of a special light sensitive pen instead of the finger. ... RS-232 (also referred to as EIA RS-232C or V.24) is a standard for serial binary data interchange between a DTE (Data terminal equipment) and a DCE (Data communication equipment). ... Centronics logo 23 June 1986 Centronics logo 1971 Centronics Data Computer Corporation was a pioneering American manufacturer of computer printers, now remembered only for the parallel interface that bears their name. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Parallel communications. ...

Other expansion connectors included the PCMCIA Type II slot and the internal 44-pin ATA interface (for the 20 or 40 MB 2.5" disks — both expensive for the time). The model with the integral ATA drives was sold — for almost double the price of a standard A600 — as the "A600HD", with a white rather than cream outer casing, and was marketed as a more "scholarly" version of a home computer hitherto best known for its extensive range of games. Some games, however, were used to using every last system resource available to the standard Amiga so, for example, to run some games such as Civilization from the Hard disk a memory expansion to take the available RAM higher than the standard 1 MiB was required. ATA cables: 40 wire ribbon cable top, 80 wire ribbon cable bottom Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) is a standard interface for connecting storage devices such as hard disks and CD-ROM drives inside personal computers. ...

Other add-ons included MIDI interfaces and sound samplers. Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. ... In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a continuous signal to a discrete signal. ...

Operating System

The Amiga 600 was shipped with AmigaOS 2.0, consisting of Workbench 2.0 and a Kickstart ROM which was either version 37.299, 37.300 or 37.350 (Commodore's internal version numbers). Confusingly, all three ROMs were officially designated as version "2.05".

Early revisions of the Amiga 600 were shipped with Kickstart version 37.299, which, to the surprise of some, neither had support for the internal ATA controller, nor for the PCMCIA interface. Although it was possible to load the necessary drivers from a floppy disk, it wasn't possible to boot directly from ATA or PCMCIA devices. Only later models of the Amiga 600 and especially the Amiga 600HD were equipped with Kickstart 37.300 or 37.350, which both were able to utilize those devices at boot time. Due to bugs in Kickstart 37.300, the maximum supported size of a hard drive was limited to 40 MB. Everything above this size was a game of chance. In contrast, version 37.350 was capable of supporting hard drives up to 4 GB.

Later it was possible to buy an updated Workbench 2.1. It featured a localization of the operating system in several languages and had a "CrossDOS" driver which provided read/write support for FAT (MS-DOS) formatted media like floppy disks or hard drives. It was a pure software update. Kickstart ROMs designated as 2.1 never existed. Workbench 2.1 ran on all Kickstart ROMs of the 2.0x family.

Bundled software

Originally the computer came bundled with one of Lemmings, Captain Planet & the Planeteers Shadow of the Beast III, and Bart Simpson vs. the Space Mutants, all of which had been bundled with the A500+, and the sophisticated-for-the-time Electronic Arts graphics package Deluxe Paint 3. Shortly afterwards the Wild Weird and Wicked bundle was launched, featuring Formula One Grand Prix, Pushover and Putty. Many retailers added a bundle of more up-to-date games, including Zool and Pinball Dreams. Lemmings, a computer game developed by DMA Design (now Rockstar North) and published by Psygnosis in 1991, was one of the most popular computer games of its time. ... The logo showing Captain Planet and the Planeteers Captain Planet and the Planeteers was an animated television series created by Ted Turner and produced by Jane Fonda and Nicholas Boxer to promote environmentalism. ... EA redirects here. ... Welcome screen dialog Deluxe Paint (DPaint) is a bitmap graphics editor originally created by Dan Silva for Electronic Arts (EA). ... Formula One Grand Prix PSP Game Developers Travellers Tales have announced the release of Formula One Grand Prix, on the PSP, for late 2005. ... Pushover is a platform puzzle game developed by Red Rat Software in 1992 for the Amiga, Atari ST, DOS and SNES. Ocean Software published the game. ... For other meanings of the same term, see Putty (disambiguation) Putty was a game developed by System 3 and released in 1992 for the Amiga. ... Zool is a British computer game originally produced for the Amiga by Gremlin Graphics as a rival to Segas Sonic the Hedgehog. ... Pinball Dreams is an Commodore Amiga game from 1992 developed by Digital Illusions CE. Title screen (Amiga) It spawned two sequels, Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions. ...

Technical specifications

The Motorola 68000 is a 32-bit CISC microprocessor from Motorola. ... Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) is the name used for the enhanced version of the Amiga computers original chipset (OCS). ... The Original Chip Set (OCS) was a chipset used in the earliest Commodore Amiga computers. ... The Amiga version of SimCity in halfbrite mode (with 64 colors). ... A 4,096 color HAM picture from 1989 Hold-and-Modify (more commonly known as HAM) is a screenmode of the Commodore Amiga computer. ... A kibibyte (a contraction of kilo binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, commonly abbreviated KiB (never kiB). 1 kibibyte = 210 bytes = 1,024 bytes The kibibyte is closely related to the kilobyte, which can be used either as a synonym for kibibyte or to refer to... AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. ... A mebibyte (a contraction of mega binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated MiB. 1 MiB = 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes = 1,024 kibibytes The mebibyte is closely related to the megabyte (MB), which can either be a synonym for mebibyte, or refer to 106... Chip RAM is the name given to RAM 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 while doing so. ... Chip RAM is the name given to RAM 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 while doing so. ... The PCMCIA is the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, an industry trade association that creates standards for notebook computer peripheral devices. ... Double Density usually refers to a physical format in a magnetic storage system that uses twice as many bits per length unit as the basic format. ... ATA cables: 40 wire ribbon cable top, 80 wire ribbon cable bottom Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) is a standard interface for connecting storage devices such as hard disks and CD-ROM drives inside personal computers. ... The programmed input/output (PIO) interface was the original method used to transfer data between the CPU (through the ATA controller) and an ATA device. ... TV redirects here. ... For other uses, see PAL (disambiguation). ... NTSC is the analog television system in use in Canada, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, the United States, and some other countries, mostly in the Americas (see map). ... A male DE-9 connector. ... A male DE-9 connector. ... The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector used particularly in computers. ... A male DE-9 connector. ... The PCMCIA is the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, an industry trade association that creates standards for notebook computer peripheral devices. ... AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. ...

References

Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, distributed bulletin board system (BBS). ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 57 days remaining. ... Google Groups is a free groups and mailing list service from Google. ... 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 9 is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 52 days remaining. ... Amiga Format was a British computer magazine for Amiga computers, published by Future Publishing. ...

External links

Categories: Articles with unsourced statements | Commodore Amiga Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore International, was an American electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which 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 range of 8-bit personal computers from Commodore Business Machines (CBM), 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). ... Commodore SX-64 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 (C128, CBM 128, C=128) home/personal computer was Commodore Business Machines (CBM)s last commercially released 8-bit machine. ... The Motorola 68000 is a 32-bit CISC microprocessor from Motorola. ... 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 Amiga 2500, also known as the A2500, was not a distinct Amiga model, but simply a marketing name for a Commodore Amiga 2000 bundled with a Motorola 68020 or 68030-based accelerator card. ... The A1500, also known as the Commodore Amiga 1500, was an 16-bit home/personal computer released in 1990. ... A CDTV with accessories The CDTV was the first computer to come with a CD ROM drive as standard. ... The Amiga 3000T, a towerized version of the A3000. ... 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 Commodore Amiga 500 Plus, (A500+) is a enhanced version of the original Amiga 500. ... An Amiga 1200 with a standard mouse and two external floppy disk drives. ... The A4000, or Commodore Amiga 4000, was the successor of the A2000 and A3000 computers. ... Amiga 4000T The A4000T, also known as the Commodore Amiga 4000T, was a tower version of the A4000 computer. ...

Contents

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