Amiga 500
| Amiga 500 | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Manufacturer | Commodore International |
| Type | Home computers |
| publication | 1987 |
| End of production | 1991 |
| Factory price | 1,100–1,200 DM |
| processor |
Motorola 68000 @ 7.15909 MHz ( NTSC ) 7.09379 MHz ( PAL ) |
| random access memory | 512 kB (10.8 MB maximum without accelerator card) |
| graphic | Max. 640 × 256 pixels (PAL) max. 640 × 200 pixels (NTSC) max. 8 sprites 6-bit color depth , 12-bit color palette |
| Sound | 4 × 8-bit - PCM-channels |
| Disk | 880 kB floppy disk drive |
| operating system | AmigaOS 1.2 (1987) AmigaOS 1.3 (from 1988) |
| predecessor | Amiga 1000 |
| successor | Amiga 500 Plus |
The Amiga 500 is the best-selling Amiga computer from Commodore . It was presented at CeBit in May 1987 together with the Amiga 2000 and has similar performance data to this one. The target group for the computer was primarily private users with a smaller budget.
At the expense of upgradability, a desktop or tower case was dispensed with and a design that was similar to that of the Commodore 128 was chosen instead . The Amiga 500 was - even more so than the Amiga 2000 - particularly popular as a game computer in its day, as the image and sound quality were clearly superior to the standard PC at the time .
In terms of market policy, the Amiga 500 was designed primarily as a response to the successful competitor Atari ST . In practice the Amiga 500 fulfilled the role it was supposed to play and clearly outperformed the Atari ST in the competition. However, he shifted the general image of the Amiga model series further in the direction of a "game computer".
Technical details
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processor
The Amiga 500 has a 7.09 MHz ( PAL variant) or 7.16 MHz ( NTSC clocked variant) Motorola 68000 - CPU and 512 Kbytes of RAM . This can be expanded by 512 Kbytes and 8 Mbytes using two expansion slots , so that a maximum of 9 Mbytes of memory is available.
operating system
In 1987 and 1988 the Amiga 500 was delivered with the Amiga operating system AmigaOS 1.2 (Kickstart), from 1988 this was replaced by the improved and slightly more extensive version 1.3.
volume
The Amiga 500 has a stereo sound output which is implemented via 2 8-bit PCM channels per stereo channel. The chip responsible for the sound output was developed and manufactured by MOS Technology , a subsidiary of Commodore.
Interfaces
Power supply
The Amiga 500 is supplied with voltage via a 5-pin socket with an external power supply unit. As with the Amiga 1200 , a special power supply unit with its own power switch must be connected to the Amiga 500 , since the Amiga 500 has no power switch.
Serial connection
An RS232 interface is made available via the 25-pin Sub-D connector ; there are also 2 pins for input and output of audio signals.
Parallel connection
A parallel interface is made available via a 24-pin Sub-D socket. In contrast to its predecessor A1000, it complies with the common IEEE 1284 standard .
RGB video connection
An RGB video signal is transmitted in analog form via the 23-pin Sub-D connector of the Amiga 500 . Either "Sync on Composite" or two separate signals for vertical and horizontal synchronization can be used for synchronization with the monitor. It is also possible to feed in an external frequency via this connection. Commodore offered the A520 adapter for connection to a television set.
Composite video
A BAS signal that represents a monochrome picture is transmitted via the cinch plug .
Floppy disk connector
Up to three external disk drives can be connected to this 23-pin Sub-D socket.
Audio
A stereo signal is transmitted via the two cinch sockets.
Joystick connections
Joysticks, a mouse or a light pen can be connected via these two 9-pin Sub-D connectors .
Extension connector
Various extensions, such as a hard disk, can be connected to the Amiga 500 via the extension connection on the left. The connection consists of copper surfaces on the motherboard and is directly connected to the data and address lines of the processor.
Extensions
random access memory
In addition to the existing 512K Chip-Mem, the A500 could be upgraded to up to 10.8 MB RAM both via the internal expansion slot and via the external expansion port on the left. The classic 512K extension A501 from Commodore also contained a battery-backed real-time clock on the board. The enlargement of the chip ram in the A500 was only possible by swapping the Agnus graphics chip for the ECS version at the same time ; only this could address more than 512K chip memes.
Mass storage
The A500 was originally only operated via the floppy disk drive; it has no built-in hard disk and no controller for it. However, there are connection options, such as the left expansion port, which can be used for external hard drives. Such extensions were available from Commodore (e.g. the A570) as well as from third parties. Even today, such extensions are still being tinkered with. There are USW drives and even new WLAN solutions to access media servers, on which the entire Amiga software library is backed up, and which thus function as an external drive.
Accelerator cards
To increase the computing power of the A500, a turbo card, i.e. a faster processor on its own circuit board, could be installed. This worked either through the left expansion port in an external enclosure, such as B. the Apollo 520 from ACT Elektronik Vertrieb GmbH (with a 25MHz 68020). Alternatively, there were also accelerator cards which were placed in the base of the original processor in the Amiga housing (e.g. the Blizzard Turbo from phase5 with a 14MHz 68000).
Others
For the left expansion port there were modules such as B. Action Replay with which it was possible to stop the computer while it was running and to save screenshots or to work with a machine language monitor in the memory.
Amiga 500 Plus
From 1991 there was a new variant of the Amiga 500 with the Amiga 500 Plus . It is equipped with twice as much RAM (1 MByte) and with the new Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) instead of the original Chip Set (OCS), which for the first time is VGA - could control monitors . The Amiga 500 Plus was delivered with Kickstart Version 2.04 from the start . This operating system was a big step forward technically, but had the disadvantage that many previous programs no longer worked if or because they directly - disregarding the API - accessed kickstart routines whose structure had now changed. Games were particularly affected here. Hardware extensions that made it possible to switch between Kickstart 1.3 and 2.0 were therefore very soon on the market.
Predecessor and successor
The Amiga 500 is the successor to the Amiga 1000 , the first model in the Amiga series. The successor to the Amiga 500 Plus was the Amiga 600 .
Others
The Amiga 500 is considered the ancestor of all case moddings . It was sold by Commodore in two designs (ball design, see picture, and leopard design) as a limited version (10,000 pieces), for which the television presenter Stefanie Tücking was won over as namesake.
Web links
- More details about the Amiga 500 and pictures
- HOL database of amigagames (English)
- Amiga Music Preservation - Amiga music
- Amiga Future - Last independent magazine for Amiga
- Amiga 500 in Stefanie Tücking design
Individual evidence
- ↑ cbmmuseum: Amiga 500
- ↑ classiccomputer.de: Commodore Amiga 500
- ↑ In Austria, the Amiga 500 according to the invoice of 24 June 1987 9491, - ATS cost, representing approximately 1.350, - German mark corresponds.
- ↑ Commodore-Amiga Sales Figures. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
- ↑ CCOM - Amiga 500 - Amiga 500 test report: Amiga magazine Cebit 1987. Retrieved on April 20, 2020 .
- ↑ How the Amiga 500 once mixed up the Christmas business - derStandard.de. Retrieved April 20, 2020 (Austrian German).
- ↑ Commodore-Amiga Sales Figures. May 24, 2009, accessed April 20, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Amiga Hardware Database - Amiga 500. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Test report Amiga 500: Amiga-Magazin Cebit 1987. In: Amiga-Magazin Cebit 1987. Retrieved on July 24, 2019 .
- ↑ CCOM - Amiga 500 - Amiga 500 test report: Amiga magazine Cebit 1987. Retrieved on March 5, 2020 .
- ↑ A501 - Commodore. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
- ↑ A570 - Commodore. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
- ↑ Apollo 520 - ACT Elektronik Vertriebs GmbH. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
- ↑ Blizzard Turbo - Phase 5. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
- ↑ Action Replay (A500 Version) - Datel. Retrieved March 5, 2020 .
- ↑ CCOM - Amiga 500. Accessed April 20, 2020 .
- ↑ CCOM - Amiga 500 - Amiga 500 Plus test report: Amiga-Magazin 11/1991. Retrieved April 20, 2020 .
