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Amiga is a family ofpersonal computers produced byCommodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with16-bit or 16/32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphics and audio compared to previous8-bit systems. These include theAtari ST as well as theMacintosh andAcorn Archimedes. The Amiga differs from its contemporaries through custom hardware to accelerate graphics and sound, includingsprites, ablitter, and four channels of sample-based audio. It runs apre-emptive multitasking operating system calledAmigaOS, with a desktop environment calledWorkbench.
TheAmiga 1000, based on theMotorola 68000microprocessor, was released in July 1985. Production problems kept it from becoming widely available until early 1986. While early advertisements cast the computer as an all-purpose business machine, especially with theSidecar IBM PC compatibility add-on, the Amiga was most commercially successful as ahome computer with a range ofvideo games and creative software. The bestselling model, theAmiga 500, was introduced in 1987 along with the more expandableAmiga 2000. The 1990Amiga 3000 includes a minor update to the graphics hardware via theEnhanced Chip Set also used in subsequent models.
The Amiga established a niche in audio and multimedia. The firstmusic tracker was written for the Amiga, and it became a popular platform for music creation. The 3D rendering packagesLightWave 3D,Imagine, and Traces (a predecessor toBlender) originated on the system. The 1990 third-partyVideo Toaster made the Amiga a comparatively low cost option forvideo production. In later years, the Amiga started losing market share toIBM PC compatibles and thefourth generation of video game consoles, eventually leading to Commodore's bankruptcy in 1994 and the end of Amiga. Commodore is estimated to have sold 4.85 million Amigas. Various groups have since releasedspiritual successors. (Full article...)
Kickstart is thebootstrapfirmware of theAmiga computers developed byCommodore.
Most Amiga models were shipped with the Kickstart firmware stored onROM chips. Its purpose is to initialize the Amiga hardware and core components ofAmigaOS and then attempt to boot from abootablevolume, such as afloppy disk.
Commodore'sAmigaOS was formed of both theKickstart firmware and a software component provided on disk (with the software portion often termed asWorkbench). For most AmigaOS updates the Kickstart version number was matched to the Workbench version number. Confusingly, Commodore also used internal revision numbers for Kickstart chips. For example, there were several Kickstart revisions designated as version 2.0. (Full article...)
He started work atCommodore in 1983 as an engineer underBil Herd. His first project was to help complete theTED systems comprisingPlus/4,C16 and more. After completing theCommodore 128 Bil Herd left the company and Dave Haynie was promoted to chief engineer in the low-end group. After Commodore acquiredAmiga, Dave Haynie ended up primary engineer on the expandableA2000 computer. Later, he joined Bob Welland on the A2620 CPU module, and launched the follow-up A2630 the year thereafter. These were delivered in theA2500/20 (1989) andA2500/30 (1989). In 1989 he started designing theZorro III expansion bus architecture, and in 1990, with Greg Berlin, Hedley Davis, Jeff Boyer, and Scott Hood, created theAmiga 3000. (Full article...)
| ... that in December 2015 the AmigaOS 3.1source code wasleaked to the web? |
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