CBM Amiga 1000 (1985)

Features

CPU: Motorola MC68000 7.16 MHz
Co-Processors: Denise (video), Agnus (memory manager, blitter & copper), Paula (sound and disk access)
RAM: 256kb, upgradeable to 512k internally. Extensible to 8.5 MB with extension card (512 KB CHIP RAM + 8 MB FAST RAM) and to 10 MB
ROM: 8 KB (The Kickstart isn't in ROM but loaded at the boot in RAM, where it takes 256 KB)
Text Modes: 60 x 32 / 80 x 32
Graphics Modes: 320 x 200 and 320×400 (32 colors), 640 x 200 and 640 x 400 (16 colors)
Colors: up to 64 colors among 4096 (EHB mode) The Amiga can display 4096 colors simultaneously (HAM mode) but only for static display.
Sound: Four 8 bit PCM voices, 9 octaves
I/O Ports: RGB, RF & composite video ouputs, external floppy disk port, Centronics, RS232c, Expansion port, stereo sound, Atari Compatible joysticks (2), RAM expansion port, keyboard connector
Keyboard: full-size typewriter style, 89 keys, 10 function keys and numeric keypad
Built In Media: one 3.5” disk-drive, double sided double density, 880k formatted storage capacity
OS: AmigaDOS (1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3) + WorkBench (GUI)

Usage

MESS emulates the following computers

a1000n [Amiga 1000 (NTSC)]
a1000p [Amiga 1000 (PAL)]

For both drivers, MESS supports two floppy drives, “floppydisk1” (flop1) and “floppydisk2” (flop2), for disk images in .adf format.

These systems require full keyboard emulation to work correctly. At startup, full keyboard emulation mode is enabled by default. Whilst in full keyboard emulation mode, some key associated functionality may be disabled (like the ESC key for EXIT). The keyboard emulation mode is toggled using the “Scroll Lock” key (by default).

Known Issues

The driver is now working fairly well, though some games may need more memory than currently emulated. The graphic emulation of these systems is known to be imperfect.

History and Trivia

The conceptor of the Amiga 1000 was Jay Miner, who created the Atari 800 many years before. He wanted to make the most powerful computer ever, then he joined a little California company called Amiga. He used the principle of the three coprocessors (again) to help the main processor.

At the beginning, the Amiga had only 64 kilobytes of RAM!, Atari wanted to buy the Amiga but finally, Commodore succeeded to buy it (then there was a lawsuit, which Commodore won). It was meant to be a competitor to the Atari 520 ST.

The operating system was done by Metacomco, a British company who specialized in the 68000 processor (they also made languages for the Sinclair QL). It is a fully multitasking system which looks like UNIX with a graphical user interface. It was the very first personal computer with great graphics and sound capabilities with a GUI environment. Amiga BASIC was written by Microsoft (like most other versions of BASIC). The Amiga 1000 began to lose popularity one year later with the creation of its two main successors: the Amiga 500 and the Amiga 2000.

There were two versions of the Amiga 1000. The first one, just called “Amiga”, was sold only in USA, had a NTSC display, and didn't have the video modes EHB and HAM, later versions would have this built in. The second one, called “Amiga 1000” (to avoid confusion with its successor, the Amiga 2000) had a PAL display, enhanced video modes (HAM & EHB) and was built in Germany.

(info from old-computers.com)