History of the Amiga

The following history of the Amiga documents the development and commercial history of the Amiga, a home computer product line manufactured from the middle 1980s up to today.

Amiga Corporation

The Amiga's chipset was designed by a small company called Amiga Corporation during the end of the first home video game boom. Wary of industrial espionage, the chipset was codenamed Lorraine during development. Development of the Lorraine project were done using an Sage IV (m68k/8MHz/1MB) machine, nicknamed "Agony". Amiga Corp. funded the development of the Lorraine by manufacturing game controllers, and from an initial bridge loan from Atari Inc. while seeking further investors. The chipset was to be used in a video game machine, but following the video game crash of 1983, the Lorraine was repurposed to be a personal computer. Steve Jobs was shown the original prototype for the first Amiga and said there was "too much hardware". He was in the midst of work on the Macintosh at the time and was reportably worried that the Amiga would surpass his plans. However, before Amiga Corp. could bring the machine to market, the company encountered financial difficulties.

Commodore

1985-87, The early years

The first Amiga computer, simply called the Amiga (devoid of references to Commodore), was released in 1985 by Commodore. Commodore marketed it both as their intended successor to the Commodore 64 and as their competitor against the Apple Macintosh. It was later renamed the Commodore Amiga 1000.

The Amiga 1000's graphics abilities were revolutionary for its time

At a relatively affordable base price of $1295 the Amiga could display up to 4096 colors and produce 8-bit stereo audio (crude by today's standards, but very impressive at the time) and run several applications concurrently. These qualities gave the Amiga 1000 a significant technical lead on its three main competitors (the Atari ST, the Macintosh and the IBM PC) that was not matched until after the Amiga faded from the mainstream market.

Poorly marketed, the Amiga 1000 was not an instant success. Commodore confounded the problem by marketing a new 8-bit computer called the Commodore 128. This resulted in the general public being confused about Commodore's direction and the Amiga's advantages. "The Amiga was so far ahead of its time that almost nobody--including Commodore's marketing department--could fully articulate what it was all about. Today, it's obvious the Amiga was the first multimedia computer, but in those days it was derided as a game machine because few people grasped the importance of advanced graphics, sound, and video." This marketing confusion would plague the Amiga throughout its lifetime, even as it changed hands between Escom, Gateway and other owners.

1987-90, Cost reduced and high end models

In 1987, faced with strong competition from Atari ST in the lower end of the segment, Commodore released the cost reduced Amiga 500 and the high end Amiga 2000 for the respective prices of US $595.95 and $2395 (this price included 1 MB RAM and a monitor).

With its lowered price, the Amiga 500 went on to become a successful home computer and eventually outsold its main rival, the Atari ST. The Amiga 2000, thanks to its Genlock and internal expansion slots, managed to carve out a market niche within desktop video. This market was not as large as the office and publishing markets dominated by the IBM PC, and Apple Macintosh and as a result the Amiga 2000 lagged these systems in sales. Additionally, Commodore initially announced a price of $1795 for the 2000, resulting in widespread grumbling among their customer base when the higher price was made public. The Amiga did see widespread use in the television and video production industry during the late 1980s and early 1990s, including on popular shows like Clarissa Explains It All and Unsolved Mysteries.[3]

1990-93, Height of popularity

An Amiga 500, with 1084S RGB monitor and A1010 floppy disk drive. (1987)

In 1990, Commodore released the first true update of the Amiga platform, in the shape of the Amiga 3000 featuring an enhanced chipset (ECS) and the second release of its operating system, commonly referred to as Workbench 2.0.

Many users had criticised Commodore for letting the Amiga platform languish since its introduction five years earlier; this criticism did not diminish with the Amiga 3000. Commodore was unable to match the pace of PC advancement at their lower economy of scale, and users complained that the ECS chipset failed to match the features of the PC and Mac display hardware at the time, and that the operating system (Workbench 2.0) only featured improvements taken from the user community. As Apple was the only other major user of Motorola chips at the time, Commodore often had to wait for a new CPU technology until increased supplies allowed Motorola to sell chips to anyone but Apple.

On the plus side many users considered the Amiga 3000 the most well engineered Amiga model, and the Amiga 3000's integrated flicker filter made it painless to use cheap PC-style VGA monitors. This may in part be the reason Commodore went on to sell one million Amigas in just one year, which is equal to a third of all Amigas sold up to that time.

In the same year as the Amiga 3000, Commodore released the US $895 CDTV, aimed to move the Amiga platform to the living room and a competitor to devices such as Philips CD Interactive (CD-I). Commodore believed that there was a market for a system that could display animations, pictures and offer educational software and games on a television, and many game developers thought that interactive CD-based video games would become a popular market. The end result was a system that could be described as an Amiga 500 with a remote control replacing the keyboard and a CD-ROM replacing the floppy drive.

Considering that the Amiga 500 was cheaper, more versatile and had the promise of a future CDTV expansion few Amiga users had any interest in the Amiga CDTV. At the same time the general public preferred cheaper game consoles over both the CDTV and CD-I, and was not aware of or interested in the multimedia potential of these CD-ROM based systems.

Both Commodore and Philips tried to tempt users with promise of an MPEG-1 module capable of playing video from a CD-ROM. These Video CDs can be considered lower-resolution versions of today's Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs), but without scene selection, additional features and with the inconvenience of having to change the disks during a full length movie.

The CDTV became Commodore's first Amiga based failure, one that allegedly cost them a significant amount of resources. Commodore made a last ditch effort in saving the system with the CDTV 2, but dropped that design in favor of the much more capable Amiga CD32.

1992-94, Trouble ahead

File:Amiiga4000DP.jpg

An Amiga 4000 (1992)

Commodore began 1992 early by introducing the Amiga 500+, a slightly updated and cost reduced Amiga 500, officially. This model had actually been introduced the year before to meet good sales of the Amiga 500. Viewed primarily as a game machine, especially in Europe, this model was criticized for not being able to run quite a few popular games (such as SWIV, Treasure Island Dizzy and Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge), and some people took them back to dealers demanding an original A500.

By this time the Amiga 500 and 500+ were showing signs of obsolescence, even as a game machine. Instead of discontinuing the product Commodore envisioned it taking the place of the Commodore 64 in the low-cost segment. To make that possible Commodore set out to design the Amiga 600, a system intended to be much cheaper than the Amiga 500. The Amiga 500 itself would be replaced by Amiga 1200, also under development.

Shortly after releasing the Amiga 600 Commodore announced that two new super Amigas would be released at the end of the year. In classic Osborne style, consumers decided to wait for the new Amigas and Commodore had to close their Australian office in face of plummeting sales. At the same time, Commodore's foray into the highly competitive PC market failed to bear fruit and Commodore was forced to bring it to a halt.

Commodore had the new machines (A600) manufactured in Australia and launched them on what it assumed would be an eager market. Unfortunately, soon afterwards it announced that two new super-Amigas would be released.

— Edge, August 1995 edition

This contributed to Commodore's 1992 profits falling to an unimpressive $28 million dollars, and made the need for a successful new Amiga launch all that more critical.

In October 1992, Commodore released the A1200 and the A4000: Each featured the new AGA chipset and the third release of AmigaOS.

In 1993, Commodore marketed the CD32, which was one of the earliest CD-based consoles and was also the world's first 32-bit game machine, with specifications similar to the A1200.

The last Amiga released by Commodore was the A4000T, in 1994.

Amiga in the United States

Mass-market Amigas were considerably cheaper than PCs and Macs at the time. This factor helped to boost sales in the more price-conscious European markets, but it also continued Commodore's misfortune from the VIC-20 and C64 era of being viewed in U.S. markets as a producer of cheap "toy computers" and "game machines". This perception was furthered by the fact that most Commodore retail outlets were toy stores, and marketing campaigns were mismatched with the American public's needs and wants. Overall, the Amiga was very successful in Europe, but it sold less than a million units in the U.S..

Another factor is that in the U.S. market, the IBM PC was already a dominant market force, especially in the workplace. Potential buyers first question was often, "Is it IBM compatible?", allowing the user to "take work home" or more often take software home to install on their own machines. To satisfy these users, Commodore introduced a variety of PC-compatibility addons, such as the Amiga Sidecar for the Amiga 1000, the Bridge Board for the A2000 and a 5.25" floppy disk drive to facilitate data exchange with PC disks. But as the PC's graphics drastically improved from the early mediocre CGA and EGA modes prevalent at the Amiga's introduction to VGA and SVGA which appeared to match or exceed the Amiga's abilities, consumers saw no advantage in the Amiga's "incompatible" technology. Commodore's attempts at interoperability did not persuade users concerned about IBM compatibility to buy an Amiga instead of one of the inexpensive PC clones that were beginning to flood the US market. As a result, US Amiga users tended to be technophiles enamored of the Amiga's software/hardware, Commodore loyalists upgrading from the C-64 or 128, iconoclasts who disliked IBM, and video or graphic arts enthusiasts (or professionals - the desktop video market was one of the few areas where the Amiga would gain widespread adoption by US businesses).

Bankruptcy

In 1993, Commodore lost a staggering $357 million.

— Edge, August 1995 edition

Commodore management voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 under US bankruptcy laws in May 1994. Chapter 11 US rules allow a firm to recover its debts and reorganize. Two times in the past Commodore was reorganized in various occasions and repaid by Irving Gould without requesting filing for Chapter 11, but this time, as being controlled by US bankruptcy laws, the board of trustees, which was appointed by the court to oversee Commodore, decided to "liquidate" (sell) the company without proceeding to reorganization. The majority of Commodore's assets and name were sold to Escom. Production was halted briefly, until it was restarted for a short time under Escom's Amiga Technologies. Though the machines had been upgraded and had plentiful hardware and software support, the lack of new Amigas meant that vendors sooner or later moved on. Most of the 'leading edge' technology hobbyists and productivity market moved to PC architecture, sometimes running Linux or BeOS in preference to Microsoft Windows.

Due to the fierce loyalty of some Amiga fans, the 'scene' continued, many years even after the last original Amiga was sold. Inevitably, the PC eventually became the undisputed leading home computing technology, and the console wars also left the CD32 for dead.

The rights to the Amiga platform were successively sold to Escom and later Gateway 2000, but Escom almost immediately went bankrupt itself (due to non-Amiga related problems) and Gateway vacillated over what to do with its new acquisition. In 1999, an entirely new company called Amiga, Inc. (no relation to the original Amiga Corporation) was incorporated in the US state of Washington, and received a license from Gateway to use Amiga-related patents and trademarks.

Amiga, Inc.

The current owner of the trademark, Amiga, Inc., has licensed the rights to make hardware using the Amiga brand to a UK computer vendor, Eyetech Group, Ltd, which was founded by some former UK employees of Commodore International. They are currently selling the AmigaOne via an international dealer network. The AmigaOne is a PowerPC computer designed to run the latest version of AmigaOS, which was itself licensed to a Belgian-German company, Hyperion Entertainment.

In 2002, Eyetech in cooperation with Amiga, Inc. (Washington), began selling a small number of AmigaOnes. The "AmigaOne SE" was based on Mai Logic's Teron CX motherboard from 2001 based on the POP (PowerPC Open Platform) design, and development to adapt AmigaOS 4 to this hardware began. The AmigaOne SE was succeeded by AmigaOne XE, which was based on the Teron PX, a newer design with a replaceable CPU module which came in G3 and G4 flavors. In 2004, Eyetech began selling the Micro-A1, based on the Teron Mini, a mini-ITX model with a 750GX G3 CPU. The older Amigas are sometimes referred to as "Classic Amigas" to avoid possible confusion with the AmigaOnes. AmigaOnes are not currently being produced or sold.

In July 2003, a different company with the name Amiga, Inc. (no relation to Washington-state Amiga, Inc.) was incorporated in Delaware. Originally this company was named KMOS, Inc., but it was renamed shortly after incorporation. According to Washington state records (UBI Number 601 983 734), Amiga, Inc. (Washington) became inactive in September 2004, when its license expired and was not renewed. At the time of this writing, Amiga, Inc. (Delaware) is still active and has a registered address in New York. Its president is Bill McEwen, who also was the president of Amiga, Inc. (Washington). According to whois records, the amiga.com domain is still registered to Amiga, Inc. (Washington).

AmigaOS 4 has been available since December 2006. The development of this version by Hyperion Entertainment will continue, but Amiga Inc has announced a new AmigaOS 5 which has been developed in-house and is available for multiple CPU. The release date of this new version is not known.

In April 2007 Amiga Inc. sued Hyperion for breach of contract, trademark violation and copyright infringement concerning the development and marketing of AmigaOS 4.0.

Only a very few Amiga clones were ever produced, as both Commodore and subsequent owners of the trademark refused to license the Amiga technology to third-party manufacturers.

Today, Amigas running AmigaOS version 3.9 and earlier are now considered "Classic" Amigas, as opposed to the new Amiga Inc./Eyetech/Hyperion models. Due to its popularity as a gaming platform, many people incorrectly refer to the Amiga as a games console (even though it is a fully-featured computer). However, there are many "Classic" Amigas still in use around the world. A popular use for the classic Amiga is as an automated readerboard for local community-access TV stations.

New Amigas

When Hyperion released AmigaOS 4.0 in fall 2006, there were no machines currently selling that could run the OS, due to the production of AmigaOne machines ceasing some months earlier. In the same announcement, Hyperion stated that an undisclosed manufacturer would begin production of a new Power Architecture based machine that could run AmigaOS 4.0 later in 2007.

SAM440EP

ACube Systems, a then new Italian computer company, announced their first Amiga compatible product two weeks later. Called the SAM440EP, is a PowerPC board based on the 440EP SoC made by AMCC . Their primary targets are the industrial and embedded markets, with some plan to reach the desktop markets with several operating systems.

• 400/533/667 MHz AMCC PowerPC 440EP SoC processor
• 128/256/512 MB 266 MHz DDR SDRAM soldered to the motherboard
• 1x DDR RAM slot supporting up to 512 MB RAM.
• 1x 32-bit, 66 MHz PCI slot
• 1x Flash memory device controller
• 4x USB2 ports, 1x USB1
• 2x Ethernet 10/100 ports
• 4x Serial ATA ports
• Cirrus Logic CS4281 and Realtek ALC655 audio
• ATI Radeon Mobility M9 graphics with 64 MB VRAM, s-video and DVI out.
• GPIO expansion connector
• Lattice XP expansion FPGA

ACK Software Controls

In late April 2007 Amiga and ACK Software Controls revealed that they were to manufacture both a Basic ($500) and a Power ($1500) model of a new hardware, intended to be ready for the market sometime mid-2007.

Minimig

Minimig is an open source hardware implementation of the Amiga 500 with the custom chipset implemented using an field-programmable gate array (FPGA), released under the GNU General Public Licence. It uses the MC68000 CPU chip from Freescale.

Further reading

• A history of the Amiga - Jeremy Reimer's discussion of the history behind the Amiga's creation and demise with Commodore.
• Famous Amiga Uses