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138-532: The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector . They are named for their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the smallest connectors used on computer systems. Note that the "High density" and "Double density" classification here is the reverse of floppy disk nomenclature. Here, high density is only somewhat higher than normal, and not as high as double density. A D-sub contains two or more parallel rows of pins or sockets usually surrounded by

276-724: A computer mouse , a light pen , or a graphics tablet were also supported via the game port. Unlike the basic one-button digital joysticks and the basic paddles, such devices were not typically interchangeable between different systems. Systems using the DE-9 connector for their game port include the TI-99/4A , Atari 8-bit computers , Atari ST , Atari 7800 , VIC-20 , Commodore 64 , Commodore 128 , Amiga , Amstrad CPC (which employs daisy-chaining when connecting two Amstrad-specific joysticks), MSX , X68000 , FM Towns , ColecoVision , SG-1000 , Master System , Mega Drive/Genesis , and

414-428: A gender  – i.e. the male component, called a plug , connects to the female component, or socket . Thousands of configurations of connectors are manufactured for power , data , and audiovisual applications. Electrical connectors can be divided into four basic categories, differentiated by their function: In computing, electrical connectors are considered a physical interface and constitute part of

552-408: A hermaphroditic connector . These connectors includes mating with both male and female aspects, involving complementary paired identical parts each containing both protrusions and indentations. These mating surfaces are mounted into identical fittings that freely mate with any other, without regard for gender (provided that the size and type match). Sometimes both ends of a cable are terminated with

690-532: A plug (denoted P), designed to attach to a wire, cable or removable electrical assembly. This convention is currently defined in ASME Y14.44-2008, which supersedes IEEE 200-1975 , which in turn derives from the long-withdrawn MIL-STD-16 (from the 1950s), highlighting the heritage of this connector naming convention. IEEE 315-1975 works alongside ASME Y14.44-2008 to define jacks and plugs. The term jack occurs in several related terms: Crimped connectors are

828-583: A 6-bit volume control per channel. The analog output is connected to a low-pass filter, which filters out high-frequency aliasing when the Amiga is using a lower sampling rate (see Nyquist frequency ). The brightness of the Amiga's power LED is used to indicate the status of the Amiga's low-pass filter. The filter is active when the LED is at normal brightness, and deactivated when dimmed (or off on older A500 Amigas). On Amiga 1000 (and first Amiga 500 and Amiga 2000 model),

966-406: A 68k (a 68040 or 68060) and a PowerPC (603 or 604) CPU, which are able to run the two CPUs at the same time and share the system memory. The PowerPC CPU on PowerUP boards is usually used as a coprocessor for heavy computations; a powerful CPU is needed to run MAME for example, but even decoding JPEG pictures and MP3 audio was considered heavy computation at the time. It is also possible to ignore

1104-480: A Boolean toggle state can be left clicked whilst the menu is kept open with the right button, which allows the user – for example – to set some selected text to bold, underline and italics in one visit to the menus. The mouse plugs into one of two Atari joystick ports used for joysticks , game paddles , and graphics tablets . Although compatible with analog joysticks , Atari-style digital joysticks became standard. Unusually, two independent mice can be connected to

1242-493: A D-shaped metal shield, or shell, that provides mechanical support, ensures correct orientation, and may screen against electromagnetic interference . Calling that shield a shell (or D-shell) can be ambiguous, as the term shell is also short for the cable shell, or backshell. D-sub connectors have gender : parts with pin contacts are called male connectors or plugs , while those with socket contacts are called female connectors or sockets . The socket's shield fits tightly inside

1380-566: A DA-15 which implemented a subset of the Famicom expansion port and were therefore compatible with some Famicom accessories. Later clones switched to the cheaper DE-9 port. The Atari 5200 also used a DA-15 instead of the DE-9 of its predecessor to facilitate the matrix for the keypad. The Atari Falcon , Atari STe and Atari Jaguar used a DE-15. 25-pin sockets on Macintosh computers are typically single-ended SCSI connectors, combining all signal returns into one contact (again in contrast to

1518-472: A PowerPC native microkernel and software. Later Amiga clones featured PowerPC processors only. The custom chipset at the core of the Amiga design appeared in three distinct generations, with a large degree of backward-compatibility. The Original Chip Set (OCS) appeared with the launch of the A1000 in 1985. OCS was eventually followed by the modestly improved Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) in 1990 and finally by

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1656-483: A barrel, a spring, and a plunger. They are in applications such as the MagSafe connector where a quick disconnect is desired for safety. Because they rely on spring pressure, not friction, they can be more durable and less damaging than traditional pin and socket design, leading to their use in in-circuit testing . Crown spring connectors are commonly used for higher current flows and industrial applications. They have

1794-423: A cable, and screw terminals are generally not very well protected from contact with persons or foreign conducting materials. Terminal blocks (also called terminal boards or strips ) provide a convenient means of connecting individual electrical wires without a splice or physically joining the ends. Since terminal blocks are readily available for a wide range of wire sizes and terminal quantity, they are one of

1932-553: A coating material with good conductivity, mechanical robustness and corrosion resistance helps to reduce the influence of passivating oxide layers and surface adsorbates, which limit metal-to-metal contact patches and contribute to contact resistance. For example, copper alloys have favorable mechanical properties for electrodes, but are hard to solder and prone to corrosion. Thus, copper pins are usually coated with gold to alleviate these pitfalls, especially for analog signals and high-reliability applications. Contact carriers that hold

2070-563: A connector specifically because it is not compatible with those from other sources, allowing control of what may be connected. No single connector has all the ideal properties for every application; the proliferation of types is a result of the diverse yet specific requirements of manufacturers. Electrical connectors essentially consist of two classes of materials: conductors and insulators. Properties important to conductor materials are contact resistance, conductivity , mechanical strength , formability , and resilience . Insulators must have

2208-440: A connector with hyperboloid contacts, each female contact has several equally spaced longitudinal wires twisted into a hyperbolic shape. These wires are highly resilient to strain, but still somewhat elastic, hence they essentially function as linear springs. As the male pin is inserted, axial wires in the socket half are deflected, wrapping themselves around the pin to provide a number of contact points. The internal wires that form

2346-743: A cylindrical housing and circular contact interface geometries. This is in contrast to the rectangular design of some connectors, e.g. USB or blade connectors . They are commonly used for easier engagement and disengagement, tight environmental sealing, and rugged mechanical performance. They are widely used in military, aerospace, industrial machinery, and rail, where MIL-DTL-5015 and MIL-DTL-38999 are commonly specified. Fields such as sound engineering and radio communication also use circular connectors, such as XLR and BNC . AC power plugs are also commonly circular, for example, Schuko plugs and IEC 60309 . The M12 connector , specified in IEC 61076-2-101,

2484-443: A decrease in insulation resistance and increase in conductor resistance; this increase generates more heat, and the cycle repeats. Fretting (so-called dynamic corrosion ) is a common failure mode in electrical connectors that have not been specifically designed to prevent it, especially in those that are frequently mated and de-mated. Surface corrosion is a risk for many metal parts in connectors, and can cause contacts to form

2622-493: A different connection method – e.g. the solder tabs on a male phone connector , and the male phone connector itself. In this example, the solder tabs connected to the cable represent the permanent connection, whilst the male connector portion interfaces with a female socket forming a detachable connection. There are many ways of applying a connector to a cable or device. Some of these methods can be accomplished without specialized tools. Other methods, while requiring

2760-508: A digital RGBI video display output such as MDA , Hercules , CGA , or EGA (rarely VGA or others). Even though these all use the same DE-9 connector, the displays cannot all be interchanged and monitors or video interfaces may be damaged if connected to an incompatible device using the same connector. Later analog video ( VGA and later) adapters generally replaced DE-9 connectors with DE-15 high-density sockets (though some early VGA devices still used DE-9 connectors). DE-15 connectors have

2898-420: A few amperes are more reliably terminated with other means, though "hot tap" press-on connectors find some use in automotive applications for additions to existing wiring. A common example is the multi-conductor flat ribbon cable used in computer disk drives; to terminate each of the many (approximately 40) wires individually would be slow and error-prone, but an insulation displacement connector can terminate all

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3036-426: A good electrical connection and complete the circuit. An alternative type of plug and socket connection uses hyperboloid contacts , which makes a more reliable electrical connection. When working with multi-pin connectors, it is helpful to have a pinout diagram to identify the wire or circuit node connected to each pin. Some connector styles may combine pin and socket connection types in a single unit, referred to as

3174-411: A high electrical resistance , withstand high temperatures, and be easy to manufacture for a precise fit Electrodes in connectors are usually made of copper alloys , due to their good conductivity and malleability . Alternatives include brass , phosphor bronze , and beryllium copper . The base electrode metal is often coated with another inert metal such as gold , nickel , or tin . The use of

3312-399: A high number of contact points, which provides a more electrically reliable connection than traditional pin and socket connectors. Whilst technically inaccurate, electrical connectors can be viewed as a type of adapter to convert between two connection methods, which are permanently connected at one end and (usually) detachable at the other end. By definition, each end of this "adapter" has

3450-424: A male plug (typically pin contacts) and a female socket (typically receptacle contacts). Often, but not always, sockets are permanently fixed to a device as in a chassis connector (see above) , and plugs are attached to a cable. Plugs generally have one or more pins or prongs that are inserted into openings in the mating socket. The connection between the mating metal parts must be sufficiently tight to make

3588-418: A method for locking the connector into a receptacle. In some cases, this backshell provides a hermetic seal , or some degree of ingress protection , through the use of grommets , O-rings , or potting . Hybrid connectors allow the intermixing of many connector types, usually by way of a housing with inserts. These housings may also allow intermixing of electrical and non-electrical interfaces, examples of

3726-415: A new game platform. Kaplan hired Miner to run the hardware side of the newly formed company, "Hi-Toro". The system was code-named "Lorraine" in keeping with Miner's policy of giving systems female names, in this case the company president's wife, Lorraine Morse. When Kaplan left the company late in 1982, Miner was promoted to head engineer and the company relaunched as Amiga Corporation. The Amiga hardware

3864-820: A non-standard 19-pin D-sub for connecting external floppy disk drives. Atari also used this connector on their 16-bit computer range for attaching hard disk drives and the Atari laser printer , where it was known as both the ACSI (Atari Computer System Interface) port and the DMA bus port. The Commodore Amiga used an equally non-standard 23-pin version for both its video output (male) and its port for daisy-chaining up to three extra external floppy disk drives (female). In professional audio, several connections use DB-25 connectors : In broadcast and professional video, parallel digital

4002-710: A notch to ensure proper orientation, while Mini-DIN plugs have a plastic projection that fits into a corresponding hole in the socket (they also have a notched metal skirt to provide secondary keying). Some connector housings are designed with locking mechanisms to prevent inadvertent disconnection or poor environmental sealing. Locking mechanism designs include locking levers of various sorts, jackscrews , screw-in shells, push-pull connector , and toggle or bayonet systems. Some connectors, particularly those with large numbers of contacts, require high forces to connect and disconnect. Locking levers and jackscrews and screw-in shells for such connectors frequently serve both to retain

4140-519: A predecessor to Blender . Poor marketing and the failure of later models to repeat the technological advances of the first systems resulted in Commodore quickly losing market share to the rapidly dropping prices of IBM PC compatibles (which gained 256 color graphics in 1987), as well as the fourth generation of video game consoles . Commodore ultimately went bankrupt in April 1994 after a version of

4278-503: A series of technical upgrades known as the ECS and AGA , which added higher resolution displays among many other improvements and simplifications. The Amiga line sold an estimated 4,910,000 machines over its lifetime. The machines were most popular in the UK and Germany, with about 1.5 million sold in each country, and sales in the high hundreds of thousands in other European nations. The machine

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4416-443: A set of libraries . The software libraries may include software tools to adjust resolution , screen colors, pointers and screenmodes. The standard Intuition interface is limited to display depths of 8 bits , while RTG makes it possible to handle higher depths like 24-bits . The sound chip, named Paula, supports four PCM sound channels (two for the left speaker and two for the right) with 8-bit resolution for each channel and

4554-566: A sliding latch to lock the connectors together instead of the usual hex studs with threaded holes. The sliding latch was intended to be quicker to engage and disengage and to work in places where jackscrews could not be used for reasons of component shape. In vehicles, DE-9 connectors are commonly used in Controller Area Networks (CAN): female connectors are on the bus while male connectors are on devices. A female 9-pin connector on an IBM compatible personal computer may be

4692-468: A special tool, can assemble connectors much faster and more reliably, and make repairs easier. The number of times a connector can connect and disconnect with its counterpart while meeting all its specifications is termed as mating cycles and is an indirect measure of connector lifespan. The material used for connector contact, plating type and thickness is a major factor that determines the mating cycles. Plug and socket connectors are usually made up of

4830-427: A thin surface layer that increases resistance, thus contributing to heat buildup and intermittent connections. However, remating or reseating a connector can alleviate the issue of surface corrosion, since each cycle scrapes a microscopic layer off the surface of the contact(s), exposing a fresh, unoxidised surface. Many connectors used for industrial and high-reliability applications are circular in cross section, with

4968-404: A threaded stud fastening the connectors to the metal panel. They also have threaded sockets to receive jackscrews on the cable shell, holding the plug and socket together. Occasionally the nuts may be found on a cable end connector if it is expected to connect to another cable end (see the male DE-9 pictured). When screened cables are used, the shields are connected to the overall screens of

5106-486: A type of solderless connection, using mechanical friction and uniform deformation to secure a connector to a pre-stripped wire (usually stranded). Crimping is used in splice connectors, crimped multipin plugs and sockets, and crimped coaxial connectors. Crimping usually requires a specialised crimping tool, but the connectors are quick and easy to install and are a common alternative to solder connections or insulation displacement connectors. Effective crimp connections deform

5244-582: Is a digital video interface that uses DB-25 connectors, per the SMPTE 274M specification adopted in the late 1990s. The more common SMPTE 259M serial digital interface (SDI) uses BNC connectors for digital video signal transfer. DC-37 connectors are commonly used in hospital facilities as an interface between hospital beds and nurse call systems, allowing for the connection and signaling of Nurse Call, Bed Exit, and Cord out including TV entertainment and lighting controls. The comparatively rare DC-37 connector

5382-489: Is a circular electrical plug/receptacle pair with 12mm OD mating threads, used in NMEA 2000 , DeviceNet , IO-Link , some kinds of Industrial Ethernet , etc. A disadvantage of the circular design is its inefficient use of panel space when used in arrays, when compared to rectangular connectors. Circular connectors commonly use backshells , which provide physical and electromagnetic protection, whilst sometimes also providing

5520-471: Is a connector that installs on the surface of a bulkhead or enclosure, and mates with its reciprocal, the plug . According to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers , the stationary (more fixed) connector of a pair is classified as a jack (denoted J), usually attached to a piece of equipment as in a chassis-mount or panel-mount connector. The movable (less fixed) connector is classified as

5658-468: Is for RS-232 serial communications, though the standard did not make this connector mandatory. RS-232 devices originally used the DB-25, but for many applications the less common signals were omitted, allowing a DE-9 to be used. The standard specifies a male connector for terminal equipment and a female connector for modems, but many variations exist. IBM PC-compatible computers tend to have male connectors at

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5796-464: Is no MIDI Thru provided.) Creative Labs introduced this adaptation. The Neo Geo AES game console also used the DA-15 connector, however, the pins are wired differently and it is therefore not compatible with the regular DA-15 PC game controllers. The Nintendo Famicom 's controllers were hardwired but also included a DA-15 expansion port for additional controllers. Many clones of the hardware used

5934-468: Is not standardized between manufacturers and may require special cables. DE-9 connectors were used for some Token Ring networks as well as other computer networks . Originally in the 1980s Ethernet network interface cards or devices were connected using Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) cables to Medium Attachment Units that then connected to 10BASE5 and later 10BASE2 or 10BASE-T network cabling. The AUI cables used DA-15 connectors albeit with

6072-516: Is often implemented in the game connectors on third-party sound cards, for example, the Sound Blaster line from Creative Labs . The standard straight game adapter connector (introduced by IBM) has three ground pins and four +5 V power pins, and the MIDI adaptation replaces one of the grounds and one of the +5 V pins, both on the bottom row of pins, with MIDI In and MIDI Out signal pins. (There

6210-430: Is often used in power connectors to protect equipment, e.g. connecting safety ground first. It is also employed for digital signals, as a method to sequence connections properly in hot swapping . Many connectors are keyed with some mechanical component (sometimes called a keyway ), which prevents mating in an incorrect orientation. This can be used to prevent mechanical damage to connectors, from being jammed in at

6348-452: The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer . The ZX Spectrum lacks a built-in joystick connector of any kind but aftermarket interfaces provided the ability to connect DE-9 joysticks. NEC 's home computers (e.g. PC-88 , PC-98 ) also used DE-9 connectors for game controllers, depending on the sound card used. The Fairchild Channel F System II and Bally Astrocade use DE-9 connectors for their detachable joystick as well. Both are incompatible with

6486-763: The Amiga computers are usually labeled DB-23 , even though their shell size is two pins smaller than ordinary DB sockets. Several computers also used a non-standard 19-pin D-sub connector, sometimes called DB-19, including Macintosh (external floppy drive), Atari ST (external hard drive), and NeXT ( Megapixel Display monitor and laser printer ). Reflecting the same confusion of the letters DB with just D as mentioned above, high-density connectors are also often called DB-15HD (or even DB-15 or HD-15), DB-26HD (HD-26), DB-44HD, DB-62HD, and DB-78HD connectors, respectively, where HD stands for high density . Cannon also produced combo D-subs with larger contacts in place of some of

6624-589: The Amiga 1000 . They were first offered for sale in August, but by October only 50 had been built, all of which were used by Commodore. Machines only began to arrive in quantity in mid-November, meaning they missed the Christmas buying rush. By the end of the year, they had sold 35,000 machines, and severe cashflow problems made the company pull out of the January 1986 CES. Bad or entirely missing marketing, forcing

6762-492: The Amiga 500 , was introduced in 1987 along with the more expandable Amiga 2000 . The Amiga 3000 was introduced in 1990, followed by the Amiga 500 Plus , and Amiga 600 in March 1992, followed by the Amiga 1200 and Amiga 4000 . Estimates of Amiga sales figures vary, with several older sources presenting values between 4.85 (purely Commodore Amiga sales) and 5.29 million (including Escom sales). While early advertisements cast

6900-455: The Apple IIe also used a DA-15F. The Apple IIc used a DA-15F for an auxiliary video port which was not RGB but provided the necessary signals to derive RGB. The 1977 Atari Video Computer System game console uses modified DE-9 connectors (male on the system, female on the cable) for its game controller connectors. The Atari joystick ports have bodies entirely of molded plastic without

7038-735: The Atari ST —released earlier the same year—as well as the Macintosh and Acorn Archimedes . Based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor , the Amiga differs from its contemporaries through the inclusion of custom hardware to accelerate graphics and sound, including sprites and a blitter , and a pre-emptive multitasking operating system called AmigaOS . The Amiga 1000 was released in July 1985, but production problems kept it from becoming widely available until early 1986. The best-selling model,

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7176-542: The Atari Video Computer System 's TIA . When complete, the team began developing a much more sophisticated set of chips, CTIA , ANTIC and POKEY , that formed the basis of the Atari 8-bit computers . With the 8-bit line's launch in 1979, the team once again started looking at a next generation chipset. Nolan Bushnell had sold the company to Warner Communications in 1978, and the new management

7314-406: The C language, and the entire system became AmigaOS. The system was enclosed in a pizza box form factor case; a late change was the introduction of vertical supports on either side of the case to provide a "garage" under the main section of the system where the keyboard could be stored. The first model was announced in 1985 as simply "The Amiga from Commodore", later to be retroactively dubbed

7452-503: The Centronics port found on the printer itself, which was inconveniently large for direct placement on the expansion cards). Many uninterruptible power supply units have a DE-9F connector on them in order to signal to the attached computer via an RS-232 interface. Often these do not send data serially to the computer but instead use the handshaking control lines to indicate low battery, power failure, or other conditions. Such usage

7590-836: The OpalVision card was popular, although less featured and supported than the Video Toaster. Low-cost time base correctors (TBC) specifically designed to work with the Toaster quickly came to market, most of which were designed as standard Amiga bus cards. Various manufacturers started producing PCI busboards for the A1200, A3000 and A4000, allowing standard Amiga computers to use PCI cards such as graphics cards, Sound Blaster sound cards, 10/100 Ethernet cards, USB cards, and television tuner cards. Other manufacturers produced hybrid boards that contained an Intel x86 series chip, allowing

7728-587: The central processing unit (CPU). This architecture gave the Amiga a performance edge over its competitors, particularly for graphics-intensive applications and games. The architecture uses two distinct bus subsystems: the chipset bus and the CPU bus. The chipset bus allows the coprocessors and CPU to address "Chip RAM" . The CPU bus provides addressing to conventional RAM, ROM and the Zorro II or Zorro III expansion subsystems. This enables independent operation of

7866-429: The gender of the part. Each shell size usually (see below for exceptions) corresponds to a certain number of pins or sockets: A with 15, B with 25, C with 37, D with 50, and E with 9. For example, DB-25 denotes a D-sub with a 25-position shell size and a 25-position contact configuration. The contacts in each row of these connectors are spaced 326/3000 of an inch apart, or approximately 0.1087 inches (2.76 mm), and

8004-559: The physical layer in the OSI model of networking. In addition to the classes mentioned above, connectors are characterised by their pinout , method of connection , materials, size, contact resistance , insulation , mechanical durability, ingress protection , lifetime (number of cycles), and ease of use. It is usually desirable for a connector to be easy to identify visually, rapid to assemble, inexpensive, and require only simple tooling. In some cases an equipment manufacturer might choose

8142-611: The 1920s by Wilhelm Harold Frederick. In the 1950s, Francois Bonhomme popularised hyperboloid contacts with his "Hypertac" connector, which was later acquired by Smiths Group . During the following decades, the connectors steadily gained popularity, and are still used for medical, industrial, military, aerospace, and rail applications (particularly trains in Europe). Pogo pin or spring loaded connectors are commonly used in consumer and industrial products, where mechanical resilience and ease of use are priorities. The connector consists of

8280-436: The 2000s. AmigaOS has influenced replacements, clones, and compatible software such as MorphOS and AROS . Currently Belgian company Hyperion Entertainment maintains and develops AmigaOS 4 , which is an official and direct descendant of AmigaOS 3.1 – the last system made by Commodore for the original Amiga computers. Jay Miner joined Atari, Inc. in the 1970s to develop custom integrated circuits , and led development of

8418-566: The 68k CPU and run Linux on the PPC via project Linux APUS, but a PowerPC-native AmigaOS promised by Amiga Technologies GmbH was not available when the PowerUP boards first appeared. 24-bit graphics cards and video cards were also available. Graphics cards were designed primarily for 2D artwork production, workstation use, and later, gaming. Video cards are designed for inputting and outputting video signals, and processing and manipulating video. In

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8556-520: The A600 and A1200. They revert the system to temporarily boot in Kickstart v1.3. The keyboard on Amiga computers is similar to that found on a mid-80s IBM PC: Ten function keys, a numeric keypad, and four separate directional arrow keys. Caps Lock and Control share space to the left of A. Absent are Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys: These functions are accomplished on Amigas by pressing shift and

8694-486: The AGA chipset (A1200 and A4000) also have non-EHB 64, 128, 256, and 262144 ( HAM8 Mode ) color modes and a palette expanded from 4096 to 16.8 million colors . The Amiga chipset can genlock , which is the ability to adjust its own screen refresh timing to match an incoming NTSC or PAL video signal. When combined with setting transparency, this allows an Amiga to overlay an external video source with graphics. This ability made

8832-623: The Amiga 1000, v1.2 and v1.3 for the A500, Kickstart v2.1 on A500+, Kickstart v2.2 for A600 and dual ROMs for Kickstart v3.0 and 3.1 for A1200 and A4000. After Commodore's demise there have been new Kickstart v3.1 ROMs made available for both the A500 and A600 Computers. Amiga Software is mostly backward compatible, but v2.1 ROMs and newer differ slightly, which can cause software glitches with earlier programs. To help address this and to get earlier programs to work with later Kickstart ROMs, some tools have been produced such as RELOKIK 1.4 and MAKE IT WORK! for

8970-468: The Amiga brand to Amiga, Inc. , without having released any products. Amiga, Inc. licensed the rights to sell hardware using the AmigaOne brand to Eyetech Group and Hyperion Entertainment . In 2019, Amiga, Inc. sold its intellectual property to Amiga Corporation. The Amiga has a custom chipset consisting of several coprocessors which handle audio, video, and direct memory access independently of

9108-506: The Amiga packaged as a game console, the Amiga CD32 , failed in the marketplace. Escom of Germany, who acquired Commodore properties, continued developing the Amiga line for just under two more years until it also went bankrupt. Since the demise of Commodore and Escom, various groups have marketed successors to the original Amiga line, including Eyetech , ACube Systems Srl and A-EON Technology who have produced AmigaOne computers since

9246-406: The Amiga popular for many applications, and provides the ability to do character generation and CGI effects far more cheaply than earlier systems. This ability has been frequently utilized by wedding videographers, TV stations and their weather forecasting divisions (for weather graphics and radar), advertising channels, music video production, and desktop videographers. The NewTek Video Toaster

9384-494: The Amiga to control up to eight million digitally controlled external audio, lighting, automation, relay and voltage control channels spread around a large theme park, for example. See Amiga software for more information on these applications. Other devices included the following: The Commodore A2232 board provides seven RS-232C serial ports in addition to the Amiga's built-in serial port. Each port can be driven independently at speeds of 50 to 19,200 bits/s . There is, however,

9522-451: The Amiga to emulate a PC. PowerPC upgrades with Wide SCSI controllers, PCI busboards with Ethernet, sound and 3D graphics cards, and tower cases allowed the A1200 and A4000 to survive well into the late nineties. Expansion boards were made by Richmond Sound Design that allow their show control and sound design software to communicate with their custom hardware frames either by ribbon cable or fiber optic cable for long distances, allowing

9660-463: The Atari connector. Many Apple II computers also use DE-9 connectors for joysticks, but they have a female port on the computer and a male on the controller, use analog rather than digital sticks, and the pinout is completely unlike that used on the aforementioned systems. DE-9 connectors were not used for game ports on the Macintosh, Apple III , IBM PC compatibles , or most game consoles outside

9798-643: The Centronics C50 connector typically found on the peripheral, supplying a separate return contact for each signal), while older Sun hardware uses DD-50 connectors for Fast-SCSI equipment. As SCSI variants from Ultra2 onwards used differential signaling, the Macintosh DB-25 SCSI interface became obsolete. D-subminiature connectors are often used in industrial products, the DA-15 version being commonly used on rotary and linear encoders . The early Macintosh and late Apple II computers used

9936-431: The Commodore 64 in the low-end market. These new designs were released in 1987 as the Amiga 2000 and Amiga 500 , the latter of which went on to widespread success and became their best selling model. Similar high-end/low-end models would make up the Amiga line for the rest of its history; follow-on designs included the Amiga 3000 / Amiga 500 Plus / Amiga 600 , and the Amiga 4000 / Amiga 1200 . These models incorporated

10074-545: The D-sub family uses names such as HD-50 and HD-68 , and has a D-shaped shell about half the width of a DB-25. They are common in SCSI attachments. The original D-sub connectors are now defined by an international standard, IEC 60807-3 / DIN  41652. The United States military also maintains another specification for D-subminiature connectors, the MIL-DTL-24308 standard. Smaller connectors have been derived from

10212-422: The D-sub including the microminiature D (micro-D) and nanominiature D (nano-D) which are trademarks of ITT Cannon. Micro-D is about half the length of a D-sub and Nano-D is about half the length of Micro-D. Their primary applications are in military and space-grade technology such as SpaceWire networks . The MIL-SPEC for Micro-D is MIL-DTL-83513 and for Nano-D is MIL-DTL-32139. The widest application of D-subs

10350-442: The DA-15 standard connector. "VGA adapters" (i.e. DA-15 to DE-15 dongles) were available but sometimes monitor-specific, or they needed DIP switch configuration, as the Macintosh's monitor sense pins in particular were not identical with a VGA connector's DDC . The earlier Apple IIGS used the same physical DA-15 connector for the same purpose but with an incompatible pinout . A digital (and thus also incompatible) RGB adapter for

10488-662: The DD-78 which has four, and the DF-104 which has five rows in a new, larger shell. The double density series of D-sub connectors features even denser arrangements and consists of the DE-19, DA-31, DB-52, DC-79, and DD-100. These each have three rows of pins, except the DD-100, which has four. The above naming pattern was not always followed. Because personal computers first used DB-25 connectors for their serial and parallel ports, when

10626-672: The North American market, the NewTek Video Toaster was a video effects board that turned the Amiga into an affordable video processing computer that found its way into many professional video environments. One well-known use was to create the special effects in early series of Babylon 5 . Due to its NTSC -only design, it did not find a market in countries that used the PAL standard, such as in Europe. In those countries,

10764-459: The PC serial port began to use 9-pin connectors, they were often labeled as DB-9 instead of DE-9 connectors, due to an ignorance of the fact that B represented a shell size. It is now common to see DE-9 connectors sold as DB-9 connectors. DB-9 nearly always refers to a 9-pin connector with an E-size shell. The non-standard 23-pin D-sub connectors for external floppy drives and video output on most of

10902-538: The USA. To deliver ensured signal stability in extreme environments, traditional pin and socket design may become inadequate. Hyperboloid contacts are designed to withstand more extreme physical demands, such as vibration and shock. They also require around 40% less insertion force  – as low as 0.3 newtons (1 oz f ) per contact,  – which extends the lifespan, and in some cases offers an alternative to zero insertion force connectors. In

11040-572: The aforementioned examples. Sega switched to proprietary controller ports for the Saturn and Dreamcast . DA-15S connectors are used for PC joystick connectors, where each DA-15 connector supports two joysticks each with two analog axes and two buttons. In other words, one DA-15S game adapter connector has 4 analog potentiometer inputs and 4 digital switch inputs. This interface is strictly input-only, though it does provide +5 V DC power. Some joysticks with more than two axes or more than two buttons use

11178-518: The application. The absence of Num lock frees space for more mathematical symbols around the numeric pad. Like IBM-compatible computers, the mouse has two buttons, but in AmigaOS, pressing and holding the right button replaces the system status line at the top of the screen with a Maclike menu bar . As with Apple's Mac OS prior to Mac OS 8 , menu options are selected by releasing the button over that option, not by left clicking. Menu items that have

11316-550: The appropriate arrow key. The Amiga keyboard adds a Help key, which a function key usually acts as on PCs (usually F1). In addition to the Control and Alt modifier keys, the Amiga has 2 "Amiga" keys, rendered as "Open Amiga" and "Closed Amiga" similar to the Open/Closed Apple logo keys on Apple II keyboards. The left is used to manipulate the operating system (moving screens and the like) and the right delivers commands to

11454-418: The board. The connectors in the top row of the image are known as ring terminals and spade terminals (sometimes called fork or split ring terminals). Electrical contact is made by the flat surface of the ring or spade, while mechanically they are attached by passing a screw or bolt through them. The spade terminal form factor facilitates connections since the screw or bolt can be left partially screwed in as

11592-410: The cable and connector, and when this heat melts plastic dielectric, it can cause short circuits or "flared" (conical) insulation. Solder joints are also more prone to mechanical failure than crimped joints when subjected to vibration and compression. Since stripping insulation from wires is time-consuming, many connectors intended for rapid assembly use insulation-displacement connectors which cut

11730-428: The cables. This creates an electrically continuous screen covering the whole cable and connector system. The D-sub series of connectors was introduced by Cannon in 1952. Cannon's part-numbering system uses D as the prefix for the whole series, followed by one of A , B , C , D , or E denoting the shell size, followed by the number of pins or sockets, followed by either P (plug or pins) or S (socket) denoting

11868-706: The chip can address only 16 MB of physical memory and is implemented using a 16-bit arithmetic logic unit and has a 16-bit external data bus , so 32-bit computations are transparently handled as multiple 16-bit values at a performance cost. The later Amiga 2500 and the Amiga 3000 models use fully 32-bit, 68000-compatible processors from Motorola with improved performance and larger addressing capability. CPU upgrades were offered by both Commodore and third-party manufacturers. Most Amiga models can be upgraded either by direct CPU replacement or through expansion boards. Such boards often included faster and higher capacity memory interfaces and hard disk controllers. Towards

12006-473: The company's operations. Among these was the long-overdue cancellation of the now outdated PET and VIC-20 lines, as well as a variety of poorly selling Commodore 64 offshoots and the Commodore 900 workstation effort. Another one of the changes was to split the Amiga into two products, a new high-end version of the Amiga aimed at the creative market, and a cost-reduced version that would take over for

12144-660: The computer as an all-purpose business machine, especially when outfitted with the Sidecar IBM PC compatibility add-on, the Amiga was most commercially successful as a home computer , with a wide range of games and creative software. It also found a niche in video production with the Video Toaster hardware and software, and Amiga's audio hardware made it a popular platform for music tracker software. The processor and memory capacity enabled 3D rendering packages, including LightWave 3D , Imagine , and Traces,

12282-403: The connection and add strain relief. Metal solder buckets or solder cups are provided, which consist of a cylindrical cavity that an installer fills with solder before inserting the wire. When creating soldered connections, it is possible to melt the dielectric between pins or wires. This can cause problems because the thermal conductivity of metals causes heat to quickly distribute through

12420-458: The connector and/or cable from environmental or mechanical stress, or shield it from electromagnetic interference . Many types of backshells are available for different purposes, including various sizes, shapes, materials, and levels of protection. Backshells usually lock onto the cable with a clamp or moulded boot, and may be threaded for attachment to a mating receptacle. Backshells for military and aerospace use are regulated by SAE AS85049 within

12558-510: The connector when connected and to provide the force needed for connection and disconnection. Depending on application requirements, housings with locking mechanisms may be tested under various environmental simulations that include physical shock and vibration, water spray, dust, etc. to ensure the integrity of the electrical connection and housing seals. Backshells are a common accessory for industrial and high-reliability connectors, especially circular connectors . Backshells typically protect

12696-510: The contacts in D-sub connectors. The wire wrap and IDC connections styles had to contend with incompatible pin spacing to the 0.05 in ribbon cable or 0.1 in proto board grid, especially for larger pin counts. Electrical connector The connection may be removable (as for portable equipment), require a tool for assembly and removal, or serve as a permanent electrical joint between two points. An adapter can be used to join dissimilar connectors. Most electrical connectors have

12834-500: The development team to move to the east coast, notorious stability problems and other blunders limited sales in early 1986 to between 10,000 and 15,000 units a month. 120,000 units were reported as having been sold from the machine's launch up to the end of 1986. In late 1985, Thomas Rattigan was promoted to COO of Commodore, and then to CEO in February 1986. He immediately implemented an ambitious plan that covered almost all of

12972-513: The device and female connectors at the modems. Early Apple Macintosh models used DE-9 connectors for RS-422 multi-drop serial interfaces (which can operate as RS-232). Later Macintosh models use 8-pin miniature DIN connectors instead. On PCs, 25-pin and (beginning with the IBM PC/AT ) 9-pin plugs were used for the RS-232 serial ports; 25-pin sockets were used for parallel ports (instead of

13110-415: The early 1990s. Commodore UK's Kelly Sumner did not see Sega or Nintendo as competitors, but instead credited their marketing campaigns which spent over £40 million or $ 60,000,000 (equivalent to $ 130,000,000 in 2023) for promoting video games as a whole and thus helping to boost Amiga sales. In spite of his successes in making the company profitable and bringing the Amiga line to market, Rattigan

13248-465: The end of Commodore's time in charge of Amiga development, there were suggestions that Commodore intended to move away from the 68000 series to higher performance RISC processors, such as the PA-RISC . Those ideas were never developed before Commodore filed for bankruptcy. Despite this, third-party manufacturers designed upgrades featuring a combination of 68000 series and PowerPC processors along with

13386-507: The full 32-bit CPUs of the 68000 family such as the Motorola 68020 and Motorola 68030 , almost always with 32-bit memory and usually with FPUs and MMUs or the facility to add them. Later designs feature the Motorola 68040 or Motorola 68060 . Both CPUs feature integrated FPUs and MMUs. Many CPU accelerator cards also had integrated SCSI controllers. Phase5 designed the PowerUP boards ( Blizzard PPC and CyberStorm PPC ) featuring both

13524-641: The function of a circuit – so connectors should affect the function of a circuit as little as possible. Insecure mounting of connectors (primarily chassis-mounted) can contribute significantly to the risk of failure, especially when subjected to extreme shock or vibration. Other causes of failure are connectors inadequately rated for the applied current and voltage, connectors with inadequate ingress protection, and threaded backshells that are worn or damaged. High temperatures can also cause failure in connectors, resulting in an "avalanche" of failures – ambient temperature increases, leading to

13662-421: The future direction of the company. A number of Commodore employees followed him to his new company, Tramel Technology. This included a number of the senior technical staff, where they began development of a 68000-based machine of their own. In June, Tramiel arranged a no-cash deal to take over Atari, reforming Tramel Technology as Atari Corporation . As many Commodore technical staff had moved to Atari, Commodore

13800-490: The hyperboloid structure are usually anchored at each end by bending the tip into a groove or notch in the housing. Whilst hyperboloid contacts may be the only option to make a reliable connection in some circumstances, they have the disadvantage of taking up greater volume in a connector, which can cause problems for high-density connectors. They are also significantly more expensive than traditional pin and socket contacts, which has limited their uptake since their invention in

13938-574: The insulation as the wire is inserted. These generally take the form of a fork-shaped opening in the terminal, into which the insulated wire is pressed, which cut through the insulation to contact the conductor. To make these connections reliably on a production line, special tools accurately control the forces applied during assembly. On small scales, these tools tend to cost more than tools for crimped connections. Insulation displacement connectors are usually used with small conductors for signal purposes and at low voltage. Power conductors carrying more than

14076-441: The joystick ports; some games, such as Lemmings , were designed to take advantage of this. The Amiga was one of the first computers for which inexpensive sound sampling and video digitization accessories were available. As a result of this and the Amiga's audio and video capabilities, the Amiga became a popular system for editing and producing both music and video. Many expansion boards were produced for Amiga computers to improve

14214-498: The latter being pneumatic line connectors, and optical fiber connectors . Because hybrid connectors are modular in nature, they tend to simplify assembly, repair, and future modifications. They also allow the creation of composite cable assemblies that can reduce equipment installation time by reducing the number of individual cable and connector assemblies. Some connectors are designed such that certain pins make contact before others when inserted, and break first on disconnection. This

14352-463: The loan to be repaid at the end of the month, otherwise Amiga would forfeit the Lorraine design to Atari. During 1983, Atari lost over $ 1 million a week , due to the combined effects of the crash and the ongoing price war in the home computer market. By the end of the year, Warner was desperate to sell the company. In January 1984, Jack Tramiel resigned from Commodore due to internal battles over

14490-519: The metal of the connector past its yield point so that the compressed wire causes tension in the surrounding connector, and these forces counter each other to create a high degree of static friction . Due to the elastic element in crimped connections, they are highly resistant to vibration and thermal shock . Crimped contacts are permanent (i.e. the connectors and wire ends cannot be reused). Crimped plug-and-socket connectors can be classified as rear release or front release . This relates to

14628-545: The metal shield, and they omit the pair of fastening screws. In the years following, various video game consoles and home computers adopted the same connector for their own game ports , though they were not all interoperable. The most common wiring supported five connections for discrete signals (five switches, for up, down, left, and right movement, and a fire button), plus one pair of 100 kΩ potentiometers, or paddles , for analog input. Some computers supported additional buttons, and on some computers additional devices, such as

14766-425: The most flexible types of electrical connector available. One type of terminal block accepts wires that are prepared only by stripping a short length of insulation from the end. Another type, often called barrier strips , accepts wires that have ring or spade terminal lugs crimped onto the wires. Printed circuit board (PCB) mounted screw terminals let individual wires connect to a PCB through leads soldered to

14904-532: The normal contacts, for use for high-current, high-voltage, or co-axial inserts. The DB13W3 variant was commonly used for high-performance video connections; this variant provided 10 regular (#20) pins plus three coaxial contacts for the red, green, and blue video signals. Combo D-subs are currently manufactured in a broad range of configurations by other companies. Some variants have current ratings up to 40 A; others are waterproof and meet IP67 standards. A further family of connectors of similar appearance to

15042-463: The official logo of Escom subsidiary Amiga Technologies. CES attendees had trouble believing the computer being demonstrated had the power to display such a demo and searched in vain for the "real" computer behind it. A further developed version of the system was demonstrated at the June 1984 CES and shown to many companies in hopes of garnering further funding, but found little interest in a market that

15180-552: The partly 32-bit Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) in 1992. Each chipset consists of several coprocessors that handle graphics acceleration , digital audio, direct memory access and communication between various peripherals (e.g., CPU, memory and floppy disks). In addition, some models featured auxiliary custom chips that performed tasks such as SCSI control and display de-interlacing. All Amiga systems can display full-screen animated planar graphics with 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 ( EHB Mode ), or 4096 colors ( HAM Mode ). Models with

15318-504: The parts of a connector together are usually made of plastic, due to its insulating properties. Housings or backshells can be made of molded plastic and metal. Connector bodies for high-temperature use, such as thermocouples or associated with large incandescent lamps , may be made of fired ceramic material. The majority of connector failures result in intermittent connections or open contacts: Connectors are purely passive components – that is, they do not enhance

15456-525: The performance and capability of the hardware, such as memory expansions, SCSI controllers, CPU boards, and graphics boards. Other upgrades include genlocks , network cards for Ethernet , modems , sound cards and samplers, video digitizers , extra serial ports , and IDE controllers. Additions after the demise of Commodore company are USB cards. The most popular upgrades were memory, SCSI controllers and CPU accelerator cards. These were sometimes combined into one device. Early CPU accelerator cards used

15594-480: The plug's shield. Panel-mounted connectors usually have #4-40 UNC (as designated with the Unified Thread Standard ) jackscrews that accept screws on the cable end connector cover that are used for locking the connectors together and offering mechanical strain relief, and can be tightened with a 3/16" (or 5mm) hex socket. The hexagonal standoffs ( 4-40 bolts ) at both sides of each connector have

15732-509: The power LED had no relation to the filter's status, and a wire needed to be manually soldered between pins on the sound chip to disable the filter. Paula can read arbitrary waveforms at arbitrary rates and amplitudes directly from the system's RAM , using direct memory access (DMA), making sound playback without CPU intervention possible. Although the hardware is limited to four separate sound channels, software such as OctaMED uses software mixing to allow eight or more virtual channels, and it

15870-405: The rows are spaced 0.112 inches (2.84 mm) apart; the pins in the two rows are offset by half the distance between adjacent contacts in a row. This spacing is called normal density . The suffixes M and F (for male and female) are sometimes used instead of the original P and S for plug and socket. Later D-sub connectors added extra pins to the original shell sizes, and their names follow

16008-490: The same gender of connector, as in many Ethernet patch cables. In other applications the two ends are terminated differently, either with male and female of the same connector (as in an extension cord ), or with incompatible connectors, which is sometimes called an adapter cable . Plugs and sockets are widely used in various connector systems including blade connectors, breadboards , XLR connectors , car power outlets , banana connectors , and phone connectors . A jack

16146-564: The same pattern. For example, the DE-15, usually found in VGA cables, has 15 pins in three rows, all surrounded by an E size shell. The pins are spaced at 0.090 inches (2.3 mm) horizontally and 0.078 inches (2.0 mm) vertically, in what is called high density . The other connectors with the same pin spacing are the DA-26, DB-44, DC-62, DD-78 and DF-104. They all have three rows of pins, except

16284-563: The same shell size as DE-9 connectors (see above). The additional pins of the DE-15 VGA connector were used to add increasingly sophisticated monitor-sensing plug and play functionality. Many Apple Macintosh models, beginning with the Macintosh II, used DA-15 sockets for analog RGB video out. These connectors had the same number of pins as the above DE-15 connectors, but used the more traditional pin size, pin spacing, and size shell of

16422-423: The side of the connector where the pins are anchored: Many plug and socket connectors are attached to a wire or cable by soldering conductors to electrodes on the back of the connector. Soldered joints in connectors are robust and reliable if executed correctly, but are usually slower to make than crimped connections. When wires are to be soldered to the back of a connector, a backshell is often used to protect

16560-416: The signals designated for both joysticks. Conversely, Y-adapter cables are available that allow two separate joysticks to be connected to a single DA-15 game adapter port; if a joystick connected to one of these Y-adapters has more than two axes or buttons, only the first two of each will work. The IBM DA-15 PC game connector has been modified to add a (usually MPU-401 compatible) MIDI interface, and this

16698-568: The spade terminal is removed or attached. Their sizes can be determined by the gauge of the conducting wire, and the interior and exterior diameters. Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore from 1985 until 1994, with production by others for a number of years afterwards. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 16/32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphics and audio compared to previous 8-bit systems. These systems include

16836-522: The subsidiary company Amiga Technologies. They re-released the A1200 and A4000T, and introduced a new 68060 version of the A4000T. Amiga Technologies researched and developed the Amiga Walker prototype. They presented the machine publicly at CeBit, but Escom went bankrupt in 1996. Some Amigas were still made afterwards for the North American market by QuikPak, a small Pennsylvania -based firm who

16974-437: The subsystems. The CPU bus can be much faster than the chipset bus. CPU expansion boards may provide additional custom buses. Additionally, "busboards" or "bridgeboards" may provide ISA or PCI buses. The most popular models from Commodore, including the Amiga 1000 , Amiga 500 , and Amiga 2000 , use the Motorola 68000 as the CPU. From a developer's point of view, the 68000 provides a full suite of 32-bit operations, but

17112-599: The system hardware was being readied for production. At this time the operating system (OS) was not as ready, and led to a deal to port an OS known as TRIPOS to the platform. TRIPOS was a multitasking system that had been written in BCPL during the 1970s for the PDP-11 minicomputer , but later experimentally ported to the 68000. This early version was known as AmigaDOS and the GUI as Workbench. The BCPL parts were later rewritten in

17250-419: The tip of a bolt clamping onto a stripped conductor. They can be used to join multiple conductors, to connect wires to a printed circuit board , or to terminate a cable into a plug or socket. The clamping screw may act in the longitudinal axis (parallel to the wire) or the transverse axis (perpendicular to the wire), or both. Some disadvantages are that connecting wires is more difficult than simply plugging in

17388-581: The wires in a single action. Another very common use is so-called punch-down blocks used for terminating unshielded twisted pair wiring. Binding posts are a single-wire connection method, where stripped wire is screwed or clamped to a metal electrode. Such connectors are frequently used in electronic test equipment and audio. Many binding posts also accept a banana plug . Screw connections are frequently used for semi-permanent wiring and connections inside devices, due to their simple but reliable construction. The basic principle of all screw terminals involves

17526-435: The wrong angle or into the wrong connector, or to prevent incompatible or dangerous electrical connections, such as plugging an audio cable into a power outlet. Keying also prevents otherwise symmetrical connectors from being connected in the wrong orientation or polarity . Keying is particularly important for situations where there are many similar connectors, such as in signal electronics. For instance, XLR connectors have

17664-570: Was also found as the so-called " GeekPort " electronics experimentation breakout connector on the even rarer BeBox computer. DB-25 connectors are commonly used to carry analog signals for beam displacement and color control to laser projectors, as specified in the ISP-DB25 protocol published by the International Laser Display Association . There are at least seven different methods used to attach wires to

17802-438: Was designed by Miner, RJ Mical , and Dale Luck. A breadboard prototype for testing and development was largely completed by late 1983, and shown at the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). At the time, the operating system was not ready, so the machine was demonstrated with the "Boing Ball" demo, a real-time animation showing a red-and-white spinning ball bouncing and casting a shadow; this bouncing ball later became

17940-548: Was developed allowing these cards to be used transparently by the OS and software. Kickstart is the firmware upon which AmigaOS is bootstrapped . Its purpose is to initialize the Amiga hardware and core components of AmigaOS and then attempt to boot from a bootable volume , such as a floppy disk or hard disk drive. Most models (excluding the Amiga 1000) come equipped with Kickstart on an embedded ROM-chip . There are various editions of Kickstart ROMs starting with Kickstart v1.1 for

18078-406: Was in the final stages of the video game crash of 1983 . In March, Atari expressed a tepid interest in Lorraine for its potential use in a games console or home computer tentatively known as the 1850XLD . The talks were progressing slowly, and Amiga was running out of money. A temporary arrangement in June led to a $ 500,000 loan from Atari to Amiga to keep the company going. The terms required

18216-480: Was left with no workable path to design their own next-generation computer. The company approached Amiga offering to fund development as a home computer system. They quickly arranged to repay the Atari loan, ending that threat. The two companies were initially arranging a $ 4 million license agreement before Commodore offered $ 24 million to purchase Amiga outright. By late 1984, the prototype breadboard chipset had successfully been turned into integrated circuits, and

18354-625: Was less popular in North America, where an estimated 700,000 were sold. In the United States, the Amiga found a niche with enthusiasts and in vertical markets for video processing and editing. In Europe, it was more broadly popular as a home computer and often used for video games . Beginning in 1988 it overlapped with the 16-bit Mega Drive , then the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in

18492-488: Was made possible by the genlock ability of the Amiga. In 1988, the release of the Amiga A2024 fixed-frequency monochrome monitor with built-in framebuffer and flicker fixer hardware provided the Amiga with a choice of high-resolution graphic modes (1024×800 for NTSC and 1024×1024 for PAL). ReTargetable Graphics is an API for device drivers mainly used by 3rd party graphics hardware to interface with AmigaOS via

18630-434: Was much more interested in the existing lines than development of new products that might cut into their sales. Miner wanted to start work with the new Motorola 68000 , but management was only interested in another 6502 based system. Miner left the company, and, for a time, the industry. In 1979, Larry Kaplan left Atari and founded Activision . In 1982, Kaplan was approached by a number of investors who wanted to develop

18768-683: Was possible for software to mix two hardware channels to achieve a single 14-bit resolution channel by playing with the volumes of the channels in such a way that one of the source channels contributes the most significant bits and the other the least. The quality of the Amiga's sound output, and the fact that sound hardware is part of the standard chipset and easily addressed by software, were standout features of Amiga hardware unavailable on PC platforms for years . Third-party sound cards exist that provide DSP functions , multi-track direct-to-disk recording , multiple hardware sound channels and 16-bit and beyond resolutions. A retargetable sound API called AHI

18906-407: Was soon forced out in a power struggle with majority shareholder, Irving Gould . This is widely regarded as the turning point, as further improvements to the Amiga were eroded by rapid improvements in other platforms. Commodore shut down the Amiga division on April 26, 1994, and filed for bankruptcy three days later. Commodore's assets were purchased by Escom , a German PC manufacturer, who created

19044-480: Was the manufacturer of Amigas for Escom. After a reported sale to VisCorp fell through, a U.S. Wintel PC manufacturer, Gateway 2000 , eventually purchased the Amiga branch and technology in 1997. QuickPak attempted but failed to license Amiga from Gateway and build new models. Gateway was then working on a brand new Amiga platform, likely encouraged by a desire to be independent of Microsoft and Intel . However this did not materialize and in 2000, Gateway sold

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