Commodore Amiga 1000

The Amiga 1000 introduced the Amiga’s custom-chip architecture, pre-emptive multitasking and multimedia capabilities in an elegant desktop system. Its keyboard slid beneath the case and early machines carried the development team’s signatures inside the cover.

Its graphics, sampled sound and responsive operating system set a new standard for multimedia personal computers in 1985.

Notable Features

• Kickstart firmware is loaded from a special disk into writable control-store memory.
• The case interior includes embossed signatures from the Amiga development team.

Historical Significance

• Its graphics, sampled sound and responsive operating system set a new standard for multimedia personal computers in 1985.

Collector’s Notes

• Chipset and motherboard revision, Kickstart ROM, RAM expansion, accelerator cards and original keyboard or mouse should be documented.
• Memory, storage, displays and expansion hardware should be documented because configurations often changed during a system’s working life.

Specifications

Technical Information
Name	Commodore Amiga 1000
Manufacturer	Commodore
Launched	Tuesday, January 1, 1985
Discontinued	1987
Country	United States
CPU	Motorola 68000 at 7.16 MHz NTSC or 7.09 MHz PAL
Units Sold
Form Factor	Low-profile desktop computer
Power	Internal or external mains supply according to model
Networking	Serial, parallel, MIDI and third-party Ethernet or networking options according to model
Operating System	AmigaOS 1.x loaded from Kickstart and Workbench disks
Expansion / I/O	Side expansion, floppy, serial, parallel, RGB, composite and two controller ports
Keyboard	Detached keyboard stored beneath the case
Storage	Built-in 880KB 3.5-inch floppy; external drives and hard disks
Sound	Paula four-channel 8-bit PCM stereo
Colours	Up to 32 colours normally, 64 in EHB and 4096 in HAM on OCS/ECS; AGA models support up to 256 indexed colours and HAM8 from 24-bit palettes
Graphics	Original Amiga chipset with hardware sprites, blitter, Copper and Hold-And-Modify mode
Display	RGB, composite and RF-compatible display options
ROM	256KB writable control store loaded with Kickstart from disk
RAM	256KB Chip RAM standard plus 256KB front expansion
CPU Speed	7.16 MHz NTSC or 7.09 MHz PAL