Amiga
Mid-80s computer family with custom graphics and sound hardware.
The Amiga is a line of personal computers first sold by Commodore in 1985, continuing until the company went bankrupt in 1994, with later models made by other firms. It arrived alongside other mid-1980s machines that used 16-bit or 32-bit processors, at least 256 KB of RAM, and a mouse-driven graphical interface—such as the Atari ST (its main rival), the Macintosh, the Apple IIGS, and the Archimedes. What set the Amiga apart was its custom chips that sped up graphics and sound, featuring sprites, a blitter, and four channels of sampled audio. Its operating system, AmigaOS, supported pre-emptive multitasking and included a desktop environment named Workbench.
The first model, the Amiga 1000, used a Motorola 68000 processor and launched in July 1985, though production delays meant it didn't reach many customers until early 1986. Early ads pitched it as a general-purpose business machine, especially with the Sidecar add-on for IBM PC compatibility, but it found its greatest success as a home computer, popular for video games and creative software. The best-selling version, the Amiga 500, debuted in 1987 alongside the more expandable Amiga 2000. The 1990 Amiga 3000 brought minor graphics upgrades through the Enhanced Chip Set, which later models also used.
The Amiga carved out a niche in audio and multimedia. The first music tracker was created for it, and it became a go-to platform for making music. 3D rendering tools like LightWave 3D, Imagine, and Traces (a forerunner of Blender) started on the Amiga. The 1990 third-party Video Toaster turned the Amiga into a relatively cheap option for video production. Many games, including *Populous* (1989) and *Lemmings* (1991), were first developed on the Amiga before being ported elsewhere.
The Amiga eventually lost ground to IBM PC compatibles, which gained 256-color VGA graphics in 1987, and to fourth-generation game consoles, contributing to Commodore's 1994 bankruptcy. Commodore is estimated to have sold nearly five million Amigas. Since then, various groups have released spiritual successors.
- introduced
- 1985
- discontinued
- 1994 (Commodore bankruptcy)
- field
- Personal computing
- manufacturer
- Commodore
- known_for
- Custom graphics and sound hardware, pre-emptive multitasking OS, video game and multimedia niche
- best_selling_model
- Amiga 500 (1987)
Lore & Background
The Amiga hardware was designed by Jay Miner, RJ Mical, and Dale Luck. A wire-wrapped prototype was largely completed by late 1983 and shown at the January 1984 Consumer Electronics Show. A further developed version was demonstrated at the June 1984 CES. Amiga Corporation ran out of money and received a $500,000 loan from Atari in June 1984, with terms that if not repaid, the Lorraine design would be forfeited to Atari. Commodore, left without a next-generation home computer path after Jack Tramiel resigned, offered to purchase Amiga outright for $24 million. By late 1984, the prototype chipset had been turned into integrated circuits. The operating system was not ready, leading to a deal to port TRIPOS, a multitasking system written in BCPL for the PDP-11. This became AmigaDOS, while the graphical user interface, Workbench, was developed separately. The overall operating system, AmigaOS, includes the Exec kernel (written in assembly) and AmigaDOS, which was later rewritten from BCPL to C.
Reader's Guide
The Amiga established a niche in audio and multimedia. The first music tracker was written for the Amiga, and it became a popular platform for music creation. 3D rendering packages such as LightWave 3D, Imagine, and Traces (a predecessor to Blender) originated on the system. The 1990 third-party Video Toaster made the Amiga a comparatively low-cost option for video production. Many video games originated on the Amiga before being converted to other platforms, including Populous (1989) and Lemmings (1991). The Amiga eventually started losing market share to IBM PC compatibles, which gained 256-color VGA graphics in 1987, and the fourth generation of video game consoles, leading to Commodore's bankruptcy in 1994. Commodore is estimated to have sold nearly five million Amigas. Various groups have since released spiritual successors.
Did You Know?
- The Amiga 1000 was based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor and released in July 1985, but production problems kept it from becoming widely available until early 1986.
- The bestselling model, the Amiga 500, was introduced in 1987 along with the more expandable Amiga 2000.
- The first music tracker was written for the Amiga, and it became a popular platform for music creation.
- The 1990 third-party Video Toaster made the Amiga a comparatively low-cost option for video production.
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