Standard Amiga Models / Configs

[Feltzkrone]

Hi!

1. Can anyone tell me what standard Amiga models were released and which config settings cover these models?

2. You can have chip, fast, slow and some other memory, can anyone explain how it is used and in which order the RAM is assigned to which address ranges (e.g. fastmem is behind chipmem but what's about slow and the other ram types)?

3. What type of memory did you get if you bought a 512kb extension for A500?

I need this info because I'm switching ADFRen's compatibility info to a standard config info (so that for each game the fastest minimalist config is given).

[gary]

This is hard to answer as there were quite a few models released with many revisions made to the motherboards.

Chip memory = Used by the custom chips as well as the processor (eg: graphics/sound). Custom chips can't access fast memory directly - only 'chip' memory.

(SLOW/FAKE) Fast Memory = What many of the trapdoor 512k expansions provided. Used the same access method as chip memory therfore it was just as slow as chip memory. Some of these cards enabled them to be used as an extra 512k of chip memory bringing chip memory to 1Meg.

(REAL) Fast Memory = Only the processor has access to this memory and it does not have to wait in the queue to access it along with the custom chips (ie: it is faster).

For game playing the basic configurations would be...

OCS/ECS games:

Amiga 500 MC68000 7mhz
Kickstart 1.2 ROM
512k chip memory
512k (FAKE/SLOW) fast memory

AGA games:

Amiga 1200 MC68020 14mhz
Kickstart 3.0 ROM
2 Meg chip memory
* 4 meg (REAL) fast memory (although the standard 1200 only had 2 Meg chip some of the later games required more memory)

I had a Kickstart 1.2 A500 1/2 meg chip 1/2 meg fast for years and recall no problems running non-AGA games with only exceptions being games like STARDUST which required the 1/2 meg fake fast memory to be set as chip memory to give a full 1 megabyte chip memory.

[Djay]

with the latest release of WinUAE, there is a help file, which gives basic specs for the Amiga models, should be enough info to get the right spec..

you could also try the brochures at http://www.commodorebillboard.com/Html/Index2.htm , they have scans of the official spec sheets!!!

[RetroMan]

All the standart configs of amiga models can also be found here ---> http://www.amiga-society.de/ahwbook/compod.html

[AmiGer]

Nice link, RetroMan...

[Feltzkrone]

Thanks for the info!

But now, wasn't it that A500 could either contain an OCS or an ECS chipset and could either use kick1.2 or kick1.3? What's the difference between these and when was ECS used (did kick1.3 and ECS appeard together only?)

[AmiGer]

If I remember right, the "normal" A500 has the OCS chipset and the A500+ the ECS. The ECS supports more than 512kb chip ram depending on the Agnus Chip installed. My A500+ had 1M chip ram... The A500 had both kickstart 1.2 and 1.3 depending on the year it has been released.

[Syko]

In the A500, you had the Agnus chip which addressed 512KB of CHIP mem. The late models of this had the Fat Agnus which would address 1MB of CHIP mem. Then finaly you had the A500+ with the Obese Agnus which addressed 2MB CHIP mem. (As long as you had board revision 5a or better upgrading wasn't too hard )

Some of the late models of A500 (late 91?) also had ECS instead of OCS, and some had WB2.04 instead of WB1.3 or WB1.2 (mine came with WB1.2 in early 87!) AND as already said, there was the slow/fast expansion RAM that you may or may not have fitted... so Gary's spot on when he say's it's hard to answer this one!

BUT generaly if you set 7MHz 68000, OCS, 512KB CHIP, 0KB SLOW/FAST, 0KB REAL FAST, no gfx card options, then you should be pretty close to the original...

Next time ask for the meaning of life or some other easy one

[fiath]

+ More compatible CPU
+ Cycle exact timing
+ 100% disk speed

etc. etc.