Amiga chips & more

[Gavilan]

Hi there guys: im trying to write an article (a "techie article for local newspaper") about Amiga chips

I would like to know if its possible to know what chips are all the common chips of the Amiga

I mean, for example, i know the kickstart roms are based or are similar to M27C400.

Can anybody point me in the right direction about where could i find datasheets or info about all the other chips than form the Amiga?

Model of chip, brand, year of production, how many pins it has, etc etc etc

Any extra info will be much much apopreciated

Kind Regards

Sebastian

[Fingerlickin_B]

This would be a good start for what they are called & what they do:
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showcat.cgi?CATID=40

PZ.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Gavilan

Can anybody point me in the right direction about where could i find datasheets or info about all the other chips that form the Amiga?

There really isnt that much. These chips were not on general sale and so there were no datasheets.

Originally Posted by Gavilan

Model of chip, brand, year of production, how many pins it has, etc etc etc

Again no such single source of information exists even though I've done a bit of research into a couple of the chips (Agnus & Kickstart).

http://aminet.net/package/docs/hyper/TBOCL
http://aminet.net/package/docs/hard/pinouts
http://aminet.net/package/misc/emu/winguide

There are mistakes and omissions in both of the above sources.

[chiark]

There's two sorts of chips in the amiga: "custom" chips, made by MOS or under license to MOS/CBM designs, and general purpose ones...

There's latches, logic chips and the like in there, but the only general purpose chip that I can think of that's not a commodore-specific part is the CPU (motorola 68000, more info available... well, anywhere!). Other machines have some standard bits in there, such as the WD SCSI chip in the 3000. I'm sure others will think of other examples, but sound, display, IO, etc are taken care of by the custom chipset.

(CBM owned MOS, and it gave them an advantage in the early days of computing...)

One of the best summaries showing what chip went where is on:
http://www.amiga-stuff.com/hardware/
Keep digging because there's a load of stuff in there

Also, a list of chips and version numbers:
http://l8r.net/technical/t-achips.shtml

Good luck! Our local newspaper covers stories about lost cats and people who park inconsiderately...

[alexh]

MOS was renamed CSG after it was bought by Commodore.

[chiark]

in 1976, but continued to use the name MOS on their chips until about 1989. Some of my miggys are right mongrels, even down to having one CIA labelled CSG, and the other labelled MOS .

@Gavilan, if you're interested in the history then you could do worse than read "On the edge", the story of Commodore...

[alexh]

What is kinda cool is that the CSG FAB leaked toxic chemicals from a waste holding tank into the ground water and it became an environmental catastrophe.

The site is still on the books at the EPA (environmental protection agency) and is regularly monitored.

Because CSG and it's post-commodore company went bankrupt there was no money for the cleanup

[gklinger]

Originally Posted by alexh

What is kinda cool is that the CSG FAB leaked toxic chemicals from a waste holding tank into the ground water and it became an environmental catastrophe.

If you're curious you can find pictures of the facility here.