{fA4000 report {a put the Amiga back on the technological leading edge. Denny Atkin takes us through the advanced features of Commodore's Although similar in size and style top-end Amiga. to the A3000, the A4000 is a completely new design featuring what The view zooms in on a star-filled Commodore calls the Advanced Grapghics sky. Twisting and turning, we pass a Architecture. Gone are the familiar colourful nebula, then zoom in at 30 Agnus and Denise chips: they've been frames a second on a planet, a replaced by Alice and Lisa, known multihued gas giant. A fanfare plays together as the AA (Advanced Amiga) in the background as the credits pop chip set. While the AA chips are up on-screen. {eWelcome to Amiga: {f The{a upwardsly compatible with the orginal {fNext Generation.{a Amiga chip set with ECS, they add a number of new graphics modes that put If you're looking for an Amiga that Amiga graphics a step ahead of Super can do warp speed and do it in style, VGA. the new A4000 is for you. Equipped with a 25-MHz Motorola 68040 No longer are you stuck with only microprocessor, a new graphics chip 4,096 colours to choose from - the AA set and a 32-bit expansion bus, chip set provised a full 24-bit Commodore is counting on the A4000 to palette (16.8 million colours). All of the original graphics modes are 200 or 400, ECS VGA 640 * 480 or 960, supported, along with the new 64-, Super72 800 * 300 or 600, and 128-, and 256-colour modes. In SuperHires 1280 * 200 or 400. However addition, there's a new enhanced HAM you're no longer limited to 4 or 16 mode that supports over 256,000 colours in the highest resolution colours, depending upon resolution modes - you can now display 256,000 (Commodore says that with certain colour HAM in any mode, even 1280 * monitor and screen mode combinations, 400! There's also a feature called you could feasibly display all 16.8 mode promotion that eliminates the million colours simultaneously {e[Yes{a need for deinterlacer circuitry. {ebut Commodore are talking about a 256{a {e* 256 inch monitor in Hi-Res! -Ed]).{a For instance, as 640 * 400 screen cam be automatically opened in ECS VGA Since the enhanced HAM mode now 16-colour mode instead of standard sports 64 24-bit base colour interlaced Hi-Res. (Of course, registers, creating pictures without interlaced modes are still available the finging common in the original HAM for video work.) The AA chips have mode is relatively simple. full 32-bit access to memory, which allows them to perform many operations The AA graphics resolutions are the more quickly. Displaying a 16-colour same as those available in ECS. hi-res, overscan, interlaced Workbench Lo-Res 320 * 200 or 400, Hi-Res 640 * screen no longer causes the rest of the system to slow down. Note that access considerably. you'll need a VGA or multiscan monitor, such as Commodore's A1960, to Unlike previous Amigas, the A4000 utilise these new graphics modes. has no microprocessor on the motherboard. The 25-MHz 68040 is Integral to the {eAdvanced Graphics{a contained on a card that plugs into a {eArchitecture {a is version 3.0 of the 200-pin CPU slot on the motherboard Amiga operating system. This enhanced (This slot is physically and release includes full support for the electrically compatible with the AA graphics chips, as well as a number A3000's processor slot; it's likely of really cool operating system that the 040 card in the A4000 is functions for handling attatched identical to the one used in the screens, mode promotion, dynamic A3000T/040.) This has interesting palettes, hi-res sprites, Intuition implications for future Amiga models. double-buffering, and hypertext. Once I wouldn't be surprised if future 3.0 feature that's not really that AA-based Amigas with different useful but is quite visually processors utilise the same impressive is the ability to use IFF motherboard and basic components as pictures as backdrops on your the A4000. (The fact that the case Workbench screen. There's also a new identifies it as the A4000/040 seems file system that automatically caches to back this theory up.) Just change directory entries, speeding up floppy the processor card, amount of RAM, hard drive capacity, and number of in the A3000T; there's room for expansion slots, and you've created a mounting a second drive internally. new Amiga. Unlike the A3000, the A4000's second drive bay is 5.25" in size, so you can Other specifications include four mount a CD-ROM or tape drive 32-bit Zorro III expansion slots, internally. Of course, the A4000 three of which have in-line IBM AT ISA retains the external expansion ports connectors whilst the other has an found on all Amigas, including serial, in-line video slot. As in the A3000, parallel, RGB video, external floppy, the slots are mounted horizontally on stereo audio, keyboard, mouse, and a card that plugs vertically into the joystick ports. The pinouts on the A4000's motherboard. Memory is now keyboard port have changed, but the added using industry-standard SIMM other ports should be fully compatible packages rather than the with those on the earlier Amiga difficult-to-install ZIP RAMs used on models. the A3000. The A4000 ships with 2MB of Chip RAM and 4MB of Fast RAM: you Although the A4000 is clearly and can add up to a total of 16MB of Fast incredible machine, a couple of poor RAM on the motherboard. design decisions will force performance-minded users - who, I The A4000 comes with the same, assume, are Commodore's audience for 1.76MB high-density floppy drive found this powerhouse - to add peripherals almost immediately. While most of the limited to hard drives and supports A4000's design screams speed, only two devices. Even worse, IDE's Commodore chose not to equip the 16-bit interface has less than half machine with the blazingly fast 32-bit the data transfer speed of a good SCSI DMA SCSI controller found in the implementation. A3000, but ti instead use IDE circuitry similar to that used in the On the plus side, {eCommodore{a A600. That probably saves Commodore a {eengineers {a are working overtime to few pounds in manufacturing the finish the mercuric A3090, a Zorro III machine and will save you £10-£20 when 32-bit SCSI-2 controller, which was to you go to add a new hard drive, but be in time for the machine's release the tiny monetary advantage is but has sadly yet to emerge. eclipsed by the severe restrictions imposed by the IDE interface. Also noticeably missing is any support for improved sound. The good The SCSI interface found in the old {ePaula chip {ais still around, A3000 supports up to seven expansion providing the 8-bit, four-voice stero devices simultaneously and allows the sound we've become accustomed to over instant addition of devices ranging the past seven years. {fCommodore {ahas from CD-ROM drives and tape backups to talked in the past about adding DAT drives and scanners. IDE, on the advanced digital signal processor other hand, is almost exclusively (DSP) technology to the Amiga series. The A4000 has an internal audio hookup the other hand, was beautiful only on for mixing in stereo audio from the inside. Well, it appears that internal add-ons, so a DSP could be Commodore must have had some left-over added later. But like SCSI, it seems cases from their recently-discontinued like an option that should have been a European PC line, because the A4000 standard in Commodore's has little to distinguish it from the top-of-the-line machine - especially average PC clone. Only the sloping as 16-bit sound and DSP chips are front panel and the Amiga logo starting to infiltrate the MS-DOS embossed on the case give it a feeling universe. Even Atari's last-ditch of identity {e[what about the retention {a effort at staying in the personal {eof the crude mouse? -Ed].{a Still, computer market, the Falcon 030, has a it's what's inside that counts. Motorola DSP right on the Computer's motherboard. Even with these ommisions, and the surprising lack of a PC-MCIA slot, the There must be a rule that only A4000 still stands out as a major odd-numbered Amigas can be really technological advancement. cool-looking. The original A1000 is second only to the MindSet in {fDenny Atkin{a attractiveness of design, and the A3000's slimline case certainly graces {fEd: I've left most of my comments to {a any desk it sits on. The A2000, on {fthe end because I'd hate to ruin your {a {fbeautifully-written report with my It's been suggested to SR that one of burblings. the Amiga designers was a homosexual! The designers names the chips after Although, obviously, it would have former girlfriends, Agnus, Denise, been nice, {eCommodore {fare reported to Paula. Fine. Until we come to be hard at work on a 16-bit, Gary... eight-voice soundchip which will be compatible with both the {eA4000{f, and Commodore's second new baby, the This is a special {aSatanic Rites{f A1200. feature, click on the index to select another article in our forum for Although by the release of this Commodore's new machines. machine {eCommodore {fhave proved that they will comntinue to support their Amiga line, the substitution of {eIDE{f circuitry brings some comfort to those of us who would not be overcome with joy if the day were to come when everyone moved to {aPC {fand all of our expensive Amiga peripherals became redundant.