Amiga 500

Released in 1987, the Amiga 500 was a cost cut version of the Amiga 1000. While sales figures are not known, estimates range between 1-2 million units sold, the highest of any Amiga model. The Amiga line of computers use a number of custom ICs to form its chipset, with the Amiga 500 featuring the Agnus for RAM control and other system critical tasks, Denise for graphics, and Paula for audio, serial I/O, and floppy disk control. Using the OCS (Original Chip Set), the Amiga was able to produce up to 32 colors from a palette of 4096 colors at a resolution of 320x300 or 16 colors at a resolution of 640x200. At its original 1985 release, the Amiga 1000 was ahead of any of its competitors, however by 1987, IBM had released its VGA (Video Grapihcs Array), featuring 256 colors in a resolution of 320x200 or 16 colors in a resolution of 640x480. Amiga attempted to compete against VGA and eventual SVGA (Super VGA) by releasing their new ECS (Enhanced Chip Set) and AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture), but it too little, too late. Definitely one of my favorite computers in my collection. Hopefully I can add an Amiga 2000, 3000, or 4000 to my collection soon.

Specs:

CPU: Motorola 68000 at 7.16 Mhz

RAM: 512 Kb Chip RAM + 512 Kb expansion card

Chipset: OCS (With an upgraded Fatter Agnus)