Commodore Amiga
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The Amiga 500 (1987) was the best selling model.
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| Manufacturer | Commodore International |
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| Product family | Amiga |
| Type | Personal Computer |
| Release date | July 23, 1985 (Amiga 1000) |
| Introductory price | US$1,295 + US$300 (Monitor) |
| Discontinued | 1996 (Amiga 1200 & 4000T) |
| Operating system | AmigaOS on Kickstart |
| CPU | Motorola 680x0 @ ≈7 MHz & higher |
| Memory | 256 kilobytes and higher, expandable |
The Amiga is a family of personal computers sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. Based on the Motorola 68000 family of microprocessors, the machine has a custom chipset with graphics and sound capabilities that were unprecedented for the price, and a pre-emptive multitasking operating system called AmigaOS. The Amiga provided a significant upgrade from earlier 8-bit home computers, including Commodore's own C64.
The Amiga 1000 was officially released in July 1985, but a series of production problems meant it did not become widely available until early 1986. The best selling model, the Amiga 500, was introduced in 1987 and became one of the leading home computers of the late 1980s and early 1990s with four to six million sold. The A3000, introduced in 1990, started the second generation of Amiga systems, followed by the A500+, and the A600 in March 1992. Finally, as the third generation, the A1200 and the A4000 were released in late 1992. The platform became particularly popular for gaming and programming demos. It also found a prominent role in the desktop video, video production, and show control business, leading to video editing systems such as the Video Toaster. The Amiga's native ability to simultaneously play back multiple digital sound samples made it a popular platform for early "tracker" music software. The relatively powerful processor and ability to access several megabytes of memory led to the development of several 3D rendering packages, including LightWave 3D, Imagine, Aladdin4D, and TurboSilver.
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