A1000 and the first market entry
The Computer History Museum dates the Amiga 1000's New York launch to 1985 and identifies it as the first Amiga model to enter the personal-computer market. Its collection record documents a 7.16 MHz NTSC Motorola 68000, 256 KB standard RAM, and a 512 KB upgrade path. [1] [2]
Startup and shared chip memory
On the A1000, the operating system was loaded from Kickstart floppy media into writable control store and protected until the next power cycle. Hardware references explain that the 68000 and custom hardware arbitrate access to chip memory, where Copper, Blitter, bitplane, sprite, and audio structures can reside. [2] [3] [4]
Storage and expansion
The documented internal 3.5-inch floppy format uses 80 tracks, two sides, 11 sectors per track, and 512-byte sectors, totaling 901,120 bytes. Expansion also varied by model: A500/A1000 documentation uses an external 86-pin approach, while A2000 documentation separates expansion roles internally. [4] [5]
A platform with its own technical language
The third-edition hardware reference continues to organize the family around coprocessor, playfield, sprite, audio, Blitter, system-control, and interface hardware. That architecture is not an advanced C64 configuration, and this Atlas does not imply software, firmware, or emulator compatibility between the families. [6]