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AW >> "What are the essential differences between the 3 lower Amiga models
500, 600, 1200?<<
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The A500 was released in 1987, and shipped with AmigaDOS 1.3, using a 256K
OS ROM (KickStart), and two 880K disks of OS-related software (Workbench).
The AmigaOS, can be upgraded to at least 2.1, which uses a 512K Kickstart
ROM, and 6 disks of Workbench software.
The A500 had a 7-Mhz 68000 CPU, with 512K of graphic memory, and a belly
slot for adding a clock chip, and 512K of system memory.
The 86-pin side connector (Expansion slot), allows for several differ
kinds of expansion, but is limited to a single card (two at the most). The
expansion boards can be combo boards allowing 8-megs of system memory,
hard drive controllers, and even alternate 32-bit CPU cards, etc.
The graphics are limited to a palette of 4096 colors, with upto 64 colors
in lowres (320×200/400), and 16 colors in hires (640×200/400). Using the
special "HAM" mose al 4096 colors can be used on a lowres screen. The
graphics chips have been updated in some A500s to allow upto 1024K of
graphic memory.
Some of the more common upgrades for the A500 are 'sandwich' boards, which
insert between certain chips, and their sockets. You could find such
boards for adding upto 2048K of graphics memory, adding a NTSC-VGA video
mode convertor, and IDE HD interfaces, and RAM boards.
The A500 has the Amiga's standard serial, parallel, Video, stereo output,
and mouse/joystick input ports. It also has a monochrome RF modulator.
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The A600 was an oddity, that was designed as a low-end, entry level Amiga
to attract the Commodore 64/128 crowd.
It has the same basic features of the A500, however, it uses SMT for all
but the KickStart ROM. This prevents many of the sandwich board
expansions. Also, the 86-pin Expansion slot is missing, as well as the
keypad.
However, it already has 1024K of graphics memory, and can be upgraded to a
total of 2048K of graphics memory+clock through its belly slot. It has a
built-in IDE HD interface, and ships with AmigaDos 2.1.
The A600 has a PCMCIA v2.0 slot, which can be used for adding upto 4-megs
of system memory. The PCMCIA RAM cards can also be used as a RAM-disk, and
it can support I/O PCMCIA cards *if* the proper drivers are made avalible.
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The A1200 is the latest of the low-end series.
It has a 32-bit 14-Mhz 68ec020. The 68ec020 is fully 32-bit, but 24-bit
address space (16-meg limit), and has no MMU support. It does support a
68881 or 68882 FPU.
The A1200, ships with 2048K of 32-bit graphics memory, has a palette of
16,777,216 colors, with upto 256 colors in any resolution. Its newer
HAM-8 mode allows as many colors as pixels on the screen (a 640×400 screen
could have upto 256,000 colors). Its AGA graphic chips can generate PAL.
NTSC, VGA, and custom graphic/video signals.
The AmigaDOS is version 3.0, using two 256K ROMs, and 6 disks of Workbench
software.
The A1200 also has the PCMCIA slot, and IDE HD interface. The belly slot
allows for upto 8-megs of system memory, FPU, SCSI controllers, and also
allows higher speed CPU boards with more memory expansion and MMU support.
It also has a color composite connector, a RF modulator. The Video port
appears to be missing a signal (leading to incompatiblities with some
genlocks.)
The A1200 is at least twice the speed of the A500, and once system memory
is added, becomes five times as fast. It also has better graphics, than
both the A500 & A600, and supports more monitor types.
Ron. – ("I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable, and I'm not going!"
– quote made by any low level RPG player.)