|
A4000/040
A4000/030
In 1992 September Commodore released the successor of the A3000 based around the
AGA chip set. The first models were equipped with 040 processors only, later -
to fill the gap between the A1200 and the A4000/040 - with 030 processors too.
Apart from the used processor cards the two models are identical.
68030 @ 25-50 MHz
68040 @ 25-40 MHz
68060 @ 50 MHz
PowerPC 604e @ 150-233 MHz
Most desktop A4000s' processor is located on a removable processor card. The A4000/040 originally shipped with the A3640 featuring a 68040 or 68LC040 @ 25 MHz, and the A4000/030 with the A3630 featuring a 68EC030 @ 25 MHz and a socket for an optional 68881 or 68882 floating point unit. Some late A4000/030 has its processor soldered to the motherboard leaving the CPU slot empty.
up to 2 MB Chip RAM
up to 16 MB Fast RAM on motherboard
up to 128 MB Fast RAM on processor cards
up to 1 GB Fast RAM on Zorro III expansion cards
Most A4000s have five 72 pin
SIMM sockets on their motherboard - one for Chip RAM, the other four for Fast
RAM. The sockets accept industry standard 32 or 36 bit page mode SIMMs. The four
parity bits of the 36 bit modules are ignored and they function as simple 32 bit
ones. EDO RAM is not supported by the motherboard RAM controller, Ramsey, but
some processor cards accept it and some even use its benefits.
The Chip RAM socket has to be filled with either a 1 or 2 MB SIMM. The four Fast
RAM sockets accept 1, 4 or 8 MB modules up to a total of 16 MB Fast RAM.
The SIMMs cannot be mixed and the 8 MB ones have to be placed in every second
socket.
Late models have the four Fast RAM sockets only. The fifth socket is missing, it
is replaced by 2 MB 70 ns Chip RAM soldered to the motherboard.
The access speed of the Fast RAM on the motherboard can be controlled by
software, either 80 or 60 ns.
Alice - AGA display controller
Lisa - AGA graphics coprocessor
Paula - audio and I/O controller
Fat Gary - system address decoder
Super Buster - DMA arbitrary controller
Ramsey - RAM controller
Bridgette - complex buffer
Kickstart ROMs
The A4000's AGA chip set offers the same screen modes as the A1200:
PAL NTSC DblPAL DblNTSC Super72 |
320×256 - 1280×512 320×200 - 1280×400 320×256 - 640×1024 320×200 - 640×800 400×300 - 800×600 |
50 Hz, 15.75 kHz 60 Hz, 15.75 kHz 50 Hz, 31.5 kHz 60 Hz, 31.5 kHz 72 Hz, 24 kHz |
1× processor card slot
4× Zorro III slots
1× extended video slot
3× inactive ISA slots
The Zorro, ISA and video slots
are all placed on a daughterboard which is mounted vertically on the
motherboard. All the ISA and video slots are in line with a Zorro III slot.
The video slot is extended with 18 pins not found in previous Amiga models in
order to support the AGA chip set's 24 bit colour palette.
The three ISA slots have their power and ground pins activated only. In order to
access the slots by the A4000 a BridgeBoard has to be installed. With an
installed BridgeBoard two ISA AT compatible cards can be used in the remaining
slots. Inactive slots can be used for non intelligent cards like TBCs or fan
cards.
The processor card slot is physically the same 200 pin one which can be found in
the A3000(T). However the processor cards designed specially for the A3000 do
not fit into the A4000 because of their size - the A4000's daughterboard stands
in their way.
2× 3.5" front bays
1× 5.25" front bay
2× 3.5" rear bays
One of the 3.5" front bays
is occupied with a 1.76 MB high density floppy disk drive, and one of the
internal bays with an - originally IDE - hard disk drive.
The 5.25" drive bay's depth is limited by the power supply thus longer
devices, such as CD writers and some CD-ROM drives do not fit into it.
1× serial DB25 male, RS232
1× parallel DB25 female, Centronics
1× video DB23 male, analog RGB
2× mouse/game DB9 male
2× stereo audio RCA jack
1× keyboard 6 pin female mini-DIN
1× external floppy DB23 female
1× internal floppy 34 pin header
1× internal AT IDE 40 pin header
1× internal audio input 3 pin header
The built in IDE controller
supports two IDE devices connected simultaneously. Unlike the A1200 the A4000
has a buffered IDE port. Only mode PIO 0 is supported.
The floppy drive controller supports up to four devices - two attached to the
internal floppy header and two connected to the external floppy port. Both
double and high density disk drives are supported.
The internal audio connector enables an audio expansion device mounted
internally (e.g. CD-ROM, sound card) to mix its output into the standard Amiga
audio output.
150 W power output
monitor power connector
4× standard 4 pin power connectors
2× mini 4 pin floppy drive power connectors