 OR SEVERAL YEARS, Amiga users and developers have been clamoring for a 
major upgrade to the Amiga custom chips. During this time, the Mac and MSDOS 
systems equaled, and then surpassed, the Amiga's graphic-display system in 
terms of both resolution ad number of colors.    Because of the increased 
emphasis on multimedia and desktop video, the Amiga's screen size, number of 
colors and total palette became limiting factors. Although third-party 
developers have filled the void with sophisticated 24-bit display cards, his 
hardware is aimed mostly at static displays, is basically unsupported by the 
Amiga's operating system, and has had little impact on most of us in our 
day-to-day applications.    It has become evident that change is needed. And 
I'm pleased to say that this fall a real change is coming to the Amiga. The 
first sign of this renaissance is an entirely new machine, the Amiga 4000! 
The first public demonstration of the A4000 wa scheduled last month for the 
World of Commodore show in Pasadena.    The A4000 is the most significant 
upgrade to come out of Commodore. It boasts many additions and changes, the 
most significant of which concerns its graphic display. The A4000 is the 
first of a new line of Amigas to incorporate the AA (Advanced Achitecture) 
graphic chip set, which immensely expands the Amiga's graphic potential. The 
M (called "Double A") chips are Alice, Lisa, and Paula. While Paula is 
essentially unchanged, the other two are full replacements for the Agnus and 
Denise chips.A4000 SPECIFICSThe A4000 is the first in a new line of Amiga 
computers to take advantage of these new chips. It is also the first Amiga 
to be based on the 68040 processor. Interestingly, there is no CPU on the 
motherboard. Instead, the A4000 CPU resides on a plug-i card that installs 
in t~e 200-pin processor slot. This approach means that the 32-bit A4000 is 
completely configurableat the dealer level.    While the initial version is 
a 25-MHz 68040, as other processor cards become available, you will be able 
to buy (or upgrade to) faster 68040s, custom CPUs, or even future 
high-performance processors like the 68060.    Internally, the A4000 has 
four Amiga Zorro II/III slots as well as three PC/AT slots. As with earlier 
models, though, using some PC slots precludes using other slots for Amiga 
cards. As in the A3000, the video slot is in line with one of the Amig 
slots. This arrangement will encourage development of specialty video cards 
(much like Great Valley Products' ~V24 multimedia/ video package).    The 
CPU case is a bit larger than that of the A3000, but not as big as the 
A2000's. There is room inside for two floppy drives and two hard disks; an 
external floppy connector is available for more drives. In addition, the 
front drive bay can accmmodate a 5.25-inch disk device, allowing you to 
mount large internal hard drives, CD-ROMs, or other removable media.A 120MB 
IDE hard disk is standard. For those who  want access to SCSI devices, an 
optional 32-bit SCSI-II controller card will be available. Interestingly, 
the included floppy drive is a high-density 3.5-inch unit that can read and 
write in either 88K or 1 .7MB modes, and can read and write to standard 
MS-DOS formatted disks.    Like the A3000, memory expansion in the A4000 
allows a total of 18MB on the motherboardtwo megs of chip and 16 megs of 
32-bit RAM. You can add more via plug-in cards. The base configuration of 
the A4000 includes 2MB of chip RAM and 4MB of 32-bitRAM although this is 
subject to change.AMIGADOS 3.0These hardware improvements and additions 
require new software to take advantage of them. Not surprisingly, the 
operating system shipped with the A4000 is a new release called AmigaDOS 
3.0. It is an enhanced version of the 2.1 OS, introduced on the Aiga 600, 
and it includes all the 2.1 features, plus support for the M chips and their 
new color and screen-resolution features.    New to OS 2.1/3.0 is the 
addition of CrossDOS, a program by Consultron that lets you easily read and 
write data between Amiga and MS-DOS disks. Printer Preferences now supports 
PostScript directly, and new printer drivers have been added. A 
SoundPreferences editor lets you customize your system with the sound 
effects of your choice. Also, a Local Preference editor lets you tell the 
system what language to use in its messages and text displays (use the 
language library of your choice). This fature should bolster the 
international appeal of the Amiga. (AmigaWorld will address new 
operating-system features further in future issues.)    Commodore says that 
AmigaDOS 3.0 will, for the time being, be limited to the A4000 and other M 
machines. That's reasonable, as the unique features of 3.0 are designed to 
take advantage of the new chip set. AmigaDOS 2.1, however, is another 
story.Any Amiga that can use the 2.04 version can take advantage of 2.1. 
Look for an upgrade path at some future date, as yet unspecified by 
Commodore.OVER THE RAINBOWWith the AA chips, you can forget about 
yesterday's 4096 color palette. These chips feature a full 24-bit palette, 
which gives you access to any of 16,777,216 colors for use in your screens. 
The total number of colors on screen will depend on how man bitplanes you 
use and on the display mode. You can create screens using one to eight 
bitplanes, which translates into two to 256 colors at once. Most 
importantly, there is no limit on the number of colors you can use in the 
various screen resolution.While current Amigas allow up to 32 colors in low 
resolution, l 6 colors in high resolution, and four colors in Productivity 
and SuperHires modes, the AA chips have no such limitations. With eight 
bitplanes, every screen can use up to 256 different clors, a fact that you 
will appreciate even more when we discuss how many new displays and 
resolutions are available.For those who think 256 colors are not enough 
forsome applications, the AA chips have yet another color surprise in store. 
Remember how the Amiga's HAM (Hold And Modify) mode was able to create 
stunning low-resolution images using all 4096 colors with the older chips? 
Well, the new chips have theirown eightbit HAM display mode, which lets you 
create images that use over 256,000 colors simultaneously.    The AA HAM 
mode has 64 base colors instead of the 16 available in the earlier HAM 
displays. This means that software can minimize the fringing that often 
accompanies HAM displays. And, as with the standard color modes, you can use 
AA HAM mode wit any screen, regardless of resolution.    Imagine a 640x480 
display with 256,000 colors! Sounds impressive, doesn't it? Now try 
imagining 640x960, or 800x600 or 1280x400 with that many colors! Then add 
overscan. Are you excited yet?EXOTIC RESOLUTIONSThe A4000's AA chips offer 
all the standard Amiga NTSC and PAL screen sizes that the original and later 
ECS chips support. These include the original displays of 320x200, 320x400, 
640x200, and 640x400 with or without overscan. Also included are the ES 
640x480 and 640x960 Productivity mode and 1280x200 and 1280x400 SuperHires 
modes. AA chips go even further with their Super72 modes, including a very 
nice 800x600 display. And, these resolutions do not include the extra 
display area you get when yo use overscan modes.    In fact, Commodore 
engineers are now defining even more screen resolutions. These new chips are 
programmable: You can vary the horizontal and vertical screen sizes in a 
great variety of ways, so many more exotic displays are not only possible 
butvery likely. And keep in mind that all screens can support up to 256 
colors (out of 16.7 million), as well as the phenomenal AA HAM displays of 
256,000 colors. The possibilities for artists, animators, multimedia 
producers, and desktop videographers re monumental, especially when you 
consider that all these features will now be standard on the A4000 and all 
future Amigas.BEHIND THE SCENESOne feature that enables these new chips to 
create such graphics is the bandwidth of the chips. Bandwidth measures how 
fast information can be processed, and the new AA chips have a fourfold 
increase in bandwidth over their predecessors. This increas does much more 
than give you improved color resolution; it improves the performance of the 
graphics as well.    Regardless of what processor you have, when you open a 
16-color, overscan, hi-res interlaced screen in your existing Amiga, your 
overall system performance will degrade because so many of the Amiga's CPU 
cycles are required to support this displa. Thanks to the AA chips' 
increased bandwidth, however, such a display performs as well on the A4000 
as a two-color display: It is fast and effective rather than sluggish and 
futile. Of course, even with the new chips, using the maximum resolution 
alng with the maximum number of colors will cause a performance hitbut one 
not nearly as pronounced as with the older chip set.    Sprites benefit from 
the extra bandwidth. The new system allows sprites that are 16, 32, or 64 
bits wide. (The previous chips only allowed 16-bit-wide sprites.) Game 
developers will be able to use these very large, very fast sprites instead 
of slwer bitmap objects. also, sprites (such as your pointer) can be set to 
various resolutions, independent of the screen resolution.    One chip 
missing from Commodore's newest machine is the A3000 display enhancer, which 
creates a non-interlaced, flicker-free display. Because of the increased 
bandwidth and programmability of the chips, software can define a 
deinterlaced, flickerfree screen, provided you use a multisync monitor. 
Examples of these modes are the Productivity 640x480 and Super72 800x600 
displays.Bandwidth is not the only factor that contributes to the chips' 
speed. Another important A4000 component is 32-bit access to chip memory, 
instead of the 16bit access of earlier chips. This means that the processor 
can read and write data to chip RAM wice as fast. Another feature of the 
system architecture,32-bit pagemode access, also means faster access to 
RAM.WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?Will you be able to upgrade your existing Amiga 
to the ~ chips? The quick answer is no. AA chips are 32-bit wide and not pin 
compatible with the earlier Amiga chip sets. One possibilitywhich Commodore 
neither confirms nor deniesis a motherboard upgade. This would require you 
to purchase and install a completely new motherboard, designed for AA. While 
this is possible for the A3000 (which is a 32-bit system), it is a much more 
difficult proposition for A2000s, A600s, and A500s. Even if it does ecome 
available, though, a drawback to the motherboard option is cost. Motherboard 
replacement is often expensive enough to justify a new system. This will be 
an even bigger consideration if other, less expensive AA machines 
appear.There is, however, another force in the market that can make such an 
upgrade feasible. That is the evercreative third-party companies that often 
provide solutions to "impossible" situations. I have no inside information 
about such upgrade scenarios, ut experience leads me to expect 
them.IMPRESSIONSOne difficulty Amiga industry professionals have hadto 
endure is knowing about Commodore's plans, but being restrained from talking 
about them. This has been especially problematic lately, in the face of much 
speculation and commentar~ concerning a lack of devel~pment for the Amiga 
line. I'm happy to eport that there is much new technology coming from 
Commodore, and AmigaWorld will continue to bring that news to you as soon as 
we can.I am impressed with the M chip set and am eager to start using an 
A4000. The new displays will be a boon to artists, multimedia producers, and 
desktop videographers, and game developers should have a field day with the 
color, speed and resolution Doule A provides. So will the rest of us! - 
A4000 Specifications25-MHz 68040 CPUBase machine includes 2MB chip RAM and 
4MB 32-bit RAMUp to 1 8MB RAM on motherboard; additional RAM via RAM cards 
(to 1.7GB)Upgradable CPU via 200-pin slot120MB IDE hard disk880KB/1.7MB 
internal floppySupports four internal disk drives (two floppies and two hard 
drives)Four ZORRO ll/lll expansion slotsThree PC/AT expansion 
slotsVideo-expansion slotFull 32-bit system architecture1 6.8-million color 
paletteUp to 256 simultaneous colors, plus 256,000 colors using HAM display 
modeAdvanced Architecture (AA) Graphic Chip Set (Alice, Lisa and 
Paula)Programmable display resolutions include 640x480, 640x960, 1 280x400 
and 800x600Video overscan modes supportedAll color modes available in all 
display resolutionsFlicker-free interlaced modesAA chip set backward 
compatible with earlier ESC chip setPrice: $3699            APPLICATIONS FOR 
AAAs you might expect, Commodore has been keeping developers informed of 
these hardware changes, and quite a few have been developing products to 
take advantage of the new features. While many were not willing to 
"pre-announce" their work, others were ar enough along that they felt 
comfortable discussing their new M products. (To locate vendors of the 
products mentioned, see the "Manufacturers~/Distributors' Addresses" list on 
p. 104.)INOVAtronics is upgrading its CanDo multimedia application language 
and Directory Opus file manager to support AA machines. The firm also 
promises a new, high-powered text editor, as yet unnamed.Scala tells us it 
will fully support the AA chips in Scala Multimedia 2.0 (scheduled to ship 
this fall), a greatly enhanced version of the existing Scala presentation 
software. Included with the package is a utility to create animations using 
the neweight-bit HAM modes, which Scala can play.New Horizons was scheduled 
to release ProWrite 3.3 at last month's World of Amiga show. This update 
will fully support all screen resolutions as well as graphics with up to 256 
colors. A new version of DesignWorks, scheduled for a Christmas release, ill 
also support the AA chips. New Horizons also states that its other packages, 
such as Quarterback, QuickWrite and Flow, will work with AA, although by the 
nature of their tasks they do not require the extra color.Impulse plans a 
free upgrade for any registered Imagine 2.0 owner with an AA-chip machine. 
This new version will support the extra modes and resolutions. If you plan 
to get an A4000 and have not already registered your copy of Imagine, it is 
time to o so.Octree, publisher of Caligari 3-D products, is also jumping on 
the AA bandwagon with Caligari 24, an upgrade to Caligari 2. Octree is 
excited by the new hi-res, eight-bit HAM mode, which it thinks will satisfy 
users who really do not want or need a fll 24-bit framebuffer.ASDGs ADPro 
image processor and FRED (FRame EDitor) animation utility already support 
AA. I used ADPro to process 24-bit images into both 256 color and eightbit 
HAM displays. and was surprised to find that it would already open the new 
screens and diplay the images it created. ASDG's Morph Plus will also offer 
features based on AmigaDOS 3.0.Digital Creations' 24-bit paint-and-animation 
package, Brilliance (scheduled to ship in late October), uses every display 
mode your system can generate, including M modes.Soft-LogiKs PageStream is 
already designed to work in the 256-color mode as long as you open it on the 
Workbench. The company plans further enhancements to take advantage of other 
AmigaDOS 3.0 features.Gold Disk is upgrading Professional Page and 
Professional Draw to take advantage of the new color modes. The next release 
of Professional Page is scheduled for later this year; a Professional Draw 
update will follow.Electronic Arts' DeluxePaint IV 4.5, which is expected 
this fall, will have full AA chip support. A Deluxe Music Construction Set 
update, scheduled for release in early winter, will also be compatible with 
the new system. 
