Miscellaneous Operating Systems/Hardware

I'm consoling myself waiting for spare parts for the POWER6 by attempting to study for a final exam and setting up my brand-new-to-me-and-you Amiga Technologies A4000T! It's not the original, unbelievably hard to find Commodore A4000T, but the Escom-era A4KTs are hardly growing on trees, and because this is one of the later Quikpak units it is substantially more powerful. From the factory, it came with a Quikpak 68060 CPU card (50MHz part overclocked to 56.75MHz), SCSI HD and ATAPI CD-ROM, plus 6MB of fast RAM and 2MB of chip RAM. This one was upgraded to 16MB of fast RAM and also came with a Picasso IV combination video card and flickerfixer, and a Hydra NIC; it also included its manuals, AmigaOS 3.1 disks and 3.5/3.9 CDs, and cost an ungodly amount (but about the going rate for a system of this spec). I had to fix the drivers for the CD-ROM and NIC because the previous owner apparently wrecked them, but it all works now!

And here it is, running AmigaOS 3.9, surfing important websites!


And here it is, after I correctly reprogrammed the horizontal frequencies for the scandoubler, freaking out Sysinfo! (SysInfo 4.0 still gets some of it wrong. They didn't call it Mis-Info for nothing.)


It's really very nice now that it's all working properly, so the A3000 got bumped from its slot in the KVM. I still intend to put Amix on the A3000 one of these days, since I do have an A3070.

In the meantime I'm going to install a Jaz or ZIP drive and some more RAM and hard disks (a 128MB Amiga sounds tasty!), and maybe the Video Toaster 4000 I have rotting in a box, and then get some WHDLoad games running on it for serious businesses!

There's something to be said for the last "classic 68K Amiga," even as a PPC-o-phile.

Well isn't that a thing of beauty! Just looking at that first picture induces pangs of nerd jealousy, as well as disappointment that I don't make enough money to afford all that stuff (or the electric bill)

Yeah, this was ... an expensive purchase. Not the most expensive vintage computer I've ever bought, but I've passed kidneystones easier than this.

I have absolutely zero experience with Amiga stuff, but as a fan of the 680x0, I love the idea of a machine with an '060. Very cool!

You could get an '060 in an Atari ST, I think. There was never one for the Mac, though: the missing instructions would have meant a lot of software trapping.

Some of the Alpha Micros had them too, my particular favourite obscure computer system. Wikipedia mentions they turn up a lot in TV chyron systems.

I got ADoom running on it tonight. Combined with the Picasso's speedy video, the integer performance of the '060 really shines (remember, Doom doesn't use the FPU). It is noticibly faster than my 133MHz 486-class Am5x86 "P75," which is running Doom in DOS and doesn't have to multitask!

Serious businesses!

Niiiiiiiiiice! Aaah, all those sweet Miggy memories...

congrats on your purchase, but...
in your picture there you have the amiga squatting right on the pinnacle of coolness .* this looks wrong.

*at least that's what i thought when i - as a former amiga user - sat in front of an indy for the first time a few years after.
i was very reminded of the amiga by the indy and it's OS. but it was just more awesome in every way. and sadly - to a student - made of pure unobtainium back then.

*Jealous*

Congrats on the new arrival

I still hope to get one at some point, but they're even rarer over this side of the pond!

GIJoe wrote: in your picture there you have the amiga squatting right on the pinnacle of coolness .* this looks wrong.

The amiga is under the table The Indy is being hold down by an Apple. </nitpick>

Nevermind the Amiga when there is BeBox on the table.

theinonen wrote: Nevermind the Amiga when there is BeBox on the table.

My thoughts too *drool*

If you guys are gonna drool like that, I'm never inviting you over.

Btw, just discovered this: http://aminet.net/package/comm/www/NetSurf-m68k
128MB RAM ordered!

I'll bring a bibb

What model Bebox? Do you know if the color of the BeBox is any indication of what is on the inside?

Wow! Congrats on finding such an awesome Amiga. I know how rare the A4000Ts are, and then 060 and upgraded graphics, too! You must be super excited. I'm sure you'll have tons of fun with it...more than enough to justify its price tag.

Pontus wrote:

GIJoe wrote: in your picture there you have the amiga squatting right on the pinnacle of coolness .* this looks wrong.

The amiga is under the table The Indy is being hold down by an Apple. </nitpick>

aw, you're right. should have enlarged the image instead of just ranting away, apologies. my experience with amiga pretty much stops with A1200 and it shows.