AAA chipset
Encyclopedia
The AAA chipset was intended to be the next-generation Amiga
multimedia
system designed by Commodore International
. Initially began as a secret project, the first design discussions were started in 1988, and after many revisions and redesigns the first silicon versions were fabricated in 1992-1993. The project was all but abandoned in 1993 after it was projected that PCs were to equal the AAA shortly after release, so a further jump was needed, leading to project Hombre
.
The AAA are not AGA compatibile.
.
The initial chipset
run was largely functional, but some important pieces such as the interrupt controller didn't work, and others were never tested.
Three prototypes called 'Nyx
', meaning "night" in Classical Greek, were built as technology demonstrators and debugger boards for the new chips. However Nyx was never intended as the final production machine, AAA systems would have been based around the Acutiator architecture designed by Dave Haynie
.
Commodore
declared bankruptcy before designs were completed; some of the focus on AAA chips moved to creating a radically different 64-bit
design based on a modified PA-RISC
7150 CPU with added graphics instructions and video pipelines (See Hombre chipset
). Fully functioning AAA chips were never produced, though they were much talked about in the trade press. Numerous plans for purchasing Amiga
and salvaging the technology came and went after Commodore's demise; all of them including the realization that for the Amiga
to stay competitive, the development and release of AAA or Hombre would have to be one of their overriding goals.
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
system designed by Commodore International
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
. Initially began as a secret project, the first design discussions were started in 1988, and after many revisions and redesigns the first silicon versions were fabricated in 1992-1993. The project was all but abandoned in 1993 after it was projected that PCs were to equal the AAA shortly after release, so a further jump was needed, leading to project Hombre
Hombre chipset
The Hombre chipset was to be a chipset for use in game machine hardware. However, because of Commodore International's bankruptcy, the Hombre chipset was never released.-History:...
.
The AAA are not AGA compatibile.
Design goals
AAA was slated to include numerous technologiesTechnology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
.
- 32/64 bit data bus.
- 256 deep CLUT entries 25-bit wide each (256 indirect colors indexed through 24-bit palette with extra genlock bit like AGA has).this mode runs in the native AmigaOSAmigaOSAmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...
display. - Direct 16 bit-planes planar pixels without CLUT entries, since this mode doesn't contain a palette or a CLUT it requires some kind of ReTargetable Graphics (RTG) driver like chunky modes.
- New Agnus/Alice replacement chip 'Andrea' with an updated 32-bit blitterBlitterIn a computer system, a blitter is a circuit, sometimes as a coprocessor or a logic block on a microprocessor, that is dedicated to the rapid movement and modification of data within that computer's memory...
and Copper which can handle chunky pixels. - A line-buffer chip with double bufferingDouble bufferingIn computer science, multiple buffering is the use of more than one buffer to hold a block of data, so that a "reader" will see a complete version of the data, rather than a partially-updated version of the data being created by a "writer"...
called 'Linda' provides higher resolution (up to 1280 x 1024). Linda also decompresses two new packed pixels (PACKLUT,PACKHY) on the fly. - Updated version of Paula called 'Mary' with 8 voices that can be assigned either to left or right channel each channel has 16-bit resolution with up to 100 kHzHertzThe hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
sample rate, additionally it does 8-bit audio sampling input. - Direct Chunky 16-bit pixels (15 bits for 32768 colors and 1 bit for genlockGenlockGenlock is a common technique where the video output of one source, or a specific reference signal from a signal generator, is used to synchronize other television picture sources together. The aim in video and digital audio applications is to ensure the coincidence of signals in time at a...
overlay), provided by custom chip 'Monica',this mode requires RTG driver. - New 24-bit hybrid mode (with a chunky/planar properties) consisted of 3 byte-planes of 8 bit chunks each.like chunky modes it requires RTG driver for lacking CLUTCLUTA colour look-up table is a mechanism used to transform a range of input colours into another range of colours. It can be a hardware device built into an imaging system or a software function built into an image processing application...
. - New 8/4/2 bit Half-Chunky Graphics Mode which indirect through CLUT like 8-bit planar modes do.(requires RTG)
- New packed (compressed) pixels (2-bit PACKLUT and 4-bit PACKHY) decompressed by Linda to 8-bit half-chunky or 24-bit Hybrid pixels respactively, used for speeding up animations.
- A reverseable pixel clock for a frame grabber (a video captureVideo captureVideo capture is the process of converting an analog video signal—such as that produced by a video camera or DVD player—to digital video. The resulting digital data are computer files referred to as a digital video stream, or more often, simply video stream...
device) in chunky modes (this only work with VRAM systems). - New Hold-and-Modify modes (HAM-8 chunky and HAM-10 for 24bit / 16.8 million colours).
- SpritesSprite (computer graphics)In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
size can go up to 128 bit width with any height. - Dual 8-bit playfields.
- VRAM Chip Memory systems with optional 32/64 bit DRAMDynamic random access memoryDynamic random-access memory is a type of random-access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor within an integrated circuit. The capacitor can be either charged or discharged; these two states are taken to represent the two values of a bit, conventionally called 0 and 1...
chip memory (for lower cost systems). - 12x to 20x memory bandwidth of Chip RAM access of ECS.
- 8x blitterBlitterIn a computer system, a blitter is a circuit, sometimes as a coprocessor or a logic block on a microprocessor, that is dedicated to the rapid movement and modification of data within that computer's memory...
speed increase of AGA/ECS blitterBlitterIn a computer system, a blitter is a circuit, sometimes as a coprocessor or a logic block on a microprocessor, that is dedicated to the rapid movement and modification of data within that computer's memory...
. - Direct support for raw floppy diskFloppy diskA floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
s (2.88 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
IBM-style-formatted and all known format including MacMacintoshThe Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
floppies), with a direct interface to a raw CD-ROMCD-ROMA CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
drive or Digital Audio TapeDigital Audio TapeDigital Audio Tape is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987. In appearance it is similar to a compact audio cassette, using 4 mm magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. As...
(DAT) and a digital radioDigital radioDigital radio has several meanings:1. Today the most common meaning is digital radio broadcasting technologies, such as the digital audio broadcasting system, also known as Eureka 147. In these systems, the analog audio signal is digitized into zeros and ones, compressed using formats such as...
interface, managed by Mary chip (port and audio peripheral controller). - Asynchronous design managed by Linda and Andrea makes AAA pixel clock independent of its bus clock so the chipset can work with any CPU (including any RISCReduced instruction set computerReduced instruction set computing, or RISC , is a CPU design strategy based on the insight that simplified instructions can provide higher performance if this simplicity enables much faster execution of each instruction. A computer based on this strategy is a reduced instruction set computer...
processor). - The chipset would include up to 1 million transistorTransistorA transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current...
s in its 64-bit dual-system configuration (total). - Up to ChipRAM (graphicsGraphicsGraphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...
memory) in dual-systems. - Two four-byte buffered FIFOFIFOFIFO is an acronym for First In, First Out, an abstraction related to ways of organizing and manipulation of data relative to time and prioritization...
serial UARTUniversal asynchronous receiver/transmitterA universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter, abbreviated UART , is a type of "asynchronous receiver/transmitter", a piece of computer hardware that translates data between parallel and serial forms. UARTs are commonly used in conjunction with communication standards such as EIA RS-232, RS-422 or...
s,one of these UART is in the same RGA address as the original Paula UART. - A built-in genlockGenlockGenlock is a common technique where the video output of one source, or a specific reference signal from a signal generator, is used to synchronize other television picture sources together. The aim in video and digital audio applications is to ensure the coincidence of signals in time at a...
. - 40 on-demand DMADirect memory accessDirect memory access is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory independently of the central processing unit ....
channels dynamically allocated by Andrea. - 64-bit pixel bus with 114 MHzHertzThe hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
pixel clock in dual systems which makes 1280x1024 @72HzHertzThe hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
screens possible. - 128-bit long memory bus bursts
The initial chipset
Chipset
A chipset, PC chipset, or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product.- Computers :...
run was largely functional, but some important pieces such as the interrupt controller didn't work, and others were never tested.
Three prototypes called 'Nyx
Nyx
In Greek mythology, Nyx was the primordial goddess of the night. A shadowy figure, Nyx stood at or near the beginning of creation, and was the mother of personified gods such as Hypnos and Thánatos...
', meaning "night" in Classical Greek, were built as technology demonstrators and debugger boards for the new chips. However Nyx was never intended as the final production machine, AAA systems would have been based around the Acutiator architecture designed by Dave Haynie
Dave Haynie
Dave Haynie is the former Commodore International chief engineer on high end and advanced projects. He is still quite vocal in the Amiga community.-Beginnings:...
.
Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...
declared bankruptcy before designs were completed; some of the focus on AAA chips moved to creating a radically different 64-bit
64-bit
64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
design based on a modified PA-RISC
PA-RISC
PA-RISC is an instruction set architecture developed by Hewlett-Packard. As the name implies, it is a reduced instruction set computer architecture, where the PA stands for Precision Architecture...
7150 CPU with added graphics instructions and video pipelines (See Hombre chipset
Hombre chipset
The Hombre chipset was to be a chipset for use in game machine hardware. However, because of Commodore International's bankruptcy, the Hombre chipset was never released.-History:...
). Fully functioning AAA chips were never produced, though they were much talked about in the trade press. Numerous plans for purchasing Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
and salvaging the technology came and went after Commodore's demise; all of them including the realization that for the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
to stay competitive, the development and release of AAA or Hombre would have to be one of their overriding goals.
See also
- Original Amiga chipsetOriginal Amiga chipsetThe Original Chip Set was a chipset used in the earliest Commodore Amiga computers and defined the Amiga's graphics and sound capabilities...
- Amiga Ranger ChipsetAmiga Ranger ChipsetAmiga Ranger was a prototype computer that was supposed to be the second generation Amiga chipset prior to ECS. It was designed by the original Los Gatos Amiga team including Jay Miner. However Commodore International didn't release this chipset due to its high cost-History:After the release of...
- Enhanced Chip SetEnhanced Chip SetThe Enhanced Chip Set is the second generation of the Amiga computer's chipset, offering minor improvements over the original chipset design. ECS was introduced in 1990 with the launch of the Amiga 3000. Amigas produced from 1990 onwards featured a mix of OCS and ECS chips, such as later versions...
- Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture
- Hombre chipsetHombre chipsetThe Hombre chipset was to be a chipset for use in game machine hardware. However, because of Commodore International's bankruptcy, the Hombre chipset was never released.-History:...
- List of home computers by video hardware