Amiga 3000 Plus - Vintage Hardware
Commodore's 32-bit Amigas: The Amiga 3000+
Date Range: 1990 - 1992
Release Price: US$4498.00
This was to the next Amiga after the A3000 that was to offer many advances. However, instead of releasing the A3000+, Commodore cut the project due to costs and focused on a lesser machine, the A4000D.
Product Specs:
- 32 bit 68030 cpu
- 25Mhz
- 50MB SCSI HD
- 1280 x 400 video
- 80 x 32 text
- 16.7 Million colours
- 16-bit At&T DSP Audio
- 6MB Fast RAM
- 2MB Chip RAM
- ROM on HD
- 3.5 1.76MB floppy
- 4 Zorro III slots
- Pre-emptive Multitasking
Commodore-Amiga 3000plus
 In the late 1980s, Commodore focused efforts on developing the follow up to the Amiga 3000. This resulted in the development of a third generation chipset known as the Advanced Amiga (AA). The new motherboard would be a drop in replacement for the existing A3000 motherboard.
David Haynie, in relation to the above picture, "You can see quite a bit of support circuitry for the DSP in the upper lefthand corner of this board. There was an audio CODEC here, designed to allow 16-bit, 2-channel recording and playback. This was very cutting edge at the time, such chips, common today, where just becoming available. In addition, there was a separate mono CODEC with hardware phase correction, which supported modem protocols up to V32. The actual DSP was located above and to the right of the CPU."
The Amiga 3000+ included several features:
1) The AT&T DSP3210 50 MHz digital signal processor performed at 25MFLOPS and included AT&T's custom multitasking operating system that managed DSP operations.
2) 24-bit AGA or AA chipset
3) 1.65 HD floppy
Missing from the prototype was the VGA connector and scan doubling hardware found in the A3000.
Bill Sydnes cancelled by Bill Sydnes due to cost. However, former Commodore employees indicate his deep dislike of the previous administration was also a major factor. A scaled-down version of the A3000+ was later developed under the name AA3000. However, this too was cancelled in another wide-ranging spending cut. This was the beginning of the end for the Amiga. All advanced research products were now been cancelled but for the AAA chipset, which was kept secret from Commodore execs.
A successor was released: the Amiga 4000 was plagued by slow drive access and a CPU intensive IDE interface. Many say that the A4000 was a disappointing replacement to the A3000+. The Amiga 4000 tower version was an improvement but it was all too late. There was no new Amiga in the works and Commodore was headed for liquidation.
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