Amiga 4000
The top-of-the-range AGA machine: 68040, Zorro III and high-density floppy.
The 1992 Amiga 4000 combined the AGA chipset with a Motorola 68040, Zorro III and ISA slots, SIMM memory and a 1.76 MB floppy drive. It was the professional Amiga of Commodore's final years.
The A3000's successor
Launched at the end of 1992, the A4000 debuted AGA at the same time as the A1200, but for a different audience: video studios, 3D graphics and professionals. The first version, the A4000/040, had a Motorola 68040 at 25 MHz on a daughterboard; in 1993 it was joined by the cheaper A4000/030, with a 68EC030.
NewTek launched the Video Toaster 4000 in 1993 and the A4000 inherited the A2000's place in television studios.
Inside
It has 2 MB of Chip RAM and Fast memory in 72-pin SIMM modules on the board. Four Zorro III slots, three ISA and a video slot leave room for graphics, sound and network cards. The floppy drive became high-density, holding 1.76 MB.
The most criticised decision was swapping the A3000's SCSI for IDE, cheaper but slower, which led many people to buy a Zorro SCSI controller straight away.
On the bench
The A4000 combines the two great enemies of old Amigas: the soldered clock battery, which leaks and corrodes the board, and surface-mount electrolytic capacitors. An A4000 that has never been serviced almost always needs both dealt with.
Trivia
- 10 REM
The Zorro bus controller, the Buster chip, had revisions with problems. Revision 11 fixes DMA on Zorro III, and many owners replaced the chip.
- 20 REM
The processor sits on a daughterboard, which lets you swap a 68040 for a 68060 with an accelerator card.
- 30 REM
Escom later launched the A4000T, a tower with SCSI back on the board.
Try it
An Amiga running right here in your browser: press Switch on, wait for it to boot and explore the desktop with the mouse. It's the same kind of machine we have on the bench, only emulated.
It runs AROS, a free operating system compatible with AmigaOS: Commodore's original Kickstart ROMs are still under copyright and can't be distributed.
Emulation by vAmigaWeb (GPL-3.0).
AROS · vAmigaWeb
The family: Commodore Amiga
- 1985 Amiga 1000
- 1987 Amiga 500
- 1987 Amiga 2000
- 1990 Amiga 3000
- 1991 Amiga CDTV
- 1991 Amiga 500 Plus
- 1992 Amiga 600
- 1992 Amiga 1200
- 1992 Amiga 4000
- 1993 Amiga CD32
Compared with the other models
| Model | Year | Processor | Memory | Video | Sound | System |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amiga 1000 | 1985 | 68000 · 7,16 MHz | 256 KB | OCS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 1.0–1.3 (disco) |
| Amiga 500 | 1987 | 68000 · 7,09 MHz | 512 KB | OCS / ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 1.2 / 1.3 |
| Amiga 2000 | 1987 | 68000 · 7,09 MHz | 1 MB | OCS / ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 1.2 / 1.3 |
| Amiga 3000 | 1990 | 68030 · 16 / 25 MHz | 2 MB | ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 2.0 |
| Amiga CDTV | 1991 | 68000 · 7,09 MHz | 1 MB | OCS / ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 1.3 + CDTV |
| Amiga 500 Plus | 1991 | 68000 · 7,09 MHz | 1 MB | ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 2.04 |
| Amiga 600 | 1992 | 68000 · 7,09 MHz | 1 MB | ECS | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 2.05 |
| Amiga 1200 | 1992 | 68EC020 · 14 MHz | 2 MB | AGA | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 3.0 / 3.1 |
| ▶ Amiga 4000 | 1992 | 68040 · 25 MHz | 6 MB | AGA | Paula · 4 × 8 bit | Kickstart 3.0 / 3.1 |
| Amiga CD32 | 1993 | 68EC020 · 14 MHz | 2 MB | AGA + Akiko | Paula · 4 × 8 bit + CD | Kickstart 3.1 + CD32 |
Let me know when one arrives: Amiga 4000
Looking for a particular model? Leave your email and we'll let you know when one comes into the shop.