AGA Vs ECS

[3246251196]

the beginning through to 600 - did all these amigas have an ECS Chipset.

was the 1200 the first to have an AGA chipset

what did ECS stand for and AGA?

[drewz21]

There was OCS with the A500 and A2000.  Then ECS came out on A600, A500+, A3000, plus some other models.  The A1200 and A4000 which were the first ones with AGA.  The CD32 was also AGA.

OCS = Original Chip Set
ECS = Enhanced Chip Set
AGA = Advanced Graphics Architecture

[Piru]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Amiga_chipset
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Chip_Set
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Graphics_Architecture

[x56h34]

Just to add that A500 and A2000 can also be made ECS by updating the Agnus to 2MB version (through DKB Megachip or similar adapters) and also by replacing the OCS Denise with the ECS version, and of course by upgrading KickStart to ver 2.04 or higher. :-)

[Steady]

@x56h34

Also, the A500/2000 didn't necessarily need the adapter. The 1 Meg version of the ECS Agnus was a drop-in replacement, you just don't get 2 Megs of CHIP.

[Piru]

Maybe it should also be pointed out that there were semi-ECS A500s sold aswell. These had OCS Denise (no VGA or superhires modes), but ECS Agnus. It was possible to hack 1MB chip mem for these by just having the 512KB memory expansion and closing one jumper on the mobo.

[Ilwrath]

Maybe it should also be pointed out that there were semi-ECS A500s sold aswell.

For the US models, you can usually tell one of the semi-ECS 500's as they typically came with a 1.3 rom and green power light/amber disk access light.

The A2000 also had a semi-ECS variant.  Not sure if there is a visible way to pick one of those out.  

It was possible to hack 1MB chip mem for these by just having the 512KB memory expansion and closing one jumper on the mobo.

Yeah, I believe for the A500 it was REV6A and above.  REV5 needed the 512k Agnus to be replaced by the 1MB version and a couple jumpers soldered, IIRC.  

Also, you can make a REV5 OCS A500 into a REV5 half-ECS 500 by just switching the Agnus.  You still have only 512k chip ram, but this gives the benefit of having a real PAL (Or NTSC if your system defaults to PAL) mode available from Degrader.

[3246251196]

i remember a disk which could DOWNGRADE your BIOS version - know what this is called again?

also, does it now mean that you could essentially have 2.05 (A600) WITH AGA on an A1200?

[nadoom]

relokick?

[3246251196]

yeah thats what you called it man

hmm, so you could have a temp ROMv1.3 with an AGA Chipset?

[Piru]

Can't be relokick, it downgrades the Kickstart ROM, not BIOS.














:-)

[TjLaZer]

BIOS and Amiga should not be used in the same paragraph!  

Yes there were some ECS A500/2000 produced, though with 1MB Chip.  A machine does not need 2MB to qualify it as a ECS machine!  They had Green power leds, 1MB Chip, ECS Agnus and some had the ECS denise.  I had one of these Rev 6.1 A2000s but mine did not have the ECS denise, I bought it and installed it, but was disappointed at the new resolutions in old 4 colors.  I wanted AGA at that point!