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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: dandelion on February 03, 2006, 11:24:44 AM
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Hi all..
I know that Amiga development went on at the West Chester site in the US, and that's where Dave Haynie was employed. I've seen DBV and know they were manufactured there as well. My question is, what other development and manufacturing locations were there?
I believe there was a German manufacturing site, did any development go on there as well as simply building Miggys? Also, my first 1200 was built in the Philipines - were all 1200s and 600s built there?
Finally, is there a particularly desirable site to own an Amiga from? I.e. rarity, build quality etc.
Just interested!
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Some machines were also assembled in Braunschweig Germany, that's where my A2000 (rev 6.2) came from. I also believe C= had a production plant in Scotland, not sure though...
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Hi,
Finally, is there a particularly desirable site to own an Amiga from? I.e. rarity, build quality etc.
The original German A2K's were very different from later US made ones, its got only the first part of the video slot, a 512Kb Angus and is multilayer (where as the later US design was double sided only) so thats probably rare.
Ive got one... cant upgrade the OS past 2 because of no chip ram even though I have a 2632 memory card in it :(
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Commodore's factory in Scotland closed down in 1994. More snippets can be found HERE (http://www.commodore.ca/history/company/chronology_portcommodore.htm).
JaX
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Ah! Now THAT'S interesting. As someone hailing from the UK I wouldn't mind a British built machine :) Quickly looking at the linked website it seems that it was operational until 1994. Does anyone know exactly what machines it produced? Also, does anyone know where abouts in Scotland it was located? Could take a few piccies for the archives!
(which reminds me, I should get down to the C= UK offices in maidenhead, if the building's still there).
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Further interest in the Scottish machines...does anyone own one and what identifiers are printed on the underside? Any nice "Made In the UK" or "Made in Scotland" badges?
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My A1200 is from the Scottish plant. It says Made in UK or Manufactured in the UK... but it's definitely UK. Oh the keyboard layout was German.
I also think that the machines made in Braunschweig had "Werk Braunschweig" written on their boxes. I don't think that machines from other plants had something similar on their boxes.
My 1987 A500 v.1.2 has "Made in W. Germany" written on it, but there's no "braunschweig" note on the box. Perhaps this note was on later machines.
Some or all A1000s were made in Japan.
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Half of my A500´s were built in Philipines
Im not 100% sure about this, but i think in Brazil there was also a plant (or they just assemble the imported parts? Please some brazilians confirm this!)
My A1000 is made in Japan
My A1200 is from Philipines as well
OTHH, maybe some of you know, (and some not), but Argentina was the actually the only country who managed to get a licence from Commodore to built their own Commodore (not Amiga, but Commodore 64, 64c & 128). They wer branded Drean Commodore (Drean still exists today, one of the largest home appliances comapny here). The machines were, basically, refurbished/second hand motherboards imported from USA, and thanks to a special promotion plan, they didnt pay any taxes, and were built and assembled here (of course, they changed NTSC to PAL to adapt them to our TV system)
But thats another story...
Now, im not sure...but i think some of my Amigas is from Malaysia...could this be possible??
I will check when i get home
Cheers
Sebastian
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I've got a Scottish built A1200 system. The original box has a print on it that says something like "assembled or made in Scotland", however the unit itself looks like a typical UK A1200.
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My Escom 4000T says "Made in USA". Don't know if that means assembled or fully fabricated. Could be a QuikPak model.
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This duscussion must be very tempting for Doomy to join :lol:
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Most of the A1200s that are here were made in France.
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The A1200 that I just bought was made in the Philippines.
My A500+ that I got second hand back in 1997 was made in Chine, and the A500+ that I bought last year was made in Hong Kong, obviously before Hong Kong and china became one place. So my first A500+ could have either been made in a different place to the second one, or was made after the sedond one.
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Commodore had a factory in Eaglescliffe, Teeside, England turning out 4 million calculators a year in 1974 (New Scientist Feb. 1974). Don't think any Amigas were made there, but it's not far from Scotland.
JaX
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This just gets more and more fascinating! I live about 10 miles from Eaglescliffe (pronounced Eggles-cliff) in County Durham. If I can track down the address i'll see if I can find it one weekend and post some piccies.
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My A2000 has a label on the inside chassis that says "Westchester Burn-In". I am not sure if that means it was built onsite or built elsewhere with some sort of final QC burn-in test done in Pennsylvania.
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Actually we made a large bunch of the motherboards for the Amigas in our plant in Scotland. I've never been totally convinced that a Commodore Scotland plant actually existed. A huge number of the SMT Amiga boards were made in our facility in Scotland, boards from the A600, A1200 and A4000 were manufactured there, the SCI QC stickers can be found in a large number of boards from that era.
-Tig
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Most uk Amigas, Pre A1200 were actually made at the MAIN UK Manufacturing Plant in CORBY.
I Still have My Rev 1A - Made in UK (corby) machine lying rusting in the garage.
I did take a picture of the old Corby plant for Josh Buckley. I dunno if its still on my Website. will have a looksee.
btw .. Corby plant is now an ASDA RDC
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It's interesting what pops up when you're researching stuff.
This came out when I Googled on the Commodore/Corby connection. Guess who was instrumental in writing Commodore's Basic OS way back then? Go, on guess!
The COMMODORE BASIC Operating System was written by Bill Gates and Paul Allen from their fledgling Micro-Soft Corporation (later renamed to Microsoft Corporation). Commodore Basic was the only software license ever granted by Microsoft to any company for all products regardless of the number of copies used. Commodore went on to produce literally millions of machines with various forms of Commodore Basic and did not pay Microsoft a single cent after the initial licence purchase in 1976/7. (http://www.commodore.ca/products/pet/commodore_pet.htm)
I like it, I like it!
JaX
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Yep Corby home to Commodore after the market for 64's took off big time, they actually managed to con the EU and the Tory Goverment out of a few million to set up plant there after they closed the steelworks in 1981, stayed for a few years, got the amiga off the ground and sacked everyone and disappeared as quickly as they came.
Its not suprising the amiga ended up a right mess as the original schemetic drawings I saw were often stained with chip fat marks and ring marks from the Youngers Tartan cans and most of the tech team, spent their time, Gaffy Taping new staff to chairs and wheeling the around the factory apparently, selling parts on the black market.
There must have been more c64 and amiga boards running around covered in sheets in backs of vans, than there was in the factory. Sadly if I remember the first a1000's and 1.2 500's were made there but they dumped the factory shortly afterwards.
I remember as a 16 year old with my C64 at the Corby Computer Club ripping games like no tomorrow, turbo loaders, parallel loaders and there was that first ever 1000. Revolution. The dude who had it was the back of the van bloke and I have no doubt that is where it came from. It was funny when he got infected with the SCA virus a year two later, must have had a 1000 or more disk to clean....hehe.
As I said sadly commodore closed and there was a right fight to clean the factory out. Would have kept the spare parts vendors happy. Most ended up at the "Gipo's" place next to the skips on Rockingham Road. Love to know what happed to it all.
Just remembered me mate who worked there used to keep those chip containers, like long clear pipes, he had must be a 100 or more "Sids",8610,6520,6522's Roms....hehe.
As I write its flooding back. :) Unpopulated PCB's. Oh and the first time I ever saw Rock Lobster. Man what a day.
Amiga Born a Champion, Commodore F*cked it up :)
Shaz
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>The COMMODORE BASIC Operating System was written by Bill Gates and Paul Allen from their fledgling Micro-Soft >Corporation (later renamed to Microsoft Corporation).
Err don't think it was fledgling by then.
MSBasic was around in the 70's by the time Commodore licenced it for the Amiga, Microsoft had done the deal with IBM for PCDOS and were "Mint". Not by todays standards but "Mint" enough.
I've got a Kilobaud and Interface Age Mag ads for M$ (cica' 1978) when they were "Fledgling". 77,78 you didn't buy software you wrote it or typed in others software.
Most Mags at this time were just full of unadulterated hardware :) and if you had a Shugart Floppy you were someone.
Shaz
JaXanim wrote:
It's interesting what pops up when you're researching stuff.
This came out when I Googled on the Commodore/Corby connection. Guess who was instrumental in writing Commodore's Basic OS way back then? Go, on guess!
The COMMODORE BASIC Operating System was written by Bill Gates and Paul Allen from their fledgling Micro-Soft Corporation (later renamed to Microsoft Corporation). Commodore Basic was the only software license ever granted by Microsoft to any company for all products regardless of the number of copies used. Commodore went on to produce literally millions of machines with various forms of Commodore Basic and did not pay Microsoft a single cent after the initial licence purchase in 1976/7. (http://www.commodore.ca/products/pet/commodore_pet.htm)
I like it, I like it!
JaX
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I've got one UK A1200 and a couple from the Philippines. One dirty old A4000 I have says 'UK' but maybe that's just the market designation. As per Catherder, there was also production in Canada. I'm not sure but I think Quikpak was also a Canadian outfit.
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My A3000 is made in W. Germany.
My A1200 is made in the Philippines.
My current A500 is made in W. Germany.
My A600HD is made in the Philippines.
My old VIC-20 (not cost-reduced) is made in W. Germany.
According to an old article, the Braunschweig plant assembled the machines from boards made in other plants. Braunschweig's main source of staff was local housewives, who were flexible and didn't need full employment. This made it easier for Commodore to adjust up production volumes in time for christmas or new releases.
On a similar note, where were the CSG or MOS plants located? From what Dave Haynie has recounted, they didn't seem to be fabless operations.
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I'm inclined to agree with tigger.
As far as I understood, the "Scottish" Amigas were made under contract by a company in Irvine, Ayrshire. ie. It wasn't a Commodore factory.
On a side note, I remember many moons ago, finding an Italian website with a 600Mb movie of a German Commodore factory churning out C64s. I didn't have broadband at the time and therefore didn't download it. I'd love to find that movie, but have been unable to locate my bookmark or re-find the website using google.
Can anyone help, or know what I'm talking about?