o Motorola
Me
68000 16/32-bit main processor.
o 256K bytes of internal RAM, expandable
to
512K.
o 256K bytes of ROM containing a real-time, multi-tasking operating system with
sound, graphics, and animation
support
routines.
o Built-in 3 1/2-inch double-sided disk drive.
o Expansion disk
port
for connecting up
to
three additional disk drives, which may
be
either 3-1/2 inch or 5-1/4 inch, double-sided.
o Fully programmable serial port.
o Fully programmable parallel port.
o Two-button opto-mechanical mouse.
o
Two
reconfigurable controller ports (for mice, joysticks, paddles, or custom
con trollers).
o
Detach~d
89-key keyboard with calculator pad, function keys, and cursor keys.
o
Ports
for simultaneous composite video and analog or digital RGB
output.
o
Ports
for audio
output
to
left and right stereo channels from four special-purpose
audio channels.
o Expansion connector
that
allows you
to
add RAM, additional disk drives (floppy or
hard), peripherals, or coprocessors.
THE MC 68000
AND
THE AMIGA SPECIAL-PURPOSE HARDWARE
The
Motorola 68000
is
a 16/32-bit microprocessor operating
at
7.16 megahertz. In the
Amiga, the 68000 can address over 8 megabytes of contiguous random access memory
(RAM).
The
performance of the 68000
is
enhanced by a system design
that
gives it every alter-
nate
bus cycle, allowing
it
to
run
at
full rated speed most of the time. As described
in
the section below, the special-purpose hardware can steal time from the 68000 for jobs it
can do more efficiently
than
the 68000. Even then, such cycle stealing only blocks the
68000's access
to
the shared memory. When using ROM or external memory, the 68000
always runs
at
full speed.
2 Introduction
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