Return Of The Commodore AMIGA – Commodore U.S.A Announces New AMIGA mini
Commodore U.S.A’s new Commodore AMIGA mini flatters the Mac mini in design with a slightly larger form factor, measuring 7.5 inches square, with a height of 3 inches (197 x 197 x 75mm). Its enclosure is of anodized aluminum and avalable in both silver or black, with engraved AMIGA (front) and Commodore (top) logos, and a metallic Commodore badge on the front.
Commodore was a major player in the micro-computer era of the eighties and early nineties, but a series of unfortunate management decisions led to Commodore’s premature demise, but not before computers ushered in a generation of technology enthusiasts, who grew up with and loved the brand and its products whose features inspired many hardware tinkerers, programmers and technologists. Nearly a quarter-century on, there continues to be a huge cult following of Commodore computer enthusiasts enthusiasts who regularly meet at annual events all around the world and maintain countless websites.
Commodore USA, LLC, founded by Barry Altman in April of 2010, with the express purpose of reviving and re-establishing the famous Commodore computer brand, recently secured licensing rights to both the Commodore and AMIGA brands plans to release a series of all-in-one computers, desktops, notebooks and tablets in the coming months and years – for example they intend to bring back the Commodore 64 (claimed to be the greatest selling computer model of all time) as a modern keyboard computer suitable for everyday service, and they are also rebooting the Commodore AMIGA line of computers, thoroughly updated with today’s technology.
The standard AMIGA mini is powered by Intel i3-2130 3.5 Ghz Quad-Core (3.9Ghz Turboboost) Sandy Bridge processors, with either i5-2500K 3.3Ghz (3.7Ghz Turbo) or i7-2700K 3.5Ghz (3.9Ghz Turbo) CPUs available for $260 and $360 extra respectively. Data storage is via either a 1 TB hard disk drive or optional 300 or 600 GB SSD ($495/$995). The mini has internal space for two 2.5″ hard drives, and comes with 4 GB of DD3 memory (upgradable to either 8GB or 16GB – $40/$140), integrated nVidia Geforce GT 430 Graphics with 1 Gig of DD3 memory providing enough power to drive 3 displays, and 6 Gb/s SATA for fast HD reads. A slot load Blu-Ray drive that can also read and write DVDs is standard.
Expansion and I/O connectivity support includes four USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports, one PCI Express x4 (open-end) slot and one Mini PCI Express (occupied by the WiFi module) slot, two Dual-link DVI ports, one DisplayPort, and one HDMI port.
The AMIGA mini’s operating system is the Commodore OS Vision pre-installed plus 2 restore discs.
Commodore OS Vision is a customized GNU/Linux distribution for Commodore enthusiasts aimed at restoring AMIGA’s unique operating environment, inclrportating various themes inspired by the Commodore 64 and various versions of the Commodore Amiga Workbench user environments, but with a modern spin. Commodore OS Vision is not a derivative of the original AmigaOS developed for 68K microprocessor computers in the 1980’s, but an entirely modern operating system based on GNU/Linux.
The AMIGA mini is available for order now via Commodore USA’s online store for $1,495 configured with the Blu-ray drive, four USB 3.0 ports, an Nvidia GeForce GT480M graphics card and a 1TB hard drive for delivery in 4-6 weeks. A bare-bones home entertainment system starting at $345 will also be available with only a Blu-ray drive.
For more information, visit:
http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_AMIGAmini.aspx