--- title: Commodore AMIGA 2500 categories: - Computers types: - Professional Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1989' cpus: - '68000' params: name: AMIGA 2500 image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga2500_system_1.jpg company: /companies/commodore company_name: Commodore specs: - label: NAME value: AMIGA 2500 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Commodore - label: TYPE value: Professional Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1989' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: None - label: KEYBOARD value: Full stroke 96 keys with 10 function keys, numeric keypad and cursor keys - label: CPU value: 68000 + 68020 then 68030 - label: SPEED value: 7.14 MHz (68000), 14 MHz (68020), 25 MHz (68030) - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: 68881 then 68882 + standard Amiga 2000 custom chips - label: RAM value: 3 MB up to 9 MB - label: ROM value: 256 KB (DOS 1.3) - label: TEXT MODES value: 60 or 80 chars x 32 lines - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 320 x 256 / 320 x 512 / 640 x 256 / 640 x 512 dots - label: COLORS value: 32 (for 320 x X modes), 16 (for 640 x X modes) among 4096 + 2 special modes EHB (64 colors) + HAM (4096 colors) - label: SOUND value: 4 voice 8 bit PCM - label: I/O PORTS value: 4 PC ISA slots (2 AT & 2 XT), Processor card slot, 5 x Zorro II slots, Video slot, Serial/RS232, Parallel/Centronics, RGB & composite video outputs, Mouse, 2 x Stereo audio, Keyboard, External floppy - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 3.5'' disk-drive (880k) + 40 MB SCSI hard disc in basic version - label: OS value: AMIGA WorKBench 1.3, Kickstart 1.3 - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Built-in switching power supply unit - label: PRICE value: 3300 (France, 1990, 68030 version) tabs: - photos - hardware - emulators - links - videos forum_thread: 887 photos: - title: AMIGA 2500 subtitle: '' text: Picture taken from 1989 french magazine (Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show report) image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_amiga2500_2.jpg hardware: - title: MIDI GOLD 500 subtitle: by Golden Hawk Technology text: |- This is a MIDI interface for the Amiga 500, 2000, or 3000... It features :\ \- one MIDI In\ \- two MIDI Out\ \- one switchable Out/Thru\ \- one MIDI/Serial Switch\ \- one Out/Thru Switch image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga_golden-hawk-midi-interface.jpg - title: AMIGA 1300 subtitle: Genlock text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1000_1300-genlock.jpg - title: MEMORY EXPANSION BOARD subtitle: '' text: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 MB expansion card here fitted with 2 MB. image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_memboard_1.jpg - title: VIDEO BOARD subtitle: '' text: This board featured 2 MB of RAM and allowed the Amiga to be connected to a standard VGA monitor. All the video modes could be displayed, including the interlace one. image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_videoboard_1.jpg - title: A570 CD-ROM subtitle: '' text: Thanks to David Griffith for this picture image: /media/museum/hardware/amiga_cdrom_a570_1.jpg - title: HARD DISK CARD subtitle: '' text: |- 40 MB SCSI card from SUPRA CORP. Additional SCSI devices could be connected in chain trough the back connector image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_hdboard_1.jpg emulators: - title: Amiga Forever url: http://www.amigaforever.com/ platform: Windows text: Complete but commercial Amiga emulator - title: AMIthlon & AmigaXL url: http://amigaosxl.haage-partner.de/index-e.html platform: Windows text: Powerful commercial emulators - title: WinFellow url: HTTP://FELLOW.SOURCEFORGE.NET platform: Windows text: Probably better at some games than UAE, but not as versatile. - title: WinUAE url: http://www.winuae.net/ platform: Windows text: The best Amiga emulator ? :-) - title: Max UAE url: http://maxuae.de/ platform: Apple text: UAE for Mac OS X - title: AmigaSYS url: http://amigasys.fw.hu/ platform: Unix / Linux text: AmigaSYS is a pre-installed full Amiga OS for WinUAE - title: Pocket UAE url: http://pocketinsanity.sourceforge.net/ platform: Other platform text: Amiga Emulator for Pocket PC - title: Experimental UAE url: http://www.rcdrummond.net/uae/ platform: Multiplatform text: Standard UAE enhanced with features from WinUAE. - title: MESS url: http://www.mess.org platform: Multiplatform text: MESS now emulates the Commodore Amiga - title: UAE url: http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~uae/ platform: Multiplatform text: '(Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator) for BeOS, Mac OS, Linux, NextStep, MSDOS, OS/2 and Win95/NT : Homepage.' links: - title: Amiga animations url: http://www.randelshofer.ch/animations/ text: A collection of Amiga Animations. This is the only site where you can see them online! - title: Amiga Interactive Guide url: http://amiga.emugaming.com/ text: Excellent site ! A lot of very interesting infos there. - title: Amiga Island url: http://www.virtualpast.de/ text: Excellent site with ROMs to download! - title: Amiga Web Directory url: http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html text: '' - title: AMIGART.COM url: http://www.amigart.com text: Nice site with Amiga news - title: Back to the Roots url: HTTP://WWW.BACK2ROOTS.ORG/ text: Amiga culture, guides, huge collection of legally downloadable software, and much more. - title: Lex Site - Amiga Hardware Database url: http://amiga.multigraph.com/ text: The website title says it all! - title: NetBSD-Amiga url: http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/amiga/index.html text: '' - title: Old Computer Mags url: http://www.old-computer-mags.com/ text: Scans of old computer and videogames magazine - title: Recorded Amiga Games url: http://www.recordedamigagames.org text: Speedrun, longplay and misc videos of Amiga games and more. - title: RetroPack url: http://www.retropack.co.uk/ text: Website dedicated to selling original Amigas, CD32s and Amiga/CD32 Games. - title: The Amiga Monitor url: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MikeWebb/amhome.html text: '' - title: The Big Book of Amiga Hardware url: http://www.amiga-hardware.com/ text: Pics & info (pinouts, jumpers etc.) for just about every piece of Amiga related hardware there is - title: The English Amiga Board url: http://eab.abime.net/ text: Community site for Amiga fans - title: World-Wide Amiga - Online!! url: http://www.amiga.org/ text: '' - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com text: Reviews of Amiga software, hardware videos: - title: Commodore Amiga commercial - EXIT url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8721405286052618769&hl=fr text: 'Length: 41 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 500 commercial url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5737538578208665725&hl=fr text: 'Length: 29 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 1000 commercial url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5356507595228759374&hl=fr text: 'Length: 32 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 600 italian commercial url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-768109352967297990&hl=fr text: 'Length: 19 s' - title: Commodore Amiga packs commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdaMq8JLyHA text: 'Length: 21 s' - title: Commodore Amiga TV Ad - Celebrities url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEFoj6sbDjU text: 'Length: 29 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 500 promotional video url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=9038863557655975739&hl=fr text: 'Length: 15 min 06 s' - title: 'Computer Chronicles: Amiga & Atari (1985)' url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8978343825632445107&hl=fr text: 'Length: 29 min 18 s' related: - /museum/commodore-amiga-1000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-1200 - /museum/commodore-amiga-1500 - /museum/commodore-amiga-2000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-3000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-4000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-500 - /museum/commodore-amiga-500-plus - /museum/commodore-amiga-600 - /museum/commodore-amiga-600hd - /museum/commodore-cdtv oc_id: 907 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230326093213/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=907 date: '2023-03-26' --- The first Amiga 2500 model was released during 1989 and was most popular in the US and Canada, appealing to the high-end user and professional market. There was very little difference from previous revisions of the [A2000](/museum/commodore-amiga-2000/), the most notable being the addition of processor cards increasing the system speed. First models were sold with A2620 card (68020 processor + 68881 FPU), next with A2630 (68030 + 6882) **Armando Ruggeri**, from Canada, adds:\ This machine was sold in much greater numbers as the A2500HD which shipped with the much unliked A2090A ST506/SCSI HD controller which later was replaced with the much better A2091 SCSI controller, typical sizes of the HDs were 40 - 80 Mb HD as I recall. The main reason to buy this machine was for the A2620 or 2630 accelerator cards that were plugged into the fast CPU slot. The 2620 included a 14Mhz clocked Motorola 68020 CPU, 68881 FPU and 68851 MMU. It included 2Mb of 32bit Fast RAM expandable to 4Mb RAM if you were handy with a soldering iron and felt comfortable handling the uniquely packaged fragile ZIP (Zigzag Inline Package) chips! :) This resulted in a 3X speed increase and much more if you had math intensive packages such as 3D graphics packages IE: Turbo Silver etc.. Later onwards The A2620 was replaced with the faster A2630 which included a 25Mhz Motorola 68030 (With integrated MMU) and the much faster 68882 FPU, this combo could increase general speeds to 6X stock A2000 speeds. This board also shipped with 2Mb of 32 fast RAM or special ordered with 4Mb. Like the A2620 the 2Mb board could be upgraded by soldering in 16 ZIP chips, which usually was done by authorized service centers. The two accelerator boards were both sold seperately for upgrading A2000/A2000HDs to the identical A2500 speeds. The price for these boards were extravegant at first with the first A2620 retailing in the $5000 Canadian dollars range on their release! Later on the boards became less popular as third party products from companies like GVP included faster performance, built in HD controler and much easier to expand memory systems. **Paul Gable** specifies:\ There was a board made by DKB called the 2632 which attached to the back of a 2630 and added up to 128 megs of RAM. This board is extremely rare.