ID #2858

Commodore: A3500


A3500
A3500

Rear of A3500
Rear of A3500

A3500 motherboard in case
A3500 motherboard in case

A3500 without fascia
A3500 without fascia

a3500mb_1_sm.jpg

a3500mb_2_sm.jpg

A3500 motherboard in an A3000T case, note the blue PCB!
A3500 motherboard in an A3000T case, note the blue PCB!

Hi Res Version, A3500 - 405K
Image of A3500 fascia, Closeup 2 - 66K
Image of A3500 fascia, Closeup 1 - 76K
Image of A3500 fascia - 30K
Hi Res Version, Rear of A3500 - 40K
Hi Res Version, A3500 motherboard in case - 83K
Hi Res Version of A3500 Motherboard 1 - 187K
Hi Res Version of A3500 Motherboard 2 - 109K
Hi Res Version of A3500 Motherboard 3 - 118K
Hi Res Version of A3500 Motherboard - 203K

Standard Specifications

Case Type: Full Tower
Processor: 030@25Mhz
MMU: Internal
FPU: 68882@25Mhz (030 version)
Chipset: ECS
Kickstarts: V2.04
Bus Controller: Super Buster Rev 7
Expansion Slots: 5 x 100pin Zorro III Slots
1 x ECS Video Slot (Inline with Zorro)
4 x Inactive 16bit ISA slots (2 inline with Zorro)
1 x 200pin CPU Fast Slot
Standard CHIP RAM: 2MB
RAM sockets: ZIP & DIL sockets
Hard Drive Controllers: 1 x SCSI-II Controller
Drive Bays: 4 x 5.25" (4 with faceplates, 2 vertical, 2 horiztonal)
3 x 3.5" (2 with faceplates)
Expansion Ports: 1 x 25pin Serial
1 x 25pin Parallel
1 x 23pin RGB Video
1 x 15pin VGA Connector (unconfirmed)
1 x 23pin External Floppy
2 x 9pin Joystick/Mouse
2 x RCA Audio (Left/Right)
1 x 25pin External SCSI connector
1 x large 5pin DIN Keyboard connector.
Floppy Drive: 1 x Internal 880K Floppy Drive
Motherboard Revisions: Rev 1
Rev 2
(Later revisions are probably A3000T motherboards)
Battery Backed Up Clock: Yes, uses "Barrel" shaped batteries.

Very little is known about the A3500 as it was never officially released, however an unknown number of models certainly found there way to dealers and end-users. Apparently, the A3500 was originally designed for Sun Microsystems to run UNIX on, who would have rebadged the machine and sold it as a Sun product. In true Commodore style, the deal fell through. This seems a likely cause for the A3500 never being officially released and eventually ending up being sold as the A3000T which is almost identical, apart from a slightly different case bezel and some minor differences mentioned below. In Commodore's tradition of whacky naming schemes the A3500 does not carry the "T" designation that their other tower systems do. The A3500 was previewed at the Business Computing show in 1991 and can be seen in the "Deathbed Vigil" video by Dave Haynie. The A3500 came with an 030@25Mhz and 68882@25Mhz on the motherboard. It seems unlikely that any machines were supplied with an 040 as the true A3000T was released shortly afterwards. The A3500 has the same SCSI-II controller as found in the A3000T and the desktop A3000 and also contains the same built in scandoubler. Some early prototype A3500's actually have a blue motherboard and even blue zorro slots and jumpers which is quite unusuak as most other Amiga's have the traditional green motherboard and black Zorro slots. Unlike the A3000T, the A3500 lacks a CD-ROM audio connector for mixing in the sound output of a CDROM, however it has two hard disk LEDs, instead of one and a power LED. The actual A3500 case is based upon a tower case which Commodore used with one of their PC systems (PC 60) but had a different name plate and an extra externally accessible drive bay. The case is also similar to the A3000 case, with the front bezel being different. The A3500 also includes an internal speaker for playing the native audio, however external speakers can still be attached.

Contributions to this page by:
Andreas Loong, Darren Smith, DJ, Gary Danko, Matthew Garrett, Treveur Bretaudiere

Letzte Änderung des Artikels: 2009-01-24 18:47
Revision: 1.0

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