View source for Advanced Amiga Architecture chipset

{{Short description|None}}
{{about-distinguish2|the planned but never-released "AAA" Amiga chipset|the upgraded graphics chipset released in 1992, [[Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture|Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA)]]}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{No footnotes|date=December 2007}}
{{Original research|date=December 2007}}
}}

The '''AAA chipset''' ('''Advanced Amiga Architecture''') was intended to be the next-generation [[Amiga]] [[multimedia]] system designed by [[Commodore International]]. Initially begun as a secret project, the first design discussions were started in 1988, and after many revisions and redesigns the first silicon versions were fabricated in 1992–1993. The project was stymied in 1993 based on a lack of funds for chip revisions.

At the same time AAA started first silicon testing, the next generation Commodore chipset project was in progress. While AAA was a reinvention and huge upgrade of the Amiga architecture, project [[Hombre chipset|Hombre]] was essentially a clean slate. It took what was learned from Amiga and went in new directions, which included an on-chip CPU with a custom 3D instruction set, 16-bit and 24-bit chunky pixel display, and up to four 16-bit playfields running simultaneously. Hombre also embraced the [[Peripheral Component Interconnect|PCI bus]], which was seen as the future for main board interconnect and expansion going forward. 

== Design goals ==
AAA was slated to include numerous technologies.
* 32-bit CPU bus
* 32-bit and 64-bit graphics bus options. 
* 256 deep [[Colour look-up table|CLUT]] entries 25-bit wide each (256 indirect colors indexed through 24-bit palette with extra genlock bit like [[Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture|AGA]] has). This mode runs in the native [[AmigaOS]] display.
* Direct 16 bit-planes [[Planar (computer graphics)|planar]] pixels without [[Colour look-up table|CLUT]] entries, since this mode doesn't contain a palette or a [[Colour look-up table|CLUT]] it requires some kind of [[AmigaOS#Graphics|ReTargetable Graphics]] (RTG) driver like chunky modes.
* New Agnus/Alice replacement chip 'Andrea' with an updated 32-bit [[blitter]] and [[Amiga Original chipset#Copper|Copper]]  which can handle [[packed pixel|chunky]] pixels.
* A line-buffer chip with [[double buffering]] called 'Linda' provides higher resolution (up to 1280 × 1024). Linda also decompresses two new packed pixels (PACKLUT, PACKHY) on the fly.
* Updated version of [[Amiga Original chipset#Paula|Paula]] called 'Mary' with 8 voices that can be assigned either to left or right channel; each channel has 16-bit resolution with up to 100 [[Hertz|kHz]] sample rate; additionally it does 8-bit audio sampling input.
* Direct [[Packed pixel|Chunky]] 16-bit pixels (15 bits for 32768 colors and 1 bit for [[genlock]] overlay), provided by custom chip 'Monica', this mode requires RTG driver.
* New 24-bit hybrid mode (with a [[Packed pixel|chunky]]/[[Planar (computer graphics)|planar]] properties) consisted of 3 byte-planes of 8 bit chunks each. Like chunky modes it requires RTG driver for lacking [[CLUT]].
* New 8/4/2 bit Half-[[packed pixel|Chunky]] Graphics Mode which indirect through [[Colour Look Up Table|CLUT]] like 8-bit [[Planar (computer graphics)|planar]] modes do.(requires RTG)
* New packed (compressed) pixels (2-bit PACKLUT and 4-bit PACKHY) decompressed by Linda to 8-bit half-chunky or 24-bit Hybrid pixels respectively, used for speeding up animations.
* A reversible pixel clock for a frame grabber (a [[video capture]] device) in [[packed pixel|chunky]] modes (this only work with  [[Dynamic random access memory#Video DRAM .28VRAM.29|VRAM]]  systems).
* New [[Amiga Hold-and-Modify|Hold-and-Modify]] modes (HAM-8 chunky and HAM-10 for 24bit / 16.8 million colours).
* [[Sprite (computer graphics)|Sprites]] size can go up to 128 pixels in width with any height.
* Dual 8-bit playfields.
* [[Dynamic random access memory#Video DRAM .28VRAM.29|VRAM]] Chip Memory systems with optional 32/64 bit [[Dynamic random access memory|DRAM]] chip memory (for lower cost systems).
* 12× to 20× memory bandwidth of [[Amiga Chip RAM|Chip RAM]] access of [[Amiga Enhanced Chip Set|ECS]].
* 8× [[blitter]] speed increase of [[Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture|AGA]]/[[Amiga Enhanced Chip Set|ECS]] [[blitter]].
* Direct support for {{nowrap| 4 MB}} raw [[floppy disk]]s (2.88 [[Megabyte|MB]] IBM-style-formatted and all known format including [[Macintosh|Mac]] floppies), with a direct interface to a raw [[CD-ROM]] drive or [[Digital Audio Tape]] (DAT) and a [[digital radio]] interface, managed by Mary chip (port and audio peripheral controller).
* Asynchronous design managed by Linda and Andrea makes AAA pixel clock independent of its bus clock so the chipset can work with any CPU (including any [[Reduced instruction set computer|RISC]] processor).
* The chipset would include up to 1 million [[transistor]]s in its 64-bit dual-system configuration (total).
* Up to {{nowrap|16 MB}} [[Amiga Chip RAM|ChipRAM]] ([[graphics]] memory) in dual-systems.
* Two four-byte buffered [[FIFO (computing and electronics)|FIFO]] serial [[Universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter|UART]]s, one of these [[UART]] is in the same RGA address as the original Paula [[UART]].
* A built-in [[genlock]].
* 40 on-demand [[Direct memory access|DMA]] channels dynamically allocated by Andrea.
* 64-bit pixel bus with 114 [[Hertz|MHz]] pixel clock in dual systems which makes 1280×1024 @72[[Hertz|Hz]] screens possible.
* 128-bit long memory bus bursts

The initial [[chipset]] run has a number of early chip problems. The LUT was scrambled, so while it was possible to put up images on the screen in test systems, it was necessary to run a bit-skiggling{{clarify|date=November 2023}}  filter that re-arranged the color to work with the existing hardware. There was a bug in the Andrea memory controller that required a FIBed die locked into either DRAM or VRAM mode. There was a bug in the Andrea bus control logic that prevented Andrea's data bus from going tri-state during DMA reads from the other chips. That prevented some important bits of the functionality of the other chips from being tested. 

Three prototypes called '[[Nyx]]', meaning "night" in [[Ancient Greek language|Classical Greek]], were built as technology demonstrators and debugger boards for the new chips. However Nyx was never intended as the final production machine, AAA systems would have been based around the Acutiator architecture designed by [[Dave Haynie]]. Rather, the Nyx system was a test bed for the AAA chips and some other new ideas at Commodore, including custom memory modules for Chip RAM, Kickstart ROM on a module (with support for Flash), a multiple simultaneous pixel clock system, a low cost wired, self-terminating point to point LAN, 

[[Commodore International|Commodore]] declared bankruptcy before designs were completed; some of the focus on AAA chips moved to creating a radically different [[64-bit]] design based on a modified [[PA-RISC]] 7150 [[CPU]] with added graphics instructions and video pipelines (See [[Hombre chipset]]). Fully functioning AAA chips were never produced, though they were much talked about in the trade press. Numerous plans for purchasing [[Amiga]] and salvaging the technology came and went after Commodore's demise; all of them including the realization that for the Amiga to stay competitive, the development and release of AAA or Hombre would have to be one of their overriding goals.

== See also ==
{{Portal|Amiga}}
* [[Original Amiga chipset]]
* [[Amiga Ranger Chipset]]
* [[Enhanced Chip Set]]
* [[Amiga Advanced Graphics Architecture]]
* [[Hombre chipset]]
* [[List of home computers by video hardware]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/262b/7de1f3a5cbcb82d2ec995b227bf3d441d3b2.pdf An Overview of the Advanced Amiga Architecture and Other Future Directions by Dave Haynie 1993]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20171229094307/http://www.thule.no/haynie/research/nyx/ Dave Haynie documents of AAA and Nyx prototype]
* [http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/prototypes/nyx.html A summary on the Nyx prototypes]
* [http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/amigaaaa.html A detailed history of the AAA chips]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100414222302/http://www.thule.no/haynie/ The Dave Haynie Archive with detailed info and specs]
* [http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/acutiator.html ACUTIATOR]

{{Amiga hardware}}

[[Category:Amiga chipsets]]
[[Category:Graphics chips]]
[[Category:Sound chips]]
[[Category:AmigaOS]]