This column indicates the first machine intended to use each Kickstart ROM. However, in many cases (particularly in earlier releases), ROM code was interchangable between "like" machines, such as the Amiga 500 and 2000 (and in some cases the 1000). Following is a list of the machines this site is concerned with:
A1000: The original Amiga. Unlike any other Amiga (with moderate similarities to the original Amiga 3000), this machine (unless modified with aftermarket enhancements) required that Kickstart be loaded from floppy disk into a 256KB RAM space called the WCS (or Write-Control-Store) area. Once written, the WCS was write-protected and the contents were not lost until power-down (without special utilities to clear the WCS at run-time). Because of the limited size of the WCS, end-user Amiga 1000 owners were limited to use of Kickstarts 1.0 through 1.3 inclusive (although several 3rd party hardware ROM solutions and freeware software soft-kick solutions quickly appeared to overcome this limitation). A single Zorro 1 card slot was available on the right-hand side of the machine, aligned "backwards" from the Zorro 1 slot on the later Amiga 500. Among its other unique features (such as the keyboard "garage", the "pencil holder" on the keyboard and signatures of the designers molded into the inside of the plastic case lid), the 1000 was also the only Amiga to play a short tune (in stereo!) when powered up, prior to requesting the Kickstart floppy. This tune (amplified by 10dB, as the actual tune is rather quiet) can be heard in WAV (53K), MP3 (20K), and 8SVX (105K) formats.
More information on the Amiga 1000 can be found at OLD-COMPUTERS.COM, the Amiga Hardware Database, and the Amiga Interactive Guide.
A2000: The first "big box" Amiga, this advanced the design of the Amiga 1000 by offering more traditional card slots (Zorro 2 for Amiga expansion cards, a CPU expansion slot, a video expansion slot, and IBM XT slots intended for use with Commodore's Bridgeboard PC compatibility card) instead of a single edge connector, updated custom chips, 512KB of chip RAM standard (on the motherboard, later upgraded to 1MB), three internal floppy bays (two 3.5", one 5.25"), and Kickstart in ROM (originally 1.2, later 1.3 and 2.04). The A2000 ROM chip is also fully compatible with the Amiga 500 and 500+, which were both designed as economical all-in-one solutions with an integrated keyboard resembling the Commodore 64C/Commodore 128.
Variants of the A2000 included the A1500 (UK only, included 2 floppy drives and 1MB chip RAM stock), the A2000HD (included the A2090A ST-506/SCSI hardcard paired with a ST-506 drive and later replaced by the A2091 SCSI hardcard paired with a SCSI drive and 2MB fast RAM in 256Kx4 DRAMs), and the A2500 (A2000 with an A2620/68020 or A2630/68030 accelerator card) and A2500HD (A2500 with an A2091).
More information on the Amiga 2000 can be found at OLD-COMPUTERS.COM, the Amiga Hardware Database, and the Amiga Interactive Guide. Additionally, information on the Amiga 1500 is available at OLD-COMPUTERS.COM and the Amiga Interactive Guide. The Amiga 2500 is detailed at the Amiga Interactive Guide. Finally, more information on the Amiga 500 is located at OLD-COMPUTERS.COM, the Amiga Hardware Database, and the Amiga Interactive Guide, and the A500+ at the Amiga Interactive Guide.
A3000 Boot/SK: The first real overhaul of the Amiga hardware design. Sporting a 16 or 25MHz 68030 with built-in FPU and MMU, upgraded card slots (Zorro 3/IBM AT), more updated custom chips (allowing for 2MB of chip RAM), fast RAM expansion on the motherboard (up to 16MB, in the form of awkward ZIP RAM), a built-in SCSI controller (evolved from the venerable A2091 card for the A2000), and a "flicker-fixer" (designed to solve the problem of interlace flicker on high-vertical-resolution screens), the Amiga 3000 represented the most radical departure from traditional Amiga designs yet (not to mention the stylish, if somewhat cramped, case). Originally released to manufacturing before the new operating system (AmigaDOS 2.0) was finished, Commodore elected to include modified Kickstart 1.4 beta 3(?) ROMs in the machine (mounted atop a "ROM tower" that mapped their EPROM pinout to the more-standard ROM layout on the motherboard) that would present the user with a menu asking them to select between Kickstart 1.3 or 2.0, which would then be loaded from hard disk (in Devs:) and soft-kicked into fast RAM (similar to the A1000) via the MMU (these are the infamous/rare "A3000 Boot ROMs", revision 36.016). As AmigaDOS 2.0 development progressed, periodic updates were sent to registered A3000 owners every few months until development was completed with Kickstart 2.04. As the Kickstart for the A3000 needed to support the specialized A3000 fast RAM and SCSI controller, the concept of a "SuperKickstart" was created - in essence, a "standard" Kickstart (compiled for the 68020) coupled with "bonus" code to drive the new hardware. Only the original early Amiga 3000s used SuperKickstarts, which were copied to the hard disk (as above) during each update. SuperKickstart floppies also existed, although their use outside of the Amiga development community is unknown.
More information on the Amiga 3000 can be found at OLD-COMPUTERS.COM, the Amiga Hardware Database, and the Amiga Interactive Guide.
A3000: Once Kickstart 2.04 was completed, future Amiga 3000 models included improvements to the motherboard design as well as a more standard ROM-based Kickstart 2.04, located in two ROM chips (addressing odd and even addresses). The only other physical ROM to be available for later A3000 machines was Kickstart 3.1, again specifically compiled for this machine. The final improvement to the A3000 line was the introduction of the Amiga 3000T (tower), which was a custom Amiga 3000 motherboard mounted in a heavy, roomy tower case complete with keylock.
More information on the Amiga 3000T can be found at the Amiga Hardware Database and the Amiga Interactive Guide
CDTV: The CDTV was Commodore's foray into the console market (similar to the Sega Genesis, though perhaps more in the same league as the Philips CD-I design). It was essentially an Amiga 500 motherboard in a black console case and included a CD-ROM drive and a joypad. A CDTV-specific keyboard port and standard mouse and floppy ports were provided, but the peripherals themselves were not bundled. It included Kickstart 1.3 (34.005) with an additional "extended" 256KB ROM for the specialized CDTV hardware and user interface. In fact, it was so similar to the Amiga 500 design that the A500 could be "upgraded" to a CDTV-capable unit with Commodore's A570 external CD-ROM unit (which also included the extended CDTV ROM). The extended ROM was only compatible with Kickstart 1.3, although CDTV developers received updated developer ROMs that could support Kickstart 2.04/3.1 chips from the Amiga 500/2000.
It appears that the major sequencing of CDTV Kickstart ROMs was as follows:
1.x - First public release, Kickstart 1.3-only
2.x - Developer releases/A570, added Kickstart 2.0+ and "A690" compatibility
3.x - CDTV CR (detailed below)
More information on the CDTV can be found at OLD-COMPUTERS.COM, the Amiga Hardware Database, and the Amiga Interactive Guide.
CDTV CR: The CDTV CR (cost reduced) was to be the next-generation CDTV, completely redesigned to reduce manufacturing costs and take advantage of software and hardware advances since the original model was released. It used Kickstart 2.05 (from the Amiga 600) in conjunction with CDTV Extended Kickstart version 3.2. Only six prototypes are known to exist.
More information on the CDTV CR can be found at The Commodore CDTV Information Center and the Amiga Interactive Guide.
A600/A600HD: A return to Commodore's strategy of low-cost consumer machines, the Amiga 600 had an even smaller desktop footprint than the A500. It included Kickstart 2.05 in ROM, which was needed to support its built-in 2.5" IDE controller and PCMCIA slot. All A600 ROMs (including 2.05 and 3.1) are fully backwards-compatible with older machines of the same class (A500, A500+, A2000), although A600-specific features are obviously not available on those machines. The A600 was the only Amiga to ship with three different variants of the same Kickstart version (minor releases 299, 300, and 350), only the latter two of which support the internal IDE controller.
More information on the Amiga 600 can be found at OLD-COMPUTERS.COM, the Amiga Hardware Database, and the Amiga Interactive Guide.
A4000: Originally conceived as the Amiga 1000+ (Kickstart 3.0 for the A4000 included "A1000" bonus code), the Amiga 4000 design was intended to be a stopgap design towards the eventual Amiga 3000+. Unfortunately, budgetary cutbacks in hardware engineering at Commodore resulted in the premature release of this evolving design, causing the AGA (Advanced Graphics Architecture, originally just "AA" for advanced architecture) chipset to be left without improved sound support (in the form of the AT&T DSP chip used in the A3000+ design, which was never completed). Kickstart 3.0 (as well as Workbench 3.0) was created specifically to add support for the new AGA chipset and accompanying new hardware (including a standard 3.5" IDE hard drive controller in lieu of the then-standard SCSI controller) in the A4000/A1200. A future Kickstart upgrade to version 3.1 was made available to A4000 owners shortly after Commodore's filing for bankruptcy.
More information on the Amiga 4000 can be found at OLD-COMPUTERS.COM, the Amiga Hardware Database, and the Amiga Interactive Guide.
A4000T: Chastened by design flaws in the original Amiga 4000 as a result of it being rushed to market and driven by financial cutbacks, Commodore made the decision with the Amiga 4000T (tower) to herald the return of a standard SCSI controller in addition to the A4000's IDE controller. The limited production run of the A4000T (as a result of Commodore's demise) makes a Commodore-manufactured version of this machine the most rare Amiga model ever produced and much sought-after by collectors. The A4000T included a machine-specific version of Kickstart 3.1 standard.
More information on the Amiga 4000T can be found at the Amiga Hardware Database and the Amiga Interactive Guide.
A1200: The low-cost integrated-keyboard version of the Amiga 4000, the Amiga 1200 was physically similar to the A500 with the addition of an IDE controller, a PCMCIA slot, and the AGA chipset. Kickstart 3.0 (specific to the A1200, as the A4000 had no PCMCIA slot) shipped inside the machine, and could later be upgraded to an A1200-specific Kickstart 3.1 ROM if desired.
More information on the Amiga 1200 can be found at OLD-COMPUTERS.COM, the Amiga Hardware Database, and the Amiga Interactive Guide.
CD32: Commodore's last venture into the console market, the CD32 was internally an Amiga 1200 running Kickstart 3.1 (minor release 60) with a bundled CD-ROM drive and joypad (ala the CDTV). The AGA chipset offered a significant improvement in video quality over the CDTV, and the addition of the Akiko custom chip provided hardware support for chunky-to-planar video conversion. The CD32 could be expanded into a full A1200 with the addition of the third-party SX-32 unit, allowing for the use of IDE hard drives, Amiga keyboards, additional fast RAM, etc. Unlike the CDTV, the CD32 base Kickstart was specific to the CD32, although the CD32 also included an "extended" 512KB ROM for machine-specific support of the CD-ROM drive, user GUI, and Akiko.
More information on the CD32 can be found at the Amiga Interactive Guide.