The Enhanced Chip Set (ECS) is the second generation of the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

's chipset, offering minor improvements over the original chipset (OCS) design. ECS was introduced in 1990 with the launch of the

Amiga 3000 The Commodore Amiga 3000, or A3000, is a personal computer released by Commodore in June 1990. It features improved processing speed, improved graphics rendering, and a new revision of the operating system. It is the successor to the Amiga 2000. ...

. Amigas produced from 1990 onwards featured a mix of OCS and ECS chips, such as later versions of the

Amiga 500 The Amiga 500, also known as the A500, is the first low-end version of the Amiga home computer. It contains the same Motorola 68000 as the Amiga 1000, as well as the same graphics and sound coprocessors, but is in a smaller case similar to that ...

and the

Commodore CDTV The CDTV (from Commodore Dynamic Total Vision, later treated as a backronym for Compact Disc Television) is a home multimedia entertainment and video game console – convertible into a full-fledged personal computer by the addition of optional ...

. Other ECS models were the Amiga 500+ in 1991 and lastly the

Amiga 600 The Amiga 600, also known as the A600, is a home computer introduced in March 1992. It is the final Amiga model based on the Motorola 68000 and the 1990 Amiga Enhanced Chip Set. A redesign of the Amiga 500 Plus, it adds the option of an internal ...

in 1992. Notable improvements were the '' Super Agnus'' and the ''HiRes Denise'' chips. The sound and floppy controller chip, '' Paula'', remained unchanged from the OCS design. Super Agnus supports 2 MB of

Chip RAM Chip RAM is a commonly used term for the integrated RAM used in Commodore's line of Amiga computers. Chip RAM is shared between the central processing unit (CPU) and the Amiga's dedicated chipset (hence the name). It was also, rather misleadingly, k ...

, whereas the original Agnus/''Fat Agnus'' and subsequent ''Fatter Agnus'' can address 512 KB and 1 MB, respectively. The ECS Denise chip offers ''Productivity'' (640×480 non-interlaced) and ''SuperHiRes'' (1280×200 or 1280×256) display modes (also available in interlaced mode), which are however limited to only 4 on-screen colors. Essentially, a 35 ns pixel mode was added plus the ability to run arbitrary horizontal and vertical scan rates. This made other display modes possible, but only the aforementioned modes were supported originally out of the box. For example, the Linux Amiga framebuffer device driver allows the use of several other display modes. Other improvements were the ability of the blitter to copy regions larger than 1024×1024 pixels in one operation and the ability to display sprites in border regions (outside of any display window where bitplanes are shown). ECS also allows software switching between 60 Hz and 50 Hz video modes. These improvements largely favored application

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

, which benefited from higher resolution and VGA-like display modes, rather than games. As an incremental update, ECS was intended to be backward compatible with software designed for OCS machines, though some pre-ECS games were found to be incompatible. Additionally, features from the improved Kickstart 2 operating system were used in subsequent software, and since these two technologies largely overlap, some users misjudged the significance of ECS. It is possible to upgrade some OCS machines, such as the Amiga 500, to obtain partial or full ECS functionality by replacing OCS chips with ECS versions. ECS was followed by the third generation

AGA Aga or AGA may refer to: Business * Architectural Glass and Aluminum (AGA), a glazing contractor, established in 1970 * AGA (automobile), ''Autogen Gasaccumulator AG'', 1920s German car company *AGA AB, ''Aktiebolaget Svenska Gasaccumulator'', a ...

chipset with the launch of the

Amiga 4000 The Commodore Amiga 4000, or A4000, is the successor of the A2000 and A3000 computers. There are two models: the A4000/040 released in October 1992 with a Motorola 68040 CPU, and the A4000/030 released in April 1993 with a Motorola 68EC030. T ...

and

Amiga 1200 The Amiga 1200, or A1200 (code-named " Channel Z"), is a personal computer in the Amiga computer family released by Commodore International, aimed at the home computer market. It was launched on October 21, 1992, at a base price of £399 in the ...

in 1992.

See also