Everything about Amiga Expansions

What is the Zorro bus?

The Zorro bus is the standard for expansion cards on the bigger Amiga models from the Amiga 2000 up. In the A2000 it was the Zorro-II bus which was 16 bits wide. The Zorro-III bus was introduced with the Amiga 3000. It is 32 bits wide and one of the fastest bus systems currently on the market. It's also downwards compatible with the Zorro-II bus. One of the main features of the Zorro bus is Autoconfig.

What is Autoconfig?

On other computer systems you have to configure cards manually via "jumpers" or DIP switches for certain address areas or interrupt numbers. This is very tedious and, in practice, it requires in-depth knowledge of the system to avoid conflicts among different cards used simultaneously. The Autoconfig mechanism of the Amiga system automates this procedure totally, so that the user never has to bother with such details. Thus, expanding an Amiga system is extremely simple and without problems.

Can you network an Amiga?

Of course, the Amiga line of computers can also be used in networks. The multitasking AmigaOS even makes this a relatively easy task. Worldwide you can get connections for Novell®, DECNet®, AppleTalk®, TCP/IP, plus several peer-to-peer networks. So connecting to PC compatibles or Apple Macintoshes® is no problem. The best performance is achieved through Ethernet or Arcnet boards. In the lower performance range for private users or classrooms there are also solutions. Commodore has developed the SANA-II standard for network hardware drivers, so that the networking software Envoy works with every hardware setup. In UNIX nets, e.g. at universities, Amigas work together with workstations of various brands.



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