US Public School AC Still Controlled by Amiga from the 80’s
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A 30-year-old Commodore Amiga is in charge of the entire air-conditioning system in Grand Rapids Public Schools, and it still works like a charm.
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That looks to be an Amiga 500, the model that replaced the Amiga 1000 that I grew up with. Basically the same machine but, if I recall, the 256KB memory expansion (that took the total to 512KB) was included and no longer an expansion and the whole A1000 was built into the keyboard rather than being a more traditional (but new for the time) desktop unit. The A500 was designed to be a 16bit in the C128 form factor.
Interestingly, the A1000 was the original and the A500 was the change in form factor. The C128 did the opposite starting as the integrated keyboard and then having an C128D model that split the C128 into the full desktop form factor that was basically just a retrofitted A1000 chassis.
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Those things are workhorses. My dad still has the A1000 and it still works just fine. The monitor from it he still uses all the time.
The A1000 was roughly 1985 - 1987. The A500 replaced it in the manufacturing line in 1987 and was popular till nearly 1990 and stayed in production till 1991. So based on nothing but manufacturing date, this one can't be before 1987 but is mostly likely from 1988 or 1989. But the technology inside is identical to the 1985 unit. So this is effectively a 30 year old computer by technology even if it has only been "powered on" for likely 26.
Amazing machines. Kids today will never understand how sweet these were.
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I started with an Amiga 500, then 2000 and settled on a 2500 for years...and I had one on a desk running up until 2007 or so. Now, I just fire up Amiga Forever for my Amiga fix but I still have a 500 in the attic and a TON of floppies. I have some word processing documents from college I'd LOVE to get off of there and archive.
