Commodore built this prototype UNIX workstation/server computer in the same time frame as the Amiga and their PC-Clone and then decided that they only had production capacity for two out of three, and the CBM900 lost.
All the approx 300-500 prototypes were recalled for destruction, but due to some kind of “mistake” this particular machine, which was on loan to a favored customer in Denmark, never made it back.
The machine resurfaced when this company cleaned up their basement, and sent 3 euro-pallets of Commodore artifacts our way.
I never knew Commodore tried to build a UNIX workstation. I shouldn’t be surprised though; virtually everyone dabbled in UNIX workstations in the ’80s. This page has more information about the CBM900.
In 1990 Commodore released an A3000 variant as a dual booting Unix workstation. It dual booted AmigaOS/Workbanch and a licensed port of AT&T Unix System V.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_3000UX
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_3000UX
In typical Commodore fashion it was half baked; no way to run Amiga programs on the Unix side, no way to access the unique features of the Amiga’s chipset from Unix, and no features added to AmigaOS to access the Unix side (e.g. not even an X11 server). It also cost as much as a pizzabox NeXTStation. Still, Sun was interested in licensing it from Commodore as a way to fill in the low/mid range of their product lineup.
I remember using one at the local Amiga shop when I was in college. I was raised on micros, so my experience with Unix at the time was pretty much nonexistent. I didn’t quite understand the usefulness of it. The lackluster sales of that model indicate I wasn’t the only one.
Or just the insane price requested to pay the Unix licensing fees. Atari had too their “Unix” grade machines, either the ‘System V’ for the TT or the ‘HeliOS’ for the ATW 800 (not a plane, a Transputer based computer)
I think somewhat before 1990 Commodore started selling (in Europe at least) some A2000s fitted with an A2620 or an A2630, a SCSI controller A2090 or A2091, an 80MB HDD and Amiga Unix preinstalled in dual boot with AmigaOS 1.3, some of them rebadged as A2500UX.
That’s my recollection too… The A2000 was only capable of running AMIX if fitted with a 68020 or 68030 card with MMU and a compatible SCSI controller to boot from,
The Commodore A2620 card came with a 68020 CPU and the external 68851 MMU and i believe was the only Amiga ever to use the 68851. The 68030 typically had the MMU built in. No idea if an A2000 fitted with a non-commodore 68030 card would be compatible or not.
The A3000 satisfied these criteria out of the box, and you could install AMIX on a regular A3000, the A3000UX just came bundled with AMIX and a tape drive (AMIX only officially came on tape).
There was a 50mhz 68030 card for the A3000 which was also compatible with AMIX, making it the fastest hardware which could run this OS. The 68040 and 68060 chips are different enough (especially around the MMU) that AMIX is not compatible and Commodore never saw fit to update it.
The built in Amiga video was only supported by X11 in monochrome mode, and AMIX itself only supported 1 type of video card – although there are third party drivers for a couple of others.
The story goes that Commodore lost the source code to AMIX…
If you want to play with it, the installation media is available online – it will run on a stock A3000 and can be made to run in UAE.
AMIX is also responsible for the only CVE attributed to commodore:
https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list/vendor_id-17/Commodore.html
It’s a shame the source never crept out and it could be updated / fixed to run on other Amigas. Not that many run ‘real’ Unix these days.
There’s a myth stating that the machine containing the sources (an i386 with a cross-compiler) was auctioned after C= bankrupcy and the new owner formatted and installed DOS+Win3.1 over it.
I was at Uniforum in the 80’s in Dallas, TX where Amiga was showing off the 4000UX tower running System V.
Interesting, given that the 4000 wasn’t designed until after the AAA chipset (design started around 1988) was backburnered and the AGA chipset was created. The actual design of the 1200 & 4000 models didn’t start until sometime in 1990 (if memory serves) and they weren’t released until 1992. The 4000T wasn’t released until 2 years after that.
I coveted the A3000UX but when I’d heard about Linux being ported to the Amiga I looked at CPU upgrades for my A500. I turned out to be cheaper to build a small 486 with which to install Linux from floppies but then when the 90MHz Pentium came out I asked my friend at the University’s Mac/PC store to get me a copy of OpenStep for Intel on his employee discount. I later read that the Amiga port of System V was a bit wonky and never really got proper updates. I remember seeing some green screen PCs released by Commodore around this same time period but am surprised to learn that they bothered to have another go at this specific niche market.