15 pin Amiga 3000 power connector at the motherboard.
The Commodore Amiga 3000 desktop computer uses a proprietary 15-pin internal power connector, designated CN160 (also referred to as POW15) in the official system schematics, to connect its internal power supply unit to the motherboard. Specified in the Amiga 3000+ System Specification (Commodore, 1991), the connector supplies several regulated DC voltage rails along with a mains-derived TICK signal used for video synchronisation. The A3000 was produced from 1990 and was the first Amiga to ship with a built-in hard drive and a 32-bit memory bus; its internal PSU arrangement differs substantially from the external brick connectors used on earlier Amiga models such as the A500 and A2000.
| Pin | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | +VID |
| 2 | +5V |
| 3 | +5V |
| 4 | +5V |
| 6 | GND |
| 7 | GND |
| 8 | GND |
| 9 | GND |
| 10 | GND |
| 11 | -5V |
| 12 | +5V USER |
| 13 | TICK |
| 14 | -12V/-12V USER |
| 15 | +12V/+12V USER |
Signals
- +VID — +5V supply dedicated to the video slot; specified at 1 A nominal, with up to 4 A available with proper power budgeting across the system.
- +5V — Main +5V supply rail; pins 2, 3, and 4 (and pin 5, absent from this table) carry the primary logic supply for the motherboard.
- GND — Signal and power ground; pins 6–10 provide the return path for all DC rails.
- -5V — Negative 5V supply; limited to 0.3 A for the entire A3000 system.
- +5V USER — Auxiliary +5V supply intended for expansion or peripheral use.
- TICK — A 50/60 Hz square wave derived from the mains frequency, used by the Amiga operating system for vertical-blank timing and video synchronisation. Standard replacement PSUs (e.g. ATX units) do not provide this signal; a jumper change is required on the A3000T variant, though the desktop A3000 uses the signal differently.
- -12V/-12V USER — Negative 12V supply shared between the motherboard and user expansion.
- +12V/+12V USER — Positive 12V supply; 500 mA is reserved for video slot use according to the system specification.
Notes
- The connector is designated CN160 (POW15) in the Commodore A3000 system schematics (March 1990).
- Pin 5 (+5V, part of the main supply group pins 2–5) is absent from some pinout references but is confirmed in the Amiga 3000+ System Specification, Section A.2.1.
- This is an internal motherboard power header, not an external connector; the A3000 contains its own built-in PSU unlike the A500 or A1200.
- The TICK signal is unique to Amiga power connectors and is derived from mains frequency (50 Hz in PAL regions, 60 Hz in NTSC regions); it must be accounted for when substituting a third-party PSU.
- The authoritative pin assignments are those from the Amiga 3000+ System Specification (Commodore, 1991); some third-party repair references show a different ordering and should be treated with caution.
References
- Amiga 3000+ System Specification (July 17, 1991) — Commodore; Section A.2.1 lists the CN160/POW15 pinout explicitly.