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3.1 Systemübersicht
Eine Übersicht der verschiedenen Systeme
About the Atari 16/32-bit Computers (ST,STe,Mega,Mega
STe,Falcon030,Stacy,TT) The Older ST(fm) Series:
The Atari ST and Mega computer systems are based on the Motorola
68000 microprocessor, 32-bit internal, 16-bit external. The operating
system is built in TOS (The Operating System) with GEM (Graphics
Environment Manager) Desktop. The system clock runs at the speed of
8MHz. The computers come in many different versions. The 520STfm comes
with 512k and can be expanded to 1 Meg by soldering in extra RAM. The
Mega ST comes with either 2 or 4 megs of RAM. It also has room to add
additional hardware internally if needed. All of these computers have
a built-in 3.5" 720k double sided, double density, floppy disk
drive. Even though it says "720k" it can be pushed to format
about 1 Meg. The STs hard disk interface is DMA and can only handle
Atari hard drives or hard drives made especially for the ST.
The ST computers have three separate video outputs; an RF modulator for normal TVs, composite and RGB color monitor outputs, and an extra-high-resolution monochrome display output. The Atari RGB color monitors are made especially for the ST to give very sharp output. The Atari monochrome monitors are excellent and well known for use with word processing, music, and desktop publishing. The ST computers have standard interfaces allowing you to hook up different types of equipment to it. The RS-232 serial communications port enables you to connect modems of any brand, digitizing tablets, plotters, printers and any other RS-232 standard equipment. The Centronics parallel printer port enables you to connect all types of printers to it and does not restrict Atari only printers. One of the most unique things that the Atari ST computers have that no other computer on the market has is built-in MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) ports. This enables the ST to be connected to musical instruments, such
as electronic synthesizers, etc. Musicians from all over the world are
using STs specifically because it was made with music in mind. All STs
have cartridge slots on the left side or back of the computer. This
slot is being used to hook up hardware or even help emulate computers
such as the Macintosh with the Spectre GCR.
Underneath the keyboard or behind the keyboard are joystick/mouse
ports. These ports are used to either control the desktop with a mouse
or play games with joysticks. The STs keyboard is a full standard
QWERTY keyboard with a numerical keypad and 10 Function keys. The 10
Function keys are used by ST programs or even IBM programs when an IBM
computer emulator is used. The Mega ST computers have a detached
keyboard, a box housing the CPU with a built in 3.5" disk drive,
a battery-powered real-time clock calendar, and a blitter chip for
high speed animation.
The Mega ST computers were designed as "open
architecture" which in the future might be able to handle such
chips as the Motorola 68020 and the 68881 math co-processor. Atari's
hard drives and removable tape drives fit comfortably on top of the
CPU box (which is also a monitor stand).
1040 STe Line:
The 1040 STe computers are the current low end Atari machines, an
"enhanced" version of the 520STfm and older models. The
1040STe has 4,096 colors as suppose to 512 colors. It has an 8-bit
digital stereo sound chip which makes very high quality sound. It
contains a blitter chip, a hardware-based smooth scrolling addition
(for game programmers to make some real hot games), two analog
joystick ports (can be split into 4 more joysticks or padles to allow
6 total or be used for high-tech mice or robotics), and features easy
to add SIMM memory upgrades.
The 1040 STe can be expanded to 4 Megs currently but some have
claimed to expand it to 16 Megs. It also has a new TOS and GEM
desktop. The ST has been redesigned to the STe so that it can compete
and be expanded for years to come. The 1040STe can be found for around
$400 in the 1 Meg form and about $600 in the expanded 4 Meg Ram form.
This is a pretty amazing price for atleast its time and many who have
used the STe with a TV set claims that its RF-Modulator is so good
that you don't really need a monitor. Remember, this includes a disk
drive, a modem port, a printer port, a MIDI port, and 1 Meg of memory.
An 8-bit computer system could not be put together similar to this for
under $650. The 1040 STe, with double the memory of its closest
competitor, may be a champ in the present home computer boom. The
520STfm is no longer being manufactured, however it is has the best
compatibility with older software. In order for Atari to keep up with
technology, it had to change certain things within the 1040 STe
computer. These changes has made many entertainment titles
incompatible with it atleast until the programmers rewrite the
software title to make it compatible.
The MegaST production line has been terminated due to a new and
improved similar computer system called the "Mega STe".
All of these computer systems are very powerful and the users of
this SIG seem very happy with them. But one computer system that
hasn't been mentioned that deserves acknowledgment is the Atari Stacy
portable computer. The Stacy, is an ST portable that you can take on
the road with you. It is presently mainly being used by musicians who
love to work with the ST but need the portability of it when they
travel. It is also used by Macintosh computer users, surprisingly
enough as a Macintosh portable. The Stacy, with David Small's Spectre
GCR Macintosh emulator plugged into the cartridge slot acts like a
regular Macintosh. The reasons Macintosh users look at the Stacy as a
possible portable for them is because many say it is better than the
current portable Macintosh on the market. It is also about 2x less
expensive with the emulator.
MegaSTe:
Now, on to the Mega STe. The Mega STe has a new computer body
similar to that of the TT but has a grey color rather than off-white.
It has a pair of serial ports and a local area network (Appletalk
compatible) port. There is a VME bus cart slot accessible through a
panel on the back of the machine which will allow for an additional
serial port card. It also has 2 Megs of RAM, and a switchable 16/8 Mhz
acceleration with or without RAM cache, and an internal 50 megabyte
hard drive. The desktop is totally different from that of the 520STfm
and 1040STe for it is much better and more professional looking (not
to say the old ST desktop isn't). It also has just about everything
else that the 1040 STe has including stereo sound for the new 15"
SC1435 color monitors that are being produed for it. The newer
MegaSTe's are shipping with 1.44 meg floppy drives, whereas the the
older MegaSTe's can be upgraded with a minimum of trouble.
Falcon030:
Atari's Falcon030 is a brand new product, not available in mass
quantities yet. It's style is almost exactly that of the 1040STe. The
only difference is that it has really dark gray keys, and Atari's name
is in rainbow colors. It comes with 1, 4, or 14 megs of memory, a 1.44
megabyte 3.5" high density floppy drive, and an optional internal
64, later with an 84 meg IDE hard drive (that is only 2.5"!).
Inside the machine, is a 16 mHz 68030, Motorola's 32 bit chip (the
68040 is also 32bit, and even better than the 68030). It has a BLiTTER
like in the STe's, however this BLiTTER is 16 mHz. It also has a chip
from Motorola called the DSP chip (short for Digital Signal
Processor). This chip is used to add effects to sound, compress
images, act as a modem, or do any other kind of signal processing. It
runs at a full 32 mHz! It also has a port on the back of the computer
for such uses as a connector to a modular jack, so the DSP can act as
a modem. In terms of video, the Falcon can do almost anything you
throw at it. There are programs such as FalconScreen that will allow
resolutions greater than 800x600 with 256 colors! There are many modes
available through the new desktop.
It allows for 40 or 80 column modes (320 or 640 lines across), and
200 or 400 lines down. On a ST Monitor, the 400 line mode is
interlaced, and on a VGA, it is accually 240/480. In terms of sound
quality, the Falcon can beat any CD Player. Also new is the desktop
with 16 color icons, and 3D buttons. It includes a MultiTasking
program called MultiTOS also.
You can find a Falcon for $799 for 1 meg and no hard drive, $1299
for a 4 meg and 84 meg hard drive, and $1899 for a 14 meg and 84 meg
hard drive. TT030: Atari's TT030 is the company's new high end
machine, similiar in body style as the MegaSTe, with a slightly
lighter color. The TT030s consist of a 68030 running at 32 Mhz with
cache, 68882 math coprocessor, and a new desktop (Tos 3.06) similiar
to Tos 2.06 but taking advantage of the TT's new resources. The TT
also includes 2 new graphics modes in addition to the 3 normal ST
resolutions. These are a 640x480 in 16 colors out of 4096, and a
320x480 in 256 colors out of 4096 mode. A LAN port and VME slot are
also standard equipment. The newer TT's are shipping with 1.44 meg
drives, whereas the older models can be upgraded. The TT memory can be
expanded to over 16 Megs of TT fast Ram.
There is also a beautiful 19 inch monochrome monitor out for the
TT that makes it an excellent choice for high end DTP and CAD
applications. MIDI The Atari ST computer systems have found several
"niche" markets or are used specifically to do a certain
task. The main "niche" is in the music industry. At one
point in time, the Macintosh computer system was used to meet the
needs of many musicians, but now the Atari ST seems to be taking over
this market rapidly. Ever since the January, 1985 Comsumer Electronics
show, musicians have been talking about the possibilities of the new
machine with MIDI ports actually built into it!
The built-in MIDI ports inspired many programmers to write
software to take advantage of it and take advantage of the music
capability within the ST. The ST now has the most and probably the
best musical software for it today. If you are a musician, any
computer owner, not just Atari owners will tell you that the ST is the
best for you.
Why? Because of several factors. The first and probably most important factor to you is the price of the ST. It is affordable to you, as a part-time musician or even a beginner musician. You don't have to spend 3x the amount of money on another computer system that this computer system can do better. Professional musicians who have some extra cash to spend are also buying the ST because it is soon becomming a standard computer to use with their equipment. The computer is also being supported not only by many 3rd party software and hardware manufacturers but also by Atari itself. No other computer company has practically released a portable computer for musicians alone. Atari has also created the "Hotz Box" with Jimmy Hotz to help continue to show musicians that they are worth the effort. There is so much music software for the Atari ST that there is
just not enough room to mention all of them. In attempt to not be
favorites without realizing what I am favoring, you should go to the
MIDI section of the Atari SIG for more information on software
provided by people who are more knowledgable in that area. Desktop
Publishing The next "niche" that Atari is breaking into is
the desktop publishing market. Atari has shown great interest in this
market by introducing desktop publishing systems consisting of the
Mega STe computers and SLM804 laser printer.
Atari is continuing this interest by producing a newer and better
laser printer. The reason many desktop publishers like using the ST as
a desktop publishing system is because it does the job, it is very
comfortable to use and the system itself is very affordable. Even
though this may not be a very large market, everyone has newsletters
to make, resumes to write, and pictures to create. A high-end desktop
publishing system that would cost above $10,000 on other computer
systems, costs less than $6,000 on an Atari. The most popular desktop
publishing software for the ST are:
Calamas Desktop Publisher ST ISD Marketing Inc.
Fleet Street Publisher PageStream MichTron Soft-Logik Publishing
Corp.
A niche that Atari is attempting to gain more of a market in,
especially with the release of the 1040 STe is the Desktop Video
market. Although, the Amiga computers are well known for their
production of video graphics, the STs and especially the STes can hold
their own. There are many Atari users who use their ST for video
production mainly because its screen doesn't jump around when
producing high-quality graphics like other computers.
They can easily connect "Video Key" to their ST from
Practical Solutions and video record anything they wish on to their
VCR or video studio. The only draw-back that the present STs have is
when genlocking to an external video signal, it needs a hardware unit
for high-quality output called "JRI Genlock" made by John
Russell Innovations and has a whopping price tag of $650.00. However,
the newer STe computers are said to be more friendly to genlocking and
devices for it should not nearly cost as much as it does for the STs.
Some of the software and hardware well known for Desktop Video are:
JRI Genlock Vidi-ST John Russell
Videotext TV Titles 2.0 Water Fountain Software
Emulation another "niche" which isn't really a niche but
since we are going in order of what the ST is noted for, this is
certainly one of them. The ST is great at emulating computers. It can
emulate the Macintosh, the IBM PC/XT, and many of its major
competitors except for Amiga, but I guess that's because there seems
little reason to. It can also emulate old 8-bit computer systems such
as the Atari 8-bits, Commodore 8-bits, and even the Apple IIs. But
many of these 8-bit emulators often are restricted in emulation and
cannot fully emulate them due to the difference in speed. Kevin Steele
is a technical writer and has written an article about how the ST can
be used to emulate the Macintosh and IBM PC. He has been kind enough
to provide us with this information on some of the various emulators
around:
Emulators and the ST:
An Operating System
For Every Occasion by Kevin Steele The Atari ST has been called
the "Chameleon Computer," and with good reason. The ST can
emulate a number of different systems, including CPM computers, Atari
8-bit computers, and most importantly, even IBM and Apple Macin ps to
guard against computer obsolescence, a major problem with owning an
"off-b There are several IBM emulators available for the ST, but
the most popular seems to be the SuperCharger, built by a German
company known as Beta Sy and a 10Mhz V30 CPU. This unit emulates a
"Turbo XT," and offers the unique abil e to run while the ST
is turned off. There are two Macintosh emulators available, although
only one is available in the US. This emulator is the Spectre GCR,
which stands head and shoulders above the other emulator, Aladdin,
which is only sold in Europe. The Spectre GCR is a cartridge which
plugs into the ST, and which uses actual Macintosh ROMs to offer
almost perfect compatability with the Macintosh, it offers a screen
size that is 30% larger than the standard Mac screen (640x400 vs.
512x342). Each of these emulators cannot pretend to maintain 100%
compatability with even claiming an amazing 98% compatability ratio.
While these emulators cannot replace these computers, they can be used
in situations where another computer would be handy. Emulators offer
the ST owner specific piece of software not yet available for the
Atari ST.
The 8-bit emulators are either public domain or shareware. The
following are a list of emulators for the ST available in the United
States but don't be surprised if a few more show up within the year.
Please also remember that each emulator has its strength and weakness
and you may want to either read reviews for it or ask around to see
which is the best for you.
PC Speed
SuperCharger Talon Technologies
Spectre GCR Gadgets by Small Inc.
As the Apple II computers are leaving the education scene, Atari
computers are moving in. It's true. In the Cleveland Public High
Schools, Atari ST computers are used to teach students and are
networked together. They don't only have a couple but entire rooms
full and that is because Atari computers are great computers in the
education scene. The Cleveland Public schools aren't the only schools
using Atari computers, Bob Coulter, a teacher at West Geauga Middle
School has interested not only other teachers on what Ataris can do
but has interested the school into purchasing more STs for their
students to use. Thanks goes to Bob Coulter for writing an article on
how the ST can be used in education.
ST in Education by Bob Coulter
A revolution is now occuring in the area of education and
computers. Throughout the United States schools are in the process of
upgrading their computer systems to 16 bit machines. The 8 bit
machines are a dying breed and everyone knows it, including Apple. If
Atari ever wants to make a move in education, now is the time. The ST
is an excellent choice for school computer labs because it's
versatile, powerful, and above all affordable. The purpose and goal of
computer labs is to teach our students such programs as word
processing, spreadsheets, data bases, desktop publishing, graphics,
and other productive 16 bit programs. We need to teach them what they
are going to be using and in need of in the outside world. All of
these programs are readily available for the ST and at a more
reasonable price than the IBM counterparts. Then too, if a school
really wants to run IBM or even Mac software, the ST can be made to
emulate these at a far lower-price than by actuallypurchasing
suchcomputers. Yes, the ST is an excellent choice for education.
The ST can perform above any standards set by a school system for
their computer labs. It's a system that all schools should investigate
before making any commitment. They would really be impressed with the
ST and what it can do for education.
As you can tell, we are leaving the "niche" scene and
into just what the ST can do pretty well in. The Atari ST was never
designed to be a game computer unlike other systems, and that is why
the ST isn't mainly noted for games. It is really noted as a
professional system with its desktop publishing and its word
processors. Although Word Writer by Timeworks seems like the most
popular of all the wordprocessors for ST owners, the ST has many more
to choose from, each with their own special features. Some of the most
popular wordprocessors are of the following:
Word Writer
Tempus II Wordflair
Word Perfect WordPerfect Corp.
Entertainment
The ST is known in many European countries as not only a great
professional computer but also a great entertainment computer. When we
hear the name "Atari" in the United States, we think of
games and even though that's not the entire story behind what the ST
can do, like it or not, that sure is part of it. There are many
entertainment software titles on the market for the ST and many of
them are very good. We can't possibly name them all and we aren't even
going to try. But just ask around and you'll find out that there is
most likely a game that you'll love playing on the ST. Atari ST and TT
computers are very powerful and both promise great success. Atari
Corporation is showing greater support for the machines here in the
United States and with that support, there is new life.
OK, here is the complete listing of the machines made by Atari.
Please consult your favorite references and confirm/deny or complete
the missing data.
I would like a month/year for the first customer shipment or the
first public working demonstration of the machines. Please provide
references where possible, if they are on-line then so much the
better.
I am also planning to extend the information per machine to
include data about processor used, word-size, memory configurations
etc. so feel free to add that data also.
I would also be interested in a potted history of the manufacturer, date started where located and significant events in its history. I know most of this is probably available on the NET for Atari, but not for some of the more obscure companies. I think I am correct in saying that all Atari machines were
designed in the USA.
Copyright © Robert Schaffner (doit@doitarchive.de) Letzte Aktualisierung am 23. Mai 2004 |
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