Atari ST Systems
Overview
In 1985, Atari introduced the 520ST for US$799.99. that became an instant hit and was very popular between 1985 and 1990.
The 520 ST featured a Motorola 68000 16/32-bit processor. While the processor is 32-bit, the bus and the rest of the computer is 16-bit. Therefore, the Atari 520ST is considered a 16-bit machine. It also comes with a whopping 196K ROM and 512K of RAM.
The Apple Macintosh also used the same processor but the ST had colour graphics and supported higher resolutions. And while the Commodore-Amiga was a more sophisticated machine with more customer processors and multitasking, the Amiga was twice the price. The result was a fast selling machine.
As with the Amiga and Machintosh, the Atari St came with a graphical user interface, which was novel for the time. It also had an innovative single-chip graphics subsystem that shared the full amount of system memory, in alternating clock cycles, with the processor. Besides it's price, it was also well accepted due to its integrated MIDI support.
With the ST being cheaper than its competition and with a high-resolution monochrome display, it was ideal for business and CAD. It was also popular as a music sequencer and controller of musical instruments among amateurs and professionals due to its MIDI support.
Atari 520ST Specifications
CPU: Motorola MC68000
Speed: 8 mHz
CO-Processor: Shifter and Glue custom chips
RAM: 512 KB (520 ST/STM), 1 MB (520 ST+)
ROM: 192 KB
Text modes: 40 or 80 columns x 25 lines
Graphics modes: 320 x 200 / 640 x 200 / 640 x 400 dots
Colours: 320 x 200 x 16 colours; 640 x 200 x 4 colours; monochrome 640 x 400 x 2 using a monitor.
Sound: Three voices, 8 octaves
I/O ports: RGB: TV modulator (520STm); Cardridge, Midi (in/out); Centronics; RS232c; Hard Disk; Floppy Disk; Joystick, Mouse
Built in 3.5 floppy
In 1987, Atari released the 1040 ST at a price of US$999.00. The 1040 came with 1MB of ram, which was double that of the 520ST and also saw the power supply and the floppy drive move to rear in order to reduce the cable clutter.
The 1040ST was featured in Byte magazine as the first home computer with 1MB that sold under US$1.000.
However, the ST did not change much from version to version. The internal technology essentially stayed the same. What did change was the amount of RAM and a few other tweeks.
The Atari 1040 ST sold very well in Europe where it was used by business for CAD and desktop publishing.
Atari 1040ST Specifications
CPU: Motorola MC68000
Speed: 8 mHz
CO-Processor: Shifter and Glue custom chips
RAM: 1 MB
ROM: 192 KB
Text modes: 40 or 80 columns x 25 lines
Graphics modes: 320 x 200 / 640 x 200 / 640 x 400 dots
Colours: 320 x 200 x 16 colours; 640 x 200 x 4 colours; monochrome 640 x 400 x 2 using a monitor.
Sound: Three voices, 8 octaves
I/O ports: RGB: TV modulator; Cardridge, Midi (in/out); Centronics; RS232c; Hard Disk; Floppy Disk; Joystick, Mouse
Built in 3.5 floppy
In 1986, Atari released the Mega ST sold very well in Europe, especially in Germany where it was primarily used for desktop publishing and CAD.
The Mega ST included a detached high-quality keyboard, stronger case that was capable of supporting a monitor and internal bus expansion connector. Atari soon released a budget laser printer. It did not contain a processor or memory, leaving the ST with all the overhead.
As a result of the extra work required by the ST, was equipped with 2MB or 4MB and it was frequently upgraded by those who purchased it for desktop publishing.
Atari added a custom blitter co-processor for the Mega 2 and Mega 4 STs to improve graphic performance. The blitter was capable of moving large areas of graphics around in memory without taxing the central processor.
In 1989, Atari released the 1040STE. Atari improved the multimedia hardware and operating system. STE machines did not look any different from the previous cases for the 520, 1040, etc...
Key features included:
1) Increased colour palette of 4096 colours from 512.
2) Genlock support
3) A graphics co-processor Blitter that moves large blocks of data around the screen
4) A new 2-channel digital sound chip capable of 8-bit stereo samples up to 50 kHz
5) Two enhanced joystick ports (EJP) were added
The upgrades were clearly aimed to catch up to the Amiga, though it still fell far behind on the graphics and multitasking abilities and was limited to 8Mhz.
Despite these extra upgrades, software developers made little use of them. What made matters worse is that they added incompatibility to existing software. However, this can be expected when upgrading key hardware capabilities.
The only applications designed for the STE-only were CAD and desktop publishing.
Date Range: 1985 - 1992
Release Price: US $999
Atari released the Atari ST in 1985 sporting the powerful 68000 processor at 8 MHz. All models included Midi and 3 channel sound with screen resolutions up to 640 x 400 and as many as 512 colours.
It was also the first computer to come with 1MB of RAM.
Later models sported a 4,096 colour palette, a BLiTTER chip, and hardware scrolling meant to better compete against the Amiga computers from Commodore.
The Falcon model included a 68030 processor at 16 Mhz, 65,000 colours and a top resolution of 640x480.
The Atari St computers sold well in Europe where they were popular as music and desktop publishing platforms.
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