rmd@hpcnoa.UUCP (01/19/84)
#R:aplvax:-40700:hpcnoa:16400001:37777777600:422 hpcnoa!rmd Jan 14 16:30:00 1984 I have the 400 schematics (a good deal at $27 along with software doc) and it looks like you can get composite video at pin 1 of the connector from the motherboard to the power supply. Separate audio should be available (with a DC offset so use a capacitor and a high impedance input) at the ungrounded side of R163 (9100 ohms). I have not tried any of this -- I'm just looking at the schematics. Rick Dow hpfcla!rmd
bsdaniel@uok.UUCP (01/24/85)
The poke address that you mention controls the Direct Memory Access of the graphics processor, ANTIC. Poking a 0 to this address turns off the ANTIC processor and thus the screen goes black. There is another value to poke to this address to turn the screen back on but since I don't have my reference manual handy, you'll either have to look in a manual (if you have one) or examine the program listing for another poke to 559 (which may have been accidently left out of the listing and is why your program won't work). The purpose of turning off the screen is that when you redefine the character set, the screen becomes rather messy during this redefinition process, and a black screen is better than a messy screen. You can leave the poke 559,0 out if you like. It is there only for cosmetic purposes and is not neccesary to the execution of the program. I hope this has helped you. I have owned an ATARI since 1980 and am pretty familiar with this machine.
bsdaniel@uok.UUCP (01/25/85)
I own an Amdek Color I with one speaker and in the price range of $250 to $300. This monitor is great for playing games on (which is what you'll probably using an ATARI for anyway) but text is not extremely clear on this monitor. For word processing capabilities I'd recommend an amber or green screen monitor costing from $100 to $200 generally. One word of warning. Before you spend ANY more money on your ATARI, wait and see what the company does. You may well want to sell your computer for an apple or a commodore 64. Atari's support for their computer(s), both in hardware and software, has been TERRIBLE!!! I would sell my machine today but I couldn't get a good price for it based on the current low prices of ATARI computers. Warner Communications, who has owned ATARI since it's start, recently "got rid of" it's personal computer subsidiary and we don't know what to expect. Just a word to the wise...
vr0z05@unido.UUCP (04/28/85)
Processor: 68000 at 8 MHz ROM: 192 kByte (GEM and BASIC or LOGO) RAM: 512 kByte Slots: None!! But what do you need more. Interfaces included: - RS232 - Centronics - Floppy-IF - Harddisk-IF (1.3 mBit/s) - MIDI-IF - 3 sound-generators - Mouse-IF - Joystick-IF - Cartridge Slot I think that is much more than you can add in an Apple II with its 8 slots. Also you have more interfaces than on the Mac. Resolution: - 640 x 400 in monochrome - 640 x 200 in 4 colors - 320 x 200 in 16 colors (out of 512) Floppies: - SF314 1 mByte on 3.5" Disks (I think it must be DS/DD) - SF354 0.5 mByte on 3.5" Disks. Size: Very small. I think it's much more portable than the Mac. The whole hardware is locatet in the keyboard console, all connectors are on the back (RS232, Centronics, Floppy-IF, Harddisk-IF, etc.), on the left side (cartridge slot), or on the right side (Mouse, Game- Controllers). Keyboard: Pretty Good. Typewriter-stile keyboard + cursor-block + numerical block + 10 function keys. In Germany ATARI has the first ad in a computer magazine (Data Becker News). The 520 ST ist priced with 512kByte, Basic or Logo in ROM, one SF354 Floppy and GEM at DM 2795.-- (that are about $700 - $800 US$). Availibility: ??? Uwe Hoch
ted@inmet.UUCP (10/04/85)
With regards to the 10Mb HardDisk, where might I obtain one???? The dealers have no information on it, and the person I spoke with at Habba didn't know anything about it.... Any help is greatly appreciated. ted@inmet Intermetric's Inc. Cambridge, MA 02138 (617) 661-1840x4279
ted@inmet.UUCP (10/17/85)
^>>/* Written 2:13 pm Oct 3, 1985 by preece@ccvaxa in inmet:net.micro.atar */ ^>> ^>>> Not true. Jack Tramiel talked to anyone who would listen, and promised ^>>> all sorts of dates and features which proved to be excessively ^>>> optimistic. ^>>---------- ^>>I don't know that "excessively optimistic" is fair. The machine shipped ^>>a couple of months late, which isn't too bad, and the features seem to ^>>be in pretty good accord with the early discussions. ^>>---------- ^>>> If you need a current example (other than quality software) look at the ^>>> Atari CD ROM. Yes CD ROMs do exist, DEC sells one, no they do not sell ^>>> to end users for anything near $500, and they will not be near that ^>>> price for over a year. /* Written 11:48 pm Sep 30, 1985 by ^>>> sjl@amdahl.UUCP in ccvaxa:net.micro.atari */ ^>>---------- ^>>I don't know when/whether the Atari CD-ROM will ship, or what its delivered ^>>price will be, but I wouldn't write it off yet. It wasn't promised ^>>until Fall, anyway. ^>>-- ^>>scott preece ^>>gould/csd - urbana ^>>ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!preece ^>>/* End of text from inmet:net.micro.atar */ The new issue of BYTE has an a very good review of the 520ST. Skimming through a copy at the local news stand, I saw alot of phases such as, "fastest micro-floppy disk access of any home computer" and "fastest hard- disk access"... etc. In any event, it appeared that the ST received a favorable rating from the people at BYTE. I must read the article alittle closer sometime...
mattern@uklirb.UUCP (01/27/86)
We got our 520ST+ (1MB memory, 720kB floppy, monochrome) for DM 2500,-
( ~ US $ 1000) including taxes ! But that's a discount price (>= 10
units) and should therefore be a lower bound.
Don't forget: We have 220VAC 50Hz in Germany.
USENET/UUCP: ...seismo!unido!uklirb!incas!mattern
CSNET: mattern%uklirb.UUCP@Germany
Friedemann Mattern
University of Kaiserslautern
PO Box 3049
D 6750 Kaiserslautern
West-Germanym5@megamax (03/10/86)
About using GEM from C: Sorry, rb@ccivax, but there really are glue routines to get from C to GEMDOS. The parameters to the routines have to be moved from the stack to the "intin", "intout", "control", etc. arrays. Mike McNally convex!ctvax!megamax!m5
jmiller@uokvax.UUCP (03/18/86)
The RGB monitor is no problem since any medium resolution negative sync monitor can be used, however, the monochrome monitor requires a 31.5 KHz horizontal sweep rate and a vertical sweep rate that can be tweeked to 71 Hz. The 71 Hz Vertical sweep was chosen to reduce the harringbone and barber polling that occurrs because of the internal frequencies present in the computer required to generate the color burst sync. Several monochrome monitors will fit this description if you are sure that the vertical freq. can be tweeked far enough. The monochrome monitor should have a high persistence phosphor so that flickering will be kept to a minimum. In monochrome mode, the video is output in interlaced mode and must scan two complete frames to complete one picture in the same amount of time that one frame is scanned in color mode. Thus the 400 line resolution in monochrome mode. There are rgb monitors that can scan at the 35 Khz rate and have a high persistence phosphor but their cost is around 800.00 plus dollars and that was evidently not considered a viable option. This would also require twice as much of aa graphics frame buffer also causing larger than needed overhead. The capability exists within the hardware to do this at a later date whenever the monitor technology get's to a more economical position. This would require different initialization of the graphics crt scan control registers as well as all the application software routines.
dh@vax135.UUCP (David N. Horn) (03/20/86)
A rough calculation (31500/71=444) indicates that the monochrome mode does NOT use interlace, i.e. all 400 lines are scanned in one frame (vertical scan) period. Thus a long persistance phosphor is not needed. Dave Horn, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ, vax135!dh
emjej@uokvax.UUCP (04/16/86)
by TLM Systems, the folks who make one of the 680x0 boards that you can plug into an International BM PC and run OS-9/68000 on. The people who will sell it are some outfit I've not heard of, called MicroTRENDS. (Any- one out there heard of these folks?) TLM has been advertising pretty steadily in recent issues of *BYTE*...their address & phone: TLM Systems 404 West Jennifer, Suite 105 Fresno CA 93711 (209) 276-2345 James Jones Companies rush to disassociate me from them--why should *I* bother?
emjej@uokvax.UUCP (05/08/86)
Well, it's finally happened officially. OS-9/68000 for the Atari 520ST and 1040 ST was announced and demonstrated at COMDEX in Atlanta last week. Languages listed as available are Basic09, C, Pascal, Fortran, and COBOL. According to messages on the CompuServe OS-9 SIG, support is already there for all ST hardware, including MIDI and CD-ROM ports (the latter not being *too* surprising in view of the joint Sony-Philips-Microware work on CD- ROM). The fellow who saw the beast saw it running with an Atari 20Mbyte hard disk, with a terminal hung off the RS-232 port. Basic09/68000, alas, is still slower than one would like. People there say that Jack and Sam Tramiel had it demonstrated to them and were VERY interested and asking questions. Plans are for a graphics interface (I would presume VDI, considering Microware's work with GSS) and a facility whereby one could run TOS as a process under OS-9. TLM (the folks who did the port) also had their 68010 board for the International BM PC AT/XT running OS-9 there. Messages on CIS from folks at MicroTRENDS, the company marketing OS-9 for the 520ST, say that OS-9 for the Amiga should follow shortly. James Jones
emjej@uokvax.UUCP (05/23/86)
/* Written 11:18 am May 9, 1986 by chapman@sfucmpt.uucp in net.micro.atari */ Apparently os/9 for the ST was demonstated at comdex. Does anyone know the price for the system? Do they supply any sort of windowing system? /* End of text from net.micro.atari */ Prices I've heard are as follows: OS-9/68000 $250 + Basic09 $299 C compiler $295 Pascal compiler $295 C, Pascal, and Basic09 jointly will go for some price I don't yet know, but I am assured by a fellow at MicroTRENDS (a Schaumburg IL company that is marketing OS-9/68K for the Atari and eventually for the Amiga) that it will be <$500. These are "list prices," I presume; another message on the CompuServe OS-9 SIG (which is where I get my data from) has already popped up from a fellow who found a store that would sell it for a fairly hefty discount. Windowing? Not yet. Since Microware has gone for VDI with other OS-9 68K stuff, I'd presume that they would go that route here also. I understand that one will shortly be able to run TOS as a process under OS-9. James Jones
emjej@uokvax.UUCP (05/25/86)
In <some magic # I don't get to see> George Frajkor writes: > DOES anybody know if someone is developing a networking or shared- >peripheral system for the STs? Well, if you are running OS-9 on your ST, just get yourself NFM and a driver for the flavor of network you want, and off you go. James Jones