benw@bocar.UUCP (B Weber) (06/24/85)
The following interview with Jack Tramiel appeared this weekend on
Compuserve. It was done by Jeffrey Williams of the Chicagoland
Atari Users Group. Many thanks to them for making it publically
available.
JACK TRAMIEL INTERVIEW
By Jeffrey J. Williams
Atari asked the Chicagoland Atari User
Group (CL.A.U.G.) to help assist them
with their exhibit at the Summer
Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.
As one of the volunteers participating
in the show, I asked Jack Tramiel for
an interview that would appear in the
newsletters of the various user groups
I belong to (as well as any other
groups that pick it up and choose to
print it). He was most eager to talk
to Atari users so he made time in a
very busy day to talk with me. During
the interview, I was somewhat nervous
and sometimes had trouble following my
notes, but Jack was very cordial and
tried hard to put me at ease. We
talked about CES, the ST series, the
CD (compact disk) ROM device shown at
CES, and Atari's relationship with
user groups.
JJW: Atari announced that they would
not be attending Summer CES. What
prompted you to change your mind?
Tramiel: The CES show, the way we had
to display it was too expensive to
bring our booth, to refurbish the
booth. It would have cost about
$500,000 and I felt it wasn't worth it
to spend that kind of money, that I
could attract the people to come to a
suite in Chicago during that time and
to pay much less. When we were
offered the present space, we took it
because it cost much less. It was
strictly economics. We are here to
produce computers for the best price,
for the best value, not to show off.
JJW: At this show, you are displaying
not only the 520ST package, but also a
260STD with 256K RAM, operating system
on ROM, and a built-in 3.5" disk
drive. What prompted you to include
the 260STD in your planned product
line?
Tramiel: We feel that there are
different buyers in this
marketplace...people who like to buy
from K-Mart and people who like to buy
from specialty stores, so we went
ahead and designed two different kind
of machines. There is the total
system like the 520 which will be sold
to specialty stores and a system like
the 260 where the mass merchandiser,
if he wants to, can buy it. It was
strictly to be able to produce the
volume and to satisfy our customers.
JJW: The 520ST will initially have its
operating system laoded from disk into
RAM. Do you hope to put it on ROM at
some future point?
Tramiel: The 520 will be on disk only
(NOTE: Atari has since announced that
the Operating System WILL be available
on ROM for the 520ST. Anyone
purchasing the 520ST prior to the ROM
availability will receive the
Operating System on ROM. -JJW). We
will definitely have new machines
constantly. Our aim is to
continuously improve the product line.
We intend to show at Comdex this year
an even higher graphic machine.
JJW: Would that be the 32-bit machine?
Tramiel: No. We intend to keep the ST
as the basic machine. What we will do
is we intend to have an expansion box.
In that expansion box we intend to put
quite a few boards. One of those
boards will be a 32-bit board. Not a
machine, but just a board. It will
turn the ST, which you own today, into
a 32-bit machine if you want to.
JJW: That is exciting. Do you have
any problems with me publishing this?
Tramiel: No, go ahead...if I did I
wouldn't have told you. You are the
first one to be hearing this because
to me, people like yourself being part
of a club, you are my boss. You are
the end user. You are the people that
I am working to produce a product for.
JJW: Speaking collectivly for other
users, we appreciate it (NOTE: I
subsequently asked Leonard Tramiel
what processor will be mounted on the
board. He said Atari is not ready to
announce that information). You are
showing an early prototype of CD ROM
here that seems to be generating quite
a bit of interest and excitement
amongst the people who have seen it.
Earlier today I was walking around the
CES looking at other displays and it
seemed I could always hear "Atari"
wherever I went. I couldn't key in on
exactly what they were all saying, but
that word always catches my ear. You
currently have a 20-volume
encyclopedia stored on a 5" compact
disk and the retrieval rate is
astounding. What other applications
do you see for the CD ROM?
Tramiel: There are many. They can be
used for a law library of any state of
the United States. You could have the
whole Library of Congress with every
book that's been published in the last
200 years. A lot of hospital
information which is all public
information for doctors. Instead of
having to go into a data base in
Minneapolis, he can have it right on
his desk. There are hundreds and
hundreds of public domain applications
that could be put on that ROM.
JJW: So you see it for use initially
perhaps as a professional reference
device as well as an institutional
reference device like for schools and
colleges.
Tramiel: Exactly. And I am hoping
that this is one service that we can
sell to remote areas in other
countries where people could have a
whole library, like 42nd Street and
Fifth Avenue.
JJW: It really brings to the present
the concept of sitting down at a
computer and being able to call up a
wealth of information, something I
thought was still years away.
Tramiel: Exactly. That's the whole
idea, we are trying to bring it
forward. I am trying to take away the
"black box" image, that it is "not
available"...it IS available.
JJW: Tell me about peripherals for the
eight-bit line.
Tramiel: We will be expanding our
drive capacity. We will have a 3.5"
disk drive with a half-megabyte and
one megabyte in the future. We have a
number of different printers,
including a daisy wheel printer. The
whole idea as far as the eight-bit
line is concerned is to keep that
product alive and expand it. As far
as beginners, as far as education, as
far as people who don't have much
money, the eight-bit line is a
fantastic product. We will continue
producing it and expanding it. I'm
hoping in 1986 or even the end of this
year to have a 256K eight-bit machine
with a built-in drive.
JJW: 5 1/4"?
Tramiel: No, 3.5". We want to keep
all those products alive and build on
the software.
JJW: Perhaps you've just done it for
me, but could you describe your vision
of the ideal Atari personal computer.
If you could just point at the table
and it would be there, what would it
be like?
Tramiel: It would not be on the table.
My ideal Atari computer of the future
is to have a television with a remote
keyboard to be your computer.
JJW: I've respected your work both at
Commodore and especially now with
Atari. I've read the book "The Home
Computer Wars" which I took to be the
Jack Tramiel success story, rather
than being the Commodore story or the
Michael Tomczyk story. I got out of
it a greater admiration and respect
for you. Have you read it and what do
you think about it?
Tramiel: I did read part of it because
he is an associate and a friend of
mine. He asked me to read it and give
him comments beforehand. I did not
want to give him any comments and I
did not give him any comments. It's
the way he interpretted the way I have
operated and there are many paragraphs
that are not correct, but that's the
way people write.
JJW: Would you say he captured the
flavor of Jack Tramiel?
Tramiel: I would say about 80% he did.
JJW: Could you run down the expected
availablity dates and prices for the
current planned line of Atari
products?
Tramiel: The 520ST system (512K RAM,
half-megabyte 3.5" disk drive, & high
resolution monochrome monitor) will be
sold in July retails for $799. The
260ST will be available in October or
end of September and we'll have 2
machines...one will be $395 without
the drive and $495 with the drive.
JJW: What about the other monitors
that will be available for the ST's?
Tramiel: In case you would like to
have a color monitor, for $200 more
you will be able to get the color
monitor instead of the monochrome. So
for the black & white, it is $799,
with the medium-res color monitor it
is $999.
JJW: And the color monitors will be
available in July also?
Tramiel: Yes.
JJW: James Copeland (Vice President of
Marketing) in a staff meeting I
attended the day before the opening of
CES, said that Atari has some plans
and directions that Atari would like
us, the user groups, to take with
Atari distributors and mass merchants
for which Atari is prepared to help
support those user groups. Could you
elaborate on those plans and what kind
of support is planned for cooperative
user groups?
Tramiel: I really am not familiar with
what exactly he said. I believe very
much in sex. When I mean sex I mean
for people to be involved...that's
what I call sex. When I have a
question to ask, "Is this machine
good?", "Do people like it?", I like
to go directly to the users and ask
them those questions. Like I am
trying to offer you the 520ST
first...to find out what is going on.
If a retailer needs help, we don't
want to go out and hire some models,
but to find a way how to give this
money to your club so that you can
really help each other and at the same
time to try to help that retailer to
sell the product. And as you know who
he is selling to, you will get that
many more members and we will pay you
for that effort so you can use that
money for improving your club. That
is what I was trying to tell Jamie
(James Copeland) and now he is trying
to go forward on it.
JJW: I was asking David (David
Duberman, Atari's User Group
Coordinator) about the same thing. He
said that the plans are not really
defined just yet.
Tramiel: I am giving you what the aim
is. The aim is that you people in the
next 2 or 3 years, with the computers
coming out, can help the people that
do not know computing by bringing them
to the users groups.
JJW: I agree. I was in a store about
a month ago where a man just bought an
800XL, 1027, 1050, AtariWriter, etc.
While the sale was being written up, I
introduced myself and asked if he knew
anyone that could help him with any
questions or problems he might have in
getting his system up and running. He
said no, so I gave him my name and
number and told him about a couple of
the user groups I belong to and
invited him to attend our meetings. I
don't want to take up much more of
your time, in concluding this
interview...do you have a message that
you would like to convey to the Atari
users that will be reading this
interview?
Tramiel: The message I have for them
is a very simple one. I appreciate
all the patience they have had over
the years. Now we are here, we are
producing the best products and I hope
they will be as proud of us as we are
of them.
JJW: Thank you.