calway@ecsvax.UUCP (James Calloway) (06/07/85)
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A few quick tidbits from the Chicago CES:
The Atari people said that the 520STs they were showing were production
models, but the 260STDs (two of them) were prototypes.
The 260ST and 260STD (built-in 3 1/2 inch drive) will have to have the
operating system in ROM because the operating system is about
200K! I'm not talking about GEM. I wasn't able to find the size of GEM.
Software may be coming soon. Several software companies at the CES
romised to develop programs for the STs. Batteries Included, Haba,
Philon and a few other firms I don't remember the names of
mentioned the STs in
their literature.
Haba plans a C compiler. Philon will have C, Pascal and eventually
Fortran. And Atari says they may market the DR C compiler that went
with the development packages.
The memory chips are 256K DRAMS. I recall reading somewhere on the net that
the 1-meg rams will have a different pin configurations, so that may
nix any quick and easy memory upgrades.
The CD-ROM, using a disc reader by Philips N.V. and Atari's black-box
interface (actually a red box), was interesting. It has some real
potential if they can keep the cost down. The Oxford English Dictionary
will be published on compact disc in its new edition, or so I have read.
--
James Calloway
The News and Observer
Box 191
Raleigh, N.C. 27602
(919) 829-4570
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