kim@emory.UUCP (Kim Wallen {Psychology}) (05/11/85)
I just saw the 520ST and 130XE at Comdex in Atlanta. They had
several ST's running GEM. Some with monochrome monitors and some
with color. They had one with an external 15meg disk (they say)
housed in a 1050 box. The hi-res monchrome monitor looked great
and the whole combination was operationally very much like a Mac.
The windows popped up quickly and moved around the screen with no
delay. It seemed very fast.
The announcement was that they were shipping. American dealers should
have ST's July 8th. The cost for a 512K ST, 360kb micro drive, and
high-res monitor was $799. They were quoting 25 discont point to
dealers. I figure this must make their cost about $350. Seems
hard to believe they really can produce the machine for that.
Still, if they do it the market should be thrown into a tizzy.
The machine looks much nicer in person than any pictures suggest
and it really looks like a serious machine.
They were saying that a $1200 developers packace was available
which included all of the above, a second drive, a c-compiler and
some other things I forget.
A steady stream of traffic went through their samll room. It is
hard to believe that many won't want ot market this machine if Atari
can convince them this is real.
Kim Wallen
Psychology Department
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322
{akgua, gatech}!emory!emoryu1!psykw