tob@inuxa.UUCP (T Burger) (01/07/85)
This exclusive preview of the new ATARI products has been made available to
SIG*ATARI members thru the courtesy of ANTIC Magazine. (formatted for a 40
col. printer or easy viewing online)
ANTIC ONLINE NEWS
**SPECIAL BULLETIN**
Permission To Reprint Is Granted ONLY
If The Following Credit Line Appears At
Top Of the Article:
ANTIC SPECIAL BULLETIN, REPRINTED BY
PERMISSION OF ANTIC PUBLISHING INC.
EXCLUSIVE ANTIC PRE-CES ATARI PREVIEW:
5 NEW '85 COMPUTERS -- PLUS MONITOR
WITH 80-COL CARD, 500K DISK DRIVE,
PRINTERS, MODEM, MOUSE...
1/2/85 by NAT FRIEDLAND, ANTIC EDITOR
Antic Magazine got a look at the 1985
Atari Computer Line-Up three days
before it was due for unveiling at the
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
This Antic Preview was hosted at the
Atari Engineering Center in Sunnyvale
by Sig Hartmann, President of Atari's
Software Division, and Sam Tramiel,
President of the Atari Corp.
Prices for many of the new products
were not going to be finalized until 24
hours before CES opens. Manufacturing
of the new computers won't begin
earlier than March, which means they
won't be appearing in the stores until
at least May or June.
Atari will be showing three new 8-bit
XL-compatible computers at CES. A 128K
version, the 130XE, will be priced
around $200. The 65XE, the
next-generation 800XL, will cost around
$100.
The keyboards and cases of these
machines will be dramatically changed.
They will be smaller versions (no
10-key pad) of the spectacular 16-bit
computer housing. Inside the XE
computers, the circuitry has been
simplified and chip functions have been
combined. Sam Tramiel said that this
will make the XE a more reliable
machine than the XL while maintaining
100% compatibility.
There will also be a luggable 8-bit XE
that comes with 128K, a small video
screen and a disk drive, the package
selling for around $400.
The XE computers will use a new DOS
2.5, which Sam Tramiel said is very
similar to the classic DOS 2.0S. The
new DOS is necessary so that the XEs
can accept the new 500K 3 1/2" disk
drives as well as the current 1050
drive. The built-in BASIC has not been
changed.
Hartmann & Tramiel brought up and
agreed upon the necessity of exchanging
DOS 2.5 for the DOS 3 packaged in
hundreds of thousands of new 800XLs
sold at Xmas. They were very open to
Antic's suggestion that DOS 2.5 be
uploaded onto the CompuServe Atari SIG
and distributed to users' groups as
soon as it's finalized.
Hartmann also proposed that Antic
assemble users questions via CompuServe
each month and turn them in to him. He
promised prompt answers from Atari's
top management through Antic. Sam
Tramiel was enthusiastic about the
arrangement and Antic is starting it
right now! Upload your questions for
Atari on the Antic Electronic I/O Board
and we'll be online with the first
round of answers before the end of
January.
ANTIC WRITE-INS SAVE PARALLEL BUS!!
Good news that many of us have been
waiting for! The XE 128K computer will
maintain an open parallel bus for
plug-in peripherals. The PBI will even
be improved over the current XL format
-- with improved timing and a built-in
+- 5 volt power amplification.
The last-minute decision to continue
the PBI came at an engineering meeting
called by Sam Tramiel in response to
Antic's write-in campaign on
CompuServe's SIG*ATARI.
As for the two new 16-bit machines,
they can be described in one word --
phenomenal.
The 130ST is a non-expandable 128K
computer and the 520ST carries 512K,
that's the only difference between
them. They both use the Motorola 68000
chip which is also in the Apple
Macintosh. They both use Digital
Research's super-fast Macintosh-like
GEM user interface, which sits on top
of DR's CP/M 68K operating system.
Each model also has 196K built-in ROM
containing GEM and CP/M 68K. An Atari
mouse will be available to run GEM's
icon menus. Both computers will be
capable of running the highly-rated DR
version of Logo. C or Pascal will be
the development languages of choice.
The state-of-the-art keyboard for the
16-bit machines includes: full
selectric-style key layout, 10-key
number pad, cursor pad with Help and
Undo keys, and 10 function keys. The
entire back of the casing is
honeycombed with ports, including:
parallel and serial interfaces, MIDI
musical interface, PBI, etc.
The one sad note at Antic's preview
was that the long-rumored AMIE 16-voice
sound chip was not totally ready for
production yet. The AMIE, which is
said to emulate human speech and
singing with unprecedented accuracy,
will be incorporated into the '85 Atari
line later in the spring and will be
identified by adding the letter M to
8-bit and l6-bit models that include
it.
Another '85 breakthrough is Atari's
sleek, compact 3 1/2" disk drive with
500K storage capacity. Sam Tramiel
said this drive will be in the
incredibly low price range of $100.
Tramiel told Antic that the 500K drive,
which uses the same sturdy 3 1/2" disks
as the Macintosh, will be compatible
with both the 16-bit and 8-bit
computers.
"We've had long discussions about the
issue of disk compatibility," said
Tramiel. "But our conclusion is that
we're going to strongly encourage
software developers to bring out their
new programs primarily on 3 1/2"
format. At the low price we'll be
selling the new drive for -- frankly
8-bit users would be foolish not to
eventually upgrade to a far superior
product and format."
However, the current floppy-5 1/4"
1050 disk drive will continue to be
manufactured as long as there is a
market for it.
In yet another new move, Atari will be
showing a wide line of printers and
monitors, which will be aggressively
marketed for use with IBM and Apple
computers as well as Ataris. When asked
who was actually manufacturing these
new peripherals, Sam Tramiel laughed
and said, "Japan Inc."
The Atari printers -- all aggressively
low-priced -- will include a 12-cps
daisywheel, an 80-cps dot-matrix, and
three $50-100 thermal transfer models,
including one that prints in color.
The monitors include a 12" monochrome
for about $100 -- with a built-in
80-column card for the XE and XL 8-bit
series -- and a 14" color monitor for
about $200 which will compete with the
popular Commodore color unit.
A 640x200 resolution RGB Analog model
capable of displaying 512 colors will
sell for around $300. There will also
be a $150 high-resolution 640x400
monochrome model for the ST series.
Atari also plans to show a monitor
with a built-in floppy disk drive, plus
a low-cost (around $50) 300-baud modem
bundled with software for uploading and
downloading.
Software president Hartmann described
Atari's goal as "switching from a
computer game company to a
microcomputer company." He said that
Atari Software will primarily publish
entertaining and easy-to-use
productivity programs. "We'll be very
selective about games, only publishing
games that we believe have a real
chance to become major hits."
By the day before CES, Hartmann
expected to sign the contract for Atari
to bring out an integrated program
comparable to Lotus 1-2-3 -- but with
code so compacted that it will run on
64K. If this deal is finalized in
time, Antic Online will upload a
description of the product from CES.
Also under development is AtariWriter
Plus, which will include integrated
mailmerge and spelling checker. It is
to all run on one disk at 128K.
Hartmann said he is determined to
reach out for user group feedback in
the fast-moving software market. He
specifically wants major users groups
to act as beta testers for new Atari
software.
As a first step towards this, Hartmann
said he will bring top Atari executives
to meet with users' group officers at
the special invitational Worldwide
Users Network meeting which Antic will
host at our offices during the West
Coast Computer Fair in March.