info-mac@uw-beaver (01/09/85)
From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@UTEXAS-20.ARPA> ( a very EXITED friend called me with this ...) 3 modells for $399/499/599 with 128/256/512k, with 1 drive, no monitor, colour capability, Digital Research OS with pull-down menus. does someone know more ??? -------
info-mac@uw-beaver (01/11/85)
From: Leonard Brown <brown@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA> The same information about Tramiel's Atari company, along with a discussion of the probably available models but not the prices, appeared in the business section of the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, Jan 8. It was in connection with a report on the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. Tramiel is reportedly spreading the word in order to drum up orders from his primary retailers: K-Mart, Zody's, Target (insert you favorite local discount store here),... Friends of mine on a local bbs who were attending the C.E.S. logged on and left messages about the show. There was no demo of the new Atari line; it is probably still being developed (God forbid Tramiel's people would ever test anything).
info-mac@uw-beaver (01/11/85)
From: allegra!watmath!water!murlocker@uw-beaver.arpa Take it with a large quantity of salt. A lot of the "leaks" to the press are made to pull the wind out of other companies sales :-) Before the C64, Adam, or the PCjr came out we were told that they had finished developing a system that would knock the pants of the Apple II at a fraction of the price... Well, the only way to really knock a price down is by reducing production costs. Thus while the low end micros were quite good for the money, they weren't exactly powereful. Also, any machine in the "rumors" stage now is at LEAST 3 months from your dealers shelf, and won't be a stable product with a good software base for another 12... Mark (waiting for Jan 24.)
info-mac@uw-beaver (01/11/85)
From: Bicer.ES@XEROX.ARPA
I have seen the new system at the Atari booth in CES. There are two models.
130ST (with 128K Ram) and 520ST(with 512K Ram). They both have 192K Rom,
expandable to 320K with add on rom cartriges (application cartriges). The
system doesn't seem to require a disk drive for operation, but a 3.5" disk
was hooked up to all systems at the show.
The garphics memory is (additional?) 32K with 3 garphics modes.
- 320 x 200 pixels in 16 colors (low res)
- 640 x 200 pixels in 4 colors (medium res)
- 640 x 400 pixels in monochrome (high res)
The processor is Motorola 68000, clock rate unknown (to me).
The system had a two button mouse. The keyboard was organised in four clusters:
- Alphanumeric pad
- Cursor, Help/Undo (8 keys)
- Numeric pad (18 Keys)
- 10 Function keys (on top of the Alphanumeric pad).
The video ports (from the literature):
- Standard TV
- Low res composite video
- Medium res RGB
- High res monochrome
Communications interface (from the literature):
- Centronics parallel
- RS232C
- Hard disk interface (DMA 1.33 MBytes/second)
- Disk drive interface
- Two joystick ports, one configured for the mouse
Languages:
- Basic
- Logo (I have actually seen logo on a machine with the Digital Research
copyright).
---------
Personal impressions:
I really liked the machine, especially when one of the demonstrators said
the 130ST with disk drive and monitor will cost under $1,000. I guess this,
if correct, does spell trouble for Apple. One of the demonstrators,
(a Mr. Tramiel), was getting a little upset when people were comparing
the machine to the MacIntosh. The demo looked like the machine provided
similar capability to the MacIntosh. But no one was allowed to touch the
machine, even the very persistent ones. This leads me to believe that the
software isn't quite ready or stable.
When I asked Mr. Tramiel about the ease of software developement for the
computer, he replied
"Digital Research is aware af this problem and will provide a complete
sotware toolbox for very easy sotware generation."
With the exception of one person, no one was willing to give out any
price info, but they were taking orders for second quarter delivery.
Jack Bicerinfo-mac@uw-beaver (01/18/85)
From: decvax!decwrl!sun!tfussy@uw-beaver.arpa (Tom Fussy) With regards to your comment, "(waiting for Jan. 24)", I noticed that Apple cancelled their ad slot for the Super Bowl. You don't suppose there is a problem, do you?
info-mac@uw-beaver (01/24/85)
From: Rick McGeer (on an aaa-60-s) <mcgeer%ucbkim@UCB-VAX> Rumour has it that the proposed Apple ad for SB XIX (why does the NFL like Roman numerals?) showed a long line of nearly-identical blue-suited businessmen, all carrying identical attache cases in their right hands, marching off a cliff in lockstep: a not-so-subtle anti-IBM dig, which would have been fun to see. Unhappily, Apple decided that businessmen might be offended by the ad, and so they pulled it. Apple is turning gutless in its wealthy age, I'm afraid. Rick.