rohde@baseball.cis.ohio-state.edu (joseph t rohde) (03/30/89)
I'm not sure if this is real or not, but it was just posted on a local BBS and did not appear to be a joke. Note: I will not be liable for the content of what follows, nor am I suggesting that it be taken as fact. (But it sure will be interesting if this is true!!!) -------------------------------------------------------------------- ATARI ANNOUNCES SWEEPING REORGANIZATION; 8-BIT COMPUTER LINES AND HOME VIDEO GAMES SOLD TO COLECO; NEW HIGH END WORKSTATIONS ANNOUNCED; HEADQUARTERS MOVES TO GERMANY Sunnyvale, CA, UPI, 1 April 89 Atari Corporation, an American Exchange corporation, announced today a sweeping reorganization plan designed to focus the company on its successful product lines and make it more competitive globally. The first step in this new program involves the sale of its 10- year-old line of 6502-based computers, now known as the XE series, to Coleco. Also sold were the home video game lines consisting of the 2600, 7800, and XE game system. Coleco, whose last venture into this marketplace was the Coleco Adam, a widely praised design plagued by engineering difficulties, and the Colecovision game system. Purchase terms were not disclosed, but Atari was believed to have received in excess of fifty thousand dollars in cash and warrants. Atari took the industry by surprise by announcing a new workstation product based on technology first utilized in the company's ST computer line. The workstation, based on the Sun Microsystems SPARC processor, uses Atari proprietary custom chips to handle graphics. It also uses the Inmos transputer chips to improve processing power. This new system, termed "revolutionary" by company president Sam Tramiel, can achieve processing speeds in the range of 100 times the speed of an IBM PS/2 model 70, at about the same retail price. While its primary operating system is the same as in the Atari ST computers, sophisticated emulation packages were announced by third parties, allowing it to use MSDOS, OS/2, and Macintosh software packages. Despite the software emulation method, the raw processing speed of this system allows it to actually outperform IBM PC's and Macintosh's. The new system, dubbed the Atari FU (for Floating-point Ultimate), is perceived by industry observers as a potential NeXT- killer. It features: o Graphics resolution of 2048 x 1600 pixels with 16 trillion colors. The monitor uses LCD-shutter technology described as "3-D capable". o Internal magneto-optical drive with multiple platter changer, total storage of 5 gigabytes online o Interface ports for Ethernet, Appletalk, 2 serial (up to 128 Kbaud), 2 parallel, optical mouse, digital quadrophonic sound, and X-10 controller Despite the Atari's history of pre-announcing products, this system was shown in final form to reporters, and was reported to have arrived in computer dealer showrooms throughout North America and Europe in time for this announcement. U.S. list price on a standard system, including monitor, laser printer, and 8 megabytes of RAM memory, is $9999.95. In a less surprising announcement, Atari announced plans to move its corporate headquarters to Braunschweig, West Germany. It's U.S. operation will continue to be headed by Senior Executive Vice President Sig Hartmann, himself a German immigrant. According to Chairman and CEO Jack Tramiel, "We found that with our headquarters in the U.S., our European operations had achieved their full potential. By moving my corporate managers to Germany, we hope to allow the North American operation to do the same. By 1990, we plan to be the dominant computer company in the U.S.A., the way we are in countries such as Luxembourg today." Wall Street reacted overwhelmingly to these announcements. Atari's stock closed at 29 1/8, up over 20 points; Apple dropped 5 to 34 3/4, IBM dropped 11 1/8 to 99 1/4, and Coleco dropped 3 to 2 1/2. closed at 29 1/8, up over 20 points; and Apple dropped 5 to 34. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Like I said, this sure looks a lot like a joke, but we shall soon see. Once again, I did not create this, nor was the source intending to be funny. (I'm not taking it seriously. an ATARI FU??!!??) Joe rohde@cis.ohio-state.edu joe@eng.ohio-state.edu all flames >/dev/null of course!!!
gl8f@bessel.acc.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) (03/30/89)
In article <41086@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <rohde@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: > >I'm not sure if this is real or not, [...] > >Sunnyvale, CA, UPI, 1 April 89 ^^^^^^^^^^ Um, April Fools Day doesn't come for 2 more days. Couldn't you wait? ------ Greg Lindahl | gl8f@virginia.{edu,bitnet} | ...!uunet!virginia!gl8f |
kline@arizona.edu (Nick Kline) (03/30/89)
In article <41086@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <rohde@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: > >I'm not sure if this is real or not, but it was just posted on >a local BBS and did not appear to be a joke. Note: I will not be liable >for the content of what follows, nor am I suggesting that it be taken as >fact. (But it sure will be interesting if this is true!!!) >-------------------------------------------------------------------- >ATARI ANNOUNCES SWEEPING REORGANIZATION; >8-BIT COMPUTER LINES AND HOME VIDEO GAMES SOLD TO COLECO; >NEW HIGH END WORKSTATIONS ANNOUNCED; >HEADQUARTERS MOVES TO GERMANY This is obviously a joke. It is dated as April 1, for God's sake. A machine called the FU? Sig Hartman, a German immigrant? The 8 bit line is worth a little more than $50k (probably). Nick Kline kline@arizona.edu [or] {allegra|noao}!arizona!kline
rwa@aurora.AthabascaU.CA (Ross Alexander) (03/31/89)
In article <41086@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu], rohde@baseball.cis.ohio-state.edu (joseph t rohde) writes:
]
] I'm not sure if this is real or not, but it was just posted on
] a local BBS and did not appear to be a joke. Note: I will not be liable
] The new system, dubbed the Atari FU (for Floating-point
] o Graphics resolution of 2048 x 1600 pixels with 16 trillion colours
] storage of 5 gigabytes online
] 2 parallel, optical mouse, digital quadrophonic sound, and
] in time for this announcement. U.S. list price on a standard system,
] including monitor, laser printer, and 8 megabytes of RAM memory, is
] $9999.95.
April 1st came early this year, nicht wahr ?
Rossrjung@castor.usc.edu (Robert allen Jung) (03/31/89)
In article <41086@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <rohde@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: >I'm not sure if this is real or not, but it was just posted on >a local BBS and did not appear to be a joke. Note: I will not be liable >for the content of what follows, nor am I suggesting that it be taken as >fact. (But it sure will be interesting if this is true!!!) >-------------------------------------------------------------------- >ATARI ANNOUNCES SWEEPING REORGANIZATION; >8-BIT COMPUTER LINES AND HOME VIDEO GAMES SOLD TO COLECO; >NEW HIGH END WORKSTATIONS ANNOUNCED; >HEADQUARTERS MOVES TO GERMANY > >Sunnyvale, CA, UPI, 1 April 89 [Rest of fake news report deleted] This is the third time I've seen this file today. Now considering that the message is dated 4/1/89, and today it's only 3/30/89, I _really_ doubt this is serious... I for one will be VERY surprised if this turns out to be true. (Probably a joke written by some youngster who doesn't have enough of a sense of humor to make it _really_ funny) --R.J. B-) ============================================================================= Disclaimer: This message was written with my authorization # ## # # ## # Mailing address: rjung@nunki.usc.edu ## ## ## (It's easier to just use the reply function, tho) #### ## ####
Xorg@cup.portal.com (Peter Ted Szymonik) (04/01/89)
That was an April Fool's post on the GEnie network, I little too close to reality and most people fell for it. Shame because most of it Atari could really do! Peter Szymonik