steven@cwi.nl (Steven Pemberton) (05/10/88)
Shiraz Shivji was interviewed at the Hannover Fair by the Dutch monthly Atari ST News, and I thought net readers might be interested by some of the things he said. What follows has been translated to Dutch by the paper, and then back into English by me, so it might not reflect *exactly* what he said. "The ST will remain the most important product for Atari. For instance [there is a world-wide shortage of memory chips]: all memory chips that we can get go first to the ST range. Only then do we use them for the PC range. [...] We will offer a path to connect ST's to the TT". "In contrast to the past, when Atari was known for its 'vaporware', we are going to be much more careful with announcements of new products. We want to get rid of that bad image that we announce all sorts of things that are only years later available, or even are never produced." He then went on to talk about new Atari products: - The EST (Enhanced ST) will be the next item in the ST range. 68000 processor at 8MHz, but with higher resolution in both mono and colour, and more colours. Improved VDI, upward compatible with the ST, with for example, horizontal and vertical scrolling. Expected availability: end 1988 - A removable hard-disk, the SR244. The disks have the size and form of a compact-disk box, and will cost ~$120. Cost of the unit itself will be little above the current hard-disk price. Capacity 44Mbytes per disk. Access time 25 msec. (The SH205 has an access time of 65 msec, as a comparison.) It shouldn't be long before there are 60 and 80 Mbyte disks with 15msec access times. Expected availability: 3rd or 4th quarter of 1988. - A number of new, non-exchangeable, hard-disks, with a much larger capacity than the SH205. Available: in around three months time. - The CD Rom is expected to be available everywhere in 2 or 3 months time. Price: around $600. - The TT computer: 68030 processor, 68882 floating-point co-processor, VME bus, Unix V system 3.1, possibility to connect an ST to the DMA port. The ST will then run X-windows. It may be possible that GEM will then run in one of the windows. Price: around $5000. Available: end 1988. - They have found a new manufacturer for the blitter chips and expect to catch up on back-orders "in a few months". - Atari has just been having high-level talks with Digital Research. No information about what. - A portable ST is being developed. No dates for availability. On this last point, in the May Personal Computer World, a British magazine, a reporter tells that Sam Tramiel assured him that the portable ST should be available by Christmas, at around $1000. The machine, called the Stacey, is being prototyped by Perihelion in Cambridge England (who are also doing the Abaq, by the way). Planned is: 1Mbyte RAM, hard disk, floppy disk, full-screen LCD screen, tracker ball instead of a mouse. Memory shortages may mean that the first versions will have 512K of RAM. Pricing considerations may mean that the hard disk will go. Steven Pemberton, CWI, Amsterdam; steven@cwi.nl or mcvax!steven.uucp
david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) (05/13/88)
I've heard every single one of these promises, except the blitter for THREE YEARS now. This whole article looks like it could have been a re-print of something from early 1986, except change all the release dates to from 1988 to 1986. Does anybody really believe a word of it for a minute? Now they're even making promises about not making promises anymore! I say: ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS ATARI. -- David Beckemeyer | "Reckon the Ball's plumb open now, Beckemeyer Development Tools | and it's `swing partner'!" 478 Santa Clara Ave, Oakland, CA 94610 | - Unnamed Cowboy, upon seeing UUCP: ...!ihnp4!hoptoad!bdt!david | heap many Indians approaching