Flash@UMass.BITNET (Rick Flashman) (01/10/87)
Just read a press release from CES in Las Vegas dated Jan. 8.
Basically, it says the following:
o Atari announced a new line of ST computers. They are being dubbed
"Mega STs 1, 2 and 4". Seems that the number tells you how much
RAM (in megs) each one has. They come in a brand-new design case
with a built in 800K 3.5" drive. The computer also has a detachable
keyboard. The prices were not mentioned, but the cheapest should
start at $1000. The "system unit" with the drive is about 22"
square and 2" high. Houses the drive, cpu and power supply. All
standard ST ports are there. It is meant for the monitor to be
stacked on top. Contains a re-defined motherboard. A battery
powered clock card is built in. It supposedly allows internall
and externall expansion by means of plug in circuit boards.
And there is even a mention that Atari will soon be releasing a
16 meg and networking capability upgrades!! The keyboard comes
with a coiled cord and pop-open legs.
(There was no mention of the blitter chip, but the mention of an
internal card expansion slot makes me think this is for the
blitter chip.)
o Also announced was a new laser printer. ($1500) It has no controller
and is software driven from the ST. "prototype" so prepare to wait
for this one. Another mention seems to say that you need a 2 meg
ST to be able to run it. Hmmm, considering that laser printers
WITH a controller sell for $1,895 and Apple is coming out with a
"mini" printer for $2,000 with a controller. I think Atari might
either lower the price a bit, or add a controller.
o An Atari PC (I guess the emulator got soooo good, they decided to
sell it by itself!) It comes with 512K of ram expandable to 640k.
Same box as an MEGA ST. $499 for one without the monitor. Built
in 5 1/4 drive. detachable xt-style keyboard and 256K of graphics
dedicated ram. A costum chip has been included that supports ALL
graphic modes. (EGA, CGA, IBM MONO, and Hercules) A Microsoft
compatible mouse port and mouse are included too. A monochrome
monitor that supports ALL graphic modes was also announced. It
also runs at either 4.77MHZ or 8MHZ. and a socket for a co-processor.
o Also a new slim 20 meg hard drive. It probably is slim-designed
to fit right under the monitor and on top of the MEGA ST case.
Rick Flashman Flash@UMASS.BITNET
1040 N. Pleasant St. #381 Flash%UMASS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Amherst, MA 01002 R-FLASHMAN on GENIE
(413) 549-0173phr@mit-hermes.AI.MIT.EDU (Paul Rubin) (01/10/87)
In article <870109212520.0000099C.AONM.MA@UMass> Flash@UMass.BITNET (Rick Flashman) writes: >o Also announced was a new laser printer. ($1500) It has no controller > and is software driven from the ST. "prototype" so prepare to wait > for this one. Another mention seems to say that you need a 2 meg > ST to be able to run it. Hmmm, considering that laser printers > WITH a controller sell for $1,895 and Apple is coming out with a > "mini" printer for $2,000 with a controller. I think Atari might > either lower the price a bit, or add a controller. At the moment I don't know of any inexpensive laser printers that let you load a full page bitmap at full resolution. You need a megabyte of memory to do this, and most of the cheap printers around (HP LJ+, etc.) come with 1/2 a megabyte. At current DRAM prices this seems like marketroid- induced insanity, but who knows why they do it. In any case, I welcome a printer that doesn't think it knows better than I do what I want to print on the page. (Has anyone used the Tall Trees JLASER card? This is a board that plugs into a PC backplane and drives the LBP-CX video interface directly. I gather you have to lobotomize your printer by cutting a few wires (bypassing the controller) in order to use it.) While we're on the subject, does anyone know a cheap (<$500) dot matrix printer with good dot resolution (e.g. 24 pin head) that lets you print full resolution graphics at full speed? The NEC Pinwriter P6 is a possibility if you can stuff bits into the parallel port fast enough. Has anyone seen this done? I want to have a cheap and dirty way of printing .dvi (TeX output) files.
dclemans@mntgfx.MENTOR.COM (Dave Clemans) (01/12/87)
What I've understood from the messages on Compuserve's Atari Developers SIG is that the blitter chip is standard on the MEGA ST series, and that the internal card slot will be used for another purpose. Other people (non-Atari employees) have said that they have heard that it will be used for a math coprocessor. The announced delivery date for the laser printer is "late spring". The $495 pc clone and the pc emulator for the ST are two completely separate products. According to my sources the reason that the pc emulator hasn't appeared yet is that there's been problems getting it through FCC certification. dgc