jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) (10/30/89)
I unfortunately have to agree with the association with Atari 8-bit and
obsolete. Back in late March '88, I got rid of my Atari XE system which was
only really missing an MIO board to make it complete. The reasoning was
simple, "what the hell can I use it for?" The Atari 8-bit system did serve a
a good foundation for my background in computers in general. I picked up
BASIC and assembly on the thing, but what I wanted to do with the system and
what I more or less had to do to get my foot in the door professionally
required me to upgrade to something more powerful and standardized. What I
find interesting is that I didn't start out on an IBM XT clone or a DEC VAX,
but yet from my experience with computers in general I might as well have.
One of the motivating factors in dumping my XE system was my introduction to
Unix. After a love hate relationship with System V and later becoming
acquainted with BSD 4.2 and 4.3 I decided in the back of my mind "I want a
machine that will run this or something like it."
Atari made several mistakes in designing the Atari 8-bit machines, one was the
lack of a standardized scheme for 8-bit machines to have memory greater than
the 64K address space of a 6502. Why couldn't Atari follow do was Lotus,
Intel, and MicroSoft did and design a standardized spec for how ALL memory
greater than 64K on a 6502 would be accessed and always be accessed? But
Atari didn't, several third party manufacturers had their own ideology of how
to put 'expanded' memory in an Atari 8-bit and did it their own way. Now as
of the XL/XE, there is a standard, but those of you with the old Atari 800's
are out in the cold.
One thing that I did propose in my final days of being an Atari 8-bit user was
using the 65816 chip in a new system called an XS. It would be have an Atari
8-bit compatable mode and a 16-bit mode with its own OS, ROM, up to 16 Mb of
addressible memory, etc. But no one would listen. Now what happens? This
Turbo-816 motherboard upgrade comes out. Hmm, maybe I was right about
something? I knew it was very possible, even went to the trouble of looking
over the data sheets and specs for the WDC 65816, but everybody thought I was
crazy (not an unusual opinion of me in the Atari 8-bit community). If the
T-816 upgrade really takes off, it can beat an 80286, in fact, the chip is
much more neater in design than the 80286 and porting an OS such as Minix to
it wouldn't be too difficult providing provisions are made for multiple
interrupts to bring it up to par to the 80x86 in programmed I/O and interrupt
handling.
The problem with you diehard Atari 8-bit users is that you're happy with what
you have now, and now a company puts this 65816 daughterboard in your lap. I
would love to see somebody get off their duff and make the 80286 look like the
brain damaged CPU it really is, and if done properly you will have the best of
the Atari 8-bit world and a gateway into a new Atari 16-bit world which is
8-bit world compatable. The hardware, engineering knowledge, and programming
knowledge is there, I just never seriously followed it because of lack of time
and my need for a Unix capable machine back then. I would love to see a
T-816 develop into a product that motivate me to buy another 130XE and a T-816
daughterboard kit rather than a new 386 box. There's still time for you
people to do something, but if you sit there content with what you have that
was good a few years ago, it isn't going to happen.
And the longer you wait, the less of a chance of making it catch on. The
Apple //gs has a market base, albeit it small in comparison to the Mac, but it
is there. The choice is collectively yours. We are in the era of 16 to 64
bit processors now. The 8-bit processor is a breed about to be made extinct.
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