store2@ihuxi.UUCP (Wilcox) (01/12/87)
The following report has been downloaded from CompuServe and is posted with
permission.
ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1987.
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
A Phoenix From The Ashes
Atari and The Winter 1987 CES
By Jon Bell and Matt Loveless
Editor, Consulting Editor, START Magazine
(Las Vegas -- January 8) -- "Now, in 1987, we are declaring war on the
computer business in the United States."
These were the words of Sam Tramiel, as Atari kicked off the first day of
CES with a 9:00 a.m. press conference at the Dunes Hotel.
"We are the number one computer in West Germany, in the home computer
business and the personal computer business," he said, before adding that those
interested could check with the German press and confirm that fact.
Atari's stance at the press conference wasn't merely confident, it was
ruthlessly aggressive. The Tramiels made two points loud and clear: Atari
Corporation has conquered overseas markets with its products, most notably the
ST, and has established a firm foothold as a major player in the personal
computer industry. The second point: Atari has now fulfilled its financial
obligations to its patient former parent, Warner Communications, and is now no
longer shackled to Warner. Atari's stock offering gave it an infusion of cash
which enabled it to pay off its loan from Warner. According to an article in the
December 15, 1986 issue of Business Week, Jack Tramiel flew to New York City and
presented Warner Communications officials with a check for $36 million, thus
effectively closing down Atari's debt.
(Late-breaking financial note: Atari's stock rose 2 1/2 points today, 17
1/2, up from 15. The stock has risen 6 points overall since it was first
offered in November.)
Now completely free of the Warner mantle, Jack Tramiel has stopped looking
over his shoulder at Atari's troubled past and is instead staring intently into
his company's future. At the press conference, he reiterated his "Business is
War" philosophy in no uncertain terms:
"The customer who supports my products knows what he wants. If you don't
give him the right products at the right prices, he stops buying -- which is
exactly what happened in 1985.
"Even giants, companies like IBM, have started to realize this and follow
my footsteps, and keep reducing prices. That's the only way they can sell. And
I'm not sure that they'll be able to catch up. . .
"IBM. . . gave their business to the Far East on a silver platter
because their prices were so high. And they just allowed all those people to
compete with them. We at Atari have no intention of following their footsteps.
We will try to always have the most innovative products -- constantly coming up
with new products at the right prices. . . The philosophy continues, the
philosophy is successful."
"THE FUN IS BACK"
Atari formally introduced its new product line, from revamped videogames to
its IBM PC compatible, with a short videotape presentation.
Videogames, which sent Atari Inc. into billion-dollar-a-year profitability
and then sent it spiraling almost into oblivion, have re-emerged at Tramiel's
Atari Corp. The venerable Atari warhorse, the 2600, has been given a facelift
and is now selling at a retail price of under $50. The new 7800 game system,
which James Morgan introduced in those last terrible months before the Tramiel
takeover, is heralded as the next generation of videogame. It includes a copy of
Pole Position, and will retail for under $90. The 7800 features better than
XE-quality graphics and sound, and will accept the new "Supergame" cartridges
from such companies as Broderbund, Epyx and Electronic Arts. The first titles to
be released include Karateka, Choplifter, Summer Games, One On One Basketball
and Skyfox.
Sam Tramiel then mentioned a third new videogame system from Atari -- the
XE System. It was displayed (not running) in a glass case at the Atari booth.
The XE System is a small, squarish box which doesn't resemble a standard
videogame. Its sharp angles and round, pastel buttons give it an unusual,
almost art-deco appearance. According to Tramiel, it is fully expandable with a
plug-in keyboard and disk drive, turning it into an introductory computer. It
will be available 2nd quarter of 1987.
THE MEGA ST SYSTEMS
"I introduced the first personal computer 10 years ago," said Jack Tramiel.
"It was called the PET. It was a 4K machine. . . Today we announced a
4-megabyte machine."
From 4K to 4000K in 10 years is an incredible feat of technological
evolution, and the new Mega STs represent another link in that evolutionary
computer chain.
As we mentioned in our first report, the Mega STs will be sold in 1, 2 and
4 megabyte configurations. They feature detachable keyboards (with improved,
crisper keyboard "feel"), a separate CPU box housing a double density 3 1/2 inch
drive, built-in blitter chip, expansion bus and power supply, and use the new
one-megabyte DRAMs. A mouse port and joystick port are in the back of the ST
keyboard unit, near the center. The keyboard itself is attached with a length
of coiled cable, using standard phone jacks.
The usual ST ports (DMA, MIDI, etc.) are arranged in the back of the CPU
box. The box also serves as a monitor platform. Atari's new 20-megabyte hard
disk fits in the same "footprint" as the CPU and can be placed between CPU and
monitor, adding only another inch.
UNDER $1500 LASER PRINTER
Conventional laser printers offered by other companies require hundreds of
dollars worth of microprocessor and support electronics. But the Atari ST's
high-speed DMA port, coupled with the raw horsepower of the 68000
microprocessor, allows the ST to drive their new laser printer directly, thereby
lowering the price. At the show, Atari announced a desktop publishing system,
which will include a two megabyte Mega ST and an Atari Laser Printer, for less
than $3000. The 300 dot-per-inch laser printer will also be sold separately for
under $1500. A spring delivery date was announced.
In the Atari booth, a Mega ST2 (2-meg) was actually printing
high-resolution, excellent quality press releases (about one per second), giving
true meaning to the phrase, "hot off the press." Although Atari was reluctant
to identify the manufacturer of the printer engine, experts recognized the show
model as a Canon. The Canon engine is known for its low price. However, it
supposedly has a limited print life. Also, it is good for small-quantity
printing, but the per-copy price is relatively high. Antic Publishing was
unable to determine if Canon will be the actual supplier for the final version.
When asked at the press conference, Sam Tramiel identified the supplier as
"Japan, Inc." (Editor's note: since Canon is not known for extremely low
volume prices to OEM vendors (such as Atari Corp.), our assumption is that the
final Atari laser printer will not use a Canon engine.)
Within 90 days we may even see a laser printer development kit, allowing
software to interface with virtually any laser printer engine. This will open
the market for third party manufacturers, both high- and low-end, and make the
Atari one of the most versatile (and inexpensive) desktop publishing systems
around. For less than the price of a Macintosh, you can get a Mega ST2, an
Atari Laser Printer, and the software to drive it.
THE ATARI IBM PC COMPATIBLE
As we mentioned in our first ANTIC ONLINE report, Atari has announced the
first in a proposed series of IBM-compatible computers.
There will be two configurations of the Atari PC: a $499 version, with a
IBM PC/XT-styled keyboard and CPU only; and the $699 version, which will include
a "tri-sync EGA monochrome monitor." (The actual PC hardware is identical; only
the packages offered are different.) The monitor has a 720 X 348 high-resolution
display. Both computers come with mouse ports and mouse, built-in parallel,
serial and SCSI ports, one 5 1/4 inch 360K disk drive (built into the CPU box),
and 512K RAM expandable to 640K RAM. They also include 256K of dedicated screen
RAM, which makes the entire 512K of system RAM available to developers. Atari
will also market an expansion box which will accomodate up to five AT-sized
add-on boards.
The Atari PC comes with (unheard-of) graphics support built in: EGA
(enhanced graphics adaptor), CGA (color graphics adaptor), Hercules and IBM
monochrome. With an EGA monitor, the PC will support 640 X 350 pixels
resolution. Most EGA monitors retail for over a thousand dollars, however
sources at Atari indicate they are working on an extremely low-priced EGA color
monitor. You can also hook up a standard ST 3 1/2 inch disk drive and read and
write IBM laptop disks, making the transferral of text files in that format an
easy task. (Note: this does NOT mean you can run ST software on the Atari PC.)
The Atari PC will be bundled with the GEM Desktop from Digital Research
along with other applications. The "juicy gossip" mentioned in our first
report: it is rumored that Microsoft Windows will be available for the PC.
(Also, Windows MIGHT be available for the new Mega STs.)
Who makes the Atari PC? Unlike many of the compatibles on the market,
Atari manufactures the PC in their 200,000 square-foot Taiwan plant, where they
make all their equipment.
Atari officials quickly dismissed concern that their PC indicated any
abandonment of their ST line. John Skruch of Atari likened the situation to a
software house manufacturing products for differing computers: Atari is an
electronics company specializing in computers, and their PC is simply an
entrance into another market. (You should also consider that Commodore is
showing both their standard Amiga and an IBM PC clone at CES. Commodore has
sold their clone in Europe for the last year or so, and are just now attempting
to market it in the U.S.)
"The importance of this machine," says Sam Tramiel, "is that someone can
take it home, open the box, and be ready to run. You don't have to plug in
cards or extra things; you have everything you need, right off the bat."
THE FUTURE ATARI
Looking forward, Jack Tramiel proffered the following to the press:
"We almost started believing the press -- about how bad it [Atari's
viability] really was. Well, the press is wrong. It seems that the customers
want to buy the right product at the right price. 1986... was a fantastic
year, and 1987 will be much, much, much better."
TOMORROW: NEW SOFTWARE, THIRD PARTY HARDWARE, AND 8-BIT COVERAGE. Read
about Crystal Castles, Psion Chess, StereoTek 3-D glasses, the ADAP digital
sound processor, and a new, hard-hitting, TV commercial pitting the XE against
the Commodore 64. Guess who wins?
Kit Kimes
AT&T--Information Systems Labs
1100 E. Warrenville Rd.
Naperville, IL 60566
...ihnp4!iwvae!kimes