conklin@cps.mich-state.CSNET (Terry Conklin {manager}) (12/22/86)
Ok, now it seems I'm not the only one who would like to see the 8 bit architecture taken farther. Many different proposals have been forwarded and not always just as wishful thinking, but clearly defined upgrade paths. Is Atari listening? It's difficult to tell. The XM301 was certainly what we had in mind. But skimping on the second IO connector wasn't on the order. The new 1200, if it really has both RS232 and SIO ports, is a -lovely- piece of hardware (you can bet I'll have one!) But what, besides a basically incompatible 80-column board is in mind for the 8 bits? Does anyone record, or even consider the extention's proposed? Because, in the nature of profitable business, the only proposals Atari will probably consider are clearly profitable (that is, not make money, make a lot of...) I would like to submit yet one more option for Atari to consider in the interests of expanding the 8 bit line. Have Atari ever considered releasing the designs of the Atari custom chips to the public domain under an "open systems" attitude along the lines of Sun? Obviously, chip designs are -not- generally on the bill of things attributed to an "open architecture" approach, but the 8 bit design is so locked into those chips that they are really the last, and biggest, part of the machine left untouched. Atari will always be the "real" manufacturer of the 8 bit, but tossing GTIA and ANTIC to the world would allow for the one thing that has never been tried on the Atari. (And you thought everything had been done..) Hacking the logic. No, it's not for home computist, but then again, when Atari releaed the OS source and hardware descriptions with the machine long ago, they were way over the head of the general public. And too, you can gaurentee they'll be hacked. At one point, the design of ANTIC was a mysterious beast, a rare feat of it's time. Today, just here at MSU, that level of chip design is almost completely supported by the VLSI tools. I'm not even sure ANTIC counts as anything more than LSI! If no one at all was capable of modifying (and test/producing an ANTIC+ or whatever) at the most it would cost Atari nothing. At best, some enterprising CE might release their extention back to Atari, or sell it to a third party for production. In fact, if ANTIC, GTIA and POKEY were to become public domain, technically it would be possible to build an Atari-compatible. Don't laugh. There were TRS Model I compatibles at one point. And as IBM has proved beyond imagination, clones increase the originals business. This kind of option, clearly, would only be taken by a company tha opens new doors. But I wouldn't have mentioned it if I didn't think Atari of being capable of that kind of ground-breaking. Every time I see an ST, I'm sure of it. Terry Conklin @ The Club (517) 372-3131 300/1200 uucp : ...!ihnp4!msudoc!conklin domain : conklin@mich-state.edu