jbone@ut-emx.UUCP (Jeff G. Bone) (09/02/88)
So, what's the scoop on the Atari ABAQ? Back in the Fall of last year and in the Spring it seemed like the world was a-buzz with news of Atari's new transputer-based Helios (UNIX-clone?) work- station. It was supposed to have super-duper graphics and come shipped with (I think) Occam, C (an implementation that supported asynch-parallel prog- ramming), and all sorts of other goodies. One article even said that developer materials were shipping (this was, maybe, April), and even gave an address for ordering docs and becoming a registered developer. Now, I'm hearing rumors that Atari has stopped showing the thing at the shows, and there hasn't been any mention of the thing in <long time now>. C'mon guys, let's get that old rumor mill cranking again. Does this thing really exist? Has any body seen/touched/played with one? Or is this in fact just another case of vaporous Atari products, like the thought-controlled video game and the portable, DC-powered holographic video game? So is this thing going to be released or what? Anybody in-the-know, let's hear it. -jgb (jbone@emx.utexas.edu) ---------- "Everyone's head is a cheap movie show."
good@atari.UUCP (Roy Good) (09/03/88)
in article <5643@ut-emx.UUCP>, jbone@ut-emx.UUCP (Jeff G. Bone) says: > > > So, what's the scoop on the Atari ABAQ? > > [miscellaneous comments deleted] > Atari/Sunnyvale has no direct responsibility for the "ABAQ" project, which is being handled directly by Atari UK. 47 units of Revision (aka Issue) 3 logic were built for Beta test, almost all of which remained in Europe. Production may go with these Revision 3 level units, or may wait for Revision 4, which includes higher integration of logic, revised packaging etc. The Helios OS is being developed independently by Perihelion Software in UK, and is available from them, though I expect ultimately that it will be made available bundled with the hardware. I hear they have X-Windows ported to it, and applications are starting to come through (this was a primary intent of the Beta units, and hence the reason that the majority went into Europe, where Transputer experience is more widespread). Sig Hartmann has responsibility for US coordination (408-745-2906), whereas the main contact at Atari UK is Les Player (011 44+753 33344) So, it is alive and moving forward. It will not be taken to mass production until there is a reasonable amount of available software for it, including languages and development environments. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roy J. Good Product Development, Atari Corporation Views expressed are my own. Atari may agree or disagree; they have the right. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
fraga@faculty.cs.ubc.ca (Eric Fraga) (09/07/88)
In article <5643@ut-emx.UUCP> jbone@ut-emx.UUCP (Jeff G. Bone) writes: > >So, what's the scoop on the Atari ABAQ? > > ... >C'mon guys, let's get that old rumor mill cranking again. Does this thing >really exist? Has any body seen/touched/played with one? Or is this in fact >just another case of vaporous Atari products, like the thought-controlled >video game and the portable, DC-powered holographic video game? > ... >-jgb (jbone@emx.utexas.edu) ---------- "Everyone's head is a cheap movie show." I saw (and touched) one in April in Dundee, Scotland. It was, according to the Atari guys, the only one in existence at that time. It was very much a prototype, a kludge using a mega st2 as a front end (I was told that production models would have the mega part of it built in). The graphics demos running were quite impressive but the OS didn't impress me... sort of a un*x clone not done quite right. The shell looked like a combination of csh and pc-dos. But then again, this was quite a while ago and it was very much a pre-production demo. Eric S Fraga, Dept of Computer Science, University of British Columbia +1 604 228 6770, fraga@cs.ubc.cdn