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The Atari ST was a computer system released by Atari in 1985.
The ST allegedly stood for "Sixteen/Thirty-two bit" which refered to the 16 bit processor with 32 bit registers. Other theories exist that ST stood for "Sam Tramiel" one of owners of the Atari corporation. The Atari ST was a competitor to the Commodore? Amiga systems. Where the Amiga had custom hardware which gave it the edge in the games market the ST was generally cheaper and thanks to its built-in MIDI ports enjoyed success as a sequencer and controller of musicial instruments. In some markets, particularly Germany, the machine gained a strong foothold as a small business machine for CAD? and [Desktop publishing]? work. Tech SpecsLike the Amiga, the Atari ST was based on a Motorola 68000 processor running at 8 Mhz. Initially shown in 128 kB (130ST) and 256 kB RAM (260ST) models, these were quickly dropped in favour of the standard 512 kB RAM machine with a built-in floppy drive and TV modulator (520STFM). The ST featured a graphical user interface, GEM (Graphic Enviroment Manager, which was also available for the IBM PC and clones) and an operating system named TOS (The Operating System). It had a display of 640x400 pixels on a monochrome monitor, or 640x200 / 320x200 pixels on a color monitor or TV display, with 16 colors as standard from a palette of 512. Later models included: * 1040ST (with 1 MB of RAM) * The Mega ST (with a detached keyboard and 2 or 4 MB RAM), processor running at 16 Mhz, also have blitter chip * The STe (with enhanced sound and graphics capabilites), with blitter chip, colors palette extended to 4096 colors * The TT (based on a Motorola 68030 processor running at 32 Mhz) * The Falcon 030 (based on a Motorola 68030 running at 16 Mhz, with greatly enhanced graphics and sound, including a [Motorola 56000]? DSP) * STacey (a portable atari) * ST Book (later version of portable atari) There was also some unrelased prototypes: Falcon 040 (based on a Motorola 68040), and STylus (palmptop) Since Atari pulled out of the computer market (?and got bought by Hasbro?) there has been a market for powerful TOS based machines (clones). Like most retro computers the Atari enjoys support in the emulator scene. LinksGeneralhttp://www.atari.org Emulatorshttp://stonx.sourceforge.net |
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The Atari ST was a computer system released by Atari in 1985. The ST allegedly stood for "Sixteen/Thirty-two bit" which refered to the 16 bit processor with 32 bit registers. Other theories exist that ST stood for "Sam Tramiel" one of owners of the Atari corporation. The Atari ST was a competitor to the Commodore? Amiga systems. This platform rivalry was often relflected by the owners and was most prominent in the Demo Scene. Where the Amiga had custom hardware which gave it the edge in the games market the ST was generally cheaper and thanks to its built-in MIDI ports enjoyed success as a sequencer and controller of musicial instruments. In some markets, particularly Germany, the machine gained a strong foothold as a small business machine for CAD? and [Desktop publishing]? work. Tech Specs*Processor: 8Mhz Motorola 68000 *RAM: 128Kb (130ST), 256kB(260ST), 512kB (520 STFM the most common version) *Drive: on the STFM a built in single sided 3.5" floppy drive, later models had double sided drives (upto 720k!) *Ports: TV out (on FM models), MIDI In/Out?, RS232?, Printer, Monitor (RGB and Mono), Extra Disk drive port, Joystick and Mouse ports *Operating System: TOS (The Operating System) with the GEM? (Graphic Enviroment Manager) GUI *Display modes: 320x200 (16 colour), 640x200 (4 colour), 640x400 (mono) Later models included: * 1040ST (with 1 MB of RAM) * The Mega ST (with a detached keyboard and 2 or 4 MB RAM), processor running at 16 Mhz, also have blitter chip * The STe (with enhanced sound and graphics capabilites), with blitter chip, colors palette extended to 4096 colors * The TT (based on a Motorola 68030 processor running at 32 Mhz) * The Falcon 030 (based on a Motorola 68030 running at 16 Mhz, with greatly enhanced graphics and sound, including a [Motorola 56000]? DSP) * STacey (a portable atari) * ST Book (later version of portable atari) There was also some unrelased prototypes: Falcon 040 (based on a Motorola 68040), and STylus (palmptop) Since Atari pulled out of the computer market (?and got bought by Hasbro?) there has been a market for powerful TOS based machines (clones). Like most retro computers the Atari enjoys support in the emulator scene. LinksGeneralhttp://www.atari.org Emulatorshttp://stonx.sourceforge.net |
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