Welcome to the new forum!

[Alex]

Welcome to the new forum! Hope you enjoy it.

[J2383]

What's a ST Computer?

[Mindfield]

Um ... that would be Atari's 16-bit line of computers. Every basic ST system had the following specs:

 

- 8MHz Motorola 68000 CPU

- One expansion bus (cartrige port)

- Two standard 9-pin DIN ports for mouse and joystick

- Centronics (printer) port

- Serial port

- MIDI in/out ports

- ACSI port for connecting hard drives and laser printers. (ACSI stands for "Atari Computers System Interface" and was basically Atari's proprietary SCSI-type connection. Devices on the ACSI bus were chainable)

- 3 channel sound chip (Yamaha YM2149)

- 10 function keys (F1-F10)

- Two button mouse

- Graphical operating system (GEM (Graphical Environment Manager), designed by Digital Research, Inc. who also did a little-known PC version back in the day)

- Three resolutions (Low: 320x200, 16 colours; Medium: 640x200, 4 colours; High: Monochrome 2 colours, required monochrome SM124 monitor. Colour pallette was 256 colours)

- 512k or more, expandable to 4 megs.

 

The models, roughly in order of appearance, were:

 

130ST

- Released in a short run in Europe; failed miserably due to the memory, all 128k of it, being barely enough to just load the OS from disk and nothing else

260ST

- Same as the 130ST with 256k RAM; also failed for the same reasons

520ST

- The first successful ST. 512k of RAM, disk-based operating system in early models. Required an external 3.5" floppy drive (SF314 360k single-sided or SF354 720k double-sided)

1040ST

- Same as the 520ST, with 1 meg of RAM

520STF

- Same as the 520ST, with an internal 720k 3.5" floppy drive.

520STM

- Semi-rare, IIRC; same as a 520ST, but with an internal RF modulator to connect it to a TV. (Non-M models required a colour (SC1224) or mono (SM124) monitor)

520STFM

- A 520ST with internal floppy and RF modulator. Later models had 1 meg of RAM.

1040STF

- 520STF with 1 meg of RAM

1040STFM

- A 520STFM with 1 meg of RAM.

Mega ST

- A 1040ST in a detatchable keyboard flavour. Also featured a blitter chip for fast graphic blitting, and an internal clock powered by 2 AA batteries. Came in 1, 2 or 4 meg flavours.

1040STE

- The "E" is for "Enhanced." Same as a 1040STFM, but with hardware scrolling, hardware sprites, stereo sound, and other enhancements.

Mega STE

- A 1040STE with a 16MHz 68000 and a detatchable keyboard in the same vein as the Mega ST, but with a retooled case that had a bay for an internal hard disk. For compatibility purposes, the machine was switchable between 8 and 16MHz on the fly.

TT030

- Atari's powerhouse. A 32MHz 68030 CPU, higher graphic modes, VME expansion slot (similar to VESA on the PC), same case as the Mega STE, etc.

Falcon030

- Atari's last computer, and in many ways outshone the TT030. Featured a 16 MHz 68030 as its main processor, and had a Motorola 56001 DSP as a secondary processor (used primarily for sound). Featured true-colour graphics with unlimited graphic modes (modes were fully programmable and were limited only by available RAM), unlimited CD-quality sound channels (the 56001 DSP is fully programmable as well), multitasking operating system (MultiTOS), internal IDE hard disk (1" form factor) -- you name it. The system was expandable to 14 megs of RAM. Independent companies have since taken to producing Falcon clones, such as the Medusa. These clones are more PC-like in that they have PCI expansion slots, are able to use PCI video cards, have faster chips (68040 or 68060), etc.

 

I've probably forgotten some here, but you get the idea.

 

[ 07-17-2001: Message edited by: Mindfield ]

[Nukey Shay]

I could only dream of owning one of those...did most of my work on a reconditioned old model 800.

BTW internal RF modulator? Why would you want to hook an ST to a TV??

[Mindfield]

The original ST debuted at a cost of around $799 US -- pretty rich for most people's blood, though comparable systems at the time generally costed much more. Nevertheless couple that cost with a colour monitor (around $499) and you had a system that approached the price of, say, the Mac Plus or PC Jr. at the time. So Atari added RF ports for the less-than-well-to-do to hook it up to a TV. It made medium res blurry and difficult to read on even modern televisions that didn't have a horizontal resolution of 640 pixels, but it worked after a fashion. I used a television for the first while when I got my first ST in 1990.