Computer from the "terminator". Commodore and Atari: The Computers Jack Built

A year ago, on April 8, 2012, Jack Tramel, an American businessman of Polish-Jewish origin, died at the age of 83. His long life was full of events - including those that had a significant impact on the birth and development of the home computer industry.

The future Jack was born in December 1928 in the city of Lodz - according to some sources, his name was Idek Tramelski, and according to others - Jacek Shmel (Polish Trzmiel). Be that as it may, after the outbreak of World War II, the boy faced considerable trials: together with his parents and with all the other Jews, who made up almost a third of the 600,000 population of Lodz, he was first moved to an overcrowded ghetto, and then to Auschwitz concentration camp. Personally, Josef Mengele recognized Idek and his father as fit for physical labor, and, avoiding immediate destruction, they worked on the construction of barracks, and were soon transferred to another concentration camp located near Hannover. Here, Tramelsky Sr. died from exhaustion and from the experiments that the Nazis conducted on prisoners, and his son, after five years in the camps, was released by the American army advancing from the west in April 1945.

Idek did not dare to return to Poland, but at first remained in American-occupied West Germany, doing whatever he had to. In 1947, having married a former concentration camp inmate like himself, he went to the USA - with only a one-way ticket, paid for by the Jewish immigration organization, and issued by it 10 dollars for all possible expenses. Once in the New World, Jack Tramel (as he now decided to call himself - with an emphasis on the second syllable) did not think long about his future: a few months later he was already listed as a private in the US Armed Forces. In the American army, Tramel had to serve for almost four years, as the required demobilization was delayed due to the outbreak of the Korean War. Fortunately, Jack was once again lucky - he did not go to the front, but he received both a specialty and experience in the field of technology: his last position in the army was the head of an office equipment repair shop.

After the end of the service, Tramel got a job in the same typewriter repair shop in the Bronx. The 50 dollars a week he received was clearly not enough - and in order to feed his wife and already three sons, at night he had to earn extra money as a taxi driver. And then the American army came to the rescue again: the demobilized were given the opportunity to take a bank loan of $ 25,000 under a guarantee from the state. Jack, who has repeatedly admitted that after the concentration camp nothing seemed too risky and frightening to him, decides to start his own business - and first opens his workshop, and then a whole factory for the production of typewriters. True, for this he had to move to Canada, where his wife's relatives lived, where there was less competition and where it was easier to import and export to Europe, including Eastern Europe. So in 1955, Commodore Business Machines was born in Toronto. “Since I served in the army, I wanted to call my company “General,” Tramel later explained, “but there were already so many “generals” in the USA: General Electric, General Motors ...” “Admiral” was also busy - so had to be content with the rank of commodore."

With the further development of his enterprise in the 60s, Tramel not only moved back to the United States, this time to California, but also got the hang of radically updating his product range: typewriters were replaced first by adding machines (the simplest kind of mechanical calculators), and then actually calculators - already electronic. Jack himself was never an engineer and in modern technology I didn’t really understand, but as a businessman he became famous for his flair for new products and the ability to bring them to the market in the shortest possible time. But the popularity of his products had a downside: for example, in 1975, Texas Instruments, which produced chips for Commodore calculators, decided to produce assembled devices itself, and therefore set prices for components that exceeded the cost of the calculator itself.

As a way out of the situation, Tramel acquired own company for the development and production of processors - MOS Technology. In 1976, the latter became a division of the Commodore Semiconductor Group, headed by the main developer of MOS - Chuck Peddle. For several years prior, Peddle had worked at Motorola, where he was developing the 6800 processor, but was forced to leave after his superiors rejected his proposals to develop the cheapest possible CPU. Fortunately, Tramel was a more far-sighted leader: when Puddle began to tell him that calculators were yesterday, and the future belongs to microcomputers, Jack immediately instructed him to build such a computer himself - giving him only six months and his son Leonard in helpers.

The developers managed to do everything on time: in January 1977, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, behind closed doors, a personal computer named Commodore PET (a beautiful abbreviation, optionally deciphered as Personal Electronic Transactor) was presented behind closed doors. The novelty was built on the MOS Technology 6502 processor - it was released even before its authors joined the Tramela company, and therefore regularly served in competitors' computers, such as Apple II. The CPU ran at 1 MHz and cost only $25 by itself, as opposed to the $175 that Motorola was asking for the 6800 at the time. . But the highlight of PET was the design - for the first time, users were offered an all-in-one computer: not only a keyboard was built into the case, but also a monitor, and a cassette recorder, which served at that time as the main means of data storage.

But the main feature of the VIC was the price: only $299! Jack Tramel and his new assistant, Michael Tomczyk, who led the development of this computer, were guided by the Far East business strategies. “The Japanese are advancing,” Tramel explained to his employees, “which means we must also become Japanese!” - in other words, to produce mass and inexpensive products (but, of course, not at the expense of quality). The VIC-20 was indeed partially developed in the Land of the Rising Sun, with the participation of Tony Tokai, the head of Commodore Japan (whose president, rather nominally, was Jack's eldest son, Sam Tramel). Another noteworthy innovation of the VIC-20 was the presence of a separate block function keys: this now familiar part of the keyboard was practically not used in the West before, in contrast to the countries of Asia with their hieroglyphic writing.

By 1982, the VIC-20 was already the most popular home computer—the first of its kind to reach a million unit sales, overtaking the earlier Apple II by several months. And yet the most phenomenal success came with the next, already the third Tramela computer - the Commodore 64, released in the same year. The number in the name meant the amount of RAM: Jack himself insisted that the new product be supplied with 64 KB, counting on a further reduction in prices for memory chips - and he was right. The processor was MOS Technology 6510 - the latest development and this time Commodore-exclusive, unlike 6502. The screen resolution when working in 16-color mode reached 320x200, but almost the most remarkable highlight of the novelty was the sound generator of MOS Technology's own development SID: the three-channel sound, advanced for those times, largely contributed to both the success of the C64 and the birth of an entire subculture of the demoscene. The simplest BASIC interpreter was hardwired into ROM.

Thanks to almost complete control over the entire vertical of production of the C64 and its components, the cost of a new PC was about $ 135 for Commodore Business Machines - so the novelty arrived at retail with a price tag of $ 595. Approximately equal in performance, the Apple IIe cost the home user exactly twice as much, and the Atari 800 with 48 KB of RAM instead of 64 cost $ 900. As a result, the Commodore 64 turned out to be the unsurpassed record holder until now: production reached 400 thousand machines per month, and in total Tramel managed to sell at least 17 million copies of this model of his computer. Of course, sales of the most diverse peripherals were just as brisk, among which by the end of the 80s there were already several models of monitors, printers, modems, external floppy disk drives and even a color plotter.

Tramel declared a decisive war not only on other home PCs, but also on video consoles: in January 1983, a campaign was launched to refund the amount of $ 100 to any buyer who handed over some old console or computer after buying a Commodore 64. Some dealers even thought of offering obsolete consoles "in load" to the C64 - so for 10 dollars, in the form of a hidden discount on Tramel's new product: it is not surprising that the manufacturers of set-top boxes were ruined by the tens. In a sort of "personal revenge" for Jack, he successfully ousted Texas Instruments from the home PC market, which had nearly bankrupted Commodore as a calculator manufacturer ten years earlier.

However, in the meantime, and quite unexpectedly, the fate of Jack Tramel himself changed. Since all of his aggressive business innovations required significant capital investment, he was no longer the largest shareholder in his company. In January 1984, when the level of annual sales revenue had just exceeded a billion dollars, Jack was forced to leave the Commodore he founded, having disagreed on the strategy of further development with financier and investor Irving Gould.

However, Jack was not going to lose heart: together with his sons and some other ex-commodores, he immediately founded new company– Tramel Technology. And already in July 1984, he acquired a consumer division from Warner Communications named Atari Inc. - , with which, already a part of Warner, Commodore, led by Tramel, fought for so long. The deal amounted to $ 50 in cash and $ 240 million in shares and promissory notes, but Atari itself by that time, due to the crisis of the entire video game industry, brought its owners only one loss: a million dollars a day.

And yet, true to his fighting spirit, Tramel renamed his company Atari Corporation () and set out to conquer the PC market one more time. Luck was on his side: lawyers found in the archives of the newly purchased corporation an agreement under which Jay Miner, who left Atari back in 1982, but received funding from it, was obliged to introduce a new progressive chipset in June 1984. Jay Miner, meanwhile, somewhat terrified at the prospect of harassment from Atari's new management, sells his company not to anyone but to Commodore. A series of lawsuits follows - but by and large, Atari and Jack Tramel remain the winners, who managed to introduce the next generation PC before competitors.

The novelty was called Atari ST - from the abbreviation Sixteen/Thirty-two, which indicated the internal and external bit depth of the Motorola 68000 processor (not to be confused with the old 6800). However, the most interesting thing in the new PC was not so much the filling as the focus on using the graphical interface - even before the release, the computer received the nickname "Jackintosh", as a hint of Tramel's desire to surpass the latest creation of Steve Jobs. However, if the Macintosh could only boast of black and white graphics, then the Atari ST had a palette of a maximum of 512 colors. It is curious that Bill Gates offered Tramel to port his Windows OS to his PC, but Jack was not satisfied with the development timeline of Microsoft, and the Graphical Environment Manager environment from Digital Research, no less famous in the history of operating systems Gary Kildall, was chosen as the basis.

Against the backdrop of its main competitors in the mid-80s, the Atari ST looked very good - and not only in terms of price, which was traditional for Jack's computers, but also in terms of technical capabilities. Only the Amiga, released by Jay Miner under the wing of Commodore, was head and shoulders above the new Tramel PC (and everyone else) in its multimedia capabilities especially in terms of graphics. But ST turned out to be the first home computer with a built-in MIDI port, which attracted the attention of not only amateurs, but also professionals of electronic music. And the graphical and at the same time monochrome video mode of high resolution for that time contributed to the release and distribution of such software for Atari ST as various types of CAD and publishing printing systems - especially in Europe, which has always been characteristic of Tramel's products.

Home PCs: major market players in 1985

Yet the Atari ST was Jack Tramel's last project. In the late 1980s, he gradually retires, relinquishing leadership of the company to his sons. And yet they turn out to be less capable entrepreneurs than their father. In the PC market, both the ST heirs and the hostile Amiga family are losing battle to the open architecture of the IBM PC and its countless imitators. With varying success, the company is trying to return to the console market: the Atari 7800 of 1986 was still very popular, in contrast to the failed Atari Jaguar (1993) and one of the first Atari Lynx portable gaming systems, which, although it was color, lost the battle black and white GameBoy - not least for purely marketing reasons.

In 1996, Jack Tramel sells Atari to JTS (Jugi Tandon Storage), a manufacturer of inexpensive hard drives. He spends the last years of his life away from big business, dealing, among other things, with the affairs of the American Holocaust Museum he founded. However, the memory of his old computers is still alive. The Commodore 64's BASIC is now almost the standard for all nostalgics, and the world's most popular computer has experienced an unexpected renaissance in recent years. Since there are people who are willing to pay a lot of money for machines that are not so powerful, but made in the memorable classic design of an 8-bit home PC, then the Jack Tramel business in its own way lives on.

Computer history | ZX SPECTRUM: the beginning of the era of home computers

The legendary ZX Spectrum was developed and released in the UK in 1982 by Sinclair Research. The ZX Spectrum was the successor to the highly successful ZX81, which came out a year earlier to replace the first model in the ZX80 line. We can say that the era of home computers began with the Spectrum. In the following years, home computers gained immense popularity as they combined entertainment (video games) and applications (word processors, spreadsheets, image editors). The appearance of the Spectrum ZX also spurred the development of development companies software and helped the company's president, Clive Sinclair, to be knighted.

The Spectrum was an 8-bit computer and used a Zilog Z80A CPU clocked at 3.5 MHz. The first models had 16 KB of ROM and 16 or 48 KB of RAM, and a tape recorder was used to download data and applications. To reduce the price, the computer was not equipped with a monitor, but was connected to a TV. Graphics capabilities were severely limited due to the resolution of 256 x 192 pixels.

One of the interesting features of the Spectrum was its rubber keyboard buttons, which looked like small erasers (some people claimed that they could actually erase pencil marks). The cost of the computer was quite low - around 125 pounds for the model with 16 KB of RAM and 175 pounds for the version with 48 KB of RAM.

Sinclair later released several more models. Of particular interest are the ZX Spectrum + (1984) and ZX Spectrum 128 (1985). Although none of them could repeat the success of the first model. Finally, in 1986, the entire line Spectrum computers acquired by Amstrad, under whose leadership five more Spectrum models were introduced, including the ZX Spectrum +2, ZX Spectrum +2A, ZX Spectrum +3, which ran CP/M OS without additional hardware, and finally the ZX Spectrum + 2B and +3B.

The software support for the ZX was huge. More than 24,000 programs have been released. Most of these were games, although there were also programming languages, word processors, spreadsheets, drawing programs, and business applications.

Computer history | Commodore 64 and CP/M

The Commodore 64 or C64 was the successor to the VIC-20. It is the most widespread computer ever made, with over 25 million sold worldwide. The most interesting thing is that the C64 was originally developed as a game console, but later Commodore decided to release it in PC format. Judging by the huge sales, the strategy turned out to be correct.

The C64 was introduced in August 1982 and officially sold until April 1994. This is a great period of life for a computer! The Commodore 64 used an 8-bit MOS 6510 CPU clocked at 1.02 MHz (NTSC version), 64 KB RAM, and 20 KB ROM. In addition, the C64 used specialized ICs for sound and graphics output and a simple tape recorder for data/application downloads. An optional floppy drive was also available for faster reading.

Like many home computers of the time, the C64 could be connected to a TV, as computer monitors were very expensive in the 1980s.

Approximately 10,000 applications have been developed for the C64, including games, office programs and software development tools. The operating system called KERNAL was developed by Commodore itself. In 1985, shortly before the release of the Amiga computer, the C128 was introduced - it was updated version C64 with faster CPU, 128KB RAM and new CP/M operating system. 3.0.

The Control Program for Microcomputers, or CP/M, was originally created by Gary Kildall of Digital Research for the Intel 8080/8085 processors. At first it was a single-tasking OS supporting only 8-bit CPUs, but it has evolved into a multi-tasking OS (multi-user DOS) with support for 16-bit processors.

IBM approached Digital Research to use CP/M for their new personal computer, but they couldn't reach an agreement, so IBM signed a contract with Microsoft. The MS-DOS operating system quickly overtook CP/M in popularity. To stay afloat, future versions of the CP/M OS (CP/M-86) gained compatibility with the competing OS, and subsequently changed their name to DOS Plus and DR-DOS. latest version DR-DOS (7.01.08) was released in July 2011. Probably many of you used the DR-DOS version to update the firmware of VGA cards.

Computer history | Amstrad 464, 664 and 6128

The Amstrad CPC 464 (Color Personal Computer) was a very popular home computer in Europe. Over two million pieces have been sold. It first appeared on the market in 1984 and production ended in 1990. Similar to the ZX Spectrum, it used an 8-bit Zilog Z80A processor with a clock speed of 4 MHz and 64 KB of memory. The computer's ROM stored the programming language BASIC (Locomotive BASIC), which was part of the CP / M OS, as well as the compiler.

In addition, the CPC464 was equipped with a built-in tape recorder/recorder for downloading programs and storing data. The CPC464 was among the few home computers of the time that came with either a monochrome or color display. Buying an Amstrad monitor was a necessity, at least initially, since the CPCs were not equipped with an RF or composite video output, but used a 6-pin RGB Din connector. But later, Amstrad released a special RF adapter that allowed these computers to be connected to regular TVs.

The direct competitor of the CPC464 was the Commodore 64, which had higher quality graphics and sound. In early 1985, Amstrad introduced the CPC664. The only change was the replacement of the tape recorder with a Hitachi 3" floppy disk drive. Oddly, instead of the popular 3.5" format (which was cheaper), Amstrad decided to opt for the rarer and therefore more expensive 3" format. 3" were double-sided, but the built-in CPC drive could only read one side, so the user had to eject and flip the disc to work with the second side. The total capacity of 3" drives was only 360 KB (2x 180 KB).

In August 1985, Amstrad released the CPC6128 flagship computer. His characteristic feature had double the amount of RAM compared to the other two CPC models. Overall, the CPCs were value for money, showing a good performance-per-dollar ratio by the standards of the day. In addition to this, they were very reliable and strong. We still remember the game Bomb Jack on the Amstrad CPC6128, when they beat the keyboard with passion, and the computer continued to work as if nothing had happened.

The CPCs were fairly easy to program, but the bulk of the professional software for them was not developed using high-level languages ​​(besides Basic there were also compilers for C and Pascal), but in assembly code that was difficult to master and use. In the early 1990s, Amstrad updated the CPC line with the introduction of the CPC464 and 6128 Plus with significant hardware improvements, including a cartridge slot. But despite Amstrad's best efforts, the new CPCs sold sluggishly.

Computer history | Atari 520ST and 1040ST(F)

Author's note: In the golden age of computers, I was lucky enough to have an Atari 1040STF with a color monitor. Thanks to him, I have many good memories of that time. I sometimes miss the days when I didn't have to update my system so often to run a new game or program. By the way, my Atari 1040STF is still in working order even though it's been 30 years since the first boot. Now that's reliability!

The Atari 520 and 1040ST, along with the Amiga 500, belonged to the so-called 16-bit home computer category. However, Atari is mainly known for its video game consoles and arcade games. The company has a long history in the video game market, which began in 1972 with the release of the first video game, Pong.

In the mid-1980s, the Atari ST series debuted, two months before the Amiga 1000 hit the market. The two computers used the same CPU - a powerful (for those years) Motorola 68000 with a 16-bit wide external data bus and a 32-bit internal bus. This CPU appeared in 1979 and was used in many famous (and not only) computers and game consoles, including the first Apple Macintosh, the Sega Genesis and Neo Geo consoles. Individual versions of the processor could operate at frequencies up to 16 MHz, but in Atari ST models it was limited to 8 MHz.

The Atari ST series was named after the number of bits of the external and internal buses of the 68000 CPU (ST: Sixteen/Thirty-two). The 520ST had 512KB of RAM, while the 1040ST had 1MB of memory, a huge amount for the time. Data was stored on 3.5" floppy disk drives with a capacity of up to 720 KB. The ST series models were the first mass-produced computers with a color graphical user interface (GUI) - this was their main feature. In addition, all ST computers had integrated MIDI connectors for control musical instruments, thanks to which they have become very popular among musicians.

The Atari ST was inferior to the Amiga in terms of graphics and sound capabilities, but it was more affordable and equipped with a faster CPU. The Amiga computers were predominantly intended for gaming, or so buyers thought, while the Atari ST was geared towards more "serious" work. Therefore, Atari had more support in terms of professional application packages, including desktop publishing and CAD (computer-aided design) applications.

It should be noted that during this period there was a large-scale debate between Amiga and Atari ST users about which of them was the best home computer. In addition, Atari, which was bought by Jack Tramel in 1984, and Commodore had serious conflicts over the chips used in the Amiga. Separate GPUs and the sound chips used in the Amiga 500 were made by a small company called Amiga Corp. She also received money from Atari to develop and manufacture video and audio chips for Atari computers. But in the end, the deal fell through, and Commodore seized the moment. The reason for the Amiga's late release was a lawsuit from Atari over Commodore's partnership with Amiga Corp., which allowed the Atari ST line to be first marketed, two months ahead of the Amiga 1000.

The most interesting thing about this whole Amiga-Atari story is that the Atari ST line was made by the founder of Commodore. Tramel left the company in 1984 and bought Atari's consumer products division that same year, and the Amiga line was developed by a company founded by former Atari employees who remained closely associated with the company until Tramel bought the company. All in all, there was a lot of confusion.

Computer history | ATARI TOS, (Mega) STE, TT and Jaguar Gaming Console

The Atari ST operating system was called TOS (Total Operating System). It was developed by Digital Research, founded by Gary Kildall, creator of CP/M. TOS had a GUI called GEM. The GEM shell ran on top of GEMDOS, which had similarities with the operating DOS system used by IBM-compatible PCs.

TOS was stored in the ROM chips of Atari ST computers. But they were removable, not soldered into system board computer. This was done for the purpose of being able to upgrade the ROM and make it easier to install TOS updates. It should be mentioned that there was no shutdown option in TOS, you just turned off the computer. Today it sounds strange.

By the end of 1989, Atari released the STE series to replace the ST. The new computers had improvements in terms of graphics, sound, and an updated operating system. But it was too late to fight the Amiga, he was the clear winner in the games. In addition, all STE models were equipped with a special 2D graphics acceleration chip, which was already equipped with competing Amiga solutions (it was called a blitter, see details below).

The Mega STE line followed, and in 1990 Atari introduced its flagship TT computer based on the 32-bit Motorola 68030 processor. Unfortunately, the TT model was Atari's last computer.

After Atari's long and rather successful run in the PC market (thanks to the Atari ST), the company stopped making home computers. The company's latest foray into the game console market was the Atari Jaguar, which, according to Atari, was the first 64-bit game console. Jaguar was not successful. For the most part, this was due to the small number of games released for the platform. The complex multi-chip architecture made their development processor more difficult. In addition, Atari faced strong competition. In 1995, Sony introduced the PlayStation, which further reduced Jaguar sales, and the console was discontinued in 1996. Today, Atari is known as Atari SA (ASA) and only works on software.

Atari 800XL/XE
Karpov Alexander (c) born in 1999 11.8.99

SUMMARY

The ATARI 800 XL consumer computer was released by ATARI in 1983.
year. Later (in 1985), the company upgraded the computer and released
new model: ATARI 800 XE. This model was different from the base model
new version of the built-in BASIC interpreter and case design.
It is this model of a household computer (mostly Taiwanese assembly)
appeared in the Soviet Union in the late eighties. At that time these
computers were installed in cooperatives-parlors of computer games.
Both models were equipped with an 8-bit MOTOROLA 6502C processor with a frequency of
1.79 MHz (NTSC)/1.77 MHz (PAL). ROM size - 24 kb (system
subroutines, BASIC and test program), RAM - 64 kb (128 K -
Atari 130 - upgraded 1985 model). Of these 64 kb.
only 37,902 bytes were available to the user. Remaining volume
occupies the BASIC interpreter, which is rewritten to older
addresses random access memory when you turn on your computer. BASIC download
could be disabled by pressing the OPTIONS button after turning on the computer.
It was necessary to do this before downloading games - otherwise the system
programs, operating system and games lacked operational
memory. The keyboard is standard QWERTY. Plus 5 function keys:

HELP - help output.
OPTIONS - entering different options in the program / disabling BASIC when
downloads
SELECT - selection of menu items in some games.
START - start the game.
RESET - reset.

The motherboard was built into the keyboard. Together with
The computer was supplied with a specialized tape recorder and joystick. TO
the computer could connect two joysticks (on the side). Rear (XE) or
on top (XL) of the case was a connector for cartridges with games. Also
on the back there was a video output, an audio output, a connector for connecting
external devices (tape recorder, disk drive(s - one by one - in
chain), printer, modem, network cable). The computer was equipped
video processor, which allowed you to work both in text and
in graphic modes:

N Size Size Note
text screen
window
0 40*24 - Text only
1 20*20 40*4 Enlarged text
letters twice as wide
2 20*10 40*4 Enlarged text
letters twice as wide
and higher
3 40*20 40*4 Graphics Low
resolutions - 4 colors
4 80*40 40*4 Graph average
permissions - 2 colors
5 80*40 40*4 Graph average
resolutions - 4 colors
6 160*80 40*4 graphics high
permissions - 2 colors
7 160*80 40*4 graphics high
resolutions - 4 colors
8 320*160 40*4 Largest resolution
-2 colors

In addition, one could get additional modes screen. Let X-
main screen mode (0-8). Then

X+16 - No text box.
X+32 - Text box is present - but the possibility is excluded
screen cleaning.
X+40 - No text box, screen is not cleared.

The video processor supported operation with 2 or 4 colors (in
depending on the mode) from a palette of 16 colors, gradations of brightness - from 0
up to 15. In addition, the character generator could be reprogrammed according to
the user's desire. Character codes from 0 to 127 - standard set
ASCII, 128 to 255 - pseudographics. Video processor in the same hardware
supported multicolor sprites, various scrolling.
As a display, a household color was usually used.
TV. Sometimes in educational institutions, Soviet
black-and-white monitors "Electronics".
To create sound effects and to play music
computer was equipped with eight-bit mono audio
synthesizer (3.5 octaves). If desired, the synthesizer could
independently (using a soldering iron and a few microcircuits)
convert to stereo. The synthesizer allowed to play sounds
through four channels (voices). You could also play
sixteen-bit sound, but only through two channels. Sound
usually played through the same TV. If desired, it was possible
equip your computer with a COVOX-like synthesizer.
A specialized cassette tape was used to record programs.
ATARI tape recorder, which was sold complete with a computer.
In addition, it was possible to connect a five-inch drive of the same company
(purchased separately). The drive supported serial and
direct data reading. Operating system - own - XL/XE
O.S. - something similar (in terms of commands) to CP / M. In addition, it was
several other operating systems have been developed that are compatible between
yourself. They supported subdirectories, hard disks, virtual
ramdisk. Sometimes after loading a menu with commands was displayed
operating system. Many games were supplied with special
loaders.
Almost all games used game manipulators - joysticks.
The joystick was a lever and one button. Can be connected to a computer
I had to connect two joysticks. If desired, it was possible after some
upgrades to expand the number of joysticks to four.

BASIC INTERPRETER COMMANDS.
BASIC on Atari's computer was quite standard and convenient.
A screen editor was built into the system. Also, many teams
allowed abbreviations, which the interpreter then expanded.
For example, ? - PRINT,
I.-INPUT, PL.-PLOT, DR.-DRAWTO, R.-REM, RU.-RUN, L.-LIST, CR.-
CRAPHICS, FOR - F., N. -NEXT, POS. - POSITION.

Example program with abbreviations:
10 I. A
20 F. I=1 TO 5
40? A
50N.I

After NEXT, it is necessary to set a variable, according to which
the cycle ends. All arrays must be declared before use.
DIM command. You also need to describe all strings as arrays. For example
to reserve a string of 10 characters, you need to enter the command:
10 DIM A$(10)
Computer self-locking - POKE 54017,132. Next comes the list
Atari Basic extensions:

I/O COMMANDS (screen mode #0):
COLOR N: PLOT X,Y - print the character whose code is N at position X,Y.
GET #6,N$ - read code from cursor position.
POSITION X,Y - cursor to X,Y position.
LOCATE X,Y,N - read character code from position screen X,Y in N.
PRINT CHR$(125) - Clearing the screen.
The screen buffer occupies an area between 40000 and 40920. One line is 40
byte.

COMMANDS FOR WORK WITH GRAPHICS:
GRAPHICS N - Set mode number N (see table).
COLOR N - Set the color for drawing (depending on the mode
screen-N=0..1/0..3).
PLOT X,Y - Draws a point with the color specified in COLOR.
DRAWTO X,Y - Draws a line to points X, Y.
LOCATE X,Y,N - Reads the color from point X,Y to N.
SETCOLOR N, color, brightness - set color in register N (0..4)
(0..15) brightness brightness (0..15).

JOYSTICK COMMANDS:
STICK function (Joystick number 1..2) - input of the position of the joystick handle
(see table).
10 14 6
11 15 7
9 13 5

Function STRIG (Joystick number 1..2) - whether the button on the joystick is pressed
(0-yes, 1-no).

COMMANDS FOR WORKING WITH SOUND:
SOUND voice(0..3), frequency (0-255), tone (0..4), volume
(0..15) - play a sound by the voice channel until a new sound arrives on
channel.
Example: SOUND 0,128,2,8
To play music, it is convenient to use the following table:

Octave I Octave II Octave III
note frequency note frequency note frequency
Up to 243 Up to 121 Up to 60
Up to #230 Up to #144 Up to #57
Re 217 Re 108 Re 53
Mi 204 Mi 102 Mi 50
Mi 193 Mi 96 Mi 47
Fa 182 Fa 91 Fa 45
Fa # 173 Fa # 85 Fa # 42
Salt 162 Salt 81 Salt 40
Salt# - Salt# - Salt# 37
La b 153 La b 76 La b -
La 144 La 72 La 35
Si 136 Si 68 Si 33
Si 128 Si 64 Si 31
Up to the fourth octave - 29

ERROR MESSAGES:
06 - Overflow while performing an arithmetic operation.
07 - Memory overflow.
08 - There is no line with the given number.
09 - Jumping beyond the bounds of an array index.
10 - Repeated description of the array.
11 - Division by 0.
12 - Attempt to execute DIM or DEF in direct mode.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

>Q. What ATARI 800 XL/XE emulators are there?

A. See appendix.

>Q. The game is not working for me.

A. 1. Disable the loading of BASIC in the emulator - the game does not have enough memory. Ha
Atari, all games in codes loaded without BASIC.
2. Try to change iron. Emulators usually emulate several
ATARI models.
3. Try to run on another emulator.
4. Perhaps the game is broken.

>Q. Joystick emulation not working!

1. Atari800Win v2.4: To connect it, you need to go to
OPTIONS/JOYSTICK and set PICK DEVICE TO USE to
NONE and click OK. Then go back to OPTIONS/JOYSTICK and install
the above mentioned item to the Keypad position.
2. Atari 800 Emulator for Unix, Amiga, MS-DOS and Falcon, Version
0.9.7: Joystick emulation is enabled by F7 (Ins-fire).
3. XL-IT: Joystick emulation is enabled by F6 (Alt-fire).

>Q. Why do you need Dos on Atari? Or How to connect files from the hard

Disk.
A. Why do we need these DOS's? Throw better games / demos! I answer: - Duc DOS
then it’s necessary in order to be able to run these demos;) Demos
have the .COM extension. You may be wondering: - How is it .COM? After all, the emulsion
"Atari800" only works with .atr? I answer: - In the regular version, YES.
HO! When DOS is loaded (in the manner indicated below), you can also load
.com and .exe etc. :-) And now about connecting DOS "and to the emulsion
Atari800. So so. Assign to disk D1 (in Atari->Disk Drive->D1:)
to load let's say -
Dos_25.atr. Disk H1 (in Atari->Hard Disks->H1:) you prescribe _hands_
the path where you have (will be) .COM files for ATARI.
You adjust the sound, video, compatibility (preferably with 130XE) and do
Reset in emulator. You will have to boot ATARI DOS. Press L,
a prompt appears to download programs. Type H1:name
file.com and... everything should be loaded;) Let's figure it out! (Alexander
Morozov)

>Q. Where can I find emulators, games and programs for Atari on the Internet?

A. There are a lot of sites with programs for Atari. Here are just the main ones.
There are many other sites that can be found by cross-linking.
http://www.atari.org - The main site for ATARI computers.
http://www.atari-history.com/ - ATARI virtual museum.
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/xlsearch/ - Search system By
a)b , about ATARI 8-bit.
http://www.ultranet.com/~asmolar/atari8/ - The Atari 8-Bit Emulator
Resource - Lots of very good links covered by topic and overview
ATARI 8-bit emulators.
http://www.atarimagazines.com/ - ANTIC magazine - scanned old
magazines about Atari.

FTP & FILE ARCHIVES:
http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/8bit/ - the best and largest archive
different programs.
ftp://ftp.spudster.org/pub/Atari/CTH/Atari_8bit/ - another archive
http://www.farago.com/atari/files/ -COOL ATARI PIRAT SOFT

FAQ:
Atari 8-bit FAQ (http://www.cis.ohio-
state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/atari-8-bit/faq/faq.html)
Atari 8-bit New User and Emulator Help FAQ
(http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/new_and_emu.html)

Remember the movie Terminator 2. Judgment Day"? Surely you paid attention to the computer with which young John Connor cracked the ATM PIN code, and the access code to the laboratory. That computer was the Atari Portfolio. At the time of the film's release (1991), he seemed to be something beyond fantasy.

By the way, this is still my favorite movie :-)

Let's find out more about this computer...

The first IBM PC compatible Atari Portfolio handheld computer was released in 1989 by Atari Inc. and made a lot of noise. In addition to the fact that the Atari Portfolio had impressive characteristics for those times, it weighed a little more than 450 g and fit in the palm of your hand.

With his help, a smart teenager cracked the ATM PIN code and the access code to the laboratory.

It is difficult to say whether this was a cinematic exaggeration or the PIN code protection system almost a quarter of a century ago was so unreliable, but the hack looked impressive.

What was the Atari Portfolio?

Its dimensions were extremely small: only 20 by 10 centimeters and only 2.8 centimeters thick. The technological miracle of 25 years ago weighed 454 g.

The Atari Portfolio is based on an Intel 80C88 processor clocked at 4.9152 MHz and runs on a variant of the MS-DOS operating system called DIP DOS 2.11. The Atari Portfolio has 128KB of RAM and 256KB of ROM containing the operating system and embedded applications. The onboard RAM is shared between system memory and the storage device (C: drive). Liquid crystal display - monochrome, without backlight, with a resolution of 240 × 64 pixels, or 40 characters × 8 lines.

On the right side of the computer are extensions for parallel and serial ports, modem or MIDI modules. The Removable Memory Card Port extension used by the Atari Portfolio is not compatible with the PC standard, as it was developed before that standard. At the initial stage, memory expansion cards with a capacity of 32, 64 and 128 KB were available, and then cards with a capacity of up to 4 MB appeared. Expansion cards are powered by replaceable batteries that last about 2 years. Built-in applications include text editor, spreadsheet (compatible with Lotus 1-2-3), phone book and planner. Expansion cards also contain additional programs like chess, file manager and financial manager. The Atari Portfolio can run most text-based MS-DOS applications, as long as they don't require direct device access and can fit into the relatively small amount of memory available.

Other expansion modules include a disk drive and a RAM expansion unit. The RAM expansion unit gives the Atari Portfolio an additional 256 KB of RAM, which can be split across multiple drives. It also uses add-ons via an expansion slot, allowing more than one expansion unit to be used. Theoretically, you can connect several of these memory expanders, increasing the available storage capacity by more than 640 KB.

There is also a desktop-connected memory card reader and writer. The kit contains ISA cards, a special cable, a card reader, and a floppy disk with software.

Alternatively, using a parallel port module, a standard parallel port cable, and the supplied software (DOS based), you can connect an Atari Portfolio to a conventional desktop computer to share files with the memory block.

Today, the Atari Portfolio's 240 × 64-pixel monochrome screen looks frivolous, but at that time it was quite enough.

By 1989, when the model appeared Portfolio, company Atari went 17 years from a $250 student-founded firm Nolan Bushnell along with a friend, to the world's largest manufacturer of video games and consoles for them. The first step to success with Atari was that tennis Pong is the #1 video game in every home with a TV. Even Wall-E in the cartoon was chopped into it. The popularity of Atari was incredible. Video set-top boxes home use and coin-operated slot machines - the boom of the mid-80s. Even the almighty Steve Jobs managed at this time to work at Atari as a technical specialist.

One of the key features of the Atari Portfolio is the full-size QWERTY keyboard.

What could the Atari Portfolio do? Adjusted for age - a lot. This is what the text editor looked like. For those who first got acquainted with personal computers already in Microsoft times Word, it will be hard to believe that typing in this way was also convenient.

prototype Microsoft Excel- spreadsheets.

On system drive as much as 30kB of free space:

If this is not enough, you can connect a memory card, which becomes drive A:

There was no fast flash memory then, so here is static memory (SRAM), which requires a battery to save data (enough for 2 years):

The memory footprint of the Atari Portfolio was extremely small: only 256 KB. It could be expanded with memory cards.

Made in Japan - now you can surprise with this:

And here is the card reader.

A printer could be connected to the Atari Portfolio via an expansion slot.

For those who forgot or didn't know: this is what the 5.25-inch floppy disks with software and documentation looked like.

Atari Portfolio Specifications:

CPU: Intel 80C88 clocked at 4.9152 MHz
RAM: 128 Kb
ROM: 256 Kb

Operating system: DIP DOS 2.11.
Screen: Monochrome liquid crystal with a resolution of 240 × 64 pixels.

Expansion Slot: Additional modules LPT, COM, MIDI.
Nutrition: 3 AA batteries or power supply.
Dimensions and weight: 200 × 100 × 28 mm, 454 g
Year of issue: 1989

According to the results of measurements, during operation, the current consumed is 45mA, respectively, a set of batteries (2700 mAh) is enough for 60 hours(!!!) work.

Modern laptops nervously smoke on the sidelines - you can type text here and there, but after the batteries run out on the Ultrabook on the Intel i7, the Atari Portfolio will work for another 50 hours.

There are still amateur websites with Portfolio software - don't be put off by a little old-fashioned design.

Anticipating the question - I bought it at an auction for 3500 rubles, somewhere the museum of old computers was disbanded, it was one of the last exhibits.

It is quite possible to use it for its intended purpose so far - for example, as an RS232 terminal, or for some technical programs. The interface itself does not slow down and works very quickly - therefore, you can work comfortably, as much as possible with a keyboard of this size.

computers Atari started when it became clear that the video game market was going through a deep crisis and more and more IBM PC and Macintosh.

Having released in 1985 a very successful version of a home personal computer Atari 520ST, which actually set the form factor of a consumer computer (suffice it to recall the appearance of Commodore or our BK-0010), Atari unexpectedly enters the market with an incredible Atari Portfolio model. Nobody has done this yet.

The Atari 520ST personal computer set the tone for a galaxy of computers integrated into the keyboard

The appearance of the BK-0010 computer - the dream of every Soviet schoolchild - was "licked" from the Atari 520ST

When designing the Eee Keyboard PC, ASUS took inspiration from the Atari 520ST.

Judge for yourself. Computer Portfolio was 20 by 10 centimeters in size and only 2.5 centimeters thick! And this at a time when a laptop the size of a volume of the Soviet encyclopedia was considered super compact. This miracle fit in the palm of your hand, weighed only 505 g (!) And was powered by three AA batteries. Meanwhile, inside Atari Portfolio worked quite powerful for that time Intel processor 80C88 at 4.92 MHz. Memory Atari Portfolio had "already" 128 kilobytes. As much as possible, it expanded to 640 kilobytes - and this was the ultimate dream of the DIP DOS operating system, sewn into the baby's ROM.

With user Atari Portfolio communicated using a full-fledged QWERTY keyboard and a black-and-white LCD display that worked with a resolution of 260x64 pixels.

In 1989, Atari blew everyone away with a palm-sized computer.

The appearance of the Atari Portfolio is painfully reminiscent of modern netbooks. Left slot - memory card slot

But that is not all. True to the tradition of its flagship product, the video set-top box with its cartridges, Atari supplied Portfolio a slot for reading Memory Card - memory cards with a capacity of 128 kilobytes, the type of modern flash cards familiar to us! But at that time, 100% of all personal computers “ate” exclusively on floppy disks.

At a time when all personal computers used floppy disks, Atari Portfolio worked with memory cards

However, with floppy disks Portfolio also handled with confidence. Thanks to a special interface on the right side, you could optionally connect a floppy drive to it. A little later, Atari released accessories for the same interface: a COM port (cost $80) and a parallel port ($50).

For Atari Portfolio parallel port adapter was released. Thanks to him, he could communicate with printers, other personal computers and ... ATMs

Using these accessories, texts typed on Portfolio, it was possible to print or exchange them with other personal computers using the FILE-TRANSFER program.

Out of 128 kilobytes of RAM Portfolio 32 kilobytes were available to the user as drive C, and the remaining 96 kilobytes housed the built-in programs:

• Diary– taking notes (prototype of a blog?);
• calculator;
• Editor- text editor;
• Worksheet– spreadsheets;
• Address Book- the prototype of the modern program "Contacts".

Address Book, by the way, was not a simple base for storing contacts. Through the built-in speaker, she could play tonal versions phone numbers contacts - to dial a number to a user Portfolio you just had to bring the computer to the microphone of the handset.

Unique sizes Atari Portfolio coupled with good software and excellent options for memory expansion and connectivity peripherals provided him with an army of fans, one of which was John Connor. In a short time for Portfolio hundreds of different programs have been developed, from games to translators of a wide variety of programming languages. Most of the archivists known at that time worked on it, statistical calculation programs, graphic editor and remote terminal emulators, for remote access to adult computers via modem. The same PIN-generator from the movie "Terminator" (correct name ATM Machine Cracking Program) was, of course, an invention of filmmakers. But believe me Atari Portfolio I would have coped with the task of hacking an ATM, be it someone's will.

Unique to the 1980s microcomputer Atari Portfolio was a real harbinger of the recently arrived era of netbooks - relatively low-powered, small and light personal computers. However, why was it? Just look at the number of his fan clubs

Another exhibit appeared in my small home collection - Atari 520STF.

The previous owner of this computer purchased it in France in 1988, after which the expensive purchase was transported to Russia, where the Atari 520STF has long served as a "game console" for younger family members. In addition to entertainment functions, the Atari 520STF also helped to master programming, as evidenced not only by the words of the former owner, but also by the photocopy of the BASIC textbook in French that I received with the computer.

I would like to note that this computer was much more affordable and cheaper than its competitors - an Apple Macintosh 512k computer of similar characteristics cost $ 2,795, while an Atari 520STF (though without a monitor) would cost only $ 799. Due to its low price, it became quite popular among computer gamers, and musicians preferred the Atari 520STF, because the computer had MIDI interfaces on board that made it possible to create electronic musical compositions.

Carefully! A lot of photos.

Specifications.

• Processor: Motorola 68000 @ 8MHz
• RAM: 512Kb
• Display: 320 X 200 - 16 colors, 640 X 200 - 4 colors, 640 X 400 - black and white
• Video output: RGB (SCART), in the Atari 520STFM model - a modulator for connecting to a TV
• Ports: cartridge port, LPT and COM port, joystick and mouse ports
• Hard drive: external, from 10MB to 60MB
• Sound: three-channel sound generator on a chip YM2149F, which is an analogue of AY-3-8910
• Additional interfaces: MIDI input + MIDI output
• Drive: built-in 720Kb + external 720Kb/1.44Kb
• Operating system: Atari TOS+GEM

Appearance and equipment.

Let's start with the configuration.

The Atari 520STF comes in a cardboard box like this, inside which you can find the computer itself, a power cord, a mouse, and some documentation.

Optionally, the computer can be equipped with a high-resolution color or black-and-white monitor, also packed in a branded box. The monitor comes with a connection cable, instructions and circuit diagram monitor. By the way, you don’t need to buy a monitor - the RGB video output available in the computer can be used to connect the Atari 520STF to a TV with a SCART connector (you will need the appropriate cable for this), and the Atari 520STF model with the “M” index has a built-in RF modulator that allows connect a TV with an appropriate high-frequency input to the computer (the most common “tulip” connector is used).

The Atari 520STF case is made of gray plastic, measures 10cm x 48cm x 29cm and weighs 4.2kg.

Keyboard Atari 520STF - non-removable, has 94 keys. 10 function keys are located above the main block of keys, digital block The keys are located on the left, and between them are the cursor control arrows, the Insert, Home, Help and Undo keys. Keyboard layout - AZERTY, since this model intended for sale in France.

On the left side of the case are MIDI connectors, as well as a cartridge connector.

The drive is located on the right side of the case.

If you turn the Atari 520STF upside down, you can see the mouse and joystick connectors.

On the back of the case there are connectors for connecting a modem, printer, external hard disc and floppy drive, as well as a video output, a power button, a power connector, and a reset button. You can learn more about the available interfaces.

And this is what the 14" Atari SC1425 color monitor looks like. Most of the picture and sound controls are located under the cover on the front of the monitor.

On the back there are knobs for adjusting the length and width of the image, as well as its vertical positioning. There is also a SCART connector and an analog TTL input.

Speakers are built into the sides of the monitor, and there is also a headphone jack.

Internal organization.

Remove the top cover. Under the protective metal casing on the left is the power supply, on the right is the drive.

We remove the keyboard, having previously disconnected a small cable from motherboard.

Turning over the keyboard, you can see the controller on it and the connectors for the mouse and joystick.

The Hitachi HD6301V1P controller is an 8-bit microcomputer in a DIP40 package with a clock frequency of 1 MHz. It contains 4Kb of ROM, 128 bytes of RAM, has support for a serial data interface and much more.

Remove the right cover, unscrew the three screws and take out the drive.

By removing the left metal cover and unscrewing the two screws, you can remove the power supply.

We remove the metal casing from the motherboard and take it out.

16 OKI M41256A-12 RAM chips with a total capacity of 512K.

Nearby are seats for another 16 RAM chips, soldering which you can double the RAM, thus turning the Atari 520STF into an older model - Atari 1040STF.
Unfortunately, getting suitable memory chips (256K NMOS, with an access time of 150ns or less) is quite difficult. In my opinion, it is much easier to purchase or make JRI-RAM+ upgrade board and use conventional 30-pin SIMM modules for memory expansion.

There could be a TV modulator.

The heart of the computer is the Motorola MC68000 processor.

Three-channel sound generator Yamaha YM2149F, which is an analogue of AY-3-8910.

SHARP C101634 ROM chips containing the Atari TOS operating system.

Operating system.

The Atari 520STF ran a ROM-based Atari TOS operating system, and consisted of a GEMDOS kernel and a GEM graphical environment.

GEM desktop.

The latest supported version of Atari TOS for the Atari 520STF computer is RAINBOW TOS 1.04, released April 6, 1989. This version not only improved the performance of the computer, but also had support for file system MS-DOS, allowing you to read and write information intended for the Atari 520STF on a regular IBM PC-compatible computer.

My copy of the computer has two SHARP C101634 ROM chips containing Atari TOS version 1.02. You can update the version of the operating system using a programmer and two (sometimes six) erasable UV ROMs.

Software.

Despite the small amount of RAM, there was a huge amount of software of various kinds for the Atari 520STF computer. Below are a few programs that I was able to find and run.

MIDI player SMF-Player.

Console terminal STALKER.

Good MIDI sequencer Sweet Sixteen.

Advanced PROCALC Calculator.

Pretty handy text word editor Writer 2. Printed the text on Epson printer LQ-100.

Archiver STZIP26.

A utility that displays information about the system - SYSINFO.

Alas, 512K RAM is too little to run CUBASE LITE, Crystal Atari Browser 1.5, ESCPAINT and others useful programs, so they were not included in the review.

Games.

A huge number of games have been written for the Atari 520STF. So huge it's eye-opening. Below are some of them.

Star Wars - the empire strikes back.

Captain America.

Angel Nieto.

BOB Winner.

Spidertronic.

Sea battle.

We start the FTP server on the Atari 520STF.

You may have noticed that the Atari 520STF has a 25-pin COM port. Its presence means that an external modem can be connected to the computer. And even go online! However, there is one unpleasant feature of this computer model - 512Kb of RAM is too little to run the Crystal Atari Browser 1.5 web browser. Atari 520STF attempts to launch the WebLight http server also ended in failure, but it turned out to raise the FTP server.

Comment: Considering that almost no Internet provider provides access to the World Wide Web using a dial-up modem connection, you will have to go a little crazy - set up and set up your own Dial-In server. The easiest way is to use the existing functionality of Windows 2000 and higher, namely the incoming connection server. Information on how to do this can be found online. You will also need any office PBX. If this does not bother you, you can repeat the experiment at home.

For start FTP server and on the Atari 520STF we need an external modem, two plastic bottles, blue duct tape and... and TCP-IP support for the Atari StinG. You need to burn StinG to a floppy and make a few changes to configuration files(I replaced paths pointing to drive C:\ with paths pointing to drive A:\).

Reboot the Atari 520STF with the StinG floppy in the drive.

Now you can start the dialer DIALER.APP located in the DIALER folder.

By pressing the Configs button, we set up a modem connection: specify the provider's phone number, login and password for accessing the network, and, if necessary, change the modem initialization string.

Click Enable and connect to the provider by clicking the Connect button.

Establishing a connection.

Ready! Now you can close DIALER.APP without breaking the connection (by pressing the Exit button) and remove the floppy disk with StinG.

After the Internet connection is established, you can start the FTP server. By the way, it also needs to be written to a separate floppy disk and configured - in the file FTPUSERS you must specify a username, password, and specify the path to the folder to which access is granted, as well as the access rights that the user has. detailed instructions on setting up an FTP server is available in the help file FTP_SERV.HYP, which can be opened using the ST-Guide program. Don't forget to copy ST-Guide to floppy!

Start FTP server FTP_SERV.APP) and get a warning that you need to run a system extension to display dialogs WDIALOG.PRG, otherwise you will not be able to interact with the program.

Thank you for your attention and have a nice day!