News - Jul.92 - Sep.92
From: Atari SIG (xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 02/28/94-02:55:15 PM Z
From: xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Atari SIG)
Subject: News - Jul.92 - Sep.92
Date: Mon Feb 28 14:55:15 1994
Time Capsule - News - Jul.92 - Sep.92
-------------------------------------
News Subject Title Date Posted
------------------ -----------
Connecticut Atarifest Jul.12,1992
Connecticut Atarifest Travel bus/train/Hotel
Jul.12,1992
CT by Car (travel) Jul.12,1992
Atari Advantage Falcon Overview! Aug.01,1992
AA Falcon Ports Specs Aug.10,1992
First report on Falcon from Germany! Aug.22,1992
Atari Classics on its way! Sep.01,1992
Free ads in Atari Classics Sep.07,1992
Atari Classics subscription drive Sep.07,1992
Falcon 030 released--Boston Sep.26,1992
Motorola Press Releases #1 Sep.26,1992
Motorola Press Releases #2 Sep.26,1992
Falcon 030 Released #2--Boston Sep.26,1992
Falcon 030 Released #3--Boston Sep.26,1992
Falcon 030 Released #4--Boston Sep.26,1992
Digi-Studio Information Sep.30,1992
--------------------------------------
Article #302 (376 is last):
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.news
From: ap105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joseph Sabatino)
Subject: Connecticut Atarifest
Posted-By: xx004 (aa399 - Len Stys)
Date: Sun Jul 12 11:59:40 1992
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest show news from:
CONNECTICUT ATARIFEST '92
FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
HARTFORD, Conn. (June 26, 1992) - More exhibitors have added their names to
the list of hardware manufacturers, software developers, retail dealers and
regional Atari user groups that plan to participate in Connecticut
AtariFest '92 on August 15 and 16.
The show, sponsored by Affiliated Connecticut Atari Groups (ACT) and
several user groups throughout the Northeast in cooperation with Atari
Corporation, will be staged at the Sheraton Hotel at Bradley International
Airport in nearby Windsor Locks, Conn.
The following commercial exhibitors have agreed to participate:
ABC Solutions ............................... Publisher ST2, First
Word, First Graph, tbxCAD,
Kuma's KSpread4/Lite.
Application & Design Software ............... Universal Item Selector,
Universal NETwork,networking
consulation and affiliate of
MacDonald Associates, pub-
lisher of ST Informer.
Atari Computer Corporation .................. Where it all started, evolv-
ing from 'Pong' to a 'Power
Without the Price' company.
Desktop publishing, MIDI,
Portfolio and Lynx special-
ties. Will Falcon be next?
Atari Interface Magazine .................... Flagship monthly of Unicorn
Publications that is by, for
and about official Atari user
groups throughout the world
and their favorite computer.
Branch Always Software ...................... Emulation specialist and
creator of GEMulator (ST-to-
PC operation), 8-bit, Apple
emulators and cables.
CodeHead Software ........................... Midi Spy, TOS Extension
Card, Megapaint II Pro,
Hot-wire, G+Plus,
LookIt/PopIt, etc.
Compo Software .............................. Publisher of That's Write,
Write On, CompoScript and
C-Font software packages.
Computers Etc. .............................. Atari dealership of Fair-
field, Connecticut. Carries
full ST/TT/Mega/Portfolio
lines. CAF '91 co-sponsor.
The Computer Zone ........................... N. Attleboro, Mass.,dealer
boasting big selection of
ST software and systems.
Derric Electronics .......................... Hamden, Conn., dealer with
discounted Atari products,
printers, monitors, modems,
laptops, supplies, etc.
Fostex ...................................... Low-cost, professional qua-
lity tape recording equip-
ment to get the most from
your MIDI.
GEnie ....................................... General Electric's online
subscription service with
many Atari Roundtables, re-
structured bulletin boards,
niches for every interest.
Gribnif ..................................... NeoDesk, STalker, STeno,
CardFile, X-Boot, Arabesque
Professional and Convector
Professional and leading
importer of Atari software.
ICD ......................................... Hard drive systems, host
adapters, accelerator boards
and software for ST/TT. Pro-
vides tech support on GEnie
with 'ICD' at page prompt.
Joppa Software .............................. Maker of STraight FAX! which
turns ST into send/receive
FAX machine, and drivers for
FAX use from Calamus, Page-
stream and GDOS programs.
Maxwell CPU ................................. Expose, Fractal Fantasy and
Silhouette, a bit-image and
vector graphics drawing pro-
gram that now uses FSMGDOS
and supports 19" monitor.
Megatype Software ........................... Creator of font creation/
conversion programs like
Font Designer, Bitmaker and
Fontverter. Maintains hand-
crafted PageStream and Cala-
mus font libraries.
PLI ......................................... Black hard drives, removable
cartridge drives, 3.5" opti-
cal drives storing 120 MB of
data per cartridge & more.
Soft-Logik Publishing ....................... PageStream 2.2, popular
desktop publishing system
for ST/STe/TT. Typeface
library boasts 600 Post-
Script Type 1 fonts, lots
of graphics.
Step Ahead Software ......................... Tracker/ST 3.0, sophisticated
package featuring address
book, mail merge and label
printing. Nevin Shalit,
GEnie Pagestream RT Sysop &
president of IAAD, to appear.
Steinberg/Jones ............................. What desktop publishing sy-
stems do for text, Cubase
does for music. Compose,read,
write,tape and control in-
struments with Cubase & MIDI.
Taylor Ridge Books .......................... Publisher of Clayton Walnum's
C-Manship Complete! and his
recently-released ST Assembly
Language Workshop, Vol 1. GEM
Programming is due this fall.
Toad Computers .............................. Toadfile hard drives and
accessories for Ataris. Makes
Little Toad 20MB hard drive
for light and casual users.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The following groups will display home-grown user talents through
intriguing demonstrations and will provide showgoers hands-on assistance:
ASTMUM ...................................... Montreal, PQ
AUGOGH ...................................... Hartford, CT
BCS ......................................... Boston, MA
BASIC ....................................... Brooklyn, NY
CCCC ........................................ Central Connecticut
DBUG ........................................ Danbury, CT
FACE ........................................ Fairfield, CT
LIAUG ....................................... Long Island, NY
MACH1 ....................................... Vernon, CT
NAACC ....................................... North Attleboro, MA
NVACUS ...................................... Nashua Valley,
STARR ....................................... New Haven, CT
SAAUG ....................................... Scranton, PA
SSAG ........................................ South Shore/Boston, MA
WACO ........................................ Westmoreland, PA
WMAUG ....................................... Western Massachusetts
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The following companies are providing additional support:
Atari Explorer DragonWare Take It With You magazine
D.A. Brumleve MiGraph Thin Air Labs
CompuServe Re:Port Magazine TidBit
Current Notes ST Informer
Other Atari developers, dealers, technical experts and speakers who plan to
appear but have made no formal announcement will be listed in future pro-
gram updates. Count on more to come!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
For additional information, contact:
Brian Gockley, Chairman Doug Finch, Vice Chairman
Connecticut AtariFest '92 Connecticut AtariFest '92
GEnie: B.GOCKLEY GEnie: D.FINCH7
CompuServe: 75300,2514 CompuServe: 76337,1067
18 Elmwood Avenue 46 Park Avenue
Bridgeport, CT 06605 Old Greenwich, CT 06870
(203) 332-1721 (203) 637-1034
or survey the Connecticut AtariFest '92 topic on GEnie (Atari ST
Roundtable, Category 11, Topic 14, and other Atari RTs on GEnie) as well
as ST, 8-bit, Vendor and Portfolio forums of CompuServe.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article #303 (376 is last):
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.news
From: ap105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joseph Sabatino)
Subject: Connecticut Atarifest Travel bus/train/Hotel
Posted-By: xx004 (aa399 - Len Stys)
Date: Sun Jul 12 12:00:40 1992
CONNECTICUT ATARIFEST '92 TRAVEL TIPS
Getting here by Train or Bus
Riding the Rails
If Amtrak is not sidelined by a labor dispute, rail passengers can reach
Windsor Locks aboard several trains that run daily between Washington,
D.C., and Boston, and several points between the two. Trains stopping at
Windsor Locks include the Narragansett, Fast Mail, Benjamin Franklin,
Yankee Clipper, Connecticut Yankee, Bankers, Bay State, Senator, Merchants
Limited and Atlantic City Express.
We advise you contact Amtrak directly for the latest train and schedule
information. Not every train serving arriving at and departing from Windsor
Locks does so on a daily basis, and club car, snack, beverage and Railfone
services are not available on every train. Certain restrictions may apply.
For information about fares, schedules, restrictions and connecting trains,
contact Amtrak by phoning (800) USA-RAIL [Deaf persons may communicate with
Amtrak's special teletypewriter by calling (800) 523-6590]).
Here are some current fares (as of June 24, 1992) for Amtrak service
between Windsor Locks and Northeast cities. The fare represents the price
of a non-holiday, round trip (two-way) ticket.
CITY ROUND TRIP FARE
Boston, MA $38
New York, NY 46
Trenton, NJ 68
Washington, DC 99
(Source: Amtrak)
If you have a room reservation at the Sheraton, call the hotel (627-5311)
when you arrive at the train station. A bellman will dispatch a driver to
take you there. Some other hotels will offer similar shuttle service;
otherwise, a taxi ride from the train station to the Sheraton will run you
about $7.
Bus Service
Bradley International Airport is served by Peter Pan Bus Lines in the
Hartford-Springfield, Mass. region. Ten buses operate daily between
downtown Hartford and the airport. The ticket price for the 25-minute ride
is $9. Nine buses run between Springfield and the airport. The half-hour
ride also costs $9.
For further information about fares, schedules, restrictions and connecting
shuttles, contact Peter Pan Bus Lines at (203) 627-3210 or (413) 781-2900.
Regularly scheduled interstate bus service is provided to most points in
Connecticut by Greyhound/Trailways Bus Line [(203) 547-5100] and Bonanza
Bus Line [(800) 556-3815].
Other bus/limousine/sedan and shuttle services serving the airport
include:
CARRIER TELEPHONE
Airport Connection (203) 627-3400
Airport Taxi/Limousine (203) 627-3210
The Connecticut Co., Inc. (203) 527-8060
Mount Snow Vermont Tours (802) 464-5431
Thomas Transportation (203) 627-3434
Valley Transporter (800) 872-8752
(Source: Connecticut Department of Transportation)
CAR RENTALS
Some car rental agencies offer special rates and courtesy pickups from the
airport or off-site hotel. Contact these companies directly for more
information:
At Bradley International Airport:
RENTAL AGENCY TELEPHONE
Alamo (203) 623-7732
Avis (203) 627-3500
Budget (203) 627-3660
Dollar (203) 627-9048
Hertz (203) 627-3850
National (203) 627-3470
Off-Site Car Rentals:
RENTAL AGENCY TELEPHONE
Airways (203) 623-9333
Payless (800) PAYLESS, (203) 623-5488
Thrifty (800) FOR-CARS, (203) 623-8214
(CAUTION: This travel information is provided as a public service to
participants in Connecticut AtariFest '92. The show sponsors cannot be held
responsible for schedule changes, fare increases, etc. Schedules, fares,
special offers, conditions and service areas are subject to change without
notice; therefore we advise travelers to phone carriers directly for
details and advance reservations. CAF '92 would like to thank the Tobacco
Valley Convention & Visitors District, the Connecticut Department of
Transportation and the Connecticut Department of Economic Development,
Tourism Division, for providing most of this information.)
Article #304 (376 is last):
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.news
From: ap105@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joseph Sabatino)
Subject: CT by Car (travel)
Posted-By: xx004 (aa399 - Len Stys)
Date: Sun Jul 12 12:01:15 1992
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONNECTICUT ATARIFEST '92 TRAVEL TIPS
Getting here by Car
COMING BY CAR?
The Sheraton Hotel at Bradley International Airport, near Hartford, is just
off Interstate 91 near the junction of I-84. Here's a rough estimate of how
long it will take to drive to the hotel from some North American cities:
CITY MILEAGE DRIVING TIME
Albany, NY 107 2 hrs.
Amherst, MA 50 55 min.
Augusta, ME 250 N.A.
Baltimore, MD 305 N.A.
Boston, MA 109 2 hrs.
Brattleboro, VT 85 1:30
Bridgeport, CT 65 1:15
Buffalo, NY 380 N.A.
Cleveland, OH 555 N.A.
Danbury, CT 75 1:25
Dover, DE 285 N.A.
Hartford (downtown) 12 20 min.
Montreal, PQ 320 N.A.
New Britain, CT 23 25 min.
New Haven, CT 48 55 min.
New London, CT 57 1 hr.
New York, NY 125 2:20
Northampton, MA 35 40 min.
Philadelphia, PA 215 N.A.
Pittsburgh, PA 215 N.A.
Pittsfield, MA 68 1:15
Providence, RI 80 1:25
Quebec, PQ 425 N.A.
Richmond, VA 445 N.A.
Springfield, MA 16 20 min.
Stamford, CT 85 1:30
Washington, DC 340 N.A.
Waterbury, CT 40 45 min.
Worcester, MA 64 1:15
Once you're in the general vicinity, the directions are simple:
+ FROM BOSTON - Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90W); Exit 4 to I-91 South;
Exit 40 to Route 20.
+ FROM HARTFORD (DOWNTOWN) - Route I-91 North; Exit 40 to Route 20.
+ FROM NEW YORK - I-95 North to I-91 North; Exit 40 to Route 20.
+ FROM SPRINGFIELD, MASS. - Route I-91 South; Exit 40 to Route 20.
There are 261 parking spaces for hotel guests and visitors under the hotel,
on a first-come, first-served basis; and short- and long-term airport
outdoor parking within a few hundred feet of the Sheraton. Airport parking
fees range from $1.50 (0 to 1/2 hour) to $14 (7 to 24 hours).
The Tourism Division of the Connecticut Department of Economic Development
handles tourist inquiries for entire state and maintains welcome centers
along main highways and at Bradley International Airport (site of
Connecticut AtariFest '92). Visit one of the centers for help with
directions or phone (800) CT-BOUND.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(CAUTION: This travel information is provided as a public service to
participants in Connecticut AtariFest '92. The show sponsors cannot be
held
responsible for unscheduled detours, road construction, etc. Traffic and
road conditions are subject to change; we therefore advise travelers to
phone ahead for information and to stay alerted to tradffic reports. CAF
'92 would like to thank the Tobacco Valley Convention & Visitors District,
the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the Connecticut Department
of Economic Development, Tourism Division, and the Sheraton Hotel for this
information.)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Article #305 (376 is last):
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.news
From: JJL101@PSUVM.BITNET
Subject: Atari Advantage Falcon Overview!
Posted-By: xx004 (aa400 - John J. Lehett)
Edited-By: xx004 (aa400 - John J. Lehett)
Date: Sat Aug 1 23:16:02 1992
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/// A T A R I A D V A N T A G E M A G A Z I N E ///
/// Contents -- June/July 1992 ///
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
FALCON'030 REVEALED! -- The next generation of home computer is
"""""""""""""""""""" on the way and the Falcon'030 leads the
pack with power and features.
FALCON'030 at a GLANCE:
* Motorola 68030 Microprocessor running at 16MHz,
multi-tasking capable
* Motorola 68881 or 68882 16MHz Floating point coprocessor
* Motorola DSP 56001 Digital Signal Processor (DSP)
* 1 to 16MB of memory and 512KB of ROM
* 16 bit BLiTTER Graphics coprocessor running at 16 MHz
* Enhanced Broadcast TV quality Video
-- "True Color" 320x200 resolution, 32,768 colors or 640x480
resolution, 256 colors from a 264,144 color palette
-- VGA or Video 320 or 640 by 200 or 400 resolution, 2, 16, or
256 colors from a 262,144 color palette
-- Standard STe video modes with a 4096 color palette
-- RF modulator and VGA monitor connections
-- Overscan support
-- Genlock and multi-media capable
-- Graphics overlay and video tiling
-- Enhanced high speed 16MHz Blitter graphics co-processor
-- STe horizontal scrolling
* "CD quality" stereo sound
-- Stereo 16 bit Analog to Digital inputs
-- Stereo 16 bit Digital to Analog outputs
-- Eight channel stereo DMA sound engine with 16 bit PCM digital
record/playback with up to 50KHz sample rates
-- Stereo 8 bit STe compatible PCM sound
-- ST compatible 3 channel PSG sound
-- Multiplexer to connect Codec, DSP and DMA sound engine
-- Stereo microphone inputs and headphone outputs connected to a
16 bit stereo codec
-- DSP digital audio connector, up to 1MHz data transfer rate
-- Built-in monophonic speaker
* 1.44MB floppy drive
* Built-in IDE 2 1/2" hard drive interface (drive optional)
* SCSI II peripheral interface (hard drive, tape drive, etc.)
* Mega STe/TT compatible local area network (LAN) interface
* Enhanced modem/RS232 port
* ST and STe compatible joystick/controller ports
* Built-in "processor direct" expansion connectors
* On board real time clock and battery backed up RAM
* MIDI input and output
* Parallel printer port
* Enhanced keyboard controller allows 300 DPI mice
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW -- Atari expects to have over 80 Lynx
""""""""""""""""""""""""" titles available and 2 million cats sold
by the end of the year.
COLUMNS
"""""""
== Editors Desk ...... Just a few words from the humble staff.
== Rumor City ........ What's new and what's not.
== MIDI Notes ........ Discover the world of MIDI.
== EuroGames ......... Reports from our European correspondent.
== Lynx Line ......... Hints, tips, and reviews on those hot games.
FEATURES
""""""""
== New & Improved .... New and improved products announced
== Briefs ............ Late breaking news
== Events ............ What's coming up?
REVIEWS
"""""""
== Abaresque Professional.. Powerful bitmap/vector illustration tool.
== Multiplay .............. Math exploration, discovery and practice.
== Blues and Jazz ......... Blues, jazz and rock keyboard skills.
== MEGA Check ............. ST/TT finance management.
== WARP 9 - v3.60 ......... Software screen acceleration to the max.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A closing note from Darren Meer:
There is one area of transition that I need to tell you about --
that being the world of magazines. This issue is not only historical
in its content, it also marks the last issue of "Atari Advantage"
Mike and I will be involved in. We have been asked to join the "Atari
Explorer" staff and bring our style of coverage and production
values. "Atari Advantage" will be left in the hands of a very capable
and extremely energetic group of writers and users who will introduce
themselves in next month's issue. We are really excited about the
opportunity to join "Explorer", and feel confident that the Atari
market will be well served by both magazines for a long time to come.
If any of you have any concerns as to how this affects your
subscriptions, articles or advertisements, please don't hesitate to
call or write us to express your feelings. We want you to get your
money's worth and will do what ever we can to make sure your do.
And finally, we want to thank all of you who have waited so
patiently for this issue to arrive. Between the Falcon coverage and
negotiations with Atari, our schedule got completely thrown out of
whack. Those things along with the intense Murphy field that has been
hovering over our offices, combined to make this an especially
memorable issue for us as well ( he said with a big twisted smile).
. . . RjR 8/92
Article #306 (376 is last):
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.news
From: aa400@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (John J. Lehett)
Subject: AA Falcon Ports Specs
Posted-By: xx004 (aa400 - John J. Lehett)
Reply-To: aa400@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (John J. Lehett)
Date: Mon Aug 10 15:48:43 1992
From Atari Advantage , here's the specs on what ports the Falcon
will possess:
Type Pins Type # Description
------------------------------------------------------------------
Left Side:
Cartridge 40 1 Cartridge port
DB15 15 male 2 STe enhanced joysticks
DIN5 5 female 1 MIDI in
DIN5 5 female 1 MIDI out
Back side:
DB25 25 female 1 Parallel port
DB9 9 male 1 Modem/serial port
SCSI II 50 female 1 SCSI II
DB19 19 male 1 Video out/genlock
mini-jack 3 female 1 stereo headphone out
mini-jack 3 female 1 st. microphone in
DB26 26 female 1 DSP/Digital Audio int.
RCA 2 female 1 RF modulator
miniDIN 9 female 1 LAN
reset switch
Underside:
DB9 9 male 2 Old ST joystick/mouse
Internal:
header 30+50 male 1 DRAM expansion board
header 30+50 male 1 internal bus expansion
header 44 male 1 internal IDE connection
header 34 cable 1 internal floppy disk drive
<Just thought this was a nice interesting list of ports , giving some
more info on just what the Falcon is going to be like>
--
Article #307 (376 is last):
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.news
From: JJL101@PSUVM.BITNET
Subject: First report on Falcon from Germany!
Posted-By: xx004 (aa400 - John J. Lehett)
Edited-By: xx004 (aa400 - John J. Lehett)
Date: Sat Aug 22 13:36:56 1992
GEnie/Z*NET NEWS REPORT
Copyright 1992 by GEnie, ST RoundTables, and Z*Net News Service
=======(((((((((( ==========((( ==(( ==((((((( ==(((((((( ========
==============(( ====(( ====(((( =(( ==(( ==========(( ===========
===========(( =====(((((( ==(( (( (( ==((((( =======(( ===========
========(( ==========(( ====(( =(((( ==(( ==========(( ===========
=======(((((((((( ==========(( ==((( ==((((((( =====(( ===========
Z*NET NEWS SERVICE
8/21/92
FIRST REPORT FROM DUSSELDORF
----------------------------
Nathan Potechin of DMC Publishing, Inc., filed this first report of
the huge Atari show in Germany. The information came via telephone
from the floor of the Atari Messe ("Fair") in Dusseldorf, Germany, and
was transcribed by John Nagy of the Z*Net News Service at Nathan's
request, and has been uploaded by Z*Net to GEnie. This news
release may be reprinted, excerpted, or re-posted on any other
telecommunication service ONLY with this notice intact. The Atari
Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari
Corporation.
------------------------------------------
ATARI AT ATARI MESSE - THE NEW WAVE BEGINS
------------------------------------------
Every year, Atari holds a huge trade show in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Spanning roughly four football fields of floor space, the show this
year is similar in size and attendance to last year's event.
The announcement of the Falcon 030 to the largest Atari show in the
world was the first order of business. According to Nathan Potechin,
"there are Falcons all over the floor of the show, in almost every
booth." Clearly, the nearly-accurate profile of the coming machine
offered by most of the Atari media across the last months was not
missed by the showgoing Atari Messe audience, and the excitement in
the crowd was high as they saw it firsthand.
Many vendors had new applications that expose the power and features
that are new on the Falcon 030. DMC Publishing (Calamus) again had
the largest booth on the floor, spanning 4,000 square feet with about
40 people working in it alone. Other large booths included TMS,
Matrix, 3k, and Maxxon. Many new products were shown, and we will
report on them in detail in a later release.
MARKETING PLANS, PRICE FOR FALCON IN USA
The hottest news at 5:00 PM Friday evening in Germany after the close
of the first day of Atari Messe was the unveiling not only of the
Falcon, but of the plans that Atari has to market the new machine in
the USA.
The "base" Falcon 030 will retail for $799 in the USA in a one-
megabyte configuration. The next option up the scale will be a four-
megabyte RAM with 65 megabyte hard drive Falcon at $1,399.
Sam Tramiel told dealers and developers at an afternoon meeting that
the US launch will begin immediately with regional marketing build-
ups. Individual regions of the USA will be targeted, one at a time,
with major "dog and pony shows" to both woo and educate computer
dealers. "Serious" co-op advertising money will be offered to dealers
who join in the roll-out. Once enough regions are served by an
operating dealer network, Atari will launch a national advertising
campaign.
Industry observers suggest that this plan will make the most of
Atari's cash and production resources. By serving a small but growing
dealer network with product, on-board Falcon dealers can be more
assured of delivery of product during the build-out stages of the
plan. Dealers will help and be helped in promotional costs, enabling
Atari to make a bigger splash in smaller ponds with less of their own
money, and allowing Atari's resources to go towards increasing
production of Falcon computers. As production and sales increase, so
will revenues with which to attack new regions. Meanwhile, Falcon
specific software will mature and present a solid base for the later
national marketing efforts.
More details from Germany will be coming later in the weekend. Look
for more special reports on GEnie, a service of GEnie and the Z*Net
News Service.
---------------------------------
To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon
connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt.
Type XTX99436,GEnie and hit RETURN. The system will prompt you for
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Z*NET NEWS SERVICE is an award-winning independant computer
news reporting agency. It provides services to Atari Explorer and
AtariUser magazines, plus Z*Net PC Online Magazine. Material
contained in this edition may be reprinted as described above.
Z*Net and Z*Net News Service are Copyright (c) 1989-91, Rovac
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Article #308 (376 is last):
From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.news
Subject: Atari Classics on its way!
Posted-By: xx004 (aa700 - Michael Current)
Date: Tue Sep 1 11:38:51 1992
--------============>>>> A T A R I C L A S S I C S <<<<============-------
-----=====>> A New Magazine for the 8-Bit Enthusiast !!! <<=====-----
Greetings Fellow Atari 8-Bit Users!
My name is Ben Poehland, and I'm pleased to announce that I shall be
serving as Managing Editor of Atari Classics (AC), a new magazine exclusively
devoted to the Atari 8bit user. If you are among the thousands who have
bemoaned the recent loss of nationally distributed magazines that once sup-
ported your beloved 8-bit, I'm here to add a long-overdue ray of hope to your
8bit future!
The philosophical orientation of AC- incorporated in its Manifest- is
to be a magazine "of, by , and for the Atari 8bit user". Unlike previous
8bit periodicals, the content of AC will directly reflect the expressed
desires of the user community, especially as recorded during the Mail-In
Campaign conducted January 15- May 2, 1992. The magazine will be staffed by
members of the user community, and its content will be drawn entirely from
the user community.
Unicorn Publications, already well-known for its outstanding Atari
Interface Magazine (which covers both the ST and 8bit markets), has agreed
to provide publishing services for AC. AC and AIM will be essentially
independent publications, and the addition of AC to Unicorn's stable of
products will not affect AIM's present subscribers. One of the many unique
arrangements concerning AC is that its actual day-to-day operation will
be largely in the hands of the user community rather than the publisher.
Whatever "flavor" we decide to give it will be entirely our own.
Atari Classics represents a unique experiment in the history of the Home
Computer Revolution that began in the mid '70s. With Atari Corp.'s announce-
ment of discontined support for all 8bit products in January 1992, an entire
class of machines with a global installed user base numbering in the hundreds
of thousands was abandoned along with the community of users who still use
them. But for the first time, a rejected user community has marshalled its
resources and declared its right to exist independent of Corporate America.
We respond to Atari's challenge in a way that would make our forefathers proud:
by rolling up our shirtsleeves and doing the job ourselves!
This will be YOUR magazine. AC will succeed- or fail- on the number of
subscription orders it receives. Although seed money to print the Premier
Issue has been provided, the magazine will need 500 paid subscriptions to
succeed. A limited production run of 800 issues is scheduled for October or
November 1992. Most of these will be distributed- FREE OF CHARGE- to the
roughly 600 people who sent in commitment cards during the Mail Campaign.
That's right: if you sent in your card,
YOU WILL GET TO READ THE FIRST ISSUE FOR FREE BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO BUY.
(When was the last time you saw a deal like that??)
Of course, there were some folks who got missed in the Mail Campaign.
So we ordered up those few extra copies which will also be distributed for
free. First come, first serve, please don't block the stampede! You can write
to:
Atari Classics
179 Sproul Rd./Rt. 352
Frazer, PA 19355 USA
ATTN: B. Poehland, Managing Editor
to have your name added to the list for a free copy of the Premier Issue.
(No guarantees, and be sure to include your postal mailing address!)
If you sent in your Campaign card it will NOT be necessary to request your
free trial issue, as your name is ALREADY among the LUCKY 600!
The basic subscription fee is $25/year in the USA, with higher fees for
Canadian and other non-US subscriptions. Full details on subscriptions will
appear in the Premier Issue and in future announcements. Beginning in 1993
the magazine will be distributed bimonthly (6 issues/year).
A software disk bearing programs published in AC plus selected offerings
from the Public Domain, will be availble separately for $9/year in the USA.
The disk will be distributed independently but will be timed to appear with
every other issue of the magazine (3 disks/year). Full details on disk
subscriptions will also appear in the Premier Issue and in future
announcements.
The content of Atari Classics will initially lean toward user
applications, hardware tutorials and modifications, programming, and soft-
ware reviews. We plan to agressively recruit paid commercial advertising
from scarce 8bit vendors, and to publish periodic lists of current 8bit
supply sources.
Best of all, PAID subscribers will be able to place FREE ads in AC
to buy, sell or trade their personal 8bit treasures! (But of course, yah
gotta SUBSCRIBE first!)
And, we'll have a whole bunch of other stuff, contributed by some of
the most talented writers and hackers in the Atari 8-bit world, authors
whose names you've seen gracing the pages of ANTIC, ANALOG, Current Notes,
and Atari Interface Magazine. (You'll notice not very many details there-
we wanna pique your imagination!)
As of this announcement (August 5, 1992) only a few of the Staff
positions at AC have been filled. We are starting completely from scratch,
but anticipate most of the administrative machinery for operating the
magazine will be in place by the end of August and production begun on our
Premier Issue. (We'll need a month to get used to working with each other
in an environment of near-total chaos!)
And when you see that first issue appear in your mailbox this autumn,
IT WILL BE YOUR TURN TO DECIDE THE FUTURE OF YOUR MACHINE !!
Please post/copy/distribute this announcement freely, and stay tuned for
future announcements !!!
--
Article #310 (376 is last):
From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.news
Subject: Free ads in Atari Classics
Reply-To: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Posted-By: xx004 (aa700 - Michael Current)
Date: Mon Sep 7 20:20:39 1992
September 2, 1992
For immediate network release.
Subject : Free Ads in Atari Classics!
From: Ben Poehland, Managing Editor
Greetings to all the Denizens of Telecom Networks!
Atari Classics magazine has made a bold decision to attempt to launch its
Premier Issue and main subscription drive at the WAACE Atarifest in Reston,
Virginia, USA October 10-11. Our Staff and Publisher are shifting into high
gear in an attempt to meet this challenging goal. Frankly, we aren't 100%
sure we'll make it, but we're sure gonna give it every ounce of effort! The
Premier Issue itself will be used to launch our subscription drive and will be
distributed FOR FREE to those sent in their Mail Campaign cards or who have
sent a written request to be placed on the free distribution list. If all
goes well we hope to have a few spare issues available for distribution at the
WAACE fest.
One of the unique features of AC will be its "Swap 'n' Shop" column. This is
space reserved in the magazine for free ads from paid subscribers who want to
buy, sell, or trade their personal Atari 8-bit items. (We figure it will be
a REAL popular part of the magazine!)
Ahhh... but yah see, we got a little problem here. Atari Classics is still in
the startup phase. We are presently in production on the Premier Issue and
would of course like to include the "Swap 'n' Shop" feature in our very first
issue. The problem is, we don't have any paid subscribers yet, so we don't
have anyone to send in their free ad!
So what we decided to do is to allow anyone who submits ad copy to us by the
following date:
SEPTEMBER 20, 1992
to place an ad in the Premier Issue, absolutely free of charge,
REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY SUBSCRIBE OR NOT !!!
We aren't sure at this time just how much page space we'll devote to this
column, so it's first come, first serve!
Now, you gotta figure with such a popular feature AC would soon be swamped
with ads which would leave us no room for neat articles on programming and
hardware hacks and stuff. Plus, we gotta leave space for paid commercial
announcements and such. In order to minimize the chaos that could result from
this activity we had to place some limits and make a few Rules (uh-oh!).
There are 13 of them (yeesh!). OK, yeah, they sound pretty stern and rigid
and all that, but hey- that's why they're Rules, right? Don't feel bad,
The Rules apply equally to everybody (even me!) and will be printed in every
issue of the magazine.
So go ahead and read the Rules, then make up your ad and send it in! You can
mail your ad to AC's postal mailing address given below, or you can e-mail
it to me at:
Internet: poehland%phvax.dnet@smithkline.com
GEnie : B.POEHLAND
PLEASE NOTE: for the Premier Issue ONLY, paid ads in the "Swap 'n' Shop" column
will NOT be accepted, and all personal ads will be truncated to
the 50-word limit. DO NOT SEND MONEY!
A T A R I C L A S S I C S
Swap 'n' Shop
A Flea Market for the Individual Atari 8-Bit User!
-- T H E R U L E S --
1. Ads are FREE to paid subscribers of Atari Classics. Non-subscribers may
place ads at the rate of 2 cents per character (excluding spaces). Payment
should accompany the ad copy. Ad copy from non-subscribers unaccompanied
by payment will be instantly discarded.
2. Free ads are limited to a maximum of 50 words including the advertiser's
contact information. A word is defined as any recognizable combination of
alphanumeric/ASCII characters separated by a space. The language of the ad
must be English.
3. Free ads longer than 50 words will charged 2 cents per character for each
character over the 50-word limit. If payment does not accompany the ad
copy, the Editor will truncate the ad to bring it under the 50-word limit.
4. Atari Classics reserves the right to edit all ads and to reject any ad for
any reason without notification to the advertiser.
5. Ads should be submitted in writing, preferably typed or computer-printed,
to the following address:
Atari Classics
179 Sproul Road/Rt. 352
Frazer, PA 19355 USA
ATTN: Advertising Editor
Illegible ad copy will be discarded by the Editor.
6. All ads MUST contain the advertiser's full name AND postal mailing address
including zipcode for USA addresses. The postal address MUST indicate the
advertiser's country of origin (USA, UK, NZ, France, Germany, etc.). If a
telephone number is included in the ad, please indicate what time of day
you may be reached. It is helpful to include an e-mail address if you have
one. Ads lacking a full name and postal mailing address will be instantly
discarded.
7. This column is for use by private individuals only, who wish to buy, sell,
or trade Atari 8bit items in their personal possession. Users are strongly
advised NOT to advertise non-Atari items or items not related to 8bit
computers or game systems (2600/5200/7800/XEGS items are OK). Ads seeking
information about Atari 8bit products, or ads offering personal information
for the purpose of making social contact with other Atari 8bit users, ARE
acceptable.
8. Use of this column for commercial purposes is expressly forbidden. Users
found to be violating this policy will have their personal advertising
priveledge suspended by the Editors.
9. Advertisers warrant that software offered for sale in this column is on
original media accompanied by original documentation. SOFTWARE PIRACY
WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. Users found violating this policy will have their
personal advertising priveledges premanently revoked, and their subscrip-
tion to AC will be terminated without refund.
10.For hardware items, it is helpful to indicate the condition of the item.
Use the following abbreviations/definitions to describe your hardware
item: LN (Like New, the item is pristine, unused, with all manuals and
original packaging materials); EC (Excellent Condition, the item has been
little used, is in good working order, physically clean, may have a few
very minor cosmetic blemishes, with original manuals); GC (Good Condition,
the item is in good working order but may be slightly soiled, contains worn
parts or minor scratches/dings that betray heavy service or old age, with
original manual or copied manuals); FC (Fair Condition, the item is in
working order but is missing manuals, heavily worn/soiled or cosmetically
damaged); BC (Basket Case, the item does not work, is damaged/butchered,
missing manuals etc., but contains salvageable parts).
11.Ads will run only once. If you wish your ad to run again, you must submit
fresh ad copy for each issue of the magazine.
12.The Staff and Publisher of Atari Classics will not be responsible for ad
copy that gets lost. We will make every effort to handle your ad respon-
sibly, but we are human and muff it every now and then. If for some reason
your ad fails to appear, just submit it again.
13.Atari Classics will not be held responsible for any loss incurred for any
reason by any person for situations arising from or related to ads appearing
in this column. Items offered for sale are assumed represented in good
faith. Buyers should contact prospective sellers in advance to insure the
availability of the item, arrange for payment terms and shipping, and
negotiate the price. All users are expected to be open, fair, flexible, and
honest in their dealings with others. Patience, courtesy, and consideration
will pay large dividends in securing a successful transaction. Atari
Classics does not possess the resources to police the behavior of individual
members of the community and will not get involved in disputes between users
over deals gone awry. All parties to a transaction are individually res-
ponsible for the outcome of the transaction. Buyers and Sellers, be
reasonable!
*******************************************************************************
--
Article #311 (376 is last):
From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.news
Subject: Atari Classics subscription drive
Reply-To: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Posted-By: xx004 (aa700 - Michael Current)
Date: Mon Sep 7 20:21:04 1992
7-Sep-92
********************** A T A R I C L A S S I C S **********************
LETIN...BULLETIN...BULLETIN...BULLETIN...BULLETIN...BULLETIN...BULLETIN...BULLE
------------------- ATARI CLASSICS SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE --------------------
In response to inquiries about subscriptions to Atari Classics, we
apologize for any confusion and beg your patience and understanding as we
struggle through our startup phase. AC is still in process of being formed,
and our main priority is to have the Premier Issue ready in time for WAACE.
AC is NOT officially accepting paid subscriptions at this particular time.
We will begin accepting paid subscriptions by mail as of October 12, 1992.
Look for an announcement on all networks around the 2nd week of October,
giving details on subscription plans and fees.
We plan to start our official subscription drive at the WAACE Fest in
Reston, Virginia October 10-11. If all goes according to plan, we will have
advance copies of the Premier Issue of Atari Classics- and subscription forms-
available at the Unicorn Publications booth. I plan to be there in person,
along with Bill and Pattie Rayl, to hawk our wares and collect subscriptions.
People should understand there is a slight element of risk involved. AC will
require a subscriber base of 500 to maintain its proposed bimonthly publication
schedule. If fewer than 500 people subscribe, we can't guarantee you'll get
6 issues for your money. If only a very few subscriptions are received, the
magazine may sputter on for several more issues then die out completely. If
we die, there will be no refunds. Officially, we are really only in business
for one issue. We are gambling that the interest expressed by the 8bit
community in the Atari Classics concept will be followed through with enough
subscriptions to make AC a viable enterprise in 1993.
The Premier Issue will be distributed for free to all individuals who sent in
their Mail Campaign pledge cards over the past winter/spring. It will also be
sent to those who have mailed in their postal address in response to the
announcements posted since AC became official on August 5, 1992. Although we
are making every effort to insure these people will get their free issue,
demand has been unexpectedly heavy, and we are considering possibilities for
increasing our initial print run from 800 to perhaps 1000 or more. We want to
assure the 600 people who sent in pledge cards that they are our FIRST priority
and will absolutely receive the free Premier Issue (and, along with it, the
opportunity to become a paid subscriber). Without the Faithful 600, AC would
never have come into being, and we have not forgotten that!
We are delighted with the enthusiastic response we have thus far received, and
would prefer all interested parties to just send us their name and postal
mailing address at this time instead of trying to subscribe. Send your address
to:
Atari Classics
179 Sproul Road/Rt. 352
Frazer, PA 19355
ATTN: B. Poehland, Mging. Ed.
You can also send your mailing address via email to me on GEnie or Internet:
GEnie : B.POEHLAND
Internet: poehland%phvax.dnet@smithkline.com
Compuserve or Delphi users who don't have Internet access can send their postal
mailing address to our Telecommunications Editor, Lawrence Estep:
Delphi: LESTEP
CIS : 71450,1050
who will forward them to the magazine. Several folks have sent us their email
address; that doesn't help us much since it's kinda hard to send a hardcopy
magazine to an email address. Postal addresses only, everyone!
The Premier Issue will contain a Subscription Form. We want you to see and
feel our product before you plunk down your cash. To some extent your
subscription will be an act of faith. But the Premier Issue itself will be
an act of faith, extended to those members of the 8bit community who have
already expressed their faith in us and their willingness to take a chance on
their- our- own future.
AC asks all potential subscribers to be patient, wait for things to develop at
a pace we can handle. We on the Staff of AC are part-timers and amateurs;
after only a few weeks in operation we are at best a disorganized rabble. We
need time to shake down as a team and set schedules we can keep. Please give
us that time, and hold aside your subscription money until October 12. But if
you really just can't wait, then present yourself at the Unicorn booth at WAACE
on October 10 where I'll be glad to assist you in making a withdrawal from your
wallet in support of Atari Classics <grin!>.
A final note: The mass mailing of the Premier Issue is tentatively scheduled
for the last week of October, and it will contain a Subscription Form.
- BEN POEHLAND
Managing Editor
Atari Classics
*******************************************************************************
--
Article #313 (376 is last):
From: xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Atari SIG)
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.general,freenet.sci.comp.atari.news,freenet.sci.comp.c64.forum
Subject: Falcon 030 released--Boston
Reply-To: xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Atari SIG)
Date: Sat Sep 26 12:17:48 1992
From: selick@csa.bu.edu (Steven Selick)
>Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Boston Computer Society shows Falcon 030!
Message-ID: <96643@bu.edu>
Date: 24 Sep 92 02:29:24 GMT
Sender: news@bu.edu
Organization: Computer Science Department, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
Lines: 102
Originator: selick@csa
Well, I just got back from downtown Boston, where the Boston Computer
Society gave the first public appearance of the Falcon 030 to the public
(me). I forgot a notepad, so these notes are direct from the back of
business cards...please bear with me if I get a name mispelled... :-)
Bob Brodie started off the meeting, and immediately introduced Sam
Tramiel after some boring business. Sam spoke for a bit on the history
of Atari, and such, and then brought out Richard Miller, the head of the
Falcon development team. He went into all of the gory details of the
guts of the machine, all of which have already been confirmed numerous
times already on the net.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the night was when they announced
several software packages that will be bundled with every falcon...
Falcon 2d2 - software from Atari to start using the 8 channel direct to
disk stuff immediately when you get your machine! Yeah Atari!!! We saw a
brief demo of this program...very impressive!
System Audio Manager - attach sampled sounds to any system command,
including a different sound for each key (note that these are handled by
the dsp chip and do not detract from normal operations!)
Audio Fun Machine - This is a cute dsp program to show the capabilities
of the dsp chip for sound processing. It does reverbs, and a DISTORTION!
Very cool little program.
Calapt - calendar/appointment utility
ProCalc - Calculator prog
Talking Clock - you figure it out!
2 GAMES especially designed to show off the Falcon!
Land Mines and Breakout!
The prices they gave were consistant with net postings...$799 for the 1
meg, and 1,299 for the 4 meg/65 meg version.
These items are direct from Sam Tramiel:
November - start shipping first units
December shipping in quantity (for x-mas I suppose...)
January - relief quantities for backorders will be shipped.
Then came the q/a section, and some interesting facts came out...
There are osciliscope programs using the dsp in the works...do fft's and
all on your waveforms in "near real time"
They played a Tina Turner video made in Australia of "You're the Best".
3 minute video took 100 meg of hard drive space which included video &
audio. They used a 14 meg machine, and said it would not yet work on a 4
meg machine, but they have a compression algorithm in the works that may
make it work...they also said the video was 24 frames per second.
A company called Sack in Germany has a functioning 386sx board ready for
production.
Sam Tramiel said that "NeXT developers are coming to us and asking for
developement systems because they expect that we will sell more falcons
in 1 month than NeXT sells in a year! ... We sure hope so!"
He also said that Amiga developers, unimpressed with the 4000 are also
coming to Atari for development kits.
He said the Jaguar would be out in the summer of 93, and would not
comment on it further because this was a "Falcon meeting"
They forgot the multitasking os disk...typical...
The roms will have different languages burned right in them to allow
Atari to ship computers to different countries with the same roms. The
disk will be for "minor updates, and language specific material"
whatever that means. The roms will be 4 meg worth!
The Falcon will actuall display ST monochrome mode on a standard SC1224
color monitor! In total, they said that the Falcon supports over 130
different screen modes and resolutions.
At the end, they played a complete sample of Boston's "Foreplay/Long
Time". Sampled at 50 khz, it took 96 meg of hard drive space.
They also mentioned that Atari was working on software modules to read
and write different floppy disk formats, including the mac GCR! Somebody
asked if Dave Small had spectre working yet, and Sam Tramiel responded
"Well...I saw him in our offices last week..." but did not know what he
had accomplished yet.
When asked why they chose the 16 mhz 68030 instead of a faster one, Sam
Tramiel said that with all of the separate processing centers (68030,
dsp, blitter, optional co-processor, etc) that they felt the machine to
be comprable to machines with faster "workhorse processors that have to
handle everything". He said much faster machines would be appearing
"very shortly".
Well, that's enough typing for me for one night...That's all I can
remember. Oh...they gave away a falcon as a door prize, and I didn't
win it...darn!
Enjoy,
-Steve <selick@csa.bu.edu>
Article #314 (376 is last):
From: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.general,freenet.sci.comp.atari.news,freenet.sci.comp.c64.forum
Subject: Motorola Press Releases #1
Reply-To: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
Posted-By: xx004 (aa399 - Len Stys)
Date: Sat Sep 26 12:36:35 1992
From: jww@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Jack W. Wine)
Subject: Motorola press release of Atari Falcon030
Message-ID: <1992Sep24.014619.16869@news.Hawaii.Edu>
Summary: Motorola chips power Falcon afterburners
Sender: root@news.Hawaii.Edu (News Service)
Nntp-Posting-Host: uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu
Organization: University of Hawaii at Manoa
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 01:46:19 GMT
Lines: 162
MOTOROLA'S 56001 PROVIDES AUDIO/VIDEO FEATURES FOR
ATARI'S FALCON030 PERSONAL INTEGRATED MEDIA COMPUTER
BOSTON, Mass., September 23, 1992 - Motorola Inc.'s Microprocessor
and Memory Technologies Group today announced that its 56001
digital signal processor (DSP) performs key audio/video functions
on the motherboard of the new Atari Falcon030(tm) personal-
integrated, media computer. The Falcon030 is a full-scale
computer that uses the 32 MHz 56001 to process and manipulate
compact-disc-quality digital audio and voice signals which,
combined with Atari's integrated software, makes the Falcon030 a
complete, personal integrated media computer.
"Motorola's 24-bit DSPs continue to be the choice for
manufacturers that want to embed compact-disc, digital audio
functions," said Bryant Wilder, Motorola's DSP operations manager.
"The 56001 gives Atari's Falcon030 an impressive feature set that
is showing the rest of the industry where personal computers are
heading."
DSPs are capable of performing functions such as compact disc
quality sound, voicemail, voice annotation and recognition, video
compression, facsimile transmission, high-speed modem, array
processing and high-speed numeric processing. Other major
computer manufacturers that use the DSP56000 family on their
motherboard include the NeXT Computer System and Silicon Graphics
IRIS Indigo(tm) RISC PC.
Atari's Falcon030 Personal Integrated Media Computer
----------------------------------------------------
Atari's Falcon030 is designed for personal-integrated media
functions including video, audio, animation, telecommunications
and graphics. The Atari Falcon030 uses the 56001 DSP to process
compact-disc quality audio and voice synthesis capabilities. The
56001 operates independent of the central processor, Motorola's
68030, and completes a variety of tasks without slowing the
system. Within the Atari Falcon030, Motorola's 56001 drives
digital audio functions including graphic equalization, channel
manipulation, reverberation and surround sound, all which provide
the user professional audio effects for tasks such as video sound
augmenting and recording capabilities.
"Atari's Falcon030, with the help of Motorola's 56001 DSP, is
bringing professional-level recording and audio manipulation
capabilities to the consumer," said Sam Tramiel, Atari's president
and CEO. "Motorola's 56001 provides a single chip solution for
digital audio and voice capabilities optimizing the Falcon030 as a
personal-integrated media computer."
Motorola's DSP56001
-------------------
Motorola's 24-bit, 32 MHz 56001 processes 16 million
instructions per second (MIPS) and performs 96 million operations
per second (MOPS). The 56001 recreates CD-quality sound because
its architecture is highly parallel and its 24-bit word width
generates sound up to 144 decibels of dynamic range. The 56001
differs from other DSPs in that it processes signals in 24-bit
data chunks providing throughput of more than 100 million
operations per second.
Motorola's 24-bit 56000 architecture is important since most
analog-to-digital converter chips, which convert analog signals
into digital bit streams, translate analog signals in the ranges
of 14 to 20 bits at a time. The extra bits in the 56000
architecture allow additional calculations to be performed on
these digital samples while maintaining the input signal accuracy.
Atari Corporation (AMEX:ATC) is a worldwide manufacturer and
marketer of palmtop through desktop computer systems. The company
sells its systems, peripherals and software through authorized
distributors, resellers and integrators.
# # #
MOTOROLA'S 68030 MICROPROCESSORS POWER ATARI'S FALCON030
PERSONAL INTEGRATED MEDIA COMPUTER
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 23, 1992 - Motorola's High Performance
Microprocessor Division today announced that its 68030 provides
the processing power for Atari Corporation's new Atari Falcon030,
the industry's first personal integrated media system. The Atari
Falcon030 is a full-scale computer based on the powerful 68030 and
is specifically designed for personal integrated media functions
including video, audio, animation, telecommunications and
graphics. Users of the Atari Falcon030 can create home videos
complete with text and music; can record lead vocals on a favorite
musical recording; can narrate and score a family photo album and
can execute many more exciting applications.
The Atari Falcon030 also incorporates Motorola's 56001 digital
signal processor (DSP) to process and manipulate compact-disc-
quality digital audio and voice signals which, combined with the
68030's processing power and Atari's integrated software, makes
the Atari Falcon030 a complete personal integrated media system.
This announcement is an example of how microprocessors are
entering the home through the burgeoning availability of
consumerized computing devices.
"With the introduction of the Atari Falcon030, Atari is raising
the standards of consumerized computing to a new level, providing
integration of text, music and images with unparalleled levels of
quality, performance and price," said Jim Reinhart, Motorola's
manager of M68000 marketing and applications. "The robust
processing capabilities of the 68030 make it an ideal
microprocessor for such a graphically-based product as the Atari
Falcon030."
"The Atari Falcon030, with the help of Motorola's 68030 and 56001
DSP, is bringing production-quality graphics, professional-level
recording and audio manipulation capabilities to the consumer,"
said Sam Tramiel, president and CEO of Atari. "The processing
power of Motorola's 68030 allows the Atari Falcon030 to be a
powerful full-scale computer, giving users access to a new world
of applications while remaining affordable."
The Motorola 68030 integrates advanced features into a full 32-bit
microprocessor design, optimized for low-cost, memory-based
applications. Its burst fill functionality provides an efficient
bus and memory interface, enabling the 68030 to substantially
increase overall system throughput. This capability is especially
well-suited for multimedia personal integrated media products,
such as the Atari Falcon030, that require large amounts of
information to be continuously transmitted from external memory to
the processor's dual internal caches. The efficient memory
interface results in cost and time savings, allowing the Atari
Falcon030 to achieve excellent price/performance ratios.
Available immediately, the Atari Falcon030 is priced under $1,000,
making it ideal for users who want a powerful, efficient and cost-
effective device to harness today's myriad technologies.
Atari Computer Corporation is a worldwide manufacturer and
marketer of palmtop through desktop computer systems. The
company, a division of Atari Corporation (AMEX:ATC), sells its
systems, peripherals and software through authorized distributors,
resellers and integrators.
# # #
Atari Falcon030 is a trademark of Atari Corporation
IRIS Indigo is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc.
EDITORIAL CONTACT:
Motorola, Inc.
Joan MacNeil
Cunningham Communication, Inc.
(408) 982-0400
Atari Corporation
Anne Ellingsen
Redgate Communications
(415) 777-3911
READER CONTACT:
Motorola DSP Marketing
(512) 891-2030
--
Article #315 (376 is last):
From: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.general,freenet.sci.comp.atari.news,freenet.sci.comp.c64.forum
Subject: Motorola Press Releases #2
Reply-To: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
Posted-By: xx004 (aa399 - Len Stys)
Date: Sat Sep 26 12:36:55 1992
From: jww@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Jack W. Wine)
Subject: Motorola press release of Atari Falcon 030
Message-ID: <1992Sep24.050702.13922@news.Hawaii.Edu>
Summary: Motorola chips boost Falcon afterburners
Sender: root@news.Hawaii.Edu (News Service)
Nntp-Posting-Host: uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu
Organization: University of Hawaii at Manoa
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 05:07:02 GMT
Lines: 161
MOTOROLA'S 56001 PROVIDES AUDIO/VIDEO FEATURES FOR
ATARI'S FALCON030 PERSONAL INTEGRATED MEDIA COMPUTER
BOSTON, Mass., September 23, 1992 - Motorola Inc.'s Microprocessor
and Memory Technologies Group today announced that its 56001
digital signal processor (DSP) performs key audio/video functions
on the motherboard of the new Atari Falcon030(tm) personal-
integrated, media computer. The Falcon030 is a full-scale
computer that uses the 32 MHz 56001 to process and manipulate
compact-disc-quality digital audio and voice signals which,
combined with Atari's integrated software, makes the Falcon030 a
complete, personal integrated media computer.
"Motorola's 24-bit DSPs continue to be the choice for
manufacturers that want to embed compact-disc, digital audio
functions," said Bryant Wilder, Motorola's DSP operations manager.
"The 56001 gives Atari's Falcon030 an impressive feature set that
is showing the rest of the industry where personal computers are
heading."
DSPs are capable of performing functions such as compact disc
quality sound, voicemail, voice annotation and recognition, video
compression, facsimile transmission, high-speed modem, array
processing and high-speed numeric processing. Other major
computer manufacturers that use the DSP56000 family on their
motherboard include the NeXT Computer System and Silicon Graphics
IRIS Indigo(tm) RISC PC.
Atari's Falcon030 Personal Integrated Media Computer
----------------------------------------------------
Atari's Falcon030 is designed for personal-integrated media
functions including video, audio, animation, telecommunications
and graphics. The Atari Falcon030 uses the 56001 DSP to process
compact-disc quality audio and voice synthesis capabilities. The
56001 operates independent of the central processor, Motorola's
68030, and completes a variety of tasks without slowing the
system. Within the Atari Falcon030, Motorola's 56001 drives
digital audio functions including graphic equalization, channel
manipulation, reverberation and surround sound, all which provide
the user professional audio effects for tasks such as video sound
augmenting and recording capabilities.
"Atari's Falcon030, with the help of Motorola's 56001 DSP, is
bringing professional-level recording and audio manipulation
capabilities to the consumer," said Sam Tramiel, Atari's president
and CEO. "Motorola's 56001 provides a single chip solution for
digital audio and voice capabilities optimizing the Falcon030 as a
personal-integrated media computer."
Motorola's DSP56001
-------------------
Motorola's 24-bit, 32 MHz 56001 processes 16 million
instructions per second (MIPS) and performs 96 million operations
per second (MOPS). The 56001 recreates CD-quality sound because
its architecture is highly parallel and its 24-bit word width
generates sound up to 144 decibels of dynamic range. The 56001
differs from other DSPs in that it processes signals in 24-bit
data chunks providing throughput of more than 100 million
operations per second.
Motorola's 24-bit 56000 architecture is important since most
analog-to-digital converter chips, which convert analog signals
into digital bit streams, translate analog signals in the ranges
of 14 to 20 bits at a time. The extra bits in the 56000
architecture allow additional calculations to be performed on
these digital samples while maintaining the input signal accuracy.
Atari Corporation (AMEX:ATC) is a worldwide manufacturer and
marketer of palmtop through desktop computer systems. The company
sells its systems, peripherals and software through authorized
distributors, resellers and integrators.
# # #
MOTOROLA'S 68030 MICROPROCESSORS POWER ATARI'S FALCON030
PERSONAL INTEGRATED MEDIA COMPUTER
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 23, 1992 - Motorola's High Performance
Microprocessor Division today announced that its 68030 provides
the processing power for Atari Corporation's new Atari Falcon030,
the industry's first personal integrated media system. The Atari
Falcon030 is a full-scale computer based on the powerful 68030 and
is specifically designed for personal integrated media functions
including video, audio, animation, telecommunications and
graphics. Users of the Atari Falcon030 can create home videos
complete with text and music; can record lead vocals on a favorite
musical recording; can narrate and score a family photo album and
can execute many more exciting applications.
The Atari Falcon030 also incorporates Motorola's 56001 digital
signal processor (DSP) to process and manipulate compact-disc-
quality digital audio and voice signals which, combined with the
68030's processing power and Atari's integrated software, makes
the Atari Falcon030 a complete personal integrated media system.
This announcement is an example of how microprocessors are
entering the home through the burgeoning availability of
consumerized computing devices.
"With the introduction of the Atari Falcon030, Atari is raising
the standards of consumerized computing to a new level, providing
integration of text, music and images with unparalleled levels of
quality, performance and price," said Jim Reinhart, Motorola's
manager of M68000 marketing and applications. "The robust
processing capabilities of the 68030 make it an ideal
microprocessor for such a graphically-based product as the Atari
Falcon030."
"The Atari Falcon030, with the help of Motorola's 68030 and 56001
DSP, is bringing production-quality graphics, professional-level
recording and audio manipulation capabilities to the consumer,"
said Sam Tramiel, president and CEO of Atari. "The processing
power of Motorola's 68030 allows the Atari Falcon030 to be a
powerful full-scale computer, giving users access to a new world
of applications while remaining affordable."
The Motorola 68030 integrates advanced features into a full 32-bit
microprocessor design, optimized for low-cost, memory-based
applications. Its burst fill functionality provides an efficient
bus and memory interface, enabling the 68030 to substantially
increase overall system throughput. This capability is especially
well-suited for multimedia personal integrated media products,
such as the Atari Falcon030, that require large amounts of
information to be continuously transmitted from external memory to
the processor's dual internal caches. The efficient memory
interface results in cost and time savings, allowing the Atari
Falcon030 to achieve excellent price/performance ratios.
Available immediately, the Atari Falcon030 is priced under $1,000,
making it ideal for users who want a powerful, efficient and cost-
effective device to harness today's myriad technologies.
Atari Computer Corporation is a worldwide manufacturer and
marketer of palmtop through desktop computer systems. The
company, a division of Atari Corporation (AMEX:ATC), sells its
systems, peripherals and software through authorized distributors,
resellers and integrators.
# # #
Atari Falcon030 is a trademark of Atari Corporation
IRIS Indigo is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc.
EDITORIAL CONTACT:
Motorola, Inc.
Joan MacNeil
Cunningham Communication, Inc.
(408) 982-0400
Atari Corporation
Anne Ellingsen
Redgate Communications
(415) 777-3911
READER CONTACT:
Motorola DSP Marketing
(512) 891-2030
--
Article #316 (376 is last):
From: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.general,freenet.sci.comp.atari.news,freenet.sci.comp.c64.forum
Subject: Falcon 030 Released #2--Boston
Posted-By: xx004 (aa399 - Len Stys)
Date: Sat Sep 26 13:04:22 1992
Date: 25 Sep 92 23:06:32 GMT
Sender: news@bu.edu
Organization: Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
Lines: 125
Originator: markjl@acs.bu.edu
Thursday, September 24, 1992.
CAMBRIDGE--The Boston Computer Society's Atari ST User Group followed
up to the previous day's American introduction of the Atari Falcon 030 computer
with a visit from Bob Brodie, Director of Communications, and Bill Rehbock,
Director of Applications Software, of Atari Corporation. They were in the
company of two Falcon 030's, much to the delight of the user group.
Basic specifications and configurations were covered as follows:
Configurations: Atari Falcon 030 - (1 meg RAM, no hard drive) = $799.
Falcon 4/65 (4 meg RAM, 65 meg hard drive) = $1299.
Also available: (14 meg RAM, (65 meg HD?)) = ???.
Processors: M68030 (16 MHz CPU), M56001 (32 MHz DSP), Blitter (16 MHz GPU),
and DMA.
DSP specs: M56001 (16 MIPS or 96 MOPS = Millions of operations per second).
26 pin __________[8-bit bus for instructions]
DSP Serial Port /
---------------=>[Motorola 56K DSP Chip]----------=>(SSI out)
(SSI in) \
\_[RAM] 32kWords, 25 nanoseconds.
2
More about the DSP port: a Sony/Phillips I S port (sound DMA)
CODAC coder (digital to analog (DAC) and vice-versa). One mega-
byte per second IN and OUT simultaneously, this allows for expan-
sion of stereo inputs for digital sampling or additonal MIDI
ports, etc.
Video: True 16-bit color = 65,000 colors, VGA graphics.
Video to older ST monitors (eg: SC1224) with adapter inteface (coming),
Output: to newer ST and TT monitors, to NTSC televisions, and
to VGA monitors.
Upgrades: Dealers will be able to upgrade a 1 Mbyte Falcon 030 to 4 or 14
MBytes with a board from Atari (coming).
The 2.5" IDE hard drive can be replaced easily (for repair/upgrade).
Compatible: Falcon 030 is more compatible with Atari ST software than the
Atari TT because it has a Blitter. All 14 Mbytes of RAM are unified
memory to the video and cpu via MAB bus: thus no TT/ST RAM segments.
Bus specs: (as best as I can recall!)
COMBEL / GLUE / Blitter (chips for memory functions) - 32 bits wide.
VEL (Video chip) via MAB bus - 32/16 bits wide. (All memory can
be thought of as a huge video buffer or memory can be accessed
as video and instructions at the same time, I believe.)
DMA (handles SCSI II ports, Audio, etc.) chip bus - 16 bits wide.
M68030 CPU - 16 bits.
TT Has TT RAM burst mode, can execute programs twice as fast due to
advantages: its 32MHz M68030. Larger chassis accomidates for expandible VME
cards, etc. 3.5" Hard Drive can be easily replaced/upgraded, it
has better potential capacity the the Falcon 030 2.5" HD.
Falcon Finally has a fan in there! Cheaper than TT. Has STE enhanced
advantages: 15-pin joystick ports (accepts lightpens) has two pins for analog
signals? (Mistakenly left off of the Mega-STEs and TTs.)
Localtalk: LAN is 100% hardware compatible with AppleTalk LAN (but s/w protocol
has to follow to use it!).
HD Yes, they are unlimited on the Falcon. New Atari HDX tools are
Partitions: coming for the Falcon.
Genlocking: 3rd party GENlock devices exist (Atari used the JRI device). In
order to do desktop video overlaying, here's the hardware hack:
---=> RGB ]
Atari--[OUT]---=> Composite ]----------=>[Genlock] [Video ]
Video ---=> Overlay bit ] [ Box ]<=---Video-------[Source or]
Signal--[IN]<=--- Vertical Sync ]<=----[ ]<=---Dot Clock---[Camcorder]
<=--- External Dot Clock] /
[to Monitor]
The Genlock Box contains an Analog Multiplexer and Raster Scale Chips. The
Atari just "paints" an area in "overlay bit" color, which the Genlock box
recognizes and uses the external dot clock to sync the video signal to that
overlay area via the multiplexer which can set each pixel (raster) on the screen.
Thus, the Genlock just patches in the video signal onto the Atari signal and
then outputs it to the monitor. Some more work (and chips) are needed, so the
image can be scaled and moved around, requiring some more I/O from the Atari to
the Genlock box for true scalable, movable pictures in a GEM window.
On the way stuff:
SLM804 and Third party companies are already working on DMA to SCSI link to use
SLM605: the Atari Laser Printers, so Atari has left them to do it. German
3rd party company is working on adding buffer RAM into SLM804 inter-
face for extra performance.
Atari UNIX: is completed, but 030 performance was slow. When it comes on the
030 it will be text-based only. They are waiting for 040 to have
a full blown windowed Atari UNIX.
FSM-GDOS: It is really coming!! (November, hopefully.) Atari worked with QMS
originally, but that didn't turn out well. So, Atari approached
Bitstream. The new Bitstream Speedo scaler is faster than QMS's
scaler, will work with Post Script Type I and Bitstream fonts.
Bitstream fonts are plentiful (800+) and available (like Egghead
S/W) in IBM-PC 3.5" floppy format, which can be read by any Atari
floppy drive. Bitstream is updating their font packaging to say
Atari compatible.
SUTRA: (Working title only!) An Atari multipurpose application, much like
Lotus Works: it has a database, wordprocessor, spreadsheet, etc.
Spectre: Dave Small has his Falcon 030, he's tinkering!
Frame Matrix Frame (from a third party in Germany) has achieved eight
Grabbing: frames per second through the cartridge port, a nice hack. This
area will be refined and improved now that the Falcon exists.
Touchscreen:Already exists on the ST, should be further developed on Falcon.
[Aok, that's a summary of everything that happened. Forgive me for any errors,
especially the misspelling of Bill Rehbock on the previous BCS General Meeting
report where Atari debutted the Falcon 030 to the public -- I didn't run the
--
\\ This is a copy of the .signature virus, pass it on.
//If you want something interesting to read, finger me.
\\ Internet: markjl@acs.bu.edu.us (Boston University)
//Compu$erve: 72545,1236
--
Article #317 (376 is last):
From: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.general,freenet.sci.comp.atari.news,freenet.sci.comp.c64.forum
Subject: Falcon 030 Released #3--Boston
Reply-To: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
Posted-By: xx004 (aa399 - Len Stys)
Date: Sat Sep 26 13:04:39 1992
Lines: 91
Steven Selick did an excellent job of reporting on the introduction of the
Falcon 030 at the recent meeting of the Boston Computer Society. I was also
there, and have a few additional comments.
- there were about 125 in attendance in the hall
- there was one Falcon in the lobby demoing a MIDI application. The
fellow using it said he was from Dr. T, and just got the machine
two days ago. It had 4 meg.
- there were 3 Falcons near the front stage. All looked like production
machines.
- the term "personal integrated media" was mentioned several times, and
will probably be used many times in the future by Atari
- speedwise, the Falcon is equivalent to a 25-30Mhz 386 machine
- a 19.2K bps modem is now being implemented for the Falcon
- with a box, the Falcon will be able to do CD photo applications
(nothing on who will make the box or what will be in it)
- one of the demos shown on the projection screen was a 20 channel
equalizer. Bill Rehbock was adjusting the channels in real time so
the adjustment effect could be heard.
- the two games to come bundled with the Falcon, Land Mines and Breakout,
will utilize true color mode
- voice mail (from a NeXT programmer) and video phone applications
"are coming"
- James Grunke mentioned that after spending $400 on a monitor and $800
for an adapter, one could use all 8 stereo channels at once, making
the cost about $300 per channel. (assumes a $1300 Falcon)
- why only 16 bits for true color? They felt 16 bits was sufficient and
challenged anyone to see the difference between it and 24 bits
in real world images
- Atari will "definitely" have a US 800 number for user help (didn't
say when though)
- a little box to interface the DSP to the phone line is being
developed, and should be available by the first quarter of 93
- in many respects the Falcon is more powerful than the Video Toaster,
containing 98% of its functionality. The cost of the Falcon plus
any associated software/hardware will be less in cost than the
Video Toaster itself.
- a 1 Meg Falcon is a viable system, since the operating system takes
only a small amount of RAM (from Bill Rehbock) (he didn't say how
much, but I believe he did use the word "miniscule".
- 386DX and 386SX boards are now being worked on in Germany (I think
he said 486 also)
- the Spectre board will fit within the Falcon, for those who are
worried about the lack of an external drive
- the Falcon docs, with DSP info, are available to anyone for $80 -
just send the check to Atari
- the Motorola DSP assembler and linker is being shipped to Falcon
developers
- video recording will be possible with external hardware (they said it
would have taken too much extra hardware to include direct video
input on the Falcon)
- the audience was generally passive during the presentation, but the
Tina Turner video was so impressive that it got a round of applause
(no, you can't get it - its heavily copyrighted we were told)
- Bill Rehbock, one of Atari's Falcon technical experts, mentioned to
me that he has a Compuserve account and generally manages to answer
his mail every nite
At the end of the formal presentation, everyone gathered near the front
stage to see the 3 Falcons doing a slide show in true color. One monitor,
an Atari 1435, looked especially good. One slide of a baby surrounded by
stuffed animals looked so good I was tempted to reach out and touch the
fuzz!
In summary, yes I was impressed, and I plan to buy one when they are
generally available (a developer friend of mine already has his order
in).
And no, I didn't win the Falcon door prize either (sigh...)
--
Article #318 (376 is last):
From: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.general,freenet.sci.comp.atari.news,freenet.sci.comp.c64.forum
Subject: Falcon 030 Released #4--Boston
Reply-To: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
Posted-By: xx004 (aa399 - Len Stys)
Date: Sat Sep 26 13:05:01 1992
Organization: Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
Lines: 270
Originator: markjl@acs.bu.edu
Wednesday, September 23rd, 1992.
BOSTON--Atari Corporation debutted its Falcon 030 to the American
public at the Boston Computer Society's general meeting in the New England
Hall. Over two-hundred members filed into the hall, where a large, fifteen
foot videoscreen projected Falcon 030 GENLocked video directly, audio was
directly output to the hall's amplified system. Three working Falcon's sat
atop tables in front of the stage.
After initial opening and welcoming procedings with an award to
visually impaired computing leaders, Mike Newhall, Director of the BCS Atari
ST Users Group, introduced the Atari Corporation presentation. Sam Tramiel,
President and CEO of Atari, began the presentation of the Falcon 030 by stating
Atari's new goal of Personal Integrated Media for consumbers. He stated that
Atari had gone through transitions and consolidation, and now was poised for
growth.
He diagrammed a map of the market Atari is interested in, which looked
like this:
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
|Personal Computers | Traditional Entertainment/Video Games|
| Apple|Nintendo,Sega |
|Business------------------+-------------------------------------Home|
| Microsoft,IBM|Phillips,Cable TV,Sony |
|Multimedia | Interactive TV |
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
In the corners were market categories, each box had some companies that
represented the market for examples (I've put in some I remember). Tramiel
noted that a lot of the market categories were overlapping, and companies
have begun to enter into new markets. Tramiel outlines a lot of statistics
showing market penetration of television, CD players, personal computers, etc.
into American households. Now the industry can provide computers that can
handle current consumer audio and video, Atari wants to deliver a full
functioned computer for a reasonable price. Atari wants to tap the
market with the Falcon series of computers, which exceed stereo CD audio
quality capabilities, which come fully equiped (just open the box and plug
it in), have an existing software base (the entire Atari ST/TT series library),
and which are priced well (the Falcon 030 costs the same amount of money as
all the video/audio augmented hardware add ons required on personal computer
other platforms alone).
Richard Miller, Vice President of Research and Development was the
next to speak. [I noted his British accent and asked him if he was from Atari
UK when I spoke to him after the presentation. He came from Perihelion, which
was involved in the Atari Transputer Workstation OS, and then did a brief
stint at Atari UK. By the way, he said the ATW is a dead project.] Mr. Miller
led the development of the Falcon 030 system architechture, and he envisioned
a computer that his mother could utilize. She didn't want a PC, or a Mac, she
wanted a computer that could make tea, answer the telephone, turn on the lights,
and mail her letters. Miller then stated that customers want the most
sophisticated technology, highest quality, and lowest price. "You can never
underestimate the consumer," Miller said, so the computer should be just as
good as the consumer's CD player or television at audio and video, respectively.
With a CD player as low as $100, a color television as low as $200, and a FAX
machine as low as $200, etc., consumers want the same performance and combined
price for a computer that can do all of these things.
The Falcon 030 achieves this for consumers with its power at a low
price. The Falcon's power comes from its distributed processor architecture:
- CPU: Motorola 68030 (32 MHz) central processor unit
- GPU: Blitter graphics co-processor (16 MHz): 64 million pixel per second
- DMA: DMA engine: fast memory access to/from SCSI, audio, peripherals, etc.
- DSP: Motorola 56001 (32 MHz/16 MIPS) Digital Signal Processor unit
Optionally available is the:
- FPU: Motorola 68881/2 Floating Point mathematic co-processor unit
- 3rd party: 286/386SX CPU for IBM PC emulation
Atarians are used to the CPU/GPU/DMA from the ST/TT series computers. The
new Blitter has some new functions and runs at twice the speed of the STE
Blitter. Chip sockets for the optional processors are on the Falcon 030,
I believe. SACK (of Germany) is working on the 286/386SX emulation now.
The digital signal processor (DSP) performs functions entirely in the
digital domain, providing an answer to analog signal processing's problems.
Immediate applications of DSP are audio processing: sixteen band graphic
equalization, echo, reverb, chorus, flange, compression, distortion, surround
sound, pitch shifting, synthesis of sound/music, speech generation and speech
recognition. [Most exist already on the Falcon, Atari is working hard on the
speech recognition, according to Tramiel.] DSP also loans itself to these
areas: array processing, optical character recognition, video compression and
decompression, etc. Atari will utilize the DSP's high performace mode to
create a virtual 19.2Kbaud modem and a virtual 9600 baud full-duplex FAX.
Future Atari Falcon applications include an all digital telephone answering
machine and voice-mail for the home. [These too, are being worked upon by
Atari, developers, and other 3rd parties.]
The video section of the Falcon 030 is capable of:
VESA video output at 72Hz, 640 by 480 pixels, Genlock, digital Chromakey,
video overlay, PAL and NTSC broadcast signals, 1/2/4/8-bit graphics, and
overscan. [Sorry, he went quickly there, and I'm not 100% sure of all of the
definitions of some of the features.] These video capabilities loan themselves
to these applications: television picture in picture, video effects, CD Photos
(just add a CD ROM player).
The audio section of the Falcon 030 is capable of:
16-bit digital audio at 50kHz, eight-track digital recording and playback,
stereo 16-bit CODEC, an input for an external microphone, and a headphone
output jack.
The Falcon 030 also has the following output ports: stereo audio out,
SCSI II port, DMA port, DSP port, MIDI IN/OUT ports, LocalTalk LAN port, RS-
232-C port, and two enhanced joystick ports (for lightguns, etc.). The Falcon
030 contains MultTOS operating system in a four meg ROM and is available with
1, 4, or 14 megabytes of RAM.
Bill Reincock, Director of Application Software, showed the audience
bundled software with every Falcon 030. He stated that the Falcon 030 has been
in developers hands since May 1992. Some of the things that the Falcon 030
can do is address the needs of the consumer who wants to create video and audio,
as evidence he cited "America's Funniest Home Videos" and the popularity of the
camcorder. The Falcon 030 loans itself to home video titling, video presenta-
tions for business or education, etc.
The first piece of software demonstrated was Falcon D2D, a basic audio
sampler and waveform editor which can sample directly to the hard drive for
recording. Sample waveforms may be loaded and graphically edited, spliced, etc.
Then waveforms may be arranged into a small cue list sequencer for flexible
playback.
The second piece of software was the Audio Fun Machine, basically a
digital audio effects processor. There were two, full color equalizers (one
for left and right input each) which were adjustible filters manipulated with
the mouse. Using the external microphone input, you can apply the 10 band
EQ filters in realtime as well as add the following effects: "surround sound"
ambience, concert hall reverberation, phase shifting, distortion, etc. You
can also edit the effects waveforms.
The third piece of software demonstrated was the System Audio Manager,
where one can assign sounds/samples to system events, each function key, and
any key on the keyboard. The sounds play without any system slowdown, you can
use Atari samples from the D2D program or import Microsoft Windows *.WAV files
and Mac sounds.
Additional bundled software mentioned: CALAPT - a calendar and appoint
ment scheduler program [a la Portfolio, I imagine], ProCalc - a full-featured
scientific calculator, Talking Clock - displays time and announces the time at
user set intervals, and two games: Landmines and Breakout.
The Falcon 030 can output to the VCR directly the user's own 3-D
animations (via Lexicor software, etc.), titles, etc. to create home videos.
"The Falcon 030 is the only 16-bit true color computer in its class," said
Reincock. With a low cost telephone line interface (on the way, 1st quarter
1993, by a Scottish company: it'll be the size of a cigarette box and it will
have international telephone ports on it, according to Tramiel) this can lead
to FAXing and low-cost videophones through the Falcon 030.
The Falcon 030 uses the GEM desktop, based on Digital Research's
DRI GEM, for its graphical user interface. The icons are now animated and
color, the desktop is customizable. [From what I saw, animated means this:
when you select an icon, it does not reverse itself to show it is highlighted,
it changes to a new icon. Eg: the trashcan opens, the file folder has a file
pop up, the disk opens its shutter, etc.] With the OS in ROM, there is no
possibility for virus corruption of the OS or wait for the entire OS to boot
off of the hard drive.
MultiTOS is preemptive multitasking with adaptive prioritization, so
as to make the current user process appear to have no slow down. It is compat-
ible with existing software [as long as they didn't use illegal OS tricks!],
it allows for messages and pipes: this yeilds interprocess communication. It
uses a hierarchical file system with loadable drivers for compatiblility with
UNIX/Mac devices, the forthcoming Atari CR-ROM player, etc. MultiTOS will have
other disk extensions for future expansion.
James Grunke, Director of International Music Marketing, was the last
to speak at the presentation. He outlined this period as historic for music
and Atari:
1985 - Atari Corporation was the first to realize the potential of MIDI and
placed MIDI IN/OUT ports on their ST series of computers.
1986 - Atari was the computer company to market directly to musicians, it
places an advertisment in Keyboard magazine.
1987 - Atari was the first computer company to attend the NAMM convention.
(NAMM = National Association of Music Merchants, I belive.)
Atari computers were also the first to directly synchronize to SMPTE time code.
Today, Atari still holds fifteen percent share of the music market. The OS has
rock solid timing, essential for music and MIDI sequencing. With features like
stereo CD audio, the DSP Motorola 56001 chip, the SCSI II port for access to
samplers/hard drives, and true color video, the Falcon 030 has standards that
musicians want. The Atari ST/TT series of computers also has a mature music
software base.
Where a Max IIci with 5 Mbyte RAM (street pricing) plus software ($1000)
costs $2500 per stereo track, the Falcon 030 4/65 with 4 Mbyte RAM and 65 Mbyte
hard drive at full list price ($1299) costs $849 per stereo track. With an
additional hardware expansion to bring system capabilities up to eight stereo
tracks, which includes XLR inputs plus DAC and clock chips, the Atari system
comes to $1699 + $800 HW expansion: it costs $312 per stereo track.
The demonstration concluded with a summary of specifications, pricing,
and availability: dealers will recieve a demonstration Falcon in November, but
the real production rollout of Falcon 030's will be in January, 1993. Atari
will begin a regional rollout, when that is completed national advertising
shall follow. Sam Tramiel said that back in 1987, Atari sold 10,000 units a
month and ran into the Japan/US dynamic RAM troubles. Atari never came back
in the US market, it developed and expanded the European market since then,
but now Atari wants to come back into the US market with the Falcon 030.
A question and answer session followed: the LAN port is Localtalk,
which is hardware identical to AppleTalk, it is not ETHERNET, but that will
proabably be addressed by 3rd party developers. DVI boards are currently
being worked on by 3rd party developers, hopefully under $500.00. ASEUB
digital interfaces can be done: a chip for digital bandwidth offload may be
necessary in an external interface. Video overlay is accomplished with a
3rd party GENlock device, it can be controlled down to the pixel. The DSP
port will be able to access external analog to digital chips, the port can
support one megabyte per second data rates.
Atari readied a demonstration of the Falcon 030's video capabilities.
Approximately 2-3 minutes of a music video had been sampled into the Atari
and saved to the hard drive previously. The Falcon 030 was able to pull off
the 92 megabytes of video data off of the hard drive and display the video
as 24 frames per second in full screen, true-color mode with CD stereo audio
IN REAL TIME. This elicited quite an applause from the audience. There was
no compression involved, performance was based solely on the Blitter and 030
processors.
When asked about the reason for Atari's choice of 16-bit true color
as opposed to 24-bit color, the response was that the eye can see about one
million colors, and 24-bit allows 16 million colors: the 16-bit color was a
good compromise for the real world and brought Falcon expense down without
cost to performance. MS-DOS 3.5" floppy file compatibility was confirmed.
When asked about Falcon developers, Atari reported that there had been an
overwhelming response from old ST developers who were coming back to Atari,
interestingly, a lot of NeXT developers are coming over as well. Some Amiga
developers claimed they'd rather develop on the Falcon 030 than the A4000
platform. Atari said they'd like to get into universities, but would have
to come in through the "back door" with Desktop Video and Desktop Radio and
music applications.
Inexpensive third party frame grabber and scanners are coming. The
Falcon is Logitech Fotoman compatible. Atari envisions the Falcon to have 98%
of the Video Toaster capabilities soon, and for significantly less than the
Video Toaster alone. You will be able to use multisync VGA monitors on the
Falcon, but make sure that they can "go down" to NTSC broadcast specifications
for true-color modes. MultiTOS will be partially disk based for extensions,
the OS is a 4 Mbyte ROM containing all of the languages/keyboard layouts to
further enhance compatiblitity throughout the world for developers.
The 1040ST style case was used for production expediency, it's a darker
grey/light brown color with dark grey keys. But Sam Tramiel said this was
the "beginning of exciting, different machines... more birds" in the Falcon
series. [New Atari computers will be named after birds, videogame consoles
after cats. Eg: Lynx, Jaguar (which probably will be based on the Falcon and
have all of its resolution modes, plus some peripheral compatibility, ie:
joysticks, lightpens, Atari CD-ROM, etc).] Atari was asked about customer
support and service for the hardware: Atari is working to re-establish old
dealers and will have a 1-800 toll free number.
When pressed about Falcon 040s, the audience was told "before you
see 486's emulated on the Falcon 030." The Q&A session ended here, and Atari
gave away a door prize: a Falcon 030!
I followed up to Sam Tramiel and asked him a few things, Atari is
talking to Kodak about Photo CD development, Phillips wants development of
an Atari Falcon of a CD-I card (but no mention was made of who would do these
things). Atari is working on an inexpensive CD-ROM player, connected via the
DMA or DSP port as opposed to SCSI II.
[This concludes my report, but I have another report based on the BCS Atari
ST user group's visit by Bob Brodie and Bill Rehbock with two Falcons the
next day. It's coming! I tried to keep this article in a formal style, but
I dropped out of it towards the end. I hope you appreciate my efforts, I'm
sure 99% of the information is correct, as I heard it, and have pointed out
places where I wasn't sure of things, so this should be a legitimate guide
for you learn about the Falcon.]
--
\\ This is a copy of the .signature virus, pass it on.
//If you want something interesting to read, finger me.
\\ Internet: markjl@acs.bu.edu.us (Boston University)
//Compu$erve: 72545,1236
--
Article #319 (376 is last):
From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
>Newsgroups: freenet.sci.comp.atari.news
Subject: Digi-Studio Information
Reply-To: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Posted-By: xx004 (aa700 - Michael Current)
Date: Wed Sep 30 02:01:08 1992
Digi-Studio Information
-----------------------
Digi-Studio is a new piece of software for the Atari XL/XE series.
It allows you to play music using real sounds which have been digitized.
Digi-Studio comes with a keyboard player and tune player. The keyboard
player lets you use your computer keyboard like a piano keyboard to play tunes,
but using real sounds, rather than computer-generated noises as is usually the
case with this type of program. You can have 3 sounds in memory and can quickly
change between them while playing tunes.The keyboard player has responsive keys
so that the sound will only play for as long as you hold the key down.Just like
a synthesizer!! The Digi-Studio disk contains many sounds for use with the
keyboard player, ranging from church bells, to pig grunts, to a baby crying, to
screams, and lots of synthesizer sounds. In fact around 25 sounds in all. Why
buy a synthesizer when your Atari can do the same?!
The tune player allows you to play pre-programmed tunes using any of the
available sounds on the disk. Five tunes have been included on the disk for you
to play.
Digi-Studio comes on a DS/SD disk, and includes a printed manual. It is
aimed at everyone, whether musically inclined or not! You may just want to use
it for fun, or compose a tune with it! The comprehensive user manual makes it a
joy to use!
Digi-Studio will only work on XL/XE computers with 64K RAM. No extra
hardware is required. The sound samples just play through your TV speaker!
Package 1.5 for Digi-Studio is now also available offering more features
for Digi-Studio and loads more samples and tunes. This extra pack is available
with package 1 only. Check the next section for details of this new package.
Digi-Studio Package 1.5
Digi-Studio Package 1.5 is a new set of programs which form part of the
Digi-Studio suite of programs and utilities. It is NOT an upgrade to
package 1. It is intended to be used in conjunction with package 1.
Package 1.5 contains two new programs for Digi-Studio: The Sample
Editor and the Tune Compiler. Also included are 26 new samples and 18
new tunes for use with Digi-Studio.
The Sample Editor allows you to edit existing Digi-Studio samples, and
also allows you to create your own by using a joystick. The Sample
Editor has facilities for reversing samples (playing them backwards),
copying pages of sample to other pages of sample, and also contains
facilities to edit samples very accurately using a joystick. This edit
facility also allows you to create your own samples. By using all the
supplied facilities, you can create some very weird sounds! You can
then save your samples to disk and use them in the Keyboard and Tune
Players in package 1.
The Tune Compiler creates stand-alone Basic program modules for
including Digi-Studio tunes in your own Basic programs. The resulting
modules are output in LIST format for merging into your own Atari Basic
or Turbo-Basic programs. The modules are self-contained and do not
require any Digi-Studio program to play. Just imagine your game
starting with a chorus of God Save the Queen in pig grunts, church
bells, electric guitar, ..., or your own sounds created using the
Sample Editor!
Also included on the disk are 26 new samples, including pan pipes,
various guitars, dog woof, organs, synth sounds, and lots of effects!
Also, 18 new tunes are supplied for playing with the Tune Player, or
for compiling using the Tune Compiler. These include: Yesterday, Hey
Jude, View to a Kill, God Save the Queen, Happy Birthday, This Old Man,
and many classics.
The manual is in A5 booklet format, and has been typeset using LaTeX,
and printed using an Agfa Laser printer. The clear instructions make
the software a joy to use!
THIS IS THE NEW DEAL: BUY PACKAGES 1 AND 1.5 NOW FOR US$25, AND GET
A *FREE* COPY OF PACKAGE 2 (TUNE CREATION SYSTEM) WHEN IT IS READY.
YOU MAY NOW PAY IN CASH. JUST COMPLETE THE FORM BELOW, AND SEND IT
WITH $25 TO THE ADDRESS SHOWN. PLEASE INSURE YOUR LETTER IF YOU ARE
USING CASH (THIS COSTS $3 TO DO - ASK AT YOUR POST OFFICE). ORDERS
CAN ALSO BE PAID FOR IN OTHER CURRENCIES. PLEASE CONTACT ME BY EMAIL
FIRST FOR A QUOTE.
-----CUT-----
Please send me:
PACKAGES 1 AND 1.5 NOW, AND 2 WHEN IT'S READY
I ENCLOSE US$25 IN CASH
NAME:______________________________
ADDRESS:________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
STATE/ZIP CODE:______________
Dean Garraghty, 23 Ystwyth Close, Penparcau, ABERYSTWYTH, SY23 3RU, WALES,UK.
--
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