Mal7921 wrote:There is as all page over at the Atari Museum on the SST, though does not say much more about the machine than basic specs. Would have been interesting to see, though likelihood is that it was lost or destroyed at some point.
http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/16bits/est.html
From the specs I'd wager it is an early take on what would become the TT. The TT was originally going to have a 68020 (some articles say 68010) and did see a System V implementation, and the improved shifter features in the final system as well.
nativ wrote:Lets face it, Atari spread themselves too thinly and made some stupid decisions, for example developing a piece of hardware up to the point of production then pulling it at the last minute (Panther). All that money wasted, had it been released it may well have at least paid for itself if not allowed for cashflow within the company. Instead they relaunched the STfm at £99 in the UK into a retail channel clogged with unsold STe's claiming they were going after the console buyers.
I think in terms of the range of markets they were involved in they were on the right track - but had no idea of how they got into them or what to do in order to build on that pot-luck.The amount of hardware designs was, I agree, completely OTT when one considers how few of them ever saw the light of day or cannibalised one another both in terms of sales and for resources, and I agree merging it with the STe would have been a good idea to be produce an integrated family of 16-bit consoles and computers, as happened way too late with the XE and XEGS!
The 8-bit line up around 1989 was a real mess. The 2600jr was cannibalising the 7800 and should have been axed, but it still left the messy problem of two 8-bit platforms (XE/XEGS vs. 7800) which were incompatible, which put a lot of software publishers in an awkard position. Given the technical superiority of the XE/XEGS, pulling the 7800 and actually promoting the XE and XEGS as an integrated and compatible complete 8-bit family would have been one approach, and producing a Sega Master System Converter style plug-in adapter to allow the XE/XEGS to play 2600 carts, leaving the 8-bit lineup like this:
XEGS - 8-bit game console with all the classics.
65XE - Low cost educational computer, bundle it with educational and programming software.
130XE - Low cost SOHO / Student system (competting against the Amstrad PCW8xxx). Bundle it with productivity software and disk drive, and as a mega-bundle with an XMM801 printer and monitor.
Once the Panther/STe was out, the STfm and Megas should have been discontinued to stop them cannibalising the STe/Panther. The Mega STe (Panther/STe with internal SCSI and VME) should have had a much lower price point than it did to actually make it truly competitive.
The same thing should have happened with the Falcon and Jaguar (JaguFalc?!). One thing I would have liked to seen Atari do is really plug into the audio market niche it had created, and that C-LAB sort of realised. A "toughbook" style JaguFalc for fieldwork audio/multimedia with proper audio connectors including dual XLR ports and built in video-capture hardware using the DSP. It could had made a good STacy replacement - especially if Atari actually you know... did something with the AppleTalk LAN port
We talked for a bit, not really much about the card.