Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!pdbeam From: pdbeam@watserv1.waterloo.edu (T.C.) Subject: Atari TT 030 Launched! Message-ID: <1990Jun5.143231.4977@watserv1.waterloo.edu> Keywords: Atari TT Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Tue, 5 Jun 90 14:32:31 GMT Lines: 91 ATARI OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES THE TT 030 ------------------------------------ THIS IS NOT AN ATARI PRESS RELEASE--I HAVE NO CONNECTION TO ATARI. THE OPINIONS BELOW ARE MY OWN AND NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF U OF W. I went to the official North American launch of the Atari TT 030 last night in Toronto. The TT 030 will be available in limited quantities in Canada in late July/early August and fully available in September. The TT will be officially launched in the US at Comdex in November. I guess Atari is using Canada as a test market to work the bugs out of the system before they make their big push south of the border. The expected price of the TT 030 (2Mbytes, 40M hard disc) is under $4000 (CDN). This puts it well under the Amiga 3000 in terms of price (the A3000 is under $4000 US). The presentation I was at was for Ontario educators. Earlier in the day there were presentations to the press, developers, and user's groups. Some of these earlier meetings were attended by Sam Tramiel and other Atari US bigwigs. The educator meeting was attended by the Atari Canada general manager and some sales managers. TT Workstation Specifications (from an Atari Canada brochure) ----------------------------- 68030 CPU running at 16MHz (optional MC 68881/MC68882) 2Mbytes RAM expandable to 8Mbytes (26Mbytes using 4Mbit DRAMs) Built in 1.44Mbyte 3.5" floppy 40Mbyte (28ms) Hard Disc RGB and Monochrome Monitor Support (I saw it running a Multisync) 4096 Colour pallette, 320x200 to 320x480 with 256 colours 640x480 with 16 colours 640x400 with 2 colours (ST Hi-res) 1280x960 monochrome Detatchable keyboard with joystick and mouse ports SCSI and ACSI DMA ports 2 RS-232 ports (expandable to 4) Parallel and MIDI ports AppleTalk Interface 1 internal A24/D16 VME card slot 8-bit PCM Stereo sound RT Clock The TT 030 comes with TOS 2.0 which will be compatible with most existing ST software. ST software runs about 1/3 faster on the TT 030. Software compiled specifically for the 68030 (as opposed to ST software compiled for the 68000) runs MUCH faster at 16MHz with 32-bit through-put (sorry, no benchmarks, yet). So far both Borland and Mark Williams will be producing 68030 C compilers for the TT. Apparently GNU C from the network will also compile better code on the TT than on the ST. Existing ST software can be re-compiled to run at full-speed on the TT. While ST software will run just fine on the TT, it will have to be re-compiled to take advantage of the TT extra capabilities (Math co-processor and enhanced video). UNIX V will be available for TT in the fall. Contrary to the report in STart, the TT 030 WILL run Unix. In the near future ISD will be releasing TT versions of DynaCADD and Calamus. At the presentation we were shown the TT 030 running ST DynaCADD and the system was noticably faster. When a TT does ST med-res, the screen has approx. 2cm borders on either side and the picture runs off the bottom of the screen. The aspect ratio is quite elongated top-to-bottom. Later this year the tower TT (the TT/X?) will be released. Among other things, the tower TT will have four VME slots. Also to be released are an Ethernet card, a GENlock card, and a software IBM PC emulator. The Atari GM said that Spectre GCR is being ported to the TT now. Presently the TT 030 has the same GENlock capability as an STE. Atari made no mention of their marketing intentions to us, but then again we were educators and they probably didn't think we'd be interested. I brought the issue up with an Atari official and he told me they were addressing the problem. Also announced was the fact that Atari is now GEMS authorised to sell their PC-Compatible computers to the Ontatio Ministry of Education schools. This is a very positive step. Atari says they are considering submitting the TT to the Ministry for similar approval. I think Atari still have a lot of promises to keep (UNIX, hardware cards, software), but if they do then I think the TT will be a strong machine with good prospects in the future. It certainly gives the Mac II and A3000 (not to mention Sun) a run for their money in terms of providing a platform for UNIX. Travis Capener c/o pdbeam@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca --