Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!metaphor!neuromancer!djh From: djh@neuromancer.metaphor.com (Dallas J. Hodgson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Atari TT specs Message-ID: <1337@metaphor.Metaphor.COM> Date: 30 Jul 90 18:46:12 GMT References: <875@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au> <876@ucsvc.ucs.unimelb.edu.au> Sender: news@metaphor.Metaphor.COM Reply-To: djh@neuromancer.metaphor.com (Dallas J. Hodgson) Organization: Metaphor Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA Lines: 355 The following is an in-depth article about the tt as posted on Comp.sys.atari.st : -------------------------------- tear here ----------------------------------- Excerpt from Z*NET =============================== FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE "TT" IN CANADA =============================== (C) 1990 by Darek Mihocka, June 4, 1990. Well, today was the day Atari Canada made it's big debut of the TT at a downtown Toronto hotel. Free food too. You'll probably be hearing a lot about it in the next few days (the TT, not the food) and it'll be interesting to see how soon the promises start getting broken. As expected, the machine is not available yet, and is supposed to ship later this year. As of today, TT's are available to developers in Canada, and dealers can expect a few for demo purposes by the end of August, with real shipments starting in fourth quarter. The press release states "The Atari TT is scheduled for Canada-wide release in fall of 1990". The invitation talked about a "North American" debut, so I don't know what that means for the U.S. market. Probably 1993. The retail price is $3995.00 Canadian, (that's about $3395.00 U.S). That includes 2Meg of RAM and a 40 meg hard drive. Add from $200 to $1000 for a monitor, depending on which one you get. The floppy disk drive is still IBM comptible, now supporting the 1.44M format. The machine supports 6 screen resolutions, including the original 3 from the ST, plus a 1280x960 Moniterm mode, a 640x480 16 color VGA mode, and a 256 color 320x480 mode. The color monitor being used at the time, an Atari TTC30 or something was capable of supporting everything but the Moniterm mode. The desktop in VGA mode looked quite good, comparable to a Mac II desktop or a Windows desktop on a VGA monitor. The display was crisp and free of any interference. The TT has the 4096 color palette of the STE, as well as the 8-bit stereo sound, making it a machine ready for multimedia applications. The TOS running in this machine was still TOS 3.0, 03/01/90 version. The real TOS for the TT is supposed to be 2.0, and it's supposed to be a lot faster than 3.0. I ran Quick Index on the TT just to see the kind of performance I'd get. With the cache on, the CPU numbers are between about 350% to 500%, and with the cache off, about 30% slower. What this means is that in terms of raw processing speed, the TT can run 68000 code about 3, 4 or 5 times faster than an 8MHz ST or STE. I tried some sample software which I had earlier timed on my STE, and found the increase to be consistently about a factor of 3. All the Atari reps were emphasizing the speed. Calamus was being displayed, and the TT flyer and press release were both riddled with references to DynaCADD, and a 6 page DynaCADD brochure was included with the press release. The explanation given was that Atari wants to demonstrate that the machine is a full blown CAD workstation, and can run existing ST CAD packages. Once software like Calamus and DynaCADD is recompiled for the 68030, it will run even faster. All of the documentation presented was created with Calamus, and the press release mentions that Calamus running on the TT prints three times faster than any other package. It doesn't mention which other packages, but goes on to say that DynaCADD running on the TT is 2 to 10 times faster than Autocad running on a 386 based machine. Atari is also working with an unnamed third party to develop a software PC emulator that runs at the speed of an AT. And I'm sure another unnamed third party is busy on a Mac II emulator. The TT also comes with an Appletalk interface (gee, I wonder why!), MIDI ports, VME slot, 2 serial ports expandable to 4 (hey sysops, imagine the possibilites!), and SCSI and ACSI. The machine is certainly set up to communicate with the rest of the world. UNIX, X Windows, and Ethernet support are listed in the "Future Support" category of the spec sheet. Hopefully this isn't being handled by the same department that was responsible for getting the STacy and STE to US markets last year. The thing that I found quite odd with the TT is that with all the nifty hardware built in, this machine does NOT have a blitter chip. The last thing I would have expected in a machine that's being presented as a powerful graphics workstation is that all graphics operations are being performed by software, and by TOS 3.0 of all things. This TOS, I'm told, is almost identical to the TOS 1.6 currently installed in STEs, which as we all know, is almost the same thing as TOS 1.4, just slightly faster. TOS 2.0 is supposed to change all that and really be fast, but I seriously doubt that they'll whip together something by August, given that TOS has already been worked on for 5 years. So, back to Quick Index I went and benchmarked the screen performance. Someone at the presentation had mentioned that you could load in a DynaCADD file with 10,000 objects and watch them redraw REALLY fast. Well, the numbers I got from Quick Index, for example, in medium resulotion, gave the TT a GEM index of 166% relative to the STE. That's about 180% relative to a Mega ST. So in other words, the TT, running TOS 1.4 (or close enough to it) on a 68030 was not even twice as fast as an 8MHz 68000 with blitter support. Take away the blitter and you're slightly over 200%. However, take into account that you can drop in Jim Allen's T16 accelerator board into almost any ST, and for $300 give yourself a 50% speed boost. That cuts the lead of the TT down to about 30% at best for screen redraws, and about 200% for general CPU operations. Needless to say, I wasn't kidding last week when I said that an ST running Quick ST blows away the TT in screen performance. Text operations gave similar results, and about the only screen operation the TT was good at was VT52 scrolling. That's due to the 32- bit data bus of the 68030 compared to the 68000's 16-bit bus. Don't forget also that there will be the usual incompatibility problems with older ST software. You think TOS 1.4 compatiblity was bad. Wait till they try running the stuff on a 68030! So, the TT is a nifty machine, and for only $4000 you can emulate an AT and run UNIX as well. I should say "you'll be able to...". I still have bad memories of the 1450XLD and 260ST. You all remember the 260ST? The original ST, until they actually tried to put it together and realized they couldn't make TOS run on 256K. Hopefully TOS 2.0 will run on 2 meg! But in all fairness, since this information was presented by ATARI CANADA, in Canada, and was not just another Sunnyvale stab in the dark about what they might ship in 3 years, I have faith that Atari Canada will deliver as promised. They delivered on the STE and STacy and CD-ROM, so all I can say is that I'm glad I'm not in the US. About 6 months ago, I was wetting my pants and then some over the STE. Not so for the TT, at least not yet. It's out of the price range of most casual ST users, and as an ST compatible machine, offers less than a doubling of power for more than double the price of, say, a Mega ST 2. Sure the TT specific software written for the 68030 will be faster, but that will mean buying a whole new set of software. I think what will probably evolve will be some sort of a 68030 upgrade for existing STs (c'mon Dave!), similar to the kind of upgrades we saw a few years ago for converting 8088 machine to 80286 machines. I've already got 3 STs and 2 monitors, I don't need more. I would much rather pay $1000 or more to upgrade my 4 meg STE to a 4 meg STE/030 instead of shelling out another $4000 for something only slightly better. The TT will still hopefully sell well in the business market. The hardware is certainly there and at the right price. Perhaps not as fast as we'd like to believe, but the same hype existed with the 386 chip. Perhaps the TT will follow the same path as 386 machines, and a year or two from now we'll see a more affordable TT working its way into the home market replacing the then obsolete 68000 based STs. Well, that's the way I see it anyway. - Darek [ If I may add two comments: 1. Darek tested a machine with just 2 megs of RAM. RAM above 2 megs on the TT operates in burst mode and operates roughly 50% faster. It would be interesting to see a comparison of programs running in fast and slow ram. 2. Lots of companies have not put blitters in 68030 boxes because they don't provide much of a speed increase. Sun, HP, Apollo, and NeXT come to mind as examples. Now if Atari would get the TT out the door and into a local dealer's store, I'll be happy. -- greg ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the full text of a Press Release from ATARI in NEW ZEALAND giving the MOST COMPLETE DESCRIPTION of the ATARI TT030 COMPUTER to date. It EXPLAINS PORTS, CARDS, EXPANSION, AND ADMITS TO THE FACT THAT THE TT WILL RUN AT 32 MHZ, not the 16 mhz that many complained of. THIS WILL NOT FURTHER DELAY THE TT030, EXPECTED TO BE AVAILABLE WITHIN WEEKS. Presented by Z*NET ATARI ONLINE NEWS SERVICE, the ones to trust for detailed ATARI NEWS FIRST. NOT ARCED, about 8 screens, you NEED to read this NOW..... --------------------------------- This document is Press Information (VERBATIM including capitalization, spacing, and spelling) provided by SOFTWARE SUPPLIES, AKA ATARI NEW ZEALAND, on ATARI Logo paper. Transcribed using optical character reader for precise conversion by Z*NET NEWS SERVICE, 7/9/90. Z*Net assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information itself. -------------------------------------------- ATARI TT030 Compatible Expandible Flexible Affordable The Atari TT030 - Compatible with the Atari ST, 1000"s of software titles already available - 3 New Graphics modes: 320 x 480 with 256 colours from a palette of 4096 640 x 480 with 16 colours from a palette of 4096 1280 x 960 high resolution monochrome - Stereo 8-bit PCM sound - 68030 running at 32 Mhz - 68881 Floating Point co-processor - 2 Megabytes of RAM, expandable to 26 Mb - SCSI and ASCI with DMA built in - Internal Hard disk - SCC LAN port with DMA - Four serial ports - Parallel port - MIDI ports - Detachable keyboard - Internal A24/D16 VME card slot - Real time clock with non-volatile RAM - ROM cartridge slot - External floppy connector Comparison of standard features Amiga 3000 Mac IIcx Atari TT030 CPU 68030 68030 68030 FPU Yes Yes Yes Clock speed 16 Mhz - 32 Mhz RAM 2 to 17 1 to 32 2 to 26 Burst Mode Yes No Yes ROM 512K 256K 512K Graphics Max resolution 1280 x 480 Optional 1280 x 960 Interlaced Non-interlaced Max colours 32 Colours 256 Colours from 4096 from 4096 Max video RAM 1 Mb 8 Mb Sound Stereo Stereo Stereo Expansion Proprietary NuBus VME Hard disk DMA Non-DMA DMA Floppy disk Proprietary Proprietary PC compatible Network No Yes Yes, DMA Serial 1 x RS232 2 x RS232 4 x RS232 Parallel Yes No Yes MIDI No No Yes ROM Cartridge No No Yes The Atari TT030 Hardware The TT030 (Thirty-two/Thirty-two bit) is the first member of a new series of Atari computers designed as enhanced versions of the existing ST and MEGA family. The TT series maintains compatibility with the ST/MEGA architecture, but uses the Motorola 68030 microprocessor and provides enhanced graphics and sound. The TT030 is also designed to run Unix (Unix is a trademark of AT&T). The TT030 is based on the high performance 32-bit Motorola MC68030 processor running at a 32 Mhz clock frequency. The 68030 includes on-chip data and instruction caches which can be filled from some regions of memory in bursts of double word fetches The architecture also includes the industry standard VME bus to facilitate expansion. The system supports the latest revision (C.1) of the VME bus specification. The TT030 can accommodate one single-Eurocard (3U) A24/D 16 or A 16/D 16 slave-only VME board, The TT series is expected to function in an environment with other TTs and even machines from different manufacturers. To facilitate connectivity, each system has an on-board port for a moderate speed LAN. If the LAN is not being used, the port can be programmed to be a standard RS232C port. Through an optional VME bus-based or SCSI-based Ethernet controller, the TT also has the capability of connecting to heterogeneous Ethernet networks. The TT030 has three additional standard RS-232C serial ports for connection to modems, display terminals, or digitizing tablets. The hardware features of the TT030 include: - Motorola MC68030 at 32MHz - Motorola MC68881 Floating Point Coprocessor (the coprocessor is socketed, so that it can be optionally upgraded to a MC68882) - ST RAM: 2 Mbyte of ST-compatible dual-purpose (video/system) RAM, expandable by an add-on daughterboard containing a further 2 or 8 Mbyte of dual-purpose memory. This 64-bit wide memory appears 32 bits wide to the processor and SCSI/SCC DMA engines TT video logic has access to this memory on a time critical basis. The remaining system logic, including the processor, can access this memory in the alternate 250 nS TIME SLICES. - TT BURST MODE RAM: provision for a daughter-board that will accept either 4 x 1 Mbyte or 4 x 4 Mbyte SIMMS, allowing another 4 Mb or 16 Mb expansion. This RAM can only be accessed by the processor, the SCSI DMA Engine, and the SCC Network DMA Engine. The 68030 can take advantage of burst-mode for filling its internal cache from this RAM. - 4 socketed 1 Mbit ROMS, providing 512 Kbyte of ROM space. - Internal video modes that are a superset of those in the Atari ST/STe series using an analog RGB (VGA-like) colour monitor: pixels rows colors palette 320 200 16 4096 (STe compatible) 640 200 4 4096 (STe compatible) 640 400 2 4096 (STe superset) 320 480 256 4096 640 480 16 4096 using a high resolution ECL monochrome monitor 1280 960 black on white - parallel I/O port, generally used for Parallel printer output - internal speaker, which can be disabled under software control - 2 low-speed asynchronous serial I/O ports (one from each of two 68901 MFPS) at programmable baud rates up to 19.2 baud - 2 high-speed asynchronous/SDLC Serial I/O ports (from a Zilog 8530 SCC). One part can be programmed to be a Local Talk compatible LAN interface with a proprietary single channel DMA controller. The other port is intended for use as an asynchronous AS-232 port with programmable split baud rates. - battery backed-up real time clock (RTC) with 50 bytes of non-volatile RAM - ST/MEGA compatible intelligent keyboard, with mouse and joystick ports including support for a 3 button mouse - Atari ACSI DMA channel (for Atari Hard Disk, Laser Printer, CD-ROM, etc) - Floppy disk controller and interface sharing the ACSI DMA channel - Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) STe compatible DMA sound engine with programmable volume and tone control which can play back stereo 8-bit samples at rates up to 50 Khz - Atari ST compatible cartridge port (128 Kbyte Storage) - SCSI interface using 23-pin connector implemented with the NCR 5380 SCSI controller chip and a proprietary DMA controller - Industry standard VME bus for expansion When comparing the TT030 with the competition, four important features stand out: - flicker-free, high resolution colour graphics built-in as standard - high bus bandwidth, independent of video resolution - excellent connectivity including four RS232 ports, MIDI, LAN, ASCI & SCSI. - high speed burst-mode RAM, 32 Mhz CPU clock speed. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Dallas J. Hodgson | "This here's the wattle, | | Metaphor Computer Systems | It's the emblem of our land. | | Mountain View, Ca. | You can put it in a bottle, | | USENET : djh@metaphor.com | You can hold it in your hand." | +============================================================================+ | "The views I express are my own, and not necessarily those of my employer" | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+