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From: kiki@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Jack W. Wine)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Questions about ST hw/sw upgrades
Message-ID: <11885@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Date: 11 Mar 91 03:09:42 GMT
Sender: news@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu
Organization: University of Hawaii
Lines: 51


I'm getting an Atari 1040STe and have these questions and comments:

1) Is there any difficulty in exchanging ascii data between the Ste and
   an AT clone with a 3.5" drive?

2) Has anyone connected the STe DMA port with SCSI converter to a PC
   with a SCSI controller to allow the STe to read/write the PC hard
   drives and other peripherals?

3) The 1040STe obviously wasn't designed for easy expansion, so I would
   like to move the system board to a PC-type fliptop case with 200W
   power supply.  I've heard that there is a company that markets an
   Atari conversion kit and would like to know their address.  Also, 
   does Atari sell just the Mega STe keyboard so that individuals could
   use them with a custom case?

4) The GBS SST030 board sounds very good, but it seems to me that it
   should provide for 4 megabyte simms, since the prices for these
   memories have become more cost effective ($200/simm) than 1 MB simms.
   Has anyone queried Mr. Small about this design decision?  I thought
   4 MB simms fit in the same socket as 1 MB ones.

5) With other companies also designing '030 upgrade boards, is there
   any consensus on a type of Atari ST '030 bus?  I know video cards
   will be developed for each '030 board, but it would be beneficial
   to the ST owners if a common bus was used.

6) The SST board is supposed to have TOS 1.6 roms licensed from Atari.
   With the advent of the versatile 68030, is there any plan to put
   a different operating system to use?  I've read of the Geos OS by
   Berkeley Softworks and it seems like a good candidate for porting
   to the SST030 board.  If 50,000 ST pooled together $20, would that
   be enough to commission Berkeley Softworks to do the port?  

7) Suppose everyone who bought a SST030 board added $20 so that Mr. Small
   could commission a company to provide a new operating system.  Is this
   feasible?

8) I mailed GBS an inquiry about their SST030 board, but haven't received
   any reply.  I know Mr. Small posted a short list of specs for the SST
   and mentioned complete information might be available by ftp, but I
   can't find it.  Could someone post or email it to me?

9) I don't subscribe to Compuserve or Genie, but I would like to read
   the logs of conferences of Atari officials and developers.  I know
   about the postings on Freenet, but it is not complete.  Is there
   any archive on the internet that has the complete conference logs?

Thanks for any answers or input!
Jack