Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ncrcom!cipc1!ncrlnk!udcps3!vanleejf From: vanleejf@udcps3.cps.udayton.edu (James Van Leeuwen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Two New Computer Announcements - CeBIT Message-ID: <1991Mar14.033302.10763@udcps3.cps.udayton.edu> Date: 14 Mar 91 03:33:02 GMT Reply-To: vanleejf@udcps3.cps.udayton.edu (James Van Leeuwen) Organization: The University of Dayton Computer Science Department, Dayton, Ohio Lines: 103 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CeBIT Computer Announcement Repost from GEnie by Tom Harker of ICD. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CeBIT '91 Newsbreak March 13, 1991 Things are really heating up here today in Hannover, Germany at the 1991 version of CeBIT which is the largest computer show in the world. Atari surprised everyone with their announcement and demonstration of two exciting new 68000 based computers. The following was described to me by Atari engineers as the were demoing the equipment. I have written this because I felt it newsworthy and an important boost to the moral of Atari users everywhere. I make no guaranty for the accuracy of this information but I have tried to get as much detail as possible. The computer names used are only "internal" Atari names and may be changed before release of the products. ST Notebook This is said to be the smallest 68000 based computer in the world. Its size rivals any PC Notebook style computer that I have seen. It is about 1/2 the size of my laptop computer and maybe 3/4 of an inch thick. Features include: o A built in mouse device that consists of three buttons. The large center button is direction and possibly velocity sensitive to simulate mouse movement in direction and speed. o A laptop size keyboard, possibly a little smaller than standard. The tactile feel was good. o 512K ROM capability. It looked like TOS 2.05 was shown in the prototype. This prototype did have a very professional and finished look to it. o 1 megabyte or 4 megabyte RAM versions available. Uses pseudo-static RAM. o 2 1/2 inch form factor internal hard drive. 20 megabytes was installed. Presently up to 60 megabytes is possible. Probably an IDE (AT) interface. o External ports include midi in and out, 1 serial, 1 parallel, 1 combo either floppy drive OR ACSI, 2 RAM card slots (128K cards shown, said to support up to 4 megabytes), 128 pin computer direct port (all address, data lines, CPU control, etc.), modem connector (for optional internal voice/fax modem), keypad/mouse port. Of course to maintain the small size, nearly all connectors were shrunk and non-standard types. o An excellent gray-tone LCD display. It did not appear to be backlit which would make sense for the battery life. This was said to be greater than 10 hours before recharging. With less hard drive use, it would be longer. o The replaceable battery pack shown was very small and contained about eight AA alkaline batteries. If Ni-Cads were installed, the universal power supply would also recharge them when connected. When the battery pack goes down, the notebook is automatically put in a halted state that is maintained for weeks until recharged. Internal Ni-Cad batteries will maintain the halted state of the computer for about 5 hours if the battery pack is removed from the computer. o Atari has a few choices to transfer data to and from the computer. Connect an external floppy drive. Transfer over the serial ports with a modem or direct. Transfer over the parallel ports at around 20 Kbytes/sec. Connect an ACSI device such as a hard drive externally or possibly ACSI to ACSI communications. ST PAD This is similar to ST Notebook and shares most of the features but has a futuristic interface. A touch sensitive LCD display with a pointing device was shown for mouse type functions and handwriting recognition for input. Physically, ST Pad looked like the "Etch-a- Sketch" drawing toys that we grew up with minus the X/Y knobs. No keyboard was attached and there is not an internal hard drive. The OS software and large amount of scratchpad RAM were said to have Artificial Intelligence features to allow ST Pad to actually learn your handwriting style! (Good luck with mine.) ST Pad looked like it needed more time for completion but ST Notebook looked like something we may actually see sometime this summer or fall. With this exciting new innovative line of computers and Alwin Stumpf (from Atari GmbH) heading up a new world-wide marketing campaign, it appears that this time Atari really may be backing the promise with the product. Copyright 1991 Tom Harker of ICD, Inc. Permission for this release to be distributed or reprinted is granted but only in its entirety. -- "We didn't start the fire, / ___/_ Jim Van Leeuwen it was always burning / / / \ The University of Dayton since the world's been /___/__/ / Bitnet: VANLEEJF@DAYTON GEnie: JVAN turning..." --Billy Joel /______/ Internet: vanleejf@udcps3.cps.udayton.edu