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From: sansom@trwrba.UUCP (Richard E. Sansom)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: Re: sundry ST questions
Message-ID: <1796@trwrba.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Jan-86 12:16:39 EST
Article-I.D.: trwrba.1796
Posted: Thu Jan 16 12:16:39 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jan-86 08:20:57 EST
References: <4815@alice.UUCP>
Reply-To: sansom@trwrba.UUCP (Richard E. Sansom)
Distribution: net
Organization: TRW EDS, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 66

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>I have a few questions about the 520 ST I'm curious about:
>	Speech synthesis: is there any?
>	Sound digitization- ditto?
>	Is it true that, by fiddling with interrupts, one is able to
>get more colors on the screen than normally?
>	Multitasking- is there any?
>	Are double-sided disks and single-sided disks compatible/incompatible
>with each other and with their respective drives in any way(s)?
>Any meaningful responses appreciated-
>I still can't decide between an ST and an Amiga...

The ST has no speech synthesis in hardware, although I've heard that
several people are working on some software based stuff.  Also, I don't
imagine it would be too hard to add a speech synthesiser to the RS-232
port.

By "sound digitization" I assume you mean a built in synthesiser of
some kind.  Well, there is the General Instruments sound chip (I forget
the actual chip number), and it does provide some very limited control
over sound generation.  If you really need the control and flexibility
that digital synthesisers offer, than I would suggest you use the ST as
a MIDI controller for an external synthesiser such as the Casio CZ-101
(very reasonably priced entry level MIDI synth.).  Several companies
are presently developing MIDI software for the ST and I imagine it
won't be too long before the ST really takes off with musicians.

The ST does offer the ability to change screen colors "on the fly" by
changing the color palette hardware registers.  Tom Hudson presented an
excellent article on this subject in a recent Analog magazine (either
December or January, I can't remember which).  For another example of
the ST's ability to display more than the 16 advertised colors, look
for the public-domain "paint" program called "NEO".

Contrary to popular (unpopular :-) opinion, the ST does support a
limited amount of multi-tasking.  Although I've just begun to find out
all of the details, I have been able to figure out that the GEM desktop
is in fact a multi-tasking environment in which each of the desk
accessories is sharing CPU time, with one particular accessory being
the "foreground" task.  Sorry I can't inform you any more as to the
multi-tasking potential the ST has to offer (for my purposes, I don't
need GEM or multi-tasking so I haven't spent a whole lot of time
studying in either of these areas).

About the double/single sided disk question you had - I needed two
drives before the double sided drives became available, so I bought a
second single-sided drive.  Sorry, I can't help you with that one.

One last thing; it has been very interesting watching the Amiga v.s. ST
debate on the net these last few months.  I've tried to stay in the
middle of the argument - not leaning one way or the other - but I have
found myself (on occasion) taking exception with some of the things the
Amiga people said about the ST which were just not true.  After reading
my last reply to one of these articles, I decided not to participate in
the debate any more (it wasn't very neutral).  To make a long story
short, it may be to your advantage to not listen to any emotional
arguments about either machine.  Being an ST (and soon to be, Amiga)
owner, I have no problem stating that the Amiga certainly has some big
advantages in it's favor.  However, I also know for a fact that the ST
offers more raw computing power per dollar than any other computer on
the market.  Hopefully, there is a place in the altogether too BLUE
computer market for both machines to prosper.

Richard E. Sansom
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