Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!BRANDEIS.BITNET!BLANK From: BLANK@BRANDEIS.BITNET (David N. Blank * BLANK@BRANDEIS.bitnet) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: news from March c't Message-ID: <8803280338.AA25219@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Date: 28 Mar 88 03:34:00 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 99 Howdy, This message is being forwarded for a friend that does not have net access at the present time. Please do not respond to me, as I am an Amiga owner, and have negative quantities of interest in machines with 2 letter names. Peace, David N. Blank BLANK@BRANDEIS.bitnet || DNB@BRANDEIS.csnet "This is Leonard Nimoy, as we go In Search of... a disclaimer." -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=- a summary of articles in the March c't: 1) the adaptor to attach a PC harddisk is selling in kit form for 22 Dm ($12) 2) they have TOS/GEM/etc. running on a 68020 board. they had to "fix" several problems with TOS to do this. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once again my lack of German handicaps me in my reporting. But here's a summary of various articles/ads: The PC-Harddrive adapter was described in last month's issue. Basically it interfaces a standard PC ST506 controller to the ST's DMA bus. It consists of only 5 chips and looks easy to build. Software was included in the article or you can order it. The address: Heise Platinen and Softwareservice, Postfach 61 04 07, 3000 Hannover 61. This adaptor kit is stock # 880212dBE, and is 22 dm, while the software is # S8802126 and is 20 marks. Theoretically, you can put together a 20 meg harddrive for about $450 using this kit. Anyone want to import these to the United States? Beware if you build the board from the plans in the 2/88 issue: the 3/88 issue lists 1 mistake in the software and 1 mistake in the circuit diagram. The 68020 card is called the "PAK68", and they have interfaced it to various computers in addition to the ST. It has a 12mhz 68020 and 68881. The article for the PAK68 itself was in the 8/87 of c't; the ST interface article was 11/87. The article this issue is only about the software hacks needed to get it running under GEM. There were 3 basic problems: (1) the MOVE SR, instruction, which is privileged on the 68010 and 68020, (2) GEM is dependent on the exception stack format of the 68000, and (3) the F-Line routines of the AES use self-modifying code. They present both source code for fixups and ROM patches for the 2/86 and "blitter" ROMS. They report that 100% of TOS programs work! They present this benchmark for 100 iterations of the sieve (megamax C): cpu seconds relative speed increase 68000 23.6 ---- 68010 22.8 3.5% 68020 11.9 98.3% This version does not use the 32-bit memory add-on which they described in the 1/88 issue. They expect another 100% speed increase with the faster and wider RAM. They did not present a benchmark using the 68881. However, they did say that GFA Basic users with version 3.0 or higher could directly access the 68881. So I would _assume_ that the 68881 works, although I can't read enough of the article to see what's going on. The straight PAK68 board sells for 1098 dm (including the 68020 and 68881), but this doesn't include any 32 bit ram or the Atari-specific interface. Another article describes a simple (5 IC's) 8-bit A/D converter which plugs into the cartridge port. It is available at the same address as the disk controller kit; stock # 8803120B, 12 dm for the kit. It samples up to 70 kHz. The article indicates that this project costs 60 marks, so I guess that the chips amount to about 48 dm in Germany. However, ask a German friend before you trust my non-existant German. One ad was for a graphics monitor system which plugs into the cartridge port. It offers resolution up to 1024 x 768, mono and/or color. It sells for 2300 to 3000 dm. I believe that they only offer a driver for the RTOS operating system; but the ad didn't mention anything (at least that I can read) about software compatibility. [ the remainder of this note is about the Atari PC Klone. Skip it if this isn't interesting for you. ] A final article is a review of 4 "Home-PC" systems, including the mythical Atari PC 1. It looks like the Atari PC that I saw at the Boston AtariFest. It lists for 1600 dm with 1/2 meg, 1 5.25" floppy, and a monitor. As a comparison, the Commodore PC-1 lists for 1000 dm without a monitor. The Atari machine has a "turbo" mode (1.7 Norton SI), while the Commodore machine just runs at a stately 4.77 mhz. So, it seems that the hardware is stable enough for them to send it out to reviewers... although the motherboard has a "Rev A" sticker on it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- disclaimer: i have no connection with c't: the subscription is being paid for by somebody else ;-) Greg Lindahl | brandeis radio astronomy group (BRAG) | ci$: [76515,1122] --------------------------------------| us snail: box 2522 brandeis university "Insults are the spice of life." | waltham mass (usa) 02254-9110 | telco: (617) 899-5884