Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!att!mtuxo!mtgzz!drutx!druwy!dlm
From: dlm@druwy.ATT.COM (Dan Moore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Atari 800XL Parallel Bus Documentation
Message-ID: <3806@druwy.ATT.COM>
Date: 9 Feb 89 17:23:14 GMT
References: <1711@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu>
Organization: AT&T, Denver, CO
Lines: 41

in article <1711@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu>, DAVISM@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Michael T. Davis) says:
> 	Both MAPPING THE ATARI (Revised Edition -- which I refer to as MTA+)
> and the articles themselves (ANTIC) portrayed the diagrams/information as
> pertaining to the XL bus (known as the Parallel Bus Interface - PBI).  No
> where in the articles is the 1090 even mentioned.  BTW, MTA+ says the
> information is from the ANTIC articles.  ANALOG also had an article on
> adding 2K (of static RAM) to a 600XL.  I did discover a difference between
> the pin-outs in the ANTIC article(s) and the ANALOG article.  (I suspect that,
> in fact, the pin-out from the ANTIC article WAS the 1090 pin-out, and the
> pin-out in the ANALOG article was from the PBI, itself.  Can anyone confirm/
> disprove this?)
	The Antic articles were definitely about the 1090, they worked
on it.  Unfortunately they didn't state in the article that the
information was for the 1090 not the PBI.  All the information on the
software interface applies to both the 1090 and to the PBI.
	Synapse Software received one of the beta test 1090s with a 64K
RAM card and 80 column display card, they sent it and the docs to me
when I was working on SynFile release 2 (a special version for expanded
XLs and the 1450XLD).  The only real problems with the 1090 were the
size and the projected cost.  Unfortunately it died along with the 1400
and 1450 when Warner sold Atari. 

> 	I have heard of several people claiming to have the XL Addendum to
> the Technical Reference Notes, or some such thing.  I would be very interested
> to know where one could pick these up.
	Warner Atari had re-written the Technical Reference Notes for
the XL series.  The draft copies I looked at were very nice, spiral
bound, with a lots of examples and a very well commented OS listing. 
Another victim of the sale, they were never published. 
	There were also some short (<50 pages) manuals on the XL
hardware and OS.  Some developers and software houses (Synapse, EA,
Broderbund, etc) got copies.  As far as I know those manuals are the
only "official" doc that was ever released.



				Dan Moore
				AT&T Bell Labs
				Denver
				dlm@druhi.ATT.COM
				dlm@druwy.ATT.COM