Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Bob_BobR_Retelle
From: Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: blitters (was Re: News from Cebit '89)
Message-ID: <16413@cup.portal.com>
Date: 30 Mar 89 00:31:48 GMT
References: <8903150013.AA29812@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <352@cstw01.UUCP> <314@laas.laas.fr>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 22

Ralph Sobek writes:
 
>It seems that the blitter is on sale for 1040 ST's here in France!
>Around 250 FF.  It has been advertised in the trade journals, such as
>ST Magazine.
 
An Australian Atari user group newsletter recently printed instructions
on how to install a blitter chip into the newer revisions of 520/1040s,
using parts purchased from Mega dealers.  The installation involves
unsoldering the 64 tiny holes in the motherboard where the blitter goes,
installing a socket for the blitter, and installing the "Mega ROMs" in
place of the current ROMs (if the machine doesn't already have them).
 
However, the availability of blitter chips as replacement parts for Mega STs
in no way implies that Atari is any further along toward releasing a
"blitter upgrade" for older machines than it was a year ago.  Indeed, the
fact that the new revisions of the 520/1040 motherboards HAVE a place for
the blitter, but  DO NOT  even have a socket installed, seems to indicate
that Atari has no immediate plans to make it easy for those machines to
have blitters installed as a "retro-fit."
 
BobR