Atari Falcon
Motorola 56001 @ 32 MHz
The Atari Falcon 030 from 1992 was a home computer sold by Atari.
As a successor to the 1040 STE thought the Falcon was sold only in small numbers due to a failed marketing strategy Ataris.
Hardware
Processor
The Falcon had a clocked with 16 MHz CPU Motorola 68030th addition, it space for an optional FPU ( floating point coprocessor ) Motorola 68882nd
The 16- MHz processor of the Atari Falcon 030 was built in all computers in truth a 32- MHz version of the 68030, as Motorola could not deliver the slower version. This led to the resourceful hobbyist could speed up their computers quickly to almost double. By replacing the quartz resonator was achieved even at 50 MHz main processor and DSP with simultaneous acceleration of the system bus and thus higher graphics performance.
A special feature of the Falcon 030 is operated with 32 MHz digital signal processor Motorola type 56,001th The DSP can be programmed completely independently of the CPU and made the Falcon, such as audio editing, very powerful.
RAM
The sold at the most common variant of the Falcon was shipped with 4 MB of RAM. Further models were equipped with 1 and 14 MB RAM.
In contrast to the Atari STE and the RAM is not expandable via SIMM slots, but is soldered on a separate plug-in card. Later schematics were released that showed an upgrade by commercial PS/2-Speicher.
Graphic
In addition to the known as the Atari ST screen resolutions ST- Low ( 320 × 200 pixels with 16 colors ), ST - medium ( 640 × 200 with 4 colors) and ST- high (640 × 400 pixels with 2 colors) he also offered VGA ( 640 × 480 at 16 or 256 colors) and hi -color resolution with 65536 colors that were due to the relatively slow video RAM access optionally available with reduced resolution or " interlaced". All modes were by PAL / NTSC video signal displayed on a TV screen - at the higher resolutions, but only violently flickering interlaced ( interlacing ). The graphics resolutions of 030 Falcon could be further increased by a little later released software solution and reached by a small hardware modification even resolutions of 1260 × 960 pixels, which in the early 1990s represented a good value for the price.
Audio
Popular was the computer in recording studios, as opposed to the PCs he had a built-in MIDI interface and a DSP xProzessor, with the aid of hard disk recording in CD quality was possible. In this role, he was still employed by the end of the 90s.
Interfaces
- Parallel port (25 - pin DIN jack): For connecting printers
- Modem/RS232-Port (9 -pin DIN socket): Has been widely used for connecting modems
- MIDI in & MIDI out / through
- Cartridge port: To ROM expansion cards connect
- SCSI -II with DMA ( 50-pin jack): For external hard drives, CD-ROM drives, scanners, etc.
- LAN ( Mini - DIN socket): Unused serial interface. Compatible with Atari Mega STE and Atari TT.
- Joystick ports (15 -pin DIN socket): Works with the controllers of the Atari Jaguar
- DSP port
- Internal IDE interface
- CPU Expansion: With the expansion, for example, future upgrade card CT63 is connected
- Audio in / out
- Video
- Antenna
Periphery
By default, the Falcon was delivered with a 3.5 -inch HD floppy drive and an internal 2.5-inch ATA hard drive.
At the joystick connectors the controller pads of the Atari Jaguar could be connected to the standard pad for some time was even available in gray / blue.
Extensions
Early delivered other party extensions for the Falcon, (eg, 68040 ) exert their processor clock and the DSP clock increased (eg the Skunk32 ), a faster CPU, the screen resolution increased or used for digitizing video images are could. In 2008 there was the CT - 63 is a built in handmade card upgrade (English " upgrade" ), which offered a clocked to 100 MHz 68060 processor and 512 MB RAM and thus the power increased by a factor of 25.
Operating system
The operating system is the TOS was delivered 4:01 (later 4.02 and 4:04 ) in the ROM, which is an extension of the older TOS versions of functions for controlling the DSP and the other new components. The GEM surface was equipped with a 3D look.
The new multitasking operating system MultiTOS was not completed in time by Atari and therefore included separately on disk. The kernel of MultiTOS is a further development of MiNT, one originally written by Eric R. Smith UNIX-like kernel, which was released as open source and is strongly leaning in Minix. The acronym stood for MiNT is Not TOS. This kernel was then licensed by Atari, and from then on was the abbreviation for MiNT is Now TOS. Atari then adapted the AES (see: Graphical Environment Manager ), so the functionality of the graphical interface to the multitasking ability of the new kernel. The original MultiTOS sat down, however, due to some shortcomings and slower reaction times not, instead, found competing products from other manufacturers ( MagiC, N.AES ) in Germany -wide distribution.
Games
There over 100 games were released that were running on the Falcon, most of them as compatible Atari-ST/STE/TT-Versionen. The best known of these are Bubble Bobble, Defender of the Crown, Dungeon Master, Elite, The Secret of Monkey Iceland, Ishar series, Robinson's Requiem and Turrican 2 Pure Falcon games are about 25 known; largely unknown games or prototypes, plus another fan and shareware games. The most popular games are Pinball Dreams and the racing simulation Vroom.
Development
A variant of the Falcon 030 should be called Microbox. Originally planned as she was the real Falcon 030 This variant is designed like a mini-tower, but was rejected due to the availability of components and higher costs. Differences are the true 32- bit data bus, a graphics chip with 256 colors and more performance. However, there remained only the prototype.
The German music software company C -LAB (see also: Emagic ) acquired early nineties, the license rights for the construction and sale of the Atari Falcon, which then under the name C- LAB Falcon (Versions MK -I, MK -II and MK -X) was produced for some time as a computer for MIDI and hard disk recording, including technical improvements and accessory hardware.