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- Atari(U.S.)Corp.
- 1196 Borregas Avenue
- Sunnyvale, California 94088-3427
- (408) 745-2000
-
- To: All Atari ST Software Developers
-
- Re: Copy-Protection Schemes for Atari's ST Series of
- Machines on SF354 and SF314 Drives.
-
- It is in the interests of Atari and our software developers
- who support the ST line that their software protection schemes
- will work on existing drives as well as new drives to be in-
- troduced by Atari. It is difficult to predict new techno-
- logical breakthroughs which may affect copy-protection schemes
- but at the least to allow for improvement in technology the
- following should be borne in mind:
-
- 1. Schemes that depend on timing based on 3 MS track to
- track stepping rates may not work for all drives.
- Technological advances may permit faster stepping rates
- or stepping rates other than the presently used rates.
-
- 2. Schemes that depend on timing considerations based on
- the present existing SF354 or SF314 drives cannot be
- guaranteed to work on future product introductions.
- For example, an electronic buffer (for whatever reasons)
- may be interposed between an ST and a drive and this
- would cause the drive to not behave precisely as pre-
- sently existing units.
-
- We will be introducing very shortly a series of new drives.
- If you want to ensure your software will work on the new drives,
- please write to us and ask us to test your software on the new
- drives with respect to readability of copy protected disks.
- (You, will, of course, have to send the software to the U.S.)
-
- You can also order one of the new drives to test yourself. Please
- mention specifically the new drive and the reason for the order.
-
-
-