SPACE 2/SPACE - Library 2 - Volume 1.iso/demos/11/general/stfact.art

Text File | 1986-04-17 | 18.0 KB | 326 lines

                   So What's So Great About an Atari?

                            By William Blair

[Mr. Blair, an avid Atari fan, has compiled an impressive brochure on
the ST, aimed primarily at 8-bit computer users thinking about ugrading
to a more powerful machine.  I found the report very interesting and
thought our readers would enjoy it as well.  By the way, I have added
some excerpts from the BYTE magazine reviews which were not available
when Mr. Blair sent in his report.  Ed.]

                            520ST PUBLICITY

Creative Computing's October 1985 issue featured the 520ST in its cover
story with the first review of this system in a major independent
computer publication. Their reaction? Here are a few excerpts: "Without
question, the most advanced, most powerful microcomputer your money can
buy... designed to move the power of machines costing thousands of
dollars into the range a middle class consumer can afford... fairly
positioned to blow the Amiga right out of the water... The Atari ST
delivers 75%* of the splendor of the desktop interface at 25% of the
price of a 512K Macintosh."

Compute! magazine said: "The [disk] drive is very impressive...and is
the fastest floppy we've ever seen. In fact, it appears to be faster
eshes the screen at 70 hertz instead of 60 hertz, displaying a
super-sharp image that looks like a sheet of paper with crisp
lettering."

From InfoWorld: "Our [1985] Hardware Value of the Year [award] goes to
the 520ST, a product whose makers pride themselves on providing quality
for a low price. Indeed, what last year was available only on machines
costing $2500 and up can now be had for less than $1000. The power of a
68000 microprocessor, the ease of an icon-based graphic user interface,
and the ability to do serious work is available this year for the cost
of last year's toy... Atari 520ST, an amazing machine for the price."

John Dvorak in InfoWorld: "I recently got to play with an Atari 520ST
and found it to be a super little machine for the money. The keyboard
felt good and the new teflon lubricated mouse felt great. If I were to
look at the Atari 520ST and the Amiga and choose the winner in a head-on
battle, I'd have to pick the Atari. The Amiga simply doesn't offer that
much more performance or features. Also, the techies seem to be headed
toward the Atari."

More John Dvorak in the San Francisco Examiner: "A battle is brewing
between the Amiga computer... and the Atari 520ST. I pick the Atari as
the winner in this fight... The primary influence peddlers are voting
against the Amiga... I know at least three people who have quit their
jobs to work on software for the Atari. One person I know folded his
newsletter so he could concentrate on software for the Atari... I'm
voting with him."

Steve Panak of ANALOG Computing magazine: "The 520ST. Saw my first game
on it, and the graphics are spectacular. That's an understatement; it
yields true arcade quality... The Amiga. After months of publicity, I
finally saw one. First impression: I'm not the least bit worried for
Atari."

Byte's Editor-in-Chief, Phil Lemmons, visited Atari's engineering and
software departments in August and had this to say afterword:

"I visited Atari yesterday and got my first really good look at the
ST520. I'm extremely impressed. Graphics are fast and first-rate. The
most important thing is that all of the I/O happens so fast. It's hard
to believe that this is a low-end machine... Got a pretty good tour
through the development labs, and can tell you that the 32-bit
workstation is not a myth. Also saw some clever refinements of the
desktop on the ST520. Atari is really trying to deliver on its promise
of "power without the price" and I think they're going to pull it off...
the ST520 is going to invigorate the drowsy marketplace."

According to Byte reporter Jerry Pournelle at COMDEX, the "story" of the
giant computer show was the 520ST. Bruce Webster, Byte columnist, said
on the Byte Information Exchange network (BIX): "In my January [1986]
column, I picked the 520ST to be the big winner of 1986 because of its
price/performance ratio."

In the January, 1986, issue of Byte, Ion Edwards, Phillip Robinson, and
Brenda McLaughlin gave us their first impressions of the new 520ST: "For
many years the public has equated the Atari name with arcade games and
joyhsticks.  In truth, the Atari 400/800/XL computer line is technically
at least comparable if not better than other 8-bit machines, so it
should not be a surprise tha the company's latest venture, the 520ST, is
a competitive 68000 system.  Indeed, we are most impressed with the
clarity of the graphics, with the speed of the disk I/O (input/output),
and with the 520ST's value."

Two months later, Byte magazine featured the new 1040 ST on its cover.
In his editorial, Phil Lemmons comments:  "The Atari 1040ST is one of
the great milestones in personal computing.  For the first time, we can
buy a 16-bit machine with 1 megabyte of RAM, 720K bytes of floppy-disk
storage, a good monitor, and a mouse, all for less than $1000.  The
operating system, TOS, is fully in ROM.  Although screen memory and
systems software make some demands on RAM, most of the megabyte really
does belong to the programmer, and therefgore to the user.  Give its
price and power, the Atari 1040ST is the first personal computer that
offers programmers the hardware resources needed to make the computer
accessible, responsive, and useful to millions of nontechnical people
who have yet to use computers."

Personal Computing says: "The 520ST is noticeably faster than the
Macintosh, not only because of the faster clock rate, but also because
it has a faster disk drive... The ST tops the Mac in screen
resolution... The difference is noticeable and allows for more data to
be neatly displayed on the screen... The molded plastic mouse works
well... it's very smooth and just as easy to use as the Macintosh's
mouse -- and better than the Amiga's."

The Jeffries Report, a respected industry newsletter, chose the ST over
the Amiga and even the IBM PC in a head-to-head comparison:

"The big difference between the Atari ST and the Amiga are price and
availability. A 512K Atari color ST at $995 costs about $1000 less than
a similar Amiga configuration."

"If you study the Amiga chip design, it is obvious that they intended
this to be a super fancy video game machine... That's the nub of the
Amiga vs. Atari confrontation: Amiga was designed three years ago as a
$700 hot video game home computer. When that market went south, they
scratched their heads and decided to "reposition" their video game
computer as a serious business computer. Good luck."

"An Atari ST with a fast 68000 processor, a whopping 512KB of RAM, a
cute little 3.5 inch disk, excellent bit-mapped display, friendly GEM
user interface, and CD-ROM 550 megabyte optical disk with an interactive
encyclopedia sounds like exactly what the market needs. Contrast this to
may not care about the price difference of $1000 (if it costs more, it
must be better, right?) but the vast majority of individuals and small
businesses do care about price."

Jeff Markoff of the San Francisco Examiner: "The 520ST's readily
apparent strong point is speed.  Compared to the Macintosh, working with
the ST is extraordinary."

And Family Computing adds: "With the impressive 520ST, Atari has
delivered on its promise of "power without the price."

                           ST CONSUMER NOTES

What do consumers think of the ST?  Here is a letter to Atari Explorer
Magazine from Joseph D. Calo:

"As a soon to be owner of an Atari 520ST, I thought that I'd write and
say that it's about time someone -- Jack Tramiel et al -- came out with
a state of the art computer at an affordable price. I've already sold my
Commodore 64 system and can't wait to get the 520 home early next year.
It's a fantastic machine! I'm looking forward to using it as a word
processor -- the major reason why I purchased a computer in the first
place... Also, some of my friends have already sold or are selling their
systems to purchase this unit. In fact, many that had planned to
purchase the new Commodore 128 have changed their minds and have either
already purchased or will be purchasing the 520 in the future. Thanks
again to Jack and to all those who helped develop this excellent
computer."

Here is a note from Steven Bubulsky that was posted on CompuServe:

"Well, I've had my ST for a month now, and was beginning to think that I
might have made an error in not waiting for and buying an Amiga.  Ah,
victim of HYPE... I had a couple of hours with the Amiga today, and
while the Amiga was good: nice graphics and all... It sure was not worth
the price difference between it and a similar ST.  I thought the
Intuition system screens were 'messy' to look at; GEM on the ST is much
more pleasant to look at and work with.  The monitor output on the ST
seems cleaner to me.  The fabled Mandrill picture on the Amiga was
impressive, but the flicker was distracting.  All of the sudden, this
Atari ST looks awfully nice to me.  I think I'll take the extra $1100 I
just realized that I saved and buy some nice software...and maybe a nice
MIDI instrument to play with the ST. Nice work, Jack and Atari! I won't
have to sleep with an inferiority complex."

What sort of people buy the ST?  According to InfoWorld's research "its
typical buyer is a veteran computer user ...  Typical buyers have also
been small business men and writers ... most of whom are trading up from
a Commodore 64, Apple II, or even an IBM PC."

                       NO HOLDS BARRED COMPARISON

We are constantly asked to give a comparison between the ST and the
competition. You asked for it, you've got it!

CPU SPEED: The ST uses the same 68000 microprocessor that is used in the
Macintosh and Amiga computers, a far more powerful processor than the
old 8-bit 6502 family of chips used in the Apple II series and the
Commodore 64 and 128. In the ST, the 68000 processor runs at 8.01
million cycles per second (8.01 MHz). The Macintosh is second at 7.83
MHz, the Amiga next at 7.16 MHz, and the IBM PC/AT dead last at only
6.00 MHz. 8-bit computers like the Commodore 128 run at a only 2 MHz,
the C64 at a mere 1 MHz.

MONOCHROME VIDEO DISPLAY: The ST can display 640 pixels per line and 400
lines in high resolution monochrome. The Macintosh displays 540 by 340,
roughly two-thirds the number of pixels. The IBM PC/AT has a 640 by 200
display, only half the ST's resolution. The Amiga has no monochrome
mode, nor does the Commodore 128. Because monochrome monitors do not
have something called a shadow mask, a necessary evil in all color
monitors, they produce a much sharper display that is far easier on the
eyes.

COLOR VIDEO DISPLAY: The ST has two color modes, 640 by 200 resolution
with four colors and 320 by 200 with 16 colors  -- colors may be
selected from the 512 that the ST can generate. Using a built-in feature
called horizontal blank interrupts, all 512 colors can be displayed
simultaneously in either mode. The Macintosh has no color capability.
The IBM PC/AT has a 320 by 200 16 color mode (actually two shades of
eight colors). The Amiga can go up to 640 by 400 with 16 colors using a
flickering interlaced display, or 640 by 200 to get a stable picture
with 32 colors.

SOUND AND MUSIC: The ST includes a 3-voice sound chip with a frequency
range from 30Hz to beyond the 20KHz audible limit. It features an
independent volume control for each channel, programmable envelope
shaping (ADSR), and phasing capabilities similar to those of the SID
chip in the Commodore 64 and 128. Although the ST's sound chip is not as
capable as the sound chip in the Amiga, the extremely low price of the
ST allows one to purchase it and an extremely sophisticated synthesizer
(such as the Casio CZ101) for much less than the cost of an Amiga alone.
Simply plug the synthesizer into the MIDI port on the ST and you've got
sound that puts the sound capabilities of the Amiga or any other
personal computer to shame.

FLOPPY DISK ACCESS: The ST's 3.5 inch disk drives transfer data to or
from the 520ST at 31K bytes per second (over one hundred times faster
than the Commodore 64's 300 bytes per second). The ST has been measured
to access the disk between 40% and 50% faster than the IBM PC/AT. The
disk speed is several times faster than the Amiga or the Macintosh. Both
SS/DD and DS/DD drives are available for the ST with formatted storage
capacities of 360K and 720K respectively.

HARD DISK ACCESS: The ST DMA port is capable of moving up to 1.33
million bytes of data per second -- this is so fast that there are
currently no hard disks available that will transfer data at that rate!
No other computer has a comparable port.

PRICE: The 520ST system retails for $795 with monochrome monitor or $995
with RGB color monitor. This price includes a 3.5 inch SS/DD disk drive
(DS/DD optional), RGB monitor, 512K RAM, 192K ROM, Centronics parallel
and RS232C serial ports, 128K ROM cartridge port, mouse and joystick
ports, floppy disk controller, and MIDI interface. A comparable Amiga
color system is $1995, including an extra 256K of RAM (to bring the RAM
up to 512K) and an RGB color monitor, without any MIDI or cartridge
ports. The Macintosh system (without color, of course) is over $2000,
also without MIDI or cartridge ports. The IBM PC/AT system with
bit-mapped color graphics and I/O ports is well over $3000. And a
Commodore 128, while not even close in any respect to being in the
520ST's performance category, costs exactly the same amount as an ST;
$899 with keyboard, 1902 monitor, and 1571 disk drive.

The 520ST system components can also be purchased separately. The 520ST
keyboard, cpu, and mouse cost $299. The keyboard unit has both composite
and RF modulated video outputs in addition to its RGB output, so it can
use a normal TV set or composite monitor as a display. The SS/DD 3.5
inch disk drive costs an additional $199 and the RGB color and
monochrome monitors -- not required if a TV set or composite monitor is
to be used -- cost $399 and $199, respectively.

                           ST TECHNICAL FACTS

THE BEST TEXT DISPLAY ON ANY PERSONAL COMPUTER for practical
applications is found on Atari's SM124 monitor. This high resolution
monochrome monitor provides true 640 by 400 pixel resolution with
astounding clarity using an Atari-exclusive video signal that refreshes
the screen 70 times per second with a broader bandwidth signal than any
other system. Other computers have to 'cheat' to get that kind of
resolution, cutting down the screen refresh to only 30 times per second
and delivering a picture with noticeable flicker. The ST's crisp image
provides hours of comfortable viewing.

THE FASTEST INTERFACE ON ANY PERSONAL COMPUTER is the ST's hard disk
port. This is actually a direct-memory-access (DMA) interface that
provides data transfer rates at an unprecedented 1.33 million bytes per
second for a variety of devices. In addition to the ST's optional 20
megabyte hard disk ($699), this port will simultaneously accommodate
high performance add-ons like the CD-ROM, the planned 32-bit
coprocessor, the IBM PC emulator, high-speed hard copy peripherals, and
local area networks.

DESIGNED TO BRING THE FULL POWER OF THE CPU TO YOU. Of the major 68000
based systems (and we include Apple's Macintosh and Commodore's Amiga),
the ST personal computer system is the only one that runs the cpu at its
full 8 MHz. In addition, the system architecture of the ST ensures that
the cpu can run constantly and is not bogged down by graphics, sound, or
I/O processing. While it is claimed that the Amiga's cpu does not have
to intervene when the machine manipulates graphics, what they don't tell
you is that many graphics and blit operations effectively turn the cpu
off -- the cpu doesn't intervene, it just goes to sleep! Technically,
this is known as putting the cpu into a wait state. On the ST, the
special video and I/O circuits give the cpu the ability to work during
other operations. After all, what is a computer really used for --
processing (by the cpu) and communications with other devices (I/O),
which is precisely where the ST's hardware shines -- it is much faster
than even much more expensive machines like Apple's Lisa and IBM's PCs.

FOUR CUSTOM CHIPS ENHANCE THE ST'S CPU POWER. The DMA chip makes disk
access to both floppy disk and hard disk port instantaneous as far as
the cpu is concerned. The video shifter, memory manager, and "glue" chip
work in concert to make sure the system timing is synchronized so that
the graphics operations take no time from the cpu -- in fact, the ST RAM
chips are operated twice as fast as the cpu can access them, so the
video chips can access them between cpu accesses.

                             FINAL COMMENTS

Perhaps the best confirmation of the superior price/performance ratio of
the 520ST comes from a major Commodore dealer. The following was
downloaded from CompuServe's OnLine Today section on December 12, 1985:
"In a letter to midwestern computer owners, a well-known Commodore
retailer has blasted the manufacturer's marketing strategy. The
retailer, Paul Orme of DigitalWorld, has decided to go on the offensive
in explaining his firm's decision not to market the Amiga. According to
Orme, Commodore is "afraid of letting us demonstrate it [the Amiga] next
to the Atari 520ST." The president of the suburban Chicago store went on
to explain that he wasn't all that impressed with the Amiga... Orme said
that the Amiga compares poorly with the Atari and the new Epson Equity
computer "dollar for dollar and feature for feature." To prove his
point, Orme is setting up an Amiga machine "not to sell" but so that
potential buyers can see what "Commodore itself, knew -- the Amiga is no
match for the Atari."



[Reprinted from the April, 1986 issue of CURRENT NOTES: The Newsletter
for Atari Owners.  For more information on CURRENT NOTES, see the CNOTES
file in the NEW PRODUCTS section of the Developers SIG.]
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