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Wrap

Text File | 1991-10-27 | 15KB | 276 lines

THE MEGA ST(e) ************** THE TT FOR THE REST OF US ? ************************** by John Hutchinson When Atari's flagship computer, the TT/030, was unveiled, there were untold "oohs" and "aahs" heard from Atari fans around the world. Long had we waited for the next generation of powerful Atari computers. The 32 mhz 68030-powered TT was indeed a screamer and its enhanced graphic modes and plethora of industry standard ports enticed us to believe the long wait was well served. But when we saw (gulp) the TT's price tag, we wondered what had happened to the once proud slogan of "Power Without The Price". Sure the TT is a bargain compared to many other graphic workstations, but the minimum entry cost is a quantum leap from what dedicated Atari users were used to paying for ST's. What was needed was another machine to fill the niche between the low end 1040ST(e)/Mega ST line and the ultra powerful (and expensive) TT. Well, take heart friends, for the powers that be in the hallowed halls at Atari have released a new machine which may well come to be considered the finest they have yet assembled -- the MEGA ST(e) ! ! ! What makes this new machine such a potential winner? Let's start by checking out few of it's standard features: * 16MHz 68000 w/cache * 1,2 or 4 Megabytes of RAM * Built in 50Mb hard drive (in the 2 and 4Mb versions) * Easy to upgrade SIMM memory modules * TOS 2.5 * Extensible control panel * ST(e) 4,096 colour palette * ST(e) PCM stereo sound output * VME expansion port * LAN network port * Blitter graphics chip * TT style case and detachable keyboard THE WEDDING CAKE REVISITED The Mega ST(e) is, in a word, BIG. Identical in style to the TT, the unitized case holds computer internals, floppy and hard disk drives, and measures a whopping 19x11x4 inches PLUS the detachable keyboard. If you add a cartridge such as the Spectre GCR, the machine seems to take on immense proportions, if your work area is on the smallish side. The so- called "wedding cake" style TT case has been the subject of much debate; you either like it or you do not. Fortunately, Atari chose to mold the Mega ST(e)'s case in a platinum grey colour which many find more appealing than the rather anemic off-white colour of the TT. The "feel" and tactile response of the detachable keyboard is superb. Function keys are now shaped more sensibly so you don't need parallelogram shaped fingers anymore. Both mouse and joysticks conveniently plug into the sides of the keyboard. Some of the TT's design flaws haunt the MegaST(e); for example, the coiled keyboard cable plugs into the RIGHT hand side of the keyboard and into the LEFT hand side of the computer, effectively cutting the usable length of the cable in half. A more serious flaw is the proximity of the keyboard cable jack to the cartridge port. With the cable plugged in, a large cartridge (such as the Spectre GCR) may not be fully inserted. It still works, mind you, but does not leave the user with much peace of mind. Inserting or removing a cartridge while the computer is powered up is potentially hazardous to cartridge, computer, and wallet. Next to the cartridge port on the left side of the computer, we find the traditional MIDI IN and MIDI OUT ports, power reset switch and a LAN (Local Area Network) port. The latter is a welcome addition which will ostensibly allow easy connection and communications between multiple computers and other devices via an AppleTalk like network. Software supporting the LAN protocol is sure to come so stay tuned. Looking at the rear of the machine, we find a slew of changes! On the left is the standard external floppy drive port, then the monitor port (use your existing ST colour and monochrome monitors) and even an RF modulator port for connection to a television. Next we find the ACSI (Atari Computer Systems Interface aka DMA) port for connecting external hard drives. Then there is the standard parallel printer port followed by two modem/serial ports. The modem ports are of the DB9 variety though, so it's time to round up a new modem cable (IBM AT cables work fine). The much touted VME slot sits above the ACSI port and is currently occupied by still another DB9 serial port. And on the far right is a single internal fan (at last!) and two RCA phone jacks for stereo output. Rounding out the package is the standard Atari two button mouse, power cable, TV cable and a compact but very nicely written and illustrated owner's manual of 170 pages or so. A standard 720K DSDD floppy drive is incorporated into the machine. Sorry, no 1.4 Mb DSHD "superfloppy" drive as yet. UP AND RUNNING WITH TOS 2.5 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At last we are ready to power up the beast. So plug in the power cable monitor cable, keyboard and mouse and flick on the power switch. Uh-oh Nothing happens. But wait 5 seconds and the hard drive reassuringly begins to spin up, and soon initializes itself. Strangely enough, at this point you press any key to continue autobooting from hard disk. If you don't, the computer will pause for a minute and a half before completing the bootup process. NEW DESKTOP ~~~~~~~~~~~ When the desktop appears, you notice the icons look a little different After some experimentation or browsing through the manual (heaven forbid) you discover new icons can be installed from a generous library of pre- designed icons. You can also instal any application on the desktop as well as a handy printer icon. Under the Options menu (figure 4), you find you can set default directories, input parameters, and even function key assignments for any application (all right!). Additionally, each drop down menu option can be assigned a keystroke, of your choice. E.g. You could assign the [S] key to activate the Show Information command from the File menu and the [B] key to toggle the blitter graphics chip on and off. If all this sounds familiar, it's evidence that Atari has kept an eye on the third party developers of ST utility software as many of the new features first appeared in programs like NeoDesk, MaxiFile, Hotwire et al. Other new menu commands include a handy file search command and a bottom to top command which reverse orders any existing windows on the desktop. You can also Set File Mask to select the file type to be displayed in the active window. The View menu still forces all windows to be shown as either icons or text, but you can now have up to seven windows open at once. Files set to read-only status have little triangle next to them and you may select all files in the current directory with a menu command. Applications can be set to autoboot status and document types within a specified directory can be linked to a given application. Multiple NEWDESK.INF (equivelent to the old DESKTOP.INF) files can be selected without re-booting via the new Read.Inf menu command. Trust me, there are a lot of positive changes thanks to the new TOS 2.5! The hard disk comes formatted in four 11.5Mb partitions with boot software already installed. Users will appreciate this "plug and play" philosophy. To boot from floppy just press [ALT] once as the machine powers up. NEW CONTROL PANEL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Explore the new Extensible Control Panel Accessory, which has been lifted from the TT. The New Control Panel is called Extensible because it supports up to 99 smaller programs known as CPX's or Control Panel Extensions. Unlike desk accessories (still limited to a maximum of six) CPX's do not have to be memory resident but will be loaded from disk only when called. The Mega ST(e) comes with several CPX's factory installed which manage window colours, CPX configuration, CPU speed, stereo sound, mouse acceleration, modem and printer setup, etc. At long last Atari has incorporated a battery backed up internal clock -- set the time and date once with the Control Panel Accessory - and forget it! 16MHz Spells F-A-S-T Relief ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You may be wondering how the new 16MHz 68000 works in practice. Is it appreciably faster? Is it crashworthy? Is it worth the extra bucks? The answer dear reader is yes, Yes, and YES. From my thus far, limited time with the machine I can definitely report that the cached 16MHz CPU does a fine job of speeding up most applications, and has a very low bomb rate. With the combination of 16MHz with cache on, Blitter chip, and a software accelerator such as QuickST or TurboST, this puppy just flies! Windows seem to SNAP open and scrolling text and moving blocks of data around is visibly faster than 8MHz mode. Knowing you won't take my word for it, I have created the following benchmark figures with Darel Mihocka's Quick Index utility, ver 2.1. All tests were based on TOS 1.0 as the reference point (100%) in medium resolution colour. SPEED TESTS ON THE MEGA ST(e) ---------------------------- 8MHz 16MHz 16MHz 16MHz w/cache w/cache & QuickST 2.2 TEST --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CPU memory 100 100 165 165 CPU register 100 100 204 204 CPU divide 100 183 204 204 CPU shifts 100 280 208 208 DMA 64K Read 5680 5853 5853 5680 GEMDOS files 1185 1185 1552 1204 TOS Text 102 108 174 601 TOS String 96 100 158 3208 TOS Screen 135 136 153 189 GEM Dialog 133 138 215 645 Numbers don't lie, but they can be misleading. Often a better performance indicator can be made via the timing of real world tasks. For example rotating an identical, large graphic clip under Migraph's Touch-Up application required about 8 seconds on a 32MHz TT, 10 Seconds on a 16MHz MegaST(e), and over 20 seconds on an 8MHz Stacey. Since the MegaST(e) has a blitter chip and the TT does not, some tests may yield surprising results. For example, using a version of the famous BOINK! bouncing ball program, the Mega ST(e) with blitter chip enabled was clearly faster than the TT. In all fairness however, a TT with fastRAM installed and software written to take advantage of it, combined with the 68030's cache, will surely blow the doors off a MegaST(e). However if you intend to run strictly ST software, the MegaST(e) may well be the clear winner from a cost Vs performance standpoint. Spectre GCR users note: Version 3.0 works great on the MegaST(e) and with 16MHz achieves a respectable Speedometer (a popular Mac benchmark utility) rating of 2.15 faster than a Mac Plus. At 8MHz the rating drops to 1.50. Software Compatibility ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Basically, the MegaST(e) is an ST(e) with several new goodies added. If your software works on a 1040ST(e) it will most likely work on the MegaST(e) as well. The following list comprises some of the testing I have done thus far: - Programs that sometimes WORK ---------------------------- GFA Basic 3.5 Interpreter - Works with some conflict moving from immediate mode to program mode. GFA Basic 3.5 Compiler - Works but you must remove the extensible control panel .ACC first. Programs that do NOT WORK ------------------------- Populous Twister 2 Programs that WORK ------------------ Aladdin ARC and LHARC Degas Elite DC Format 3 Dungeon Master PC DITTO V3 Spectre 3.0 Test Drive WordWriter ST 2.0 Hardware Additions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Modems: The DB8 modem ports cause some frustration to existing ST users due to the need for a new cable. Printers: Connecting a parallel printer is as easy as it ever was and we now have serial ports as well. Atari has thoughtfully included a screendump driver for use with the Atari laser printer. External Hard Disks: Connecting your existing hard disk is as easy as plugging it into the ACSI port and turning it on. ICD Host Adaptors work without conflict when connected to the MegaST(e). Monitors: You are currently restricted to the ST colour and monochrome monitors unless you purchase an adapter and run a multisynch. This may be a good choice if you plan on aquiring a VME graphics card at some stage. External Stereo Speakers: With the stereo RCA phone jacks, running your computer's sound output through your stereo system or a pair of self powered bookshelf speakers is simplicity itself. IBM Emulators: The square 68000 chip makes use of PC Ditto II all but impossible. Supercharger should work fine as does PC Ditto I. Macintosh Emulators: Other than the interference between the keyboard cable and the cartridge, Mac Emulators like the GCR work just fine. Accelerators: Fast Technolog's new Turbo20 accelerator will likely be made available for the Mega ST(e) but you will have to judge whether moderate gains in speed are worth the upgrade cost. It is till unknown if Gadget's screaming SST 68030 accelerator will be made available for the Mega ST(e) . THE WRAP UP ~~~~~~~~~~ By and large, Atari's new Mega ST(e) is an impressive machine. It's fast, highly compatible, and the new TOS and extensible control panel enhance an already excellent desktop environment. We finally have a great keyboard and the built in hard disk, VME port, and simple memory expansion which improves the machine's usability and survivability. Unfortunately, the ST(e)'s graphic capabilities are still behind the times. According to reports both European and Canadian developers are working on VME graphics cards for this machine so in time we'll have at least VGA equivelent graphics with a 640x480 pixel display of 256 simultaneous colours. Then we can pressure Atari for affordable 24/32 displays of 16.8 million colours! With the current prise war currently lowering the cost of the 1040ST(e) the Mega ST(e) may seem overpriced. However, compared to the cost of cobbling together a system to approximate the Mega ST(e)'s features the price is attractive. In fact, one of the nicest features about the Mega ST(e) is how seamlessly everything is integrated. After having to strap bits and pieces into and onto my old 1040 ST with baling wire and bandaids, it's really nice to have a clean setup again. Like the man says, "You want it? It's in there". So take a good long look at the new MegaST(e). Better still try to arrange a test drive. You are sure to come away impressed and confident that Atari still has what it takes to make a great computer.