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falcon.asc
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Text File
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1989-12-31
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4KB
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92 lines
==============
The Falcon 030
==============
Part One
In this two part series we're going to tell you as much as
we can about the Falcon 030 computer; Atari's former baby
before they dropped it for the Jaguar. In the first part
we're going to take you on a guided tour of it's hardware.
The Falcon's Hardware
---------------------
When you first look at the 030, you think it's very similar
to the ST. It has the same case, except with darker keys and
a "Falcon 030" badge on it. But inside that case is a
completely different machine waiting to get out into the new
case that never arrived.
All the standard ports on the Falcon are there, the ROM
cartridge port, the analogue joystick ports and the MIDI
ports. These are all still on the left hand side, and do
exactly the same jobs as on the STE, except some of the ROM
cartridges don't work on the Falcon.
The right hand side features the 1.44Mb floppy disk with its
own LED. Yes, if you want to see if the floppy is operating
you can also look on the right hand side, tweak your head a
bit, and look at the little orange LED. The normal LED is
still there as well, but this also shows hard drive access
as well as floppy drive access. As you all now know the
drive is 1.44Mb which means you can use high density
floppies used by those mean, expensive PCs.
The back of the Falcon is the best bit, though. There you
can see thousands (OK, a little bit OTT there) of ports. The
first, and the only one we know, is the standard DB25
parallel printer port. Then there is the serial port, but
this is the joystick size one which means new cables if you
own a modem! There is also another serial port on the Falcon
known as the LAN port. It is a RS-422 high speed port which
is ideally used for connecting Falcons together as it
operates at very high speeds.
The ASCI monitor port has disappeared to be replaced by a
DB19 male video connector which is more standard, and an
adaptor also comes with the machine that allows you to
connect to joystick port size VGA monitors. Of course, the
TV RF connector port is still there so you can connect your
Falcon to a TV, but you're not really benefitting from it's
true colour modes or high res modes if you use a TV.
There is a new hard drive port which replaces the DMA one.
This new port is the SCSI-II which is better than the
standard SCSI ports! This new port also allows you to
connect to plotters, flopticals, flatbed scanners, hand-held
scanners and more!
There are also several new ports. There is a headphone port
to connect to speakers or, of course, a headphone. There is
also a microphone port which allows you to sample sounds
with the appropriate software. The DSP port is also there
which can be used to connect Falcons together for even
better performance.
Inside the 030
--------------
When you take a look inside the Falcon, everything is quite
neat. The chips are surface mounted which makes for a high
reliability and there aren't loads of wires hanging off
everywhere.
A mono speaker is also inside the Falcon which sits under
the grill at the top of the machine. This is used because
VGA monitors don't have a speaker. The 68030 and RAM chips
are also inside the machine (where else would they be?).
Unfortunately, Atari have changed the RAM chips again. They
are no longer standard plug-in SIMMs but the chips used in
the original ST. This is a huge downfall on Atari's part as
it makes the Falcon difficult and expensive to upgrade.
An expansion port is also in our favourite bird. This is
where you plug in DMA co-processors, floating point units
emulator for (oh dear, I'd better not say it) PCs and more.
The Falcon is a brilliant machine, and next issue in part
two of "The Falcon 030" we'll be telling you about the
software and the desktop. Oh and a message to Atari and some
third party developers. Can we have some "enhanced"
joysticks to use those "enhanced" ports on the STE and
Falcon instead of having to keep reaching under our machine
to get to those hidden ports? Thank you.