NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16

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Internet Message Format | 1992-07-30 | 18.8 KB

Xref: sparky comp.sys.atari.st:11879 news.answers:2306 Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!sun-barr!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!wupost!gumby!destroyer!news.iastate.edu!pv1787.vincent.iastate.edu!sourada From: sourada@iastate.edu (Steven D Ourada) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,news.answers Subject: Welcome to comp.sys.atari.st! (Hardware) Summary: Some frequent questions and answers about Atari 16/32 bit computers. Please read this before asking a question on comp.sys.atari.st. Message-ID: <sourada.712512594@pv1787.vincent.iastate.edu> Date: 30 Jul 92 16:09:54 GMT Expires: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 00:00:00 GMT References: <sourada.712512222@pv1787.vincent.iastate.edu> Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System) Followup-To: comp.sys.atari.st Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA Lines: 436 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Archive-name: csas-faq/part3 Welcome to comp.sys.atari.st! Please read this FAQ before posting a question to comp.sys.atari.st, since a lot of common questions are answered here. Thanks to David Paschall-Zimbel (davidli@simvax.labmed.umn.edu) for compiling most of this FAQ. The following is an index of the questions answered in this part of the FAQ. For easy access to a particular question, search for the tag surrounded by colons (i. e. :GNU:). Questions marked with '*' are new or changed. WEL Welcome to comp.sys.atari.st ACCEL Hardware Accelerators DRIVES What should I know about hard drives and the ST? FLOPPY Can I use 1.44 meg floppy disks? GRAPHIC How can I enjoy enhanced graphics on my ST? JOY What joysticks work best with the Atari ST? MODEM What modems work with the Atari ST? MONITOR What should I know about monitors and the ST? PCEM How can I turn my Atari ST into a PC emulator? SPECTRE How can I turn my Atari ST into a Macintosh emulator? UPGRADE Can/should I upgrade my ST? :WEL: Welcome to comp.sys.atari.st ============================ This newsgroup is devoted to discussion about 16 and 32 bit Atari micros. At present that includes the Atari 520ST, 1040ST, Mega ST, STe, STacy, Mega STe, and the Atari TT. There are also emulators for the Apple Macintosh and IBM PC/XT/AT available. Most of the people who read this newsgroup are technically oriented. The newsgroup serves as a resource for Atari users ... feel free to contribute to the discussions. Associated newsgroups include: comp.binaries.atari.st ! uuencoded binary programs comp.sys.atari.st.tech ! technical programming/hardware topics comp.sources.atari.st ! uuencoded/shar sources :ACCEL: Hardware Accelerators ===================== (Thanks to Shoou-yu Tang sytang@lamar.colostate.edu for this info.) 68000 based: ICD adspeed ST/STe Fast Tech Turbo T-16 (16MHz) T-20 (20MHz) T-25 (25MHz) 68030 based: Gadget by Small SST (16MHz to 40MHz user changeable, 8 SIMM slot 68882 FPU socket, 1 expansion slot, TOS 2.0x). Fast Tech : Tiny Turbo Full size version :DRIVES: What should I know about hard drives and the ST? (Thanks to Shoou-yu Tang sytang@lamar.colostate.edu for this info.) To get a hard drive for ST, STe, Mega, Mega STe or TT(using DMA port): 1. Host adapter (convert the ST's DMA to SCSI standard): ICD, Supra, BMS are the three major manufature. ICD has very good software updating support and updates very often. 2. SCSI hard drive or MFM/RLL drive with SCSI adapter: i). SCSI drive: Like Quantum Pro80LPS, Seagate ST-xxxN series, they have a 50 pins IDC connector, and usually say SCSI hard drive or Mac drive. (Any Mac except Mac128, Mac512, FatMac has SCSI built in, so a drive that works with Mac usually has SCSI interface). No other adapter needed, just connect to the host adapter in 1. ii). MFM/RLL drive: These types of drive is older and used in older IBM machines. To use them you need an adapter to convert them to SCSI. Adaptec 4000/4000A is for MFM, 4070 for RLL drive, Emulex and OMTI also has similar cards availible. Adaptec has stopped production for quite sometime so look for these in used/liquidation place. (usually goes $40 to $75 each). Connect the drive to the adapter (said Adaptec 4000) then connect the adapter to the host adapter. (said ICD). It looks like following: -------------- ----------- ------------ ---------- | MFM drive |------->|ACB 4000 |------>| ICD |------>| ST DMA | -------------- ----------- ------------ ---------- 3. Case, power supply and cabels for the drive system: Unless you have Mega, Mega STe, TT and the drive is 3.5" so you will put the drive internally, you will need a case with power supply to house the adapter and hard drive. IBM case is very easy to get and has a lot of space for expansion. For older drive you need about 40 watts each drive, for newer 3.5" drive they use about 20 watts or less, Quantum LPS drive use about 10 watts each, make sure your power supply has more than the drives need. Again if you use IBM case, the 150 watts power supply for that type case can drive at least 3 drives without problwm. Cables: DMA cable usually comes with the host adapter. power cable from power supply to drive usually comes with power sup SCSI cable from host adapter to SCSI drive or adapter(for MFM/RLL), it's 50pins IDC female connector on each end with 50 conductors cable. Should be availible at place you get the drive. For MFM/RLL drive you will need the usual MFM/RLL drive cable: ( a 34 conductors cable and a 20pins connector, again should be available at the place you get the drive). Now, connect them all together. Before power up, check the connection again. And check the jumper setting on the drive (consult the drive's manual). If you are using more than one drive with the system, make sure only the last drive has the terminator (either a DIP or a signle inline package of resistor, which usually is socketed and close to the SCSI connector on the drive circle board. Remove the terminator from other drives. [only the last drive should have the terminator] Software usually comes with the host adapter, or you can FTP atari's AHDX5 from ftp sites. :FLOPPY: Can I use 1.44 meg floppy disks? 1.4 megabyte floppy drives will soon be available from Atari for MegaSTe and TT machines. If you own an older Atari ST, there is a company which offers a $199 kit (including floppy) to install and use the drive. (I will supply the name next month, sorry...) Note that Tos versions prior to 2.05 will not format a 1.4 meg floppy from the desktop. :GRAPHIC: How can I enjoy enhanced graphics on my ST? For stock STs, JRI makes a chip which allows a 4096 color palette. There is also a public domain enhancement that allows 32768 colors on older STs. This can be found as 32kcolor.lzh on some archives. There are a number of graphics boards on the market. Here is a first pass at listing some of them. The information is based on postings by Ben Gilbert and Jari Lehto. C32 board by Matrix Datensystem (Germany) * 800x608, 256 colors * all ST/TT models * 256k, 512k and 1meg versions C75Z board by Matrix Datensystem (Germany) * 1024x768, 256 colors * Mega ST or STe, TT VME Buss (Matrix GmbH has over 15, maybe over 20 with all versions, different graphics boards available, from hobbyist to professional, from CAD to GenLock and digitizing.) ISAC board by Dover Research Company (U.S.) * 1024x768, 16 colors from palette of 4096 * makes hi-res look like ST low res, just with a huge window * Mega ST buss * Dover Research Co. (612) 492-3913 The Imagine by Wittich Computer GmbH (Germany) * 1024x768, 256 colors * Mega ST only (Versions available for all ST/TT models. Several possible resolutions. Reasonable price, but slow and not very compatible..) Crazy Dots by TKR (Germany) * 1024x768, 256 colors * Mega ST only (1280x800, 256 colors out of 16.7 million color palette. 1664x1200 for both 16 color and monochrome. True color option available. Mega ST, Mega STe and TT.) reSOLUTION SuperVGA by GengTec (Germany) * 8 resolutions, 320x200 through 1600x1200 * 16 colors without driver, 256 out of 256,000 with driver * 1 mb RAM * uses a standard VGA monitor * Mega ST or regular ST * available in U.S. from Rio Datel, 1-800-782-9110, (702) 454-700 (1024x768 is the highest resolution with 256 colors. Driver is called Multicolor VGA option. Compatible with NVDI and Blitter. Multisync monitor recommended.) AlberTT * like ISAC card, but specific for TT VME buss MegaScreen * 832x624 monochrome * connects to MegaBus * works with Spectre Reflex *1024x1024 with SM124 monitor *2048x2048 possible with expansion *usable with most big-screen displays ODIN by Marvin AG (Switzerland) * external expansion * gives TT-resolutions to a regular ST Cyrel * RISC-based card * extremely costly Graphics cards for which information is sought: OmniChrome board by Omnimon Peripherals JRI GenLock Atari/Lexicor 24 bit color card Jari Lehto proposed the following recommendations: Low budget SVGA - reSOLUTION Professional high-end use Cyrel (or is it Cyrix?) Hobby or semi-pro DTP Reflex Hobby DTP MegaScreen To obtain TT resolution ODIN :JOY: What joysticks work best with the Atari ST? The Atari ST works with joysticks with a 'standard' D-Socket. IBM-style joysticks, Apple joysticks, and Nintendo joysticks will -not- work. Some recommended joysticks: Konix Navigator - "best .. if you want to use it for any length of time" Gravis - "responsive ... great for games like MidiMaze" WICO - "strong reed switches, hard plastic and metal components" Atari - "FAR more controllable and responsive than other, more durable units" :MODEM: What modems work with the Atari ST? Any external modem should work fine with the Atari ST-series of computers. You will need to purchase or build an RS-232 cable. Be sure the cable is capable of establishing DTR with your modem, as many telecommunications packages check the status of the DTR line. (Ask your local hardware guru if you don't know what DTR is...) The ST can connect to modems at up to 19,200 baud. Practically, you will purchase either a 2400-baud or 9600-baud modem. The cost of 2400-baud modems has dropped so much in the past few years that you should not even consider a slower modem. Believe me, modem speeds under 2400-baud are going to seem SLOOOOOOOW to you! :MONITOR: What should I know about monitors and the ST? The monitor is your connection to the ST. Without a monitor, you're typing blind. (Unless, of course, you have an RF modulator on your ST and attach it to your TV set. This is discouraged, as the bandwidth and resolution are pretty terrible for anything other than arcade games.) There are three monitor choices for those of us owning Atari ST/STe equipment: 1. Monochrome monitors - these include the venerable SM124, one of the sharpest monochrome monitors on the market. Street price is about $150, used monitors should run around $80-90. You can also purchase a 19" monochrome monitor. This gives you a 'big screen' to play around in, and is best for work with DTP and CAD systems. The price is a bit high at $1500+, and you'll need a plug-in board, which is generally set up for the Mega ST machine. 2. Color monitors - including the SC1224 in all of its incarnations (JVC and Goldstar being the primary vendors). The newer monitor, the SC1435, has a 14" screen and stereo sound. 3. Multisync monitors - these monitors provide monochrome and color access in one monitor. The street price is around $450, about $100 more than a standard Atari color monitor. You need to reset your computer to change resolutions. In many cases, a nice little switch box is provided (or you can build one) which does this for you. Examples of multisync monitors include the OMNIMON RAINBOW MONITOR. There are any number of monitor choices for those owning Atari TT equipment, although they all boil down to 'multisync VGA'. There 14" color VGA monitor from Atari is quite nice, as is the 19" monochrome monitor. Any standard 14" multisync VGA monitor will do as well. Forget moving your SM124 or SC1224 monitor to your new system, the cabling and electronics is just not going to work. :PCEM: How can I turn my Atari ST into a PC emulator? ============================================== (Thanks to Shoou-yu Tang sytang@lamar.colostate.edu for this info.) Supercharger is the only external PC emulator with 8MHz V30 and 1MB RAM in a nice lunch box. It connects to ST's DMA port and defaults as device 3. It's powered by external power supply. Has 8087 socket and one expansion slot. The 1MB RAM can be used as RAM drive by ST when the IBM side not used. :SPECTRE: How can I turn my Atari ST into a Macintosh emulator? ===================================================== (Thanks to Wayne (trek@ihlpb.att.com) for this info.) Product: Spectre GCR from Gadgets by Small, Inc 40 W. Littleton Blvd #210-211 Littleton, CO 80120 Retail: $299.95 Description: The Spectre GCR is a combination of software and hardware that allows the Atari Mega/ST/STe/TT line of computers to emulate an Apple MacIntosh Plus(tm) Computer. The emulation is so good that most Apple software runs out of the package using your Atari Disk drives to read in the Mac software. It does all of this while running 20% faster than the program would on a MacIntosh Plus and provides you a 30% larger screen area. The Spectre GCR is a combination of software (written by Gadgets by Small, Inc), a cartridge (also from Gadgets), and a pair of 128K Apple ROMs (from either a MAC 512kE(tm) or Mac Plus - part numbers 342-0341 and 342-0342 which you purchase separately from an Apple source.) The Apple ROMs can currently be purchased for around $150. MacIntosh documentation and software, including the operating system (referred to as System/Finder), are also required to round out the package. The Spectre software is currently at release Version 3.0. Gadgets supplies fairly frequent updates to allow you to keep up with the Apple OS releases. The Version 3.0 update retails for $20. Version 3.0 supports 15 of the 128K OS releases up to, but not yet including System 7 releases. Spectre software supports Mac formatted disks (including formatting your own) with your Atari drives, Mac sound, large screen displays (1280x960) Mac harddisks via SCSI through a Megatalk board (retail $299.95 from Gadgets) or through an ACSI-SCSI host adapter (my Syquest works beautifully- and the excessive use of disk accesses in Mac software will have you wanting a hard drive). Spectre 3.0 also supports DOS Mounter and Apple File Exchange if you are needing MS-DOS data disks for Mac work. Language configuration support, keyboard support, A4 paper size support for Lasers have also been added to 3.0. Running Spectre: The feeling you will get when you see your Atari transformed into a MacIntosh with a decent screen is indescribable. The extra flexibility that you get will also make you feel more confident in the greatness of your Atari. You will also get to see some of the frustrations with one of the other sides of the fence - frustrations like excessive disk access, remembering not to remove/change a disk unless the OS tells you to, etc. Speaking of changing disks, there are major differences in the operating philosophies of an ST and of a MacIntosh. You really must read the documentation that comes with the Spectre GCR (and I for one found that a real delight. Dave and Sandy have a very different approach to software documentation that makes it enjoyable reading.) You should also read the Mac Operating System docs. One other reference you may need if you are going to do much with Mac software is one of the reference manuals referred to as the MacIntosh Bible. If you ask an Apple dealer if a particular piece of software runs on a GCR, don't figure you will get a straight answer. They won't know. The current compatibility list from Gadgets lists about 450 programs and their release numbers that have been tried and found to work with Spectre GCR. In general, if a piece of software won't work with the GCR, it is probably becuase of copy protection. Most serious Mac software is not copy protected. One last note - earlier versions of the emulator exist that were not capable of reading Mac disks directly. It's a capability you will want. (Thanks to Shoou-yu Tang (sytang@lamar.colostate.edu) for this info.) Spectre GCR is the best availible, you need to obtain a set of 128KB ROM from Apple (they are used in Mac 512KE and Mac Plus, noted that Mac512 use older 64 KB ROM which is not good) to fully utilize the device. Also it's recommanded to use it with MONO monitor and at least 2MB RAM. The Spectre software takes about 300 some KB of memory, so on a 1040 there is not very much left for Mac, especially after the Mac system is loaded. 4MB memory and MONO is best. It can read/write Mac disk direct using ST's drive (double side drive, as most Mac drive is double side). With DOS mounter or software like that you can read /write ST, IBM disk from the Mac desktop as well (don't try to run the ST, IBM binary. It's only for file transfer). Or you can use Apple File Exchange to read/write ST, IBM disk. Syatem 6.0.5 runs fine, system 6.0.6, 6.0.7 runs also. But system 7 will not run with it. :UPGRADE: Can/should I upgrade my ST? The answer depends on the type of ST you currently have, and what you want to do in the future. Be aware that there are a large number of modifications one can perform on the venerable 1040ST, and that newer machines are coming down in cost so much that to obtain a certain feature it may be cheaper to purchase new than to upgrade. 1. Memory - most ST machines may be upgraded to 4 megabytes. The newer STe machines use either SIP or SIMM 2. TOS - for those still running TOS 1.0, now is the time to consider an upgrade. TOS 1.4 has been around for at least 2 years now, and is -much- faster (and safer) for those using hard drives. TOS 2.06 is available as a hardware upgrade to ST and MegaST machines for about $150 from CodeHead ===================================================================== Hope you liked the comp.sys.atari.st FAQ. If you have comments, suggestions, more material, etc., mail me at sourada@iastate.edu Thanks to David Paschall-Zimbel (davidli@simvax.labmed.umn.edu) for compiling most of this FAQ. Later, Steven Ourada -- ----------------- Steven Ourada Member of the Students for Electronic Freedom Ask me how Iowa State University is censoring my Usenet access! sourada@iastate.edu "can't casts no shadow" -- cummings