ST News
ATARI 90's SHOW
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68030 upgrade for the ST !!!
Third Coast Technologies displayed the PRO VME 68030 upgrade board.
The board features a modified version of TOS 1.4 (required to make use
of the extra capabilities of the 68030). The 68030 runs at 25MHZ.
Also included - 128 instruction and data cache
- socket for 68882 math co-processor
- plain vanilla 68000 to retain compatibility
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Z*NET NEWSWIRE / Z*NET ENGLAND NEWSWIRE
ATARI SOFTWARE UPGRADES
Hyperpaint has been revamped to make better use of the features of the
STE. Notable improvements in Hyperpaint 2 include hardware scrolling of
IMG screens if a blitter is fitted, access to the STE's 4096 color
palette, IMG screens may now be set to any size within RAM constraints,
and many other features quickened. It is also possible to run the new
version of Hyperpaint without GDOS installed.
Atari has also relaunched their comms package FaSTcomm. Nicely GEM'd,
FaSTcomm supports VT100/52 and Viewdata, bachground up/downloading, call
log and built-in text and Viewdata editors. Waiting in the wings is
"the official Atari hard disk back-up package..." - Archive.
Hyperpaint 2 costs UK$34.95 (UK$10 for the upgrade) and FaSTcomm now
retails at UK$49.95 (UK$15 for the upgrade).
NEW PRODUCTS FROM KUMA
Kuma has a couple of exciting looking products due for release soon.
The first is Polyfiler, an innovative Hypertext style database that has
been in the making for sometime. The second, Adimens, has been a very
popular database in Germany for a few years now. Kuma will be plugging
a gap in the UK market when they launch an English version of Adimens in
late September, early October.
DELUXE PAINT ST
The ST version of what is generally regarded as the standard paint
package for the Amiga is now available from Electronic Arts. Deluxe
Paint will read all popular ST picture file formats, plus Amiga IFF
files, and boasts 999 animation buffers each of which can hold up to 999
frames. Proportional fonts, font editing, color mixing airbrushes, STE
extended palette support, and real-time magnification are amoung st wide
array of features available. Deluxe Paint will cost UK$49.99 until the
end of November when the price will rise by UK$10.00.
CALAMUS PRICE CHANGES
To make room for Calamus SL, the price of the current version will drop
to UK$265.00. Calamus SL, which includes full color seperation
facilities will retail around UK$500.00.
AT CONFUSION
Gasteiner has announced that they are the sole UK distributors of AT
Speed at UK$239.99, and that Full Circle Technologies, who had announced
they were supplying AT Speed at UK$269.00, are unable to supply the
product. AT Speed offers IBM ST emulation with CGA, Olivetti, Hercules
and Tandy 1000 display modes as well as full Atari mouse, RS232 and hard
disk support. Atari SLM804 support will follow.
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DUSSELDORF REPORT - Jim Allen (STREPORT)
The Atari booth was as big or bigger than their booth at Comdex. There
were dozens of DTP, CAD, scientific, and business solutions represented.
The level of high quality workmanship was very evident. They even had
Unix on display running X Windows. TTs were abundant...of course. The
speed of the TT made the software demonstrations that much slicker.
Also in the second building was ICD, they were showing their latest
host adapter, a "smart" unit that has it's own processor and implements
true SCSI. This is considered a professional device and should allow
interfacing to a whole world of real SCSI add-ons. They were also showing
a neat, totally rewritten TOS. One of ICD's programmers was responsible
for it and he has done a SUPER FANTASTIC JOB!!! Atari should really hire
this guy. Chock full of neat new features, smaller than the original, and
much faster (lots of assembly), it is something Atari should take a
loooong look at. I was impressed....can't you tell. Also on display was
ICD's accelerator board. The latest in a what is now 8 accelerators for
the ST. Where was everyone last year?
I would say the attendance was close to 55,000 people. The problem was
the weather...it was great!! So the turn out wasn't as high as it could
have been. But that is still one MAJOR crowd. Considering many were
dealers, the level of sales was quite high. The German Atari market is
quite healthy, wish we could even come close.
In the morning I went to the Brandenberg Gate. It was being restored,
and the area around it looked like a war had just happened. The WALL was
gone, nothing left but dust. I met a vendor...a new entrepreneur...and
had the chance to help him at work. We walked about a mile from the gate
to where the wall was still standing, and I help him chip away pieces
..for SALE to the tourists!!! What a neat business, selling free rocks
for $10+ each. They had even been sold, by West Berliners, neat little
plastic boxes labeled "Berlin Wall" for packaging. Amazing. Of course I
have a couple pieces for myself. A little silicon glue, snap the cover on,
and presto instant profit.
____________________________________________________
"....I found out two things, one is that the CDAR504 (Ed's Note: Atari's
CD Rom player) is really a CHINON DC431. I also found out that the SLM804
is really an Office Automations Systems Inc. printer - the Laserpro 5308.
So if you need tech specs, toner, drums, you now have an alternative
source."
"The SLM804 uses the TEC LB1301 write white engine, NOT the Ricoh engine.
You can interchange the toner/drum with the Oaysis LaserPro series
without problem and usually at noticeable savings I might add." Toad
Computer
(From Genie)
----------------------------------------------------
"There's a rumor of a new upgrade from ICD that makes their host adaptor
compatible with both Talon's SuperCharger and fixes the STe hard disk
problem." - from Gregg Anderson
"We just added some capacitors to smooth out noise on the DMA bus that
was a real problem on the STE. That fixed 99% of our STE problems and
doesn't cause any problems on other computers (which is always a danger).
The other 1% which is not fixed is the mysterious data shifting that we
have seen only once in our office. I would guess that is caused by
defective DMA chips and is not very common." - Tom at ICD
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Atari Germany, X/Windows for the ST, and TOS Multitasking
---------------------------------------------------------
For several years, Atari ST Users have dreamed of an efficient and
effective way to multitask ST applications. While Beckemeyer Development's
MT C-Shell and VSH Manager provided an effective combination for running
Desk Accessories and TOS programs concurrently, it could not multitask GEM
applications. As such, the prospect of a complete system that would
multitask TOS and ST/GEM programs was still just a dream.
When Atari announced MIDI-Tasking, an operating system hack designed
to multitask GEM-compliant ST MIDI programs, ST Users believed their hopes
realized. However, Atari has said that while MIDI-Tasking can be used for
multitasking other types of ST/GEM programs, that such use is not recom-
mended. And with some ST/GEM programs (such as Pagestream or ISD's Master
Plan spreadsheet) can be run under MIDI-Tasking, many ST MIDI programs are
incompatible with it. This situation has left the spectre of ST multitas-
king hanging just out of the reach of the ST Community.
Recently, the first indications of yet another ST Multitasking package
have appeared. Atari Germany has apparently developed an X/Windows Server
for the ST, which uses a "TOS Compatible" multitasking system called
X/ST/Multi. Below is a Usenet message that describes the X/Windows Produ-
cts developed by Atari Germany, and some information on X/ST/Multi:
In article <roarment.650147785@faui09>,roarment@faui09.informatik.
uni-erlangen.de (Roberto Armenti) writes:
> I once heard about such a thing named X/ST/Window or something
> like this, but I never could get some info on that.
Some months ago I asked Atari Germany about X/ST/Window. They sent me a
high-glossing paper with some info. In short:
- X/ST/Window is an X-Windows server for the Atari ST, TT and ATW.
- The whole X Windows System runs on an Atari TT under ATX (Atari Unix)
and on the ATW (Atari Transputer Workstation) under Helios.
- X/ST/window is based on X/ST/multi, "a multitasking operating system
which is totally compatible with the TOS of the Atari ST" (literal
translation from German). It allows discoupling of the time critical
protocol processes from the graphical software.
- The ST monitor acts as a window and shows only a part of a virtual
screen. The dimensions of this virtual screen is limited by memory only.
- Network access is done via TCP/IP
(Note: TCP/IP is a LAN networking protocol standard created by the US
Government, commonly used in Local Area Networks).
Ah yes, and then they said it would be available at special computer
stores by end of June 1990. Hmm, actually they said "90", not "1990". They
don't mean 2090, do they? :-)
--
Dipl.-Inform. Rainer Klute klute@unido.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
Univ. Dortmund, IRB klute@unido.uucp, klute@unido.bitnet
Postfach 500500 |)|/ Tel.: +49 231 755-4663
D-4600 Dortmund 50 |\|\ Fax : +49 231 755-2386
------------------------------------------------------------
I was contacted today by the GFA gebruikersgroep (GFAgg) of the
Netherlands. What a fantastic setup they have! They publish a _thick_
bimonthly newsletter (60 pages!) filled with programming tips and code
samples. They have their own pd and low-cost commercial library which
generates funds for the group. They supply educational software developed
by members to some 600 schools. They have between 600 and 700 active
members.
Write (English works for me) to:
Lou Meijers
GFA-gg
Frankrijklaan 14
2034 BA Haarlem
THE NETHERLANDS
For the really adventurous, the telephone number is 011 31 23 336 946. I
haven't tried that, so I don't know if Lou answers it. Lou and two other
group members have called me and they've all had excellent English skills
so we have not needed to stumble around in Dutch or German. Their news-
letter is in Dutch though. Their software is largely in Dutch, but not
exclusively so. (From Dorthy Brumleve - Genie)
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Path: bdt!unisoft!mtxinu!ucbvax!agate!apple!portal!atari!mui
From: mui@atari.UUCP (Derek Mui)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: TT desktop & prices
Message-ID: <2300@atari.UUCP-
Date: 14 Sep 90 19:50:39 GMT
References: <1914@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca-
Organization: Atari Corp., Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 36
in article <1914@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca-, jhenders@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca (John
Henders) says:
Summary:TT window limit?
Thanks for the extra info,Derek. One other question. Has the limit on
the number of open windows been raised at all in the TT?
John Henders(ubc-cs!van-bc!jhenders)
Vancouver,BC
No, the maximum number of window is still eight. We can change the
AES to handle X number of window easily. But if we change it to handle X
number of window, then people will ask for X+1 number of window. It will
go on forever!
Since the AES is a single-task environment, eight windows are
generally quite enough for most of the applications. Moreover, changing
the AES to have unlimited ( dynamic ) number of window is not an easy job
:-(
However, if the AES is changed to handle multi-tasking, then we
should definitely have the dynamic window feature. Agree?
Once again, things may change. I am not the boss.
=====+++======
in article <2685@cernvax.UUCP-, dougie@cernvax.UUCP (douglas mclaggan)
says:
What about the STE, Derek? There was no mention of that. I was just
wondering if you'll be trying to put the new desktop in there?
It's got a 256K ROM with about 30K spare, as far as I know.
That sounds about enough space, doesn't it!!!
I suppose that with this new policy of Atari's, if you're busy coding up
the new STE desktop, you won't be able to let us know 'til it's finish
and shipping. Right? :-)
Thank you for all the people who suggested different ideas of how
to squeeze the new desktop into the ST ROM. Someone suggested to use the
cartridge port and most of the others suggested to put it on the disk.
Technically, they are all O.K, and I will reflect all the opinions to
management people.
As of today, I believe the STE will have the new desktop.
^^^^^^^^^^^
From article <2287@atari.UUCP-, by mui@atari.UUCP (Derek Mui):
in article <2286@atari.UUCP-, mui@atari.UUCP (Derek Mui) says:
As of today, I believe the STE will have the new desktop.
^^^^^^^^^^^
Oops! the MEGA STE will have the new desktop, not just any
STE. Sorry.
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