| Name | ATARI 800XL |
| Made by | ATARI, Inc. |
| Released | 1983 on Summer-CES |
| Serial-No. | 72R3CG AT84199527 |
| Board-info | |
| CPU | C014806-12 'SALLY'- an ATARI-modified 6502, which includes a HALT line (also referred to as 6502C). It reduces the cost for usage with ANTIC's DMA-mode - a standard 6502 needs 4 additional ICs for that (in the XL/XE-design, the CPU needs to be halted to allow other devices, i.e. ANTIC, to access the bus)
- due to their similiar DMA access modes, SALLY was also used in ATARI 5200 and ATARI 7800
|
| Speed | 1.773447 MHz (PAL)/ 1.7897725 MHz (NTSC) |
| RAM | C061618 MMU (address selection)- 64 KBytes:
- not 'officially' expandable, but up to 4 MBytes RAM (!) via 3rd-party extensions possible
- the MMU does the memory address selection, which is required because the 6502 only has 64 KB address range (16 bit). Necessarily, RAM, ROM and devices partly occupy the same address spaces, so the MMU has to select between them when accessed
|
| ROM/ Native OS | C061598B-29 ATARI XL/XE OS Rev.B (16 KBytes)
C060302A-29 ATARI BASIC Rev.B (8 KBytes)- Cartridges with 8 KBytes (more with bankswitching)
- since the machine's address space is limited, OS and BASIC-ROMs, by default, cover part of the RAM. In order to access that part, the ROM can be disabled via 'PORTB'-register
|
| Keyboard/ Layout | - 61 keys/ german (QWERTZ)
- plus 'RESET' key
|
| Graphics | C014887-01 'ANTIC' ('AlphaNumeric Television Interface Circuit')
C014889-01 'GTIA' ('George's Television Interface Adaptor')- Max.Res.: 320x192 pixels in 2 colors
- Max. Colors: 16 at 80x192 pixels
- palette of 256 colors (16 hues * 16 luminances)
- Text: 20x12, 20x24, 40x12, 40x19, 40x24 with graphical charset
- ANTIC is a true, DMA capable processor that drives GTIA (which is more or less a CRTC for doing the display output)
- by using display-lists (which are nothing more than programs processed by ANTIC), the combination of two graphic modes was possible (among other 'tricks'). That allowed fantastic graphics (e.g. 256 colors displayed at once), which were mostly used in demos
- this machine's a PAL version. NTSC-versions had a C012296/ C021697-ANTIC and C014805 GTIA
- 'GTIA', developed by George McLeod, officially means 'Graphic Television Interface Adaptor'
|
| Sound | C012294B-01 'POKEY' ('POT and KEY')- 4 independant, 8 bit channels, which can be combined to
- one 16 bit/ two 8 bit channels or
- two 16 bit channels
(although overall output is always mono) - each channel can be controlled in frequency and volume, and can output tones/ noise created by a noise control circuit (including low- and high-pass filtering)
- POKEY had also been used in the earlier 8 bit ATARIs (ATARI 400, 800, 1200XL), and in some arcade machines
|
| Media | - Cartridges via 30-pin slot on its top (see 'ROM')
- 5.25" disks, 88 KBytes/ disk (ATARI 810-drive)
- 5.25" disks, 127 KBytes/ disk ('enhanced density', ATARI 1050-drive)
- 5.25" disks, 360 KBytes/ disk (ATARI XF551-drive)
- 3.5" disks, 720 KBytes/ disk (ATARI 1055 and XF351 drives, both were never officially sold)
- up to 4 drives could be connected to the serial I/O-bus ('daisy-chained')
|
| Input/ Output | P6520A 'PIA' ('Peripheral Interface Adaptor')
C012294B-01 'POKEY' again, for controller- and keyboard-I/O
C014889-01 'GTIA' again, used for some general I/O-functions- 30 pin cartridge connector (on its top)
- 2x 9 pin joystick/ lightgun/ lightpen/ paddles
- RF-out (for TV)
- 5 pin round monitor-out
- 13 pin 'serial I/O' (SIO) peripheral connector (for diskdrives, printers)
- 50 pin male edge conn. 'Parallel Bus Interface' (PBI, for system expansion)
- 7 pin round power supply connector
|
| Miscellaneous | - The 800XL was first shown on Summer-CES 1983, together with 600XL (16 KB), 1400XL and 1450XLD. The new series took up the design which was first used for the 1200XL, and was intended to replace ATARI 400 and 800. All new machines came with built-in BASIC, which had to be purchased seperateley for the older ones, and lots of bugs fixed
- 800XL and 600XL both had the 'Parallel Bus Interface' (PBI) for system expansion. It required additional code in the XL OS (one of the new features of OS REV.B), and was, in later machines, replaced by the ECI ('Enhanced Cartridge Interface')
- ATARI 1400XL and 1450XLD should have came with built-in modem, SC 01 speech-synthesizer chip (1450XLD only), and space for two disk-drives within their case (the 1450XLD coming with one pre-equipped). Sadly, both machines remained prototypes and were never released to the market. Also, there were 800XLF (redesigned board with FREDDY-chip) and 800XLD-prototypes (low-cost 1450XLD), and a mysterious ATARI 1090 expansion system. Some say, however, that the 800XLF has briefly been sold in Europe
- In 1985, ATARI released the XE-series (consisting of 65XE/ 800XE and 130XE), and the rather unsuccessful XE SYSTEM (1987). These machines came with ST-style design
and minor technical improvements (e.g. the long-awaited FREDDY chip for cost-reduction and a memory multiplexer), but otherwise used standard XL-technology (the only real improvement, a soundchip called AMY which was said to have amazing capabilites, was shown in a 65XEM-prototype but never made it into production machines)
- Another interesting fact is that for both the XL- and XE-series, 3.5" diskdrive prototypes had been built (ATARI 1055 and XF351), but both were never released to the market. One reason was that 3.5" disks were more expensive these days; later, the drives were held back to push ATARI's upcoming ST-series (only the 'professional' machines should use 'trendy' 3.5" disks)
|
