| Name | ATARI XE SYSTEM |
| Made by | ATARI Corp.
Sunnyvale, California |
| Released | - 1987
- this particular machine was built in 1988, indicated by the latest production date found on the chips
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| Serial-No. | A18 6 4 032564 |
| Board-info | |
| CPU | C014806-12 SALLY- an ATARI-customized 6502 (also known as 6502C), with its only improvement being a HALT line to completely stop CPU processing. That reduced the cost, because a standard 6502 needed 4 additional ICs to provide that functionality, which is required to allow ANTIC (the machine's 'second CPU') to work in DMA-mode
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| Speed | 1.773447 MHz (PAL)/ 1.7897725 MHz (NTSC) |
| RAM | C101686 MMU (address selection)
C061991-01 FREDDIE (RAM address multiplexer)- 64 KBytes:
- not 'officially' expandable, but up to 4 MB (!) via 3rd-party expansions possible
- the XE SYSTEM needs only 2 pcs. 64Kx4 RAM-chips, whereas most XL/XE-computers needed eight (64Kx1)
- while the MMU, used for address selection,
was already part of the earlier XLs, FREDDIE was introduced with the XE-series. First of all, it makes some logic circuits used for memory decoding and timing obsolete (thus reducing production cost compared to the XL). In machines with more than 64 KB RAM (i.e. 130XE), furthermore, it also provides some signals for the EMMU (C025953), which does the required bankswitching (unused in the XE SYSTEM, of course, since there's only 64 KB)
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| ROM/ Native OS | - C101687 (32 KBytes) containing
- ATARI XL/XE OS Rev.4 (16 KBytes)
- ATARI BASIC Rev.C (8 KBytes)
- built-in game Missile Command (8 KBytes)
- Cartridges with 8 KBytes (more with bankswitching)
- since the machine's address space is limited, C101687, by default, covers part of the RAM. In order to access that part, the ROM can be disabled via 'PORTB'-register
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| Keyboard/ Layout | came, as a games console, without keyboard- has the ATARI XL/ XE-specific START-, SELECT-, OPTION- and RESET-keys (which have been turned into colored buttons on its top)
- the XE SYSTEM keyboard was optionally available and had 58 keys/ US-layout (QWERTY)
- if the keyboard is detected during startup, the machine automatically switches to ATARI BASIC
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| Graphics | C021698-01 '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
- from a 256 color palette (16 hues * 16 luminances)
- Text: 20x12, 20x24, 40x12, 40x19, 40x24 with graphical charset
- ANTIC is a true, DMA-capable processor that drives GTIA (the latter being 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 C012296/ C021697-ANTIC and C014805 GTIA
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| 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, XL-series), and in some arcade machines
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| Media | - Cartridges via 30-pin slot on its top (see 'ROM')
- slot is fully XL/ XE-compatible
- 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')
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| Input/ Output | C012294B-01 'POKEY' again, used for keyboard I/O
C014889-01 'GTIA' again, used for misc I/O (triggers)
Hitachi HD68B21P PIA ('Peripheral Interface Adaptor')- 30 pin cartridge connector (on its top)
- 2x 9 pin joystick/ lightgun/ lightpen/ paddles
- 15 pin SUB-D keyboard-connector
- mono-cinch audio
- composite video jack (for composite monitors)
- RF-out (for TV)
- 13 pin 'serial I/O' (SIO) peripheral connector (for diskdrives, printers and fully XL/XE-compatible)
- 7 pin round power supply (5V, 1A) input
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| Miscellaneous | - Was also called 'XL/XE game system' or just 'game system'
- It was ATARI's try to resurrect an almost dead computersystem (in this case the ATARI XE series) as a videogame-machine. Therefore it was based on the 65XE's board (although cost-reduced to only 17 ICs). And indeed, the amount of XL/XE-software grew again - for a while. But taking a look at it today, the XE SYSTEM was not waypointing - like its competitors, Commodore's C64GS (based on a C64G-board) and AMSTRAD's GX-4000 (based on a CPC+ board),
it disappeared soon
- A nice XE SYSTEM peripheral was the ATARI XG1 lightgun, which is basically a light pen. Since light pens were always supported by ATARI-computers (beginning with the ATARI 400), it is not difficult to program - three ATARI BASIC commands are enough. However, when used as a light pen and programmed in BASIC, the XG1 is not very accurate, especially at greater distances - that's why game programmers preferred assembler routines for that
- The XE SYSTEM keyboard was not shipped with the machine, and when turned on,
the built-in game 'Missile Command' was started. But when you bought one and connected it, the machine started with ATARI BASIC, and turned out to be a fully-functional ATARI 65XE
- With the keyboard, you also got the missing HELP-key, since the XE GS itself only has START-, SELECT-, OPTION- and RESET-keys (the funny-colored buttons on its top)
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