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 Atari Personal / Home Computer
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The Atari 400 and 800 were the first generation of Atari 8-bit computers, based on a 1.79 MHz 6502 8-bit processor. They first appeared on the scene late in 1979, but underwent significant design change in 1980 & 1981 with the introduction of a new graphics processor, and numerous other improvements. The 400 had: a single cartridge port; 16K of RAM; a membrane keyboard; and two joystick ports. The 800 had: two cartridge ports (the only Atari 8-bit model to sport this feature); 48K of RAM (upgradeable to 256K); a real keyboard and four joystick ports (the only Atari 8-bit computer with four). The 800 also had four card slots, one of which was a rom module, the others could be outfitted nominally with 8K or 16K RAM modules - however this was a true open architecture supporting numerous plug-in boards - from Ram Drives, to early network devices, etc. The 1200 (later named 1200XL) was a technology upgrade, with enhanced BIOS, and improved I/O. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Based upon work completed during 1980 * 1981, in 1982 Atari introduced the 1200XL computer, which had several improvements over the older 400/800 line. The changes included a lower profile case, an upgrade to the more advanced 6502C processor, 64K of memory, 4 programmable Function keys, a Help key, built-in diagnostics, demo programs and an improved keyboard. It would be the only Atari 8-bit to have programmable function keys and built-in demo programs. The BIOS (OS) was upgrade to the new 16K version (prior OS was 10K). |
 Atari 600XL - 1983
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Based up designs created in 1981, in early 83 Atari introduced a new line - the Atari 600XL / 800XL, replacing the 400 / 800 / 1200XL. Appearance was very similar to the 1200XL (due to the same Industrial Designer), but abandoned the function keys and built-in demo programs. They were the first Atari 8-bit computers to include the Atari BASIC built-in. The Parallel Bus Interface (PBI) was also added, allowing advanced peripherals to take advantage of a fast pipeline to the machine's internals. The 600XL had 16K, while the 800XL had 64K of RAM standard. |
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 Atari 1450XL Prototype - 1982 |
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 Atari 1400XL Prototype - 1982 |
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 Atari 1st Generation Software Media Cartridge - 1979/1980 |
The default software delivery media for the Atari Personal / Home computers was the Cartridge (at least until the Floppy Drives appeared in late 1980). The typical sizes for the 1st generation carts. was 4K, 8K, and occasionally 16K. The second generation developed OS extensions that allowed for substantial increases in cart. size of up to 64K! |
 Atari 2nd Generation Software Media Cartridge - 1981/1982 |
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