| Manufacturer | Atari Corporation |
|---|---|
| Release date | 1990 |
| Discontinued | 1993 |
| Operating system | Atari TOS 3.0x |
| CPU | CPU: Motorola 68030 @ 32 MHz (system bus @ 16 MHz) FPU: Motorola 68882 @ 32 MHz |
| Storage capacity | 1.44 MB (later version) or 720 KB (first TT version) 3½" floppy disk drive 50 MB hard drive |
| Memory | 2/16 MB |
| Display | VGA Monitor (analog RGB and Mono) |
| Graphics | Six Display modes Color: 320×200 (16 color), 320×480 (256 colors), 640×200 (4 colors), 640×480 (16 colors), palette of 4096 colors Duochrome: 640×400 (2 colors) Monochrome: 1280×960 mono TT high with ECL 19 in (483 mm) monitor[1] |
| Sound | Yamaha YM2149 + National LMC 1992, same as in STe |
| Input | Keyboard (detachable) 94 Key 2 button Mouse |
| Backward compatibility |
Atari ST |
| Predecessor | Atari MEGA STE |
The Atari TT030 is a 32-bit version of the 16/32-bit Atari ST family.
Contents |
Atari Corporation realized that to remain competitive, they needed to begin taking steps to exploit the power offered by other processors in the Motorola 68000 series. At that time, the best option was the 68020. It was the first true "thirty-two bit bus/thirty-two bit instruction" chip from Motorola. Unlike the original 68000 used in the STs, the 68020 was capable of fetching a 32-bit value in one cycle, while the older STs took two cycles to fetch a 32-bit value.
The TT was initially designed around the 68020 CPU, however as the project progressed, Atari Corp. realized that the 68020 was not the best option for the TT. The 68020 still lacked certain important features offered by the next successor in the 68000 line, the new 68030. The new 68030 featured a full 32-bit address/data bus and internal registers; separate Supervisor, User, Program, and Data virtual memory spaces; built-in memory-management hardware; and 256-byte on-chip instruction and data caches.
When the decision was made to switch from a 68020 to a 68030 CPU, it presented a whole new set of problems. The original specifications for the TT's clock speed was 16 MHz, which was selected to maintain backward compatibility. The existing ST chips used in the TT (DMA and video chips for example) could not handle anything over 16 MHz. Some software also had problems running at faster speeds. To make the system work with a 32 MHz 68030, Atari Corp. had to scale back their plans somewhat, and add a large amount of cache to the system. As a result, the processor runs at 32 MHz, while the system bus runs at 16 MHz. This is similar to the tactic employed by Apple with the ill-fated Macintosh IIvx and later employed by makers of PCs with an Intel 80486DX2 CPU.
TOS 3.01 was the operating system that came with the Atari TT. It was a 512 kB ROM specifically designed for the TT. However, it did not feature pre-emptive multitasking. Another variant, known as TT/X, used Unix System V R4 and WISH (motif extension).
The TT030 was first introduced at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany[2][3][4] and launched in 1990. It retailed for $2995 with 2 MB RAM a and 50 MB hard drive. The US release came the following year. In 1993, Atari Corp.'s exit from the computer business marked the end of the TT. A number of TT machines were built as developer systems for Jaguar.
The TT featured a number of devices that had previously been unavailable for Atari Corp. systems. For example, an Appletalk network port (unfortunately, there never was a driver for it, maybe due to license problems), VME expansion bus, new VGA video graphics modes, and a true SCSI port. Existing ST features such as MIDI ports, a cartridge port, and the ASCI/DMA port were retained in this system.
One device that was left out was the BLiTTER graphics chip, which first appeared in the Atari Mega ST systems four to five years earlier. Apparently, Atari Corp. felt that the Motorola 68030 was enough power to drive the graphics, so one was not included.
A new version of TOS was developed for this system. An Atari Corp. version of Unix was also released (System V).
This machine marked Atari Corp.'s last big push into the workstation market. The MEGA STe and the Falcon030 were released after this system, but they weren't aimed at business quite the same way that this system was. The TT was doomed almost from the beginning. A 50 MHz 68030 was already on the market at the time, and the 68040 wasn't too far off. A 32 MHz Processor/16 MHz bus system just didn't sound powerful enough to the workstation market. Multitasking was the big buzz word in 1990/1991, and this system was not designed to handle it. Multitasking was offered by Atari Corp. in 1993, with the release of MultiTOS. This multitasking version of TOS took advantage of the TT's MMU, which offered multitasking as well as memory protection.
Another problem was that Atari Corp. didn't release Unix for the TT until mid-1992. By the end of that year, Atari Corp. dropped all Unix development. A special version of the TT, the TT/X, was designed to be a UNIX station. It was supplied with UNIX System V R4 and WISH (an extension of OSF Motif).
All TTs were made up of both custom and commercial chips:
The (at least) two versions of the TT can be distinguished by:
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