Atari 800-79年- 科技百科 -互联网博物馆，你我的知识加油站

Atari 400 和Atari 800在1979年的出现，现在全世界的家长们都应该起诉这个公司。因为从这个产品开始，电脑游戏正式在孩子们的世界里出现。设计这个产品的目的，就是面对儿童市场，比如键盘采用像现在的v3手机一样的面板方案，还有那些五花八门的插卡游戏。

在我们的童年里，小霸王学习机的祖母，就是这款机器。大多数人打着学习计算机建设四个现代化的幌子玩超级马力混沌罗的时候，这家公司的老板正在家点钞票呢。但是不可否认他们抓住了儿童市场，是计算机创意的钻石点子。

1979年出现的计算机比1978年多一点。而且出现了计算机公司的破产。因为缺少创意的原因。在那个时代，只有创造新事物——发明。才能有生存的空间。当年的主要产品有：

1979	Interact Model One
	TRS-80 model II
	Bell & Howell
	SwTPC S/09
	Heathkit H89
	Atari 400
	Atari 800
	TI-99/4

主要参数编辑本段 回目录

NAME	800
MANUFACTURER	Atari
TYPE	Home Computer
ORIGIN	U.S.A.
YEAR	1979
END OF PRODUCTION	1982
KEYBOARD	QWERTY full Stroke keyboard, 62 keys 4 function keys (Reset, Option, Select, Start)
CPU	6502
SPEED	1.79 Mhz
CO-PROCESSOR	ANTIC (Scrolling, Sprites, Video), CTIA / GTIA (Color, Sprites, Collisions), POKEY (timers, sound, keyboard, serial I/O), PIA 6810 (I/O, including the 4 joystick ports)
RAM	8 KB to 48 KB (with memory expansion boards)
ROM	10 KB
TEXT MODES	40 x 25
GRAPHIC MODES	several graphic modes, maximum : 320 x 192
COLORS	16 (each color can have 8 luminances) = 128 colors maximum in the lowest graphic mode (requiring display list interruption to have them simultaneously) and up to 256 colors in some specific modes for machines having the GTIA chip instead of the CTIA
SOUND	4 voices, 3.5 octaves
SIZE / WEIGHT	40.5 (W) x 33 (D) x 11 (H) cm / 4200 g
I/O PORTS	Monitor RGB output, RF TV video output, 2 cartridge slots, Atari Serial Input/Ouput (SIO) port, 4 controller jacks, 4 internal slots for memory modules
OS	400/800 OS in ROM
POWER SUPPLY	External power supply
PRICE	?00 (UK 1983)

The Atari 400 and 800 were the first home computers to use custom coprocessors and the first to use "sprites" and special video interruptions like display lists; features that would be implemented later on the Commodore 64, then on the Commodore Amiga (Atari 400/800 and Amiga were both designed by Jay Miner).

It offered high graphic resolution, lots of colors and great sound capabilities, more than other computers could do then! The two models had same characteristics, but the 800 had 48 KB of RAM (instead of 16 kb), two cartridge ports (only one for the 400) and a proper mechanical keyboard (a membrane keyboard for the 400).

In fact the very first Atari 800 Computers were shipped with 8 or 16 KB memory, expandable to 48 KB. After initial release, the 800 came standard with 48 KB memory.

Prior to production, the 800 was known inside Atari as code name "Colleen". It is rumored that Colleen and Candy (the 400 code name) were actually secretaries at Atari.

The Atari 400 and 800 were announced in December 1978, though they didn't actually start shipping until late in 1979.

Designed to look like a friendly typewriter, the Atari 800 is an expandable system with two easily accessable cartridge ports under a front cover, and a removable top with four expansion slots inside.

The cartridges are very handy, just plug 'em in and go! Technologically, there's not much to them, just some ROM chips with the program already burned into them.

The Atari 800 has multiple special purpose co-processors for sound and graphics to take the load off of the 6502 CPU, and it has sprites and collision-detection built into its hardware, so it is an excellent game machine.

Up to four Atari 810 floppy drives ($599.95 each) can be hooked-up, allowing fast and reliable data storage.

The floppy drive uses single-sided 5 1/4-inch floppy disks, holding 90K of data on a disk. The data is transfered in serial format at 19200 baud.

The Atari 820 impact dot-matrix printer ($449.95) prints 40 columns of 5x7 characters, at approximately 40 characters per second.

The 810 and 820 are considered "intelligent" peripherals - they have built-in processor chips which lighten the load on the computer's main processor. They can each be plugged directly into the Atari 400 or 800, with no other inteface required.

Unfortunately, the Atari 800 doesn't have any standard peripheral ports for non-Atari printers, modems, etc. So in 1980, Atari released the Atari 850 Interface Module, which provides 4 separate RS-232-C serials ports and a single Centronics compatible printer port. It plugs into one of the controller jacks on the computer, which are actually both input/output, analog and digital ports.

There are two versions of the 850 as seen above. The black metal version on the left is the original unit and is very uncommon. The newer version on the right is plastic.

Seen here on the right is the first Atari modem, the Atari 830 Acoustic Couple Modem. It has two cups on top to cradle the telephone handset, and it requires both the Atari 850 Interface Module (seen above) and the TeleLink I ROM cartridge (left) to operate.

The second modem released was the Atari 835 Direct Connect Modem, a stand-alone unit which hooks directly to the telephone line and does not use the 850 Interface Module. It does, however, require the Atari Telelink II ROM cartridge.

The 835 modem/cartridge pair features 300 baud upload/download speed, autodial, and they even remember the last two numbers dialed!

Additional accessories include the external keypad ($124.95) for fast data entry.

Although an external floppy drive was available, beginners often used the cheaper but less reliable cassette tape drive.

Numerous games were released on cassette tape, and Atari produced introductory and programming tapes.

Like the Atari 400, the 800 was designed by a team which included Jay Miner, who later went on to help design the Amiga 1000.
In 1983, Atari released the 800XL computer. It has the same CPU as the Atari 800, and runs at the same speed. Basically a cheaper version of the 800, it is supposed to be compatible with all Atari 800 software and peripherals, but it isn't.

Improvements include:

64K base RAM vs. 8K

parallel I/O port (PBI)

general purpose I/O port

DIY改造再上演疯狂 Atari 800新本诞生编辑本段 回目录

　　国外DIY高手BenJamin Heckendorn之前已经把Xbox 360和PS3等游戏机进行过改造，使其变成了还算便携的笔记本电脑产品。今天我能看到的是类似的改造，不过这次是Atari 800个人电脑系统。

　　其实这已经是第三版的Atari 800笔记本改造。早在2006年，BenJamin Heckendorn便把Atari 800改造成了笔记本；数年后，BenJamin Heckendorn改造了第二版本的Atari 800笔记本。但BenJamin Heckendorn认为都不是很完美，并没有抓到老机器的精髓。