Atari ST

Atari ST was a personal computer that sold widely from 1985 to the early 1990s

It was released by Atari in 1985

The “ST” officially stands for “Sixteen/Thirty-Two”, which referred to the Motorola 68000's external 16 bit bus and internal 32 bit ones

Description

Atari ST was a notable personal computer, based on the Motorola 68000 CPU, with 512 kB or more RAM and 3½" floppy disk storage

It was similar to other contemporary machines that used the Motorola 68000, the Apple Macintosh, and the Commodore Amiga

Although the Macintosh was the first computer to have a graphical user interface (GUI), it was limited for the small monochrome monitor it had built in

Atari ST was the first computer that used a bitmap as full GUI for the color

It had an innovative graphics subsystem based on a single chip (designed by Shiraz Shivji) that shared the total amount of system memory, alternating clock cycles, with the processor, similar to the previous Micro BBC and unified memory systems used in the present

It was the first personal computer to support integrated MIDI

ST primarily competed with the Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga

This rivalry between platforms is often reflected in the entrepreneurs and was most marked in the scene of the Demos

The custom capabilities of the Amiga gave it an edge in the gaming and video market, the ST was typically cheaper and featured a high resolution monochrome display, ideal for business and computer aided design

Thanks to its built-in MIDI ports, it was successful as a musical sequencer and musical instrument controller among amateurs and professionals, used in concerts by bands such as Tangerine Dream and 90’s Dance Act 808 State

In some markets, particularly Germany, the machine gained a foothold in small business for desktop publishing work and for computer aided design

ST was later replaced by the models Atari TT and Falcon

Since Atari withdrew from the computer market, there has been a market with powerful TOS based machines (clones)

Like most “retro” computers, Atari enjoys support in the emulator scene

Sources

Technology Tramiel

At Commodore International, a discussion occurred involving its president and largest shareholder, Irving Gould, and its founder, Jack Tramiel, over the development of the new 68000 system

Which caused Commodore's immediate abandonment of Tramiel in January 1984

Tramiel immediately formed a holding company, Tramel Technologies, Ltd., taking with him former Commodore employees to continue his project of developing a new high performance personal computer

While this team, led by Shiraz Shivji, worked on the design, Tramiel discovered that Warner Communications wanted to sell Atari Corp

Tramiel bought Atari Corp, mainly for the overseas manufacturing and distribution network

The design team considered “an improvement” on the Macintosh by using a fully 32 bit chip, the NS32032, but in discussions, National Semiconductor was not able to supply the number of chips or the price based on the project's needs

In retrospect, they proved to be lucky, as the built prototype of the NS32032 in testing was slower than a 16 bit 68000

The basic hardware design quickly “took” a shape that was almost identical to the ST that was eventually shipped

It was a combination of chips and custom parts easily available

Contract with Amiga

Prior to the introduction of the ST, Atari had released two other machines (the Atari 2600 console and the Atari 8 bit personal computers) with custom graphics and sound chips

These custom chips allowed the 2600 to create a home gaming and 8 bit computer market, making history by being the first personal computer with custom chips

Jay Miner, one of the original designers of the custom chips found in the Atari 2600 and Atari 8 bit machines, attempted to convince Atari management to invest more money in creating a new chipset

When his idea was rejected, Miner left Atari in 1982 to form a small think tank called Amiga and started designing that new chipset

He even made plans to use the chipset for a computer based on the more powerful 68000 CPU

During the development, Amiga ran out of capital and was desperate for a buyer, and Atari, the “owner of Warner,” paid Amiga to continue the development work

In exchange, Atari would obtain exclusivity on the design for one year

Atari had its own plans, a machine based on the 68000, codenamed "Mickey," which would have used custom chips, but details were scarce

In May, Tramiel raised financing, bought Atari from Warner (except AtariTel and the electronic games division) for a very low price, and set about rebuilding his empire

One of his first acts was to fire most of the original staff of engineering of Atari and cancel almost all ongoing developments

Tramiel also discovered the contract with Amiga and decided not to help Amiga with no additional financing

The team of Amiga, who was going through serious financial problems, entered into negotiations with Commodore what led them to buy Amiga and cancel Atari's contract with Amiga

Tramiel was furious, and the resulting court case lasted for years

It was eventually settled out of court, briefly mentioned in the Wall Street Journal that Commodore settled for an undisclosed amount

Operating system

With the hardware design nearing completion, the team began looking for solutions for the operating system

Shortly after the purchase, Microsoft approached Tramiel with the suggestion that they use Windows on the platform, but the delivery date was approximately two years, too long for their needs

Another possibility was Digital Research, which was working on a new GUI-based system then known as Crystal, soon to become GEM

Another option was to write a new operating system in-house, but this was ultimately rejected due to the risk

Digital Research was fully committed to the Intel platform, so a team from Atari was sent to Digital Research headquarters to do the conversion for ST themselves

Instead of getting proper specifications and documentation, Atari members simply received the latest versions of the Intel 8086 source code

It ended up being a conversion to the 68000, which was modified several times, as it received several revisions from Digital Research

A version, loaded on the CP/M-68K, became available just in time for the January 1985 Consumer Electronics Show, where the ST was introduced

The CP/M-68K was essentially a direct conversion of the original operating system and mature CP/M

By 1985, its design was much older compared to MS-DOS and it was increasingly difficult to maintain and update

Digital Research was also working on a new DOS-like operating system, specific to GEM, GEMDOS

It was discussed whether a GEMDOS conversion could be completed in time for product delivery in June

Eventually, the conversion decision was made, resulting in the GEMDOS file system becoming part of the TOS (the operating system)

This was beneficial as it gave the ST a streamlined hierarchical file system, essential for hard disk storage, and gave programmers similar function calls to those on the IBM PC DOS

Debut of the ST

The design was launched in June 1985 as the 520ST

The machine went from being an idea to go to the stores in a little less than a year

Early models shipped with TOS on disk, but were designed with ROM sockets to make it easier to upgrade to future ROM based TOS

Upgrades, such as built-in floppy drives and the addition of an RF modulator (for TV viewing), were available starting with the 520ST^F and the 520ST^FM

Atari originally intended to release versions with 128 kB and 256 kB of RAM for the 130ST and 260ST respectively

However, with the operating system loaded from a floppy disk into RAM, there was little to no space left for applications to run

The 260ST was opened up in Europe in a limited way

In 1986, the 1040ST^F (also called STF) shipped with 1 MB of RAM and featured an internal power supply and a double-sided floppy drive (although some STF models came with a single-sided floppy drive

They were easily distinguished as the single-sided drives had a large eject button below the slot, while the double-sided ones had a standard-sized eject button on the bottom right of the drive)

The 1040ST was the first personal computer to be released with a basic 1 MB RAM configuration

When the market price dropped to $999 in the United States, it became the first computer to break the $1000/MB price barrier, appearing on the cover of Byte Magazine

However, the ST remained unchanged internally for most of its lifespan

The choice of model names was inherited from the names of the XE series of the Atari 8 bit computer family

Hardware Description

Case

The 520ST was an all-in-one unit, similar to earlier personal computers such as the Commodore 64

By the time the 520ST hit the market, consumers were demanding a “full-size” keyboard, including cursor keys and a numeric keypad

For this reason, the 520ST was quite “boxy,” generally oversized, for a machine that one had to move to adjust the keyboard position

Added to this problem was the number of bulky cables necessary to connect to the peripherals

This problem was solved to some extent on models that included a built-in floppy drive, which made it awkward to place the mouse and joystick sockets in a small niche under the keyboard

The case followed the Atari-era Tramiel design, basically wedge shaped, with a series of vents cut into the back for airflow

The original design of the 520ST used with a floppy drive external

The case style 1040ST had a built-in diskette drive

The power supply for the first 520ST was a large external block, while the 1040ST was inside the machine

Also, most machines had keyboards with very soft tactile feedback, not as good as those on an IBM PC, with unique and strange rhomboid function keys on the top edge

Connection ports

The ST had a large number of ports mounted on the back of the machine

• Standard ports:
  • RS-232c serial port (DB25)
  • Centronics printer port
  • Joystick/mouse ports (DE-9)
  • MIDI ports (5 pin DIN)
• ST specific ports:
  • Monitor port (13 pin DIN)
  • ACSI port (similar to SCSI) DMA (for hard drives and laser printers)
  • Floppy drive port (for adding a second floppy drive)
  • ST Cartridge Port (128KB)

Due to its bidirectional design, the Centronics printer port could be used for a joystick and several games used adapters that plugged into the printer socket, providing two additional ports for 9 pin joysticks

Initially, Atari used single-sided disk drives that could store up to 360 kB

Later drives were double-sided versions storing 720 kB

Because of the early sales of so many single-sided disk drives, almost all software would ship on two single-sided disks instead of just one double-sided disk, for fear of losing early adopters

ST magazines that wanted to serve the entire audience and at the same time provide a large amount of material on a single cover disc, had to adopt innovative and customized formats to solve this problem

Another point of contention was that, while the Atari double-sided drive could read IBM-formatted discs, the IBM PCs could not read Atari discs

This formatting issue was later resolved by third-party formatting software and TOS updates (1.4 and above)

Mega

Initial sales were strong, especially in Europe where Atari sold 75% of its computers

Germany became Atari's strongest market, with small business users using them in their desktop edition and for computer aided design

To address this growing market sector, Atari created the ST1

In 1986 it debuted on Comdex, where it was favorably received with the new name of Mega

This new machine included a high-quality independent keyboard, a stronger case (to support the weight of a monitor), and an internal bus expansion connector

The new SLM804 laser printer did not come with a processor or memory, reducing costs

It would add to the Mega through the port ST DMA and would cause the computer renderizara pages

Initially equipped with 2 or 4 MB (a 1 MB version, the Mega 1 would come later), the Mega machines were complemented by the Atari laser printer to configure a low-cost desktop package

It included a custom blitter coprocessor to speed up the performance of some on-screen graphical operations, when it was finally released, it debuted on the Mega 2 and Mega 4 machines

As a result, even with the blitter included, some developers ignored it because it was not present on all machines

However, properly written GEM programs could use blitter without problems since the GEM API was a higher level interface to the TOS

Atari originally intended to include GEM's GDOS (Graphic Device Operating System), which allowed programs to draw (display, print, etc.) graphics on external devices via GEM's VDI (Virtual Device Interface)

This allowed developers to export high resolution graphics to printers, plotters, and other peripherals

However, GDOS was not ready at the time the ST began shipping

GDOS are provided with applications that used VDI for drawings and sources

Later versions of GDOS support vector (outlined) fonts

On the plus side, the ST was less expensive than most machines, including the Macintosh Plus, and tended to be faster than most

Largely as a result of the cost/performance factor, the ST would become a very popular machine, especially in markets where currencies changed price

In fact, the company's English advertising line was “power without the price”

In fact, the Atari ST terminal emulation software was much cheaper than a digital VT220 terminal, which was normally required on headquarters computers

Enhanced STs

During the first four years, nothing much changed in the capabilities of the ST platform, except the release of new machines with higher RAM, and in updates quietly introduced to the TOS ROMs built from version 1.00 in 1985 until the "final" (for models that were not STE or Mega) and the improved Rainbow TOS version 1.04 from 1989

In late 1989, Atari released the ST ^E (also called STE), a version of the ST with improvements in multimedia hardware and its operating system

The STE featured an increased color palette of 4096 colors better than the 512 ST (although its maximum palette without programming tricks was still limited to 16 at its lowest 320x200 resolution)

Genlock support and a graphics coprocessor chip called Blitter that could quickly handle large blocks of data (mostly graphic sprites) around RAM

It also included a new 2 channel digital sound chip that could play 8 bit stereo samples in hardware up to 50 kHz

Two Enhanced Joystick Ports (EJP) were added (two regular joysticks could be plugged into each port with an adapter), with the new connectors placed in easy-to-access locations on the side of the case

Ports improved joystick were compatible with joypads on the console, Jaguar, Atari

RAM memory now easier to upgrade through SIMMs

Despite all this, it still ran at 8 MHz, and the improved hardware was clearly designed to catch up with the Amiga

Initially, the STE models had software and hardware conflicts, causing some applications and games written for the ST line to be unstable or completely unusable (sometimes this could be resolved by expanding the RAM)

To make matters worse, the built-in floppy drives couldn't read as many tracks as the built-in floppy drives in older models

While this wasn't a problem for most users, some games used the extra tracks as a crude form of copy protection and as a means of getting more data onto the disc, and formatting 86 tracks on an "80-track" disc was a common expansion option in custom formatting utilities

Even having a joystick attached sometimes caused strange behavior with some apps (like with First Word Plus)

Very little use was made of the additional features of the STE software: STE-enhanced and STE-only

It was generally limited to serious art applications, computer-aided design, or music applications, with very few games taking advantage of the hardware

However, quality was replaced by quantity, since the programmers who took advantage of the new capabilities did so to the fullest

Atari released the Mega STE, a STE with a gray TT case that ran on a 16 MHz switchable dual-bus design (16 bit external, 32 bit internal), optional Motorola FPU, built-in 3½" floppy disk drive, slot VME expansion, one network port AppleTalk and an optional built-in 3½" hard drive

It was also shipped with TOS 2.00 (with better support for hard drives, improved desktop interface, memory testing, support for 1.44MB floppy disks, and bug fixes)

At some point during the early 1990s, development of the ST line of computers branched off

On one branch was the TT aimed at high-end workstations (including the 68030 and 3280 MHz based TT030)

And in the other was the entertainment-oriented Falcon (also based on 68030, operating at 16 MHz, but with improved video modes and lots of custom chips, especially the high quality audio DSP (Digital Signal Processor) )

Both were supposed to be compatible with ST, but were incompatible with each other

In 1993, Atari canceled development of the ST computers to focus on Jaguar

Following Atari Corp.'s exit from the computer market, Medusa Computer Systems manufactured some Atari Falcon/TT compatible machines using 68040 and 68060 processors

They were based on multimedia (particularly audio, but also video), computer aided design and office utility tools

Future of the platform

Despite the lack of a hardware vendor and commercial software vendors, there was a small active community dedicated to keeping the ST platform alive

There have been advances in the operating system, software emulators (for Windows, Mac and Linux) and some hardware developments

There are accelerator cards, such as the CT60 and CT63, based on 68060 for Falcon

The project Atari Coldfire, whose development has created an Atari clone based on the Coldfire processor and which is called FireBee

Milan Computer from Germany, manufactured Atari clones based on 68040 and 68060 that could run the Atari TOS 4.5 operating system or the Milan MultiOS operating system

On November 17, 2023, Atari relaunched its legendary Atari 2600 with the same design and its iconic joystick

It was distributed in Europe through Plaion together with Atari itself

It is neither a replica nor a mini-console with a handful of pre-installed games

Called the Atari 2600+, it's the original genuine retro experience with one self explanatory change:

• HDMI port with a mode to accommodate the image to current screens
• Usb C port for power
• serial port to connect the legendary Joystick by cable
• traditional cartridge system in which we can use almost all the originals (Atari 2600 and 7800 cartridges)
• game cartridge with classics Adventure, Combat, Dodge 'Em, Haunted House, Maze Craze, Missile Command, RealSports Volleyball, Surround, Video Pinball and Yars' Revenge
• Rockchip 3128 SOC microprocessor with 256MB DDR3 RAM and 256MB eMMC internal storage

Software

Music/Sound

The MIDI ports integrated low cost ST and the fast response times and low latency for it to become the favorite for musicians

The ST was the first personal computer with built-in MIDI ports, and there was plenty of MIDI related software for professional use in music studios, or for amateur enthusiasts

The well known application of the Windows/Macintosh Cubase originated on Atari ST

Music Tracker software was popular on the ST, like TCB Tracker, helping to produce quality music from the Yamaha synthesizer ('chiptunes')

An innovative music composition program that combined the sample playback abilities of a tracker with conventional musical notation (usually only found in MIDI software) was called Quartet (in addition to its 4-note polyphonic tracker, which displayed a staff monophonic at the same time as color screens)

Because the ST compared large amounts of memory at once, sound sampling packets became a realistic proposition

The product Microdeal Replay Professional included a sound sample that you used cleverly the cartridge port ST to read in parallel from the cartridge port from the ADC

For the digital sound output, it used the onboard frequency output, set to 128 kHz (inaudible) and then modulating the amplitude of that sound

In addition to sound sampling capabilities, the availability of software packages with MIDI support for music composition and efficient sound analysis helped make the Atari ST a precursor to studios using later "all-in-one" computers

There was also software that could be used to make the Atari speak, known as SAM (Software Automatic Mouth)

Applications

Also popular on the ST were professional desktop publishing software, such as PageStream and Calamus

Office tools such as word processors (WordPerfect, WordWriter ST and others), spreadsheets and database programs

Various amateur computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing tools up to professional level

All largely aimed or even limited to owners of high-resolution monochrome monitors

Los programas de tratamiento gráfico como NEOchrome, Degas & Degas Elite, Canvas, Deluxe Paint y Cyber Paint presentaron características avanzadas tales como el diseño 3D y la animación

One painting program, Spectrum 512, used palette-switching tricks that allowed the maximum number of colors to be displayed on the screen at the same time (up to 46 on each scan line: the STE never had a Spectrum4096, but other minor applications filled this specialized sector, some even went so far as to trick the shifter into displaying a maximum of 19,200 colors)

3D computer graphics applications (such as The Cyber ​​Studio), brought 3D modeling, sculpting, scripting, and most importantly, computer animation (using delta compression) to the desktop

Video capture and editing applications that used special video capture “dongles” connected via the cartridge port: low frame rate, mainly silent and monochrome, but progressed towards basic sound and color (in still frames) as end of machine life

Games

The ST enjoyed success in gaming due to its low cost, fast performance, and colorful graphics

Notable game developers for the ST include Peter Molyneux, Doug Bell, Jeff Minter, Jez San, James Hutchby, Dimitri Koveos, and David Braben

The first real-time 3D computer role-playing game, Dungeon Master, was developed and first released on the ST, and was the best-selling software for this platform

Simulation games such as Falcon and Flight Simulator II made use of the improved graphics found on ST machines, as did many arcade conversions

In one game, MIDI Maze used midi ports to network with other machines interactively

Utilities/Miscellaneous

There was utility software to control hardware add-ons such as video digitizers

Office graphics and productivity software were also included with the ST (HyperPaint II by Dimitri Koveos, HyperDraw by David Farmborough, 3D-Calc spreadsheet by Frank Schoonjans, and many others commissioned by Bob Katz, later of Electronic Arts)

There was a thriving release of public domain software and shareware that was distributed, in the days before public Internet access, libraries of public domain software that were published in magazines and on popular bulletin board systems

Surprisingly, a modest set of fans of the system, which included a dwindling number of good quality print magazines, survived until the mid 1990s and the birth of the modern, publicly accessible Internet as we know it

Despite its limited graphics, memory, and system buffering capabilities, there are several Internet browser, email, FTP, telnet, and IRC applications

Graphical Internet browser applications were available on the ST

Franchises

Some of the franchises that became popular on the Atari ST:

Franchises

Name	Company	Year
GEM (Desktop)	Atari/Digital Research	1985
Neochrome	Dave Staugas	1985
1st Word	GST	1985
STZip	Vincent Pomey	1994
Dungeon Master	Mirrorsoft/FTL	1987
MIDI Maze	Hybrid Arts	1987
Populous	EA/Bullfrog	1989
Xenon 2 Megablast	Bitmap Brothers	1989

Specifications

All STs were made up of custom and commercial chips:

Chips custom

Chip	Description
ST Shifter (Video shift register chip)	Enabled bitmap graphics using 32 KB of contiguous memory for all resolutions. The screen address had to be a multiple of 256
ST GLU (Generalized Logic Unit)	System control logic used to connect the ST chips. It was not part of the data path, but was necessary to link the chips together
ST MMU (Memory Management Unit)	enabled access to physical memory of up to 4 MB. It mapped the memory space of the ST
ST DMA (Direct Memory Access)	It was used for transferring data on floppy disks and hard drives. Could directly access the main memory of the ST

Chips support

Chip	Description
MC6850P ACIA (Asynchronous Common Interface Adapter)	allowed the ST to communicate directly with MIDI devices and the keyboard (using 2 chips). 31.25 kBaud for MIDI and 7812.5 bps for keyboard
MC68901 MFP (Multi Function Peripheral)	used for interrupt generation/control, serial and parallel port. Atari TT030 had 2 MFP chips
WD-1772-PH (Western Digital Floppy Disk Controller)	controller chip of the disk drive
YM2149F PSG (Programmable Sound Generator)	provided 3-voice sound synthesis, also used as a floppy drive signaler and printer port controller
HD6301V1 (Hitachi keyboard processor)	used to scan the keyboard and mouse/joystick ports

ST/ST^F/ST^M/ST^FM

Lanzado originalmente con el 520ST:

• CPU: Motorola 68000 at 8 MHz. 16 bit data/32-bit address bus
• RAM: 512 kB
• Display modes (60Hz NTSC, 50Hz PAL, 71.2Hz monochrome):
  • Low resolution – 320×200 (16 colors), 512 color palette
  • Medium resolution – 640×200 (4 colors), 512 color palette
  • High resolution – 640×400 (mono), monochrome
• Sound: Yamaha YM2149 3 voice square wave plus white mono sound with 1 voice sound
• Disk drive: 3½” single-sided floppy drive, 360 kB capacity when formatted to standard sector 9, 80 track layout
• Ports: TV out (on ST-M and ST-FM models, standard NTSC or PAL RF modulation), MIDI in/out (with "out-thru"), RS-232 serial, Centronics parallel (printer), monitor ( RGB or Color composite and mono video, 13 DIN pins), extra disk drive port (15 DIN pins), DMA port (ACSI port, Atari computer system interface) for hard drives and Atari laser printer (sharing RAM with computer system), joystick and mouse ports (9 pin MSX standard)
• Operating system: TOS v1.00 (operating system) with graphical environment management (GEM) WiMP (Windows, Mouse, Pointer) GUI

Early machines included the operating system on a floppy disk (booted from a small ROM boot kernel)

They were quickly replaced by ROM versions (with expanded capacity) of TOS 1.0

This change also eliminated any possibility of memory specs below 512 kB, as GEM loaded all of its 192 kB code into faster RAM when booting the desktop

Shortly after this single change, most of the models on sale became ST^F, with an integrated dual-density (520STF/512 kB RAM) or dual-sided (1040STF/1024 kB RAM) drive

Later models used an updated version of TOS 1.02

Another early addition (after about 6 months) was an RF modulator that allowed the machine to connect to a color television when running in its low or medium resolution modes (525/625 interlaced lines 60/50 Hz, even on RGB monitors)

They greatly increased their sales and the perceived value of the machine (it was unnecessary to buy a prohibitively expensive monitor, even if it was exceptionally sharp and clear)

These models were known as the 520ST^M (or 520STM)

Later, the F and FM models of the 520 would have a built-in double-sided drive instead of a single-sided one

ST^E

Originally launched with the 520ST^E:

• All the features of the 520STFM
• Disk drive: Double-sided 3½" floppy drive, 720 kB when formatted with standard 9 sector, 80 track parameters (over 900 kB with certain extended sector and track formats)
• RF modulator built-in
• Extended palette of 4,096 colors available to choose from
• Chip BLiTTER for fast movement of large blocks of data in memory
• Hardware support for smooth horizontal and vertical scrolling (using the BLiTTER)
• Sound: Additional National LMC 1992 sound chip with 2 channel 8-bit stereo PCM sound at up to 50 kHz, with adjustable bass and treble EQ (for output only)
• Memory: 30-pin SIMM memory slots allowing upgrades of up to 4 MB (allowed: 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 2.5 and 4.0 MB due to configuration restrictions; later thanks to third-party upgrade kits that allowed a maximum of 14 MB, avoiding stock MMU)

  Ability to synchronize the times of the video with an external device to be able to use a device Genlock video without having to make any modifications to the hardware of the computer

• Additional ports: Stereo RCA connectors and two analog joystick ports (with support for analog devices, such as paddles and light pens, there are no registers that were used! Two normal digital joysticks can be connected to each analog port with an adapter)
• TOS 1.06 a ROM

Later, the models ST^E they had TOS 1.62 which fixed some backward compatibility bugs with TOS 1.6

Models

16 bit models

16 bit models

Model	Year	Features
130 ST	1985	Prototype with TOS on floppy disk, and external power supply
260 ST	1985	With TOS on floppy disk, and external power supply. Short time on the market
520 ST	1985	With TOS on floppy disk, and external power supply
520 STm	1985	TOS in ROM, later renamed to 520 ST
520 ST+	1985	1 MB of RAM
520 STf	1986	With internal diskette
1040 STf	1986	Like the 520 STf, but with 1 MB of RAM
520 STfm	1986	Like the 520 STf, but with RF connection for television
1040 STfm	1986	Like the 1040 STf, but with RF connection for TV
2080 ST	1986	ST for developers never released for sale, with 2 MB of RAM
4160 ST	1986	ST for developers never released for sale, with 4 MB of RAM
Mega ST 1, 2, 4	1987	with independent keyboard, 1, 2 or 4 MB of RAM, MegaBus, support for system clock...
4160 STe	1988	STE for developers never released for sale, with stereo output, 2 Joypad ports and Blitter
1040 STe	1989	Final version of the 4160 STe, but with 1 MB instead of 4 MB of RAM
520 STe	1989	Like the 1040 STE, but with 512 KB of RAM
1040 STE+	1990	Prototype, based on the 1040 STE with internal hard drive (IDE) and a board with an Intel 80286 (most likely an AMD Am286) to run MS-DOS via hardware emulation
Mega STe	1991	Mega ST upgrade with TT case, TOS 2.0x, 68000/16 MHz, VME bus

32 bit models

32 bit models

Model	Year	Features
TT030	1990	68030/32 MHz, new TOS 3.0X, SCSI
FX-1 “Sparrow”	1991	Falcon prototype with TOS 2.07
Falcon 030	1992	68030/16 MHz, DSP56k, TOS 4.0x, case type 1040
Falcon 040	1993	Falcon prototype with 68040
Microbox	1993	Falcon prototype in desktop box

Laptops

Laptops

Model	Year	Features
Stacy, Stacy2, Stacy4	1989	7.5 kg and based on the Mega ST
ST Book	1991	DIN-A4 size and 2 kg weight; Distribution exclusively for Europe
ST Pad “Stylus”	1991	Pentop-Computer prototype

Clones

Clones

Manufacturer	Model	Year	Features
Hybrid Arts	CPX	1989	Mega ST in rack format, with SCSI controller and internal hard drive
GE-Soft	Eagle	1994	Clone of the Atari TT030 with the 68030 32 MHz mounted on a card scalable to a 68040, 68060 or a PowerPC
C-Lab	Falcon MK1	1995	Falcon with modified audio circuit
C-Lab	Falcon MKII	1995	Falcon with modified audio circuit
C-Lab	Falcon MKX	1995	Falcon with 68030 20MHz and modified audio circuit, rack format
Medusa Computer Systems	Medusa T40	1994	Tower format, 68040 64MHz/32bit, 4 PCI BUS, 2 ISA, 1 VME, SCSI, IDE, 4 GB RAM
Medusa Computer Systems	Hades 040	1996	Tower format, 68040 64MHz/32bit, 4 PCI BUS, 2 ISA, 1 VME, SCSI, IDE, 1 GB RAM
Medusa Computer Systems	Hades 060	1996	Tower format, 68060 64MHz/32bit, 4 PCI, 2 ISA, 1 VME, SCSI, IDE, 1 GB RAM
Milan Computer	Milan 040	1998	TOS 4.5, 68040, 64MB SD-RAM, ATI Mach 64 with 4MB expandable up to 16MB, SoundBlaster SB64 PCI
Milan Computer	Milan II	1998	TOS 4.5, 68060 66/80 MHz, 64 MB SD-RAM, ATI Mach 64 with 4 MB expandable up to 16 MB, SoundBlaster SB64 PCI
Atari Coldfire Project	FireBee	2011	PCI Form Factor, Coldfire MCF5474 at 266MHz with 400MIPS, 512 MB of RAM and 128 MB of video RAM, 8 MB Flash for OS, 10/100 Ethernet, USB, Compact Flash, SD Card, PS/2, AC'97, PCI, SCSI, IDE

Peripheral

Official peripherals

Official peripherals

Model	Features
SF354	External 3.5" floppy drive, single-sided, double density (360 KB)
SF314	External 3.5" floppy drive, double sided, double density (720 kB)
Atari SM124	12" monochrome monitor, 640×480 pixels
SM147	14" monochrome monitor, without speaker, replaced the SM124
Atari SC1224	12" color monitor, 640×200 pixels with speaker
SC1435	14" color monitor, stereo speakers, replaced SC1224 (rebadged Magnavox 1CM135)
TT195	19" monochrome monitor for the TT030
SH204	20 MB External ACSI Hard Drive
Megafile 20, 30, 60	External ACSI hard drive, with matching Atari Mega ST case
Megafile 44	Removable 44 MB SyQuest SQ555 drive, with matching Atari Mega ST case
SLM804	Laser printer, with ACSI connection that uses the ST processor and memory as its own
SLM605	Laser printer, with ACSI connection, smaller than the SLM805

Third party peripherals

Third party peripherals

Model	Features
Netus	LAN and USB adapter for ST/Mega ST/TT/Falcon
EtherNEC	adapter to use a network card with ISA bus in STs
SatanDisk	ACSI Secure Digital and MMC card reader up to 4 GB

Trivial

The standard 8x8 pixel graphical character set for the ST (the main “font” in GEM ROM, and TOS operations in text mode) contains, following all standard numbers, letters, symbols and accented characters, four characters unusual

These can be placed together in a square, forming a basic but recognizable facsimile of the face of J. R. “Bob” Dobbs, the supposed founder of the Church of the Subgenius

Jack Tramiel chose to include the Hebrew alphabet with the character set ROM of ST due to his jewish heritage

Russel Hobbes, the drummer of the band Gorillaz, has an Atari ST in his room on the Gorillaz website

Fatboy Slim's album “Has Come A Long Way, Baby” has an Atari ST in the large foldout photo of Fatboy Slim's studio

The most acclaimed artists of IDM Mike Paradinas and Luke Vibert started writing music on Atari STs

Atari ST was used by Mike Oldfield on his 11th album, Earth Moving, released in 1989