Atari TT030

Atari TT030 Computer

The Atari TT was the fastest system that Atari ever built. Essentially based around the existing Atari ST specifications, Atari made a number of improvements that resulted in the creation of this powerhouse system.

Atari 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 68020. It was the first true "thirty-two bit bus/ thirty-two bit instruction" chip from Motorola. Unlike the original 68000 used in the ST's, the 68030 was capable of fetching a 32-bit quantity in one cycle, and of addressing four gigabytes of RAM. The older ST's took two cycles to fetch a 32-bit quantity.

The original plans for the TT were designed around the 68020. As time went on, Atari 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 full 32/32-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 the system from a 68020 to a 68030, this presented a whole new set of problems. The original specifications called for the TT to run at 16MHz. The 16MHz speed 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 16MHz. Some software also has problems running at faster speeds. To make the system work with a 32MHz 68030, Atari had to scale back their plans somewhat, and add a ton of cache to the system. As a result, the processor runs at 32MHz, and the system bus runs at 16MHz.

The TT featured a number of devices that had previously been unavailable for Atari systems. For example, an Appletalk network port, VME expansion bus, new VGA video graphics modes, and a true SCSI port. Existing ST features such as MIDI ports, 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 MEGA ST systems four to five years earlier. Apparently, Atari felt that the Motorola 68030 was enough horsepower to drive the graphics, so one was not included.

A new version of TOS was developed for this system. An Atari version of Unix was also released.

This machine marked Atari's last big push into the business 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 50MHz 68030 was already on the market at the time, and the 68040 wasn't too far off. A 32MHz Processor/16MHz bus system just didn't sound too powerful to the workstation market. Multitasking was the big buzz word in 1990/1991, and this system just couldn't handle it. Multitasking was offered in 1993, with the release of Multi-TOS. 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 didn't release Unix for the TT until mid-1992. By the end of that year, Atari dropped all Unix development.

Atari's computers had always been on the cutting edge. Atari had never made it big in the business market. People saw Atari as a game company, and the Tramiel's certainly didn't help themselves by refusing to properly market their products. Your typical ST owner used the system at home. However, the PC and Mac systems were starting to appear in homes, as cheap clones would start to hit the market over the next two years. The technology in those systems were starting to surpass the Atari technology.

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Technical specifications

• CPU: Motorola 68030 @ 32Mhz (originally @ 16Mhz)
• FPU: Motorola MC68882
• RAM: 2 MB ST RAM expandable to 12 MB; plus up to 256 MB TT RAM on daughter board using either 30-pin or 72-pin SIMMs
• Sound: Yamaha YM2149 + enhanced sound chip same as in STe
• Drive: 1.44 MB 3½" floppy disk drive
• Ports: MIDI In/Out, 3 x RS-232, Serial LAN RS-422, Printer, VGA Monitor (RGB and Mono), Extra Disk drive port, SCSI port, VMEbus inside case, detachable keyboard, Joystick and Mouse ports on keyboard
• Operating System: TOS (Tramiel Operating System) with the GEM (Graphical Environment Manager) GUI TOS versions: 3.01 in ROM, 3.05 in ROM or 3.06 in ROM
• Display modes: 320×200 (16 color), 640×200 (4 color), 640×400 (mono), 640×480 (16 color), 320×480 (256 colors), 1280×960 (mono TT high with special 19" monitor), palette of 4096 colors
• Case: Two-piece desktop-style.
• Release Date: 1990-1991