--- title: Atari FALCON 030 categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1992' cpus: - Motorola MC68030 params: name: FALCON 030 image: /media/museum/photos/atari_falcon30_system_1.jpg company: /companies/atari company_name: Atari specs: - label: NAME value: FALCON 030 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Atari - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1992' - label: CPU value: Motorola MC68030 - label: SPEED value: 16 MHz (68030) / 32 MHz (56001) - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: optional FPU (Motorola 68882) - label: RAM value: 4 MB (up to 14 MB) - label: ROM value: 512 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 40 or 80 chars. x 25 lines (bitmapped graphics) - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: ST Modes, TT Modes, VGA (640 x 480), True Color. - label: COLORS value: 'Two modes : 16 / 15 bit with True color mode or 262144 with paletted mode' - label: SOUND value: 8 channel 16 bit PCM audio system - label: I/O PORTS value: RGB, VGA, PAL, DSP, SCSI, Stereo IN/OUT, Midi (2), LocalTalk, Cardridge, RS232c, Centronics, Analog Joystick (2), Digital Joystick (2), 68030 Bus - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 3.5'' FDD and 2.5'' IDE hard disk (44, 65 or 80 MB) depending models. - label: OS value: TOS + GEM tabs: - photos - hardware - emulators - links - docs photos: - title: NICE PILLOW ! subtitle: '' text: My cat, Praline, is using my Atari Falcon 030 as a pillow. It seems to be really comfortable ! image: /media/museum/photos/praline.jpg - title: 'CLOSE-UP #1' subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/atari_falcon30_keyboard_1.jpg - title: 'CLOSE-UP #2' subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/atari_falcon30_keyboard_2.jpg - title: CASE SIDES subtitle: '' text: |- Left side **(1)** MIDI In\ **(2)** MIDI Out\ **(3)** ROM cartridge connector\ **(4)** 2 x joystick plugs Right side **(5)** Floppy-disc drive image: /media/museum/photos/atari_falcon30_sides_1.jpg - title: MOTHERBOARD subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Midi In/Out DIN plugs\ **(2)** Reset switch\ **(3)** Lan MiniDIN plug\ **(4)** Modem/Serial DB9 connector\ **(5)** Printer/Parallel DB25 connector\ **(6)** IDE bus connector (hard-disk)\ **(7)** Video signals generator chip called VIDEL\ **(8)** RF modulator and TV aerial output chinch plug\ **(9)** RGB monitor DB 19 connector\ **(10)** SCSI controller chip\ **(11)** SCSI connector\ **(12)** Microphone / Headphone jacks\ **(13)** DSP connector\ **(14)** CODEC Chip\ **(15)** 56K DSP (Digital Signal Processing) chip\ **(16)** 64 KB DSP SRAM chips\ **(17)** Direct Memory Access chip\ **(18)** Floppy disc drive cables (data and power)\ **(19)** fan\ **(20)** BIOS and GEM ROM\ **(21)** Memory expansion connectors\ **(22)** COMBEL chip (MMU + GLUE + Blitter)\ **(23)** Motorola 68030 microprocessor\ **(24)** 'Direct Processor' expansion connector\ **(25)** Joystick connectors\ **(26)** Motorola Math coprocessor socket\ **(27)** Multi-Function Peripheral 68901 chip. Performs a 8-bit parallel port, a built-in serial interface, timers and interrupts.\ **(28)** ROM cartridges connector image: /media/museum/photos/atari_falcon30_motherboard_1.jpg - title: INSIDE subtitle: '' text: |- Falcon's internal peripharals: **(1)** Switching power supply (+5V - 7A, +12V - 0.5A)\ **(2)** 60 MB CP-2064 Conner hard-disk\ **(3)** 3.5" F.D. drive\ **(4)** 4 MB RAM module image: /media/museum/photos/atari_falcon30_inside_1.jpg - title: REAR CONNECTORS subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Second pair of joystick connectors housing\ **(2)** DSP connector\ **(3)** Headphone jack\ **(4)** Microphone jack\ **(5)** SCSI connector\ **(6)** RGB monitor connector\ **(7)** TV aerial output plug\ **(8)** Parallel/Printer connector\ **(9)** Serial/Modem connector\ **(10)** Lan Mini-DIN connector\ **(11)** Mains power plug and switch\ **(12)** Reset switch image: /media/museum/photos/atari_falcon30_back_1.jpg hardware: - title: SF-354 subtitle: Single density disk-drive text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_sf354-diskdrive_1.jpg - title: SF-314 subtitle: Disk-drive text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st-disk-drive_sf314.jpg - title: CUMANA DRIVE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_520_cumanadrive_1.jpg - title: SUPRADRIVE subtitle: 20 Mb hard-disk text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_supradrive_20mb.jpg - title: 170MB QUANTUM HARD-DRIVE subtitle: '' text: This unit has an ICD Host Adapter. image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_quamtum_hd170.jpg - title: ATARI MEGAFILE 30 subtitle: '' text: This hard-drive has a 30Mb capacity. image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_megafile30_1.jpg - title: INSIDE THE MEGAFILE 30 subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Seagate MFM 30 MB hard-disk Type ST-238\ **(2)** Power supply\ **(3)** Logical board\ **(4)** Power and disk access LED's image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_insidemegafile_1.jpg - title: ATARI UNIVERSAL MODEM subtitle: '' text: |- The SX212 modem was one of the rare Atari peripherals that could be used with all the Atari computers range, from the 400/800 series up to the Falcon. It had both the Atari I/O ports for the 8-bit systems and a standard RS-232 connector for ST's It was a 300/1200 baud modem compatible with the well-known Hayes 'AT' commands.\ Cable and software was sold separately, depending of the computer used. image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_520_modemsx212_1.jpg - title: SML-804 subtitle: Laser printer text: |- The SLM-804 was actually a Kyocera F1000 printer but without neither on-board processor and memory nor buttons other than the on/off switch. It was first delivered with the Mega ST but could be connected on all of the ST series computers through a dedicated interface box.\ The printer used the processing power and the RAM memory of the ST computer for printing at 8 pages per minute and 300 DPI. The paper tray held 250 sheets. Thanks to **Francois Michaud** who donated us this printer. image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_slm804printer_s1.jpg - title: SMLC-804 subtitle: Laser printer interface text: This interface allowed the SML-804 printer to be connected to any Atari ST holding at least 1 MB RAM. image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_slmcinterface_s1.jpg emulators: - title: Pacifist ! url: http://www.pacifist.fatal-design.com/ platform: MS DOS text: Pretty good emulator - title: Gemulator url: http://www.emulators.com/gemul8r.htm platform: Windows text: '' - title: MagiCPC url: http://www.application-systems.de/magicpc/index.html platform: Windows text: '' - title: SainT url: http://saint.atari.org platform: Windows text: The best Atari ST Emulator ! - title: Steem url: http://steem.atari.st/ platform: Windows text: Excellent emulator for 1040/520 STE ! - title: Tos2Win url: http://www.aixit.com/tos2win/ platform: Windows text: A good Atari GEM Emulator ! - title: MagiCMac url: http://www.application-systems.de/magicmac/index.html platform: Apple text: '' - title: NoSTalgia & PowerST url: http://users.skynet.be/sky39147/ platform: Apple text: '' - title: STonX Homepage url: http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/stonx.html platform: Unix / Linux text: '' - title: Atari ST Emulator url: http://www.atari-st.lovely.net/ platform: Other platform text: Written in Java ! - title: ARAnyM url: HTTP://ARANYM.ATARI.ORG platform: Multiplatform text: Multiplatform project - title: Hatari url: http://hatari.sourceforge.net/ platform: Multiplatform text: Hatari is an Atari ST emulator for Linux, BSD, BeOS, Mac OS X and other systems that are supported by the SDL library. More precisely, Hatari is an adaption of the WinSTon source code to the SDL library. links: - title: Atari & Commodore Home Computer Museum url: http://www.best.com/~hmk/ text: '' - title: Atari Music Network url: http://www.atarimusic.net/ text: Atari Music Network welcomes and celebrates all vintage digital musicians no matter what their computer - title: Atari ST Demo History url: http://wwwbrauer.in.tum.de/~brandtf/ataridemos.html text: '' - title: Atari ST Download Area url: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Services/PDA/atari.shtml text: Atari 400/800/XL/XE & ST/TT/Falcon Software download page - title: ATARI.ORG url: http://www.atari.org/ text: Looking for something on any Atari machine ? Follow the links ! - title: Dead Hackers Society url: http://www.dhs.nu/ text: Atari demo scene - title: Little Green Desktop url: http://www.atari.st/ text: Largest Atari ST ressource! - title: Medusa computer url: http://www.kingx.com/kingx/medusa/thes.html text: You can still buy an Atari ST family clone computer - title: Milan Computer GmbH url: http://www.milan-computer.de/ text: Atari ST - Falcon Clone - title: MiNTOS Distribution url: http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~steve/mintos.html text: '' - title: Musique.Atari.Org url: HTTP://MUSIQUE.ATARI.ORG text: Web site dedicated to the ATARI and the Music... - title: PLOPBOX - Atari music archive and jukebox url: http://www.plopbox.net/ text: listen to atari tunes directly from your browser - title: Polish Atari Wikipedia url: http://atariki.krap.pl text: A lot of info about Atari (in polish) - title: ST Anwender Bern url: http://my.blackpoint.ch/stab/ text: Atari ST Usergroup Bern (Swiss) - title: The Atari Historical Society url: http://www.atarimuseum.com/ text: The complete history of Atari Arcade and Home games and computers. Complete site with pictures, commercials (streaming), and full text articles. Amazing site ! - title: The Atari ST Quick FAQ url: http://www.megacom.net/~q-funk/ST/ text: '' - title: The Atari WebRing Homepage url: http://b.webring.com/hub?ring=atari text: Useful ! - title: The Ultimate ATARI Resource url: http://www.atari.org text: '' - title: What is TOS url: http://www.vanc.igs.net/~roughley/tos_main.htm text: '' - title: Index of -~archive-atari- url: http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/ text: '' - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com text: French forum docs: - title: ATARI 520 ST OWNER'S MANUAL url: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarist/index.htm cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/atari_520st_user_doc.jpg text: |- [**ATARI 520 ST OWNER'S MANUAL**](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarist/index.htm)written by Atari  compiled/archived by Daves Old Computers\  type of document : PDF\  size : 5 Mb\  source : [Daves Old Computers](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield) **... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :** comments: - author: Dr. Bob Abell (Kanata, On, Canada) date: Thursday 22nd August 2013 text: Jason, Nice to know you remember where you BOUGHT the equipment. The IIe clone was probably a Laser Vtech, but we did have some others. My wife and I owned and ran Alphatel. I still have an STM125, and a couple of new toner cartridges for the 804 laser printer - which was also ahead of its time. We were, until Atari closed their Canadian operations, the Western service center for Atari as well. And we had really loyal customers. Best regards, Bob. - author: Exin (Deutschland) date: Tuesday 21st May 2013 text: The Falcon didn''t have any TT Graphics modes, but those from the STe instead. The TT had a 256 Grayscales mode which is not present in the Falcon. - author: Jakob J. (Denmark) date: Sunday 9th October 2011 text: |- The Falcon was my baby back in the good old days (also had a ST and a Mega ST), I got my Falcon 030 cpu running 36MHz with a barracuda card from Germany, great stuff $) I loved the DSP - back in the assembly coding days...\ -Love this "Museum" :) - author: Jason Thompson (Calgary/Canada) date: Saturday 25th June 2011 text: My father still has and uses an Atari Falcon 030. I was born in 1975, the first computer we had that I remember using was a TI-99/4A, followed my a Apple IIe clone (can''t remember manufacturer but purchased at Alphatel in Edmonton, AB), followed by an Atari 520STFM and then an Atari 1040ST and eventually the Falcon 030 that is still used today. I think the 520 and 1040 are still operational but haven''t been powered up in decades since the Falcon was purchased... The Atari and Amiga I remember fondly as true leaders of their day. - author: Malcolm Ramage (United Kingdon) date: Thursday 21st April 2011 text: I now have 2 of these brilliant if compromised machines. Sadly a full 32 bit processor on a 16 bit data bus and a 24 bit address bus, limiting the 68030 to the same data and address width of the 68000 in the ST. Also the internal expansion bus only brought the signals common to the 68000, making it more like the expansion connector in the Mega ST rather than the VME bus in the TT and Mega STE - author: geff spicmen (Italy) date: Friday 26th November 2010 text: these were great computers. Amiga, Atari STe, Falcon... PCs are shit in confrontation, and they killed the market. - author: Alex (Bulgaria) date: Wednesday 22nd September 2010 text: This was my first computer :) - author: erika (cambridge, ontario) date: Thursday 3rd January 2008 text: this is the first computer i ever used, i remember it had a bumblebee for the cursor, after it's hard drive died my parents threw it out and got a Tandy 1000 - author: Dave Wolnik (Phoenix, Az) date: Saturday 19th November 2005 text: Does anyone have a Falcon 030 for sale or know where I can get one? - author: Sprockett (Vancouver, BC) date: Tuesday 20th September 2005 text: 'If anyone is interested in a bit of obscure trivia regarding the Falcon: a company called Bell & Howell (manufacturer of many things from cameras to industrial machines) used Falcons as a control computer for their postal inserting equipment (essentially automated machines that insert mail into envelopes at high speed.) To this day, some of these old mail machines are still in operation in some very prominent mail houses, and the company''s technicians scrounge for used machines and parts for these computers to keep them running.' - author: Alejandro Corral (Granada (Spain)) date: Monday 25th August 2003 text: |- Hello... I've recently acquired this beautiful computer, and I'm searching for info on an accelerator it has installed, the Skunk Falcon Accelerator. If anyone knows about it, please tell me...\ By the way the computer is absolutely fascinating!! - author: David A. Czuba (Buffalo NY) date: Tuesday 30th July 2002 text: We are a Direct Mail printshop which acquired two Bell+Howell Mailstar 500 machines driven by Atari Falcon 030 computers. Since their use is intended for a production environment, the Falcon must be operational despite dust and abuse. So the contention that the OS is unstable has less merit. I am impressed by the variety of interface ports available, including AppleTalk LAN. What could be useful is a TOS2DOS utility for creating bootable disks. related: - /museum/atari-130-st-260-st - /museum/atari-4160-ste - /museum/atari-520-1040-ste - /museum/atari-520-1040-stf-stfm - /museum/atari-520-st-st-stm - /museum/atari-falcon-030-microbox - /museum/atari-fx-1-sparrow - /museum/atari-mega-st - /museum/atari-mega-ste - /museum/atari-st-book - /museum/atari-stacy - /museum/atari-stylus-st-pad - /museum/atari-tt-030 oc_id: 125 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230528022437/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=125 date: '2023-05-28' --- The Atari Falcon 030 is the successor of the [Atari 520 STe](/museum/atari-520-1040-ste/) and the [Atari TT 30](/museum/atari-tt-030/). It keeps some features these machines : The graphic modes (320 x 200 / 16 colors, 640 x 200 / 4 colors, 640 x 400 / 2 colors, 320 x 480 / 256 colors and 640 x 480 / 16 colors) and the sound chips (the old Yamaha PSG and the two 8 bits PCM channels of the STe). Two new graphic modes have been added : a "small" 256 colors SVGA (640 x 480) and a true color VGA mode (32768 / 65535 colors in 320 x 480). Also when running on a TV, the resolutions are different: True Color mode is 640x480 in PAL and 640x400 in NTSC. The other TV resolutions also have a difference of vertical resolution between PAL and NTSC: 200 or 400 lines in NTSC, 240 or 480 in PAL. New interfaces were added too : an ADC 16bit 50 KHz and a DSP I/O port. The videochip has also genlocking features. The Falcon was sold with the single-task TOS operating system in ROM (4.04). It is the old Atari ST TOS with new functions to handle the DSP and the new graphic modes. The GUI was slightly enhanced with colored icons and 3D windows.\ Hopefully a multi-task TOS - MultiTOS) was also delivered on disks. This multitasking system uses the MiNT kernel and an enhanced GUI. MiNT (which stands for MiNT is NOT TOS) is a multitasking Operating System with lot of Unix features. It was initially done by Eric Smith. It was bought later by Atari and became then "MiNT is NOW TOS). Atari planned first to put it in ROM, but it was not finished and was shipped on disks. --- More information by **Malcolm Ramage**:\ There are at least 3 types of 'ST' style Falcon, the first version was in an FX-1 type case (Complete with FX-1 keyboard, yellow lettering with red function key numbers), the second was like the machine here (In ST colouring) and the release machine (Lighter case than the FX-1, but still had the dark keys with all lettering in white). C-Lab licenced the Falcon and released their own version with a slight modification to the audio hardware. The Mk I was a bare falcon with no hard drive, the Mk II included a 500MB hard drive and the Mk X was in a pizza style box with a Mega STe keyboard, but was nothing more than a Mk II in a fancy box.\ When C-Lab stopped manufacturing the Falcon in 1995, the machine vanished. No further development was done on the Falcon hardware after 1992.