--- title: Atari 130 ST - 260 ST categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1985' cpus: - Motorola MC68000 params: name: 130 ST - 260 ST company: /companies/atari company_name: Atari specs: - label: NAME value: 130 ST - 260 ST - label: MANUFACTURER value: Atari - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1985' - label: KEYBOARD value: Full-stroke keyboard with numeric and cursor keypads - label: CPU value: Motorola MC68000 - label: SPEED value: 8 mHz - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: N/A - label: RAM value: 128 KB (130 ST) / 512 KB (260 ST) - label: ROM value: 32 KB to 192 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 40 or 80 columns x 25 lines - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 320 x 200 / 640 x 200 / 640 x 400 dots - label: COLORS value: 16 among 512 (320 x 200) / 4 among 512 (640 x 400) / monochrome (640 x 400) this last mode needs a special monitor. - label: SOUND value: 3 voices, 8 octaves - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 47 (W) x 24 (D) x 6 (H) cm - label: I/O PORTS value: RGB, Cardridge, Midi (in/out), Centronics, RS232c, Hard Disk, Floppy Disk, Joystick, Mouse - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 3.5'' external disk-drive unit - label: OS value: TOS / GEM - label: POWER SUPPLY value: External power supply unit - label: PRICE value: 520 (260ST with SF354 disc drive unit) tabs: - photos - hardware - emulators - links - docs photos: - title: ATARI 130 ST -VIEW#2 subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: ATARI 130ST -VIEW#1 subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: 260ST LARGER VIEW subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: LEFT SIDE subtitle: '' text: ROM cartridges connector image: null - title: RIGHT SIDE subtitle: '' text: Joystick and mouse connectors image: null - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: REAR SIDE subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Reset switch\ **(2)** Power switch. Power is supplied by an external PSU providing +5V, +12V and -12V\ **(3)** Power DIN plug\ **(4)** Midi Out DIN plug\ **(5)** Midi In\ **(6)** RGB monitor output. 13-pin DIN plug\ **(7)** Paraller printer DB25 connector\ **(8)** Serial RS232 DB25 connector\ **(9)** External floppy disc unit 14-pin DIN plug\ **(10)** External hard disc unit 19-pin DIN plug image: null - title: MAIN BOARD subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** DMA controller for external FD/HD drives\ **(2)** Western Digital WDC 1772 floppy disc controller\ **(3)** 2 x 6850 ACIA. Manage Midi IN & OUT\ **(4)** Yamaha YM21149F sound generator (AY-8912 compatible)\ **(5)** Video shifter (shifts video registers). This chip is normally covered with a metallic magnetic shield\ **(6)** Keyboard connector\ **(7)** 512 KB RAM chips - 16 x Fujitsu 81256 (256K x 1 bit)\ **(8)** MMU chip (Memory Management Unit)\ **(9)** MC68000 processor\ **(10)** 68901 chip, also called 'Multi-Function Peripheral', handles peripherals interrupts\ **(11)** 'Glue' custom chip, coordinates all the components of the system\ **(12)** 6 x 32 KB ROM chips, hold TOS operating system and GEM graphics interface image: null 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: 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: Anand S. (Netherlands) date: Monday 5th April 2021 text: 'Not entirely true: only the 520 STF(M) models have a floppy drive built in. There were also 520 ST(+) models that had the same dimensions as the 260 (in fact, rebranded 260''''s) and therefore no built-in floppy drive.' - author: Lars Vadjina (Germany) date: Tuesday 19th November 2019 text: The 260 ST has no build in floppy disc drive. I should know as I was one of the first buyers/owners back in the days. Still own that wonderful machine :-) - author: Marty Goldberg (USA) date: Tuesday 5th March 2013 text: That Amiga section is wrong as well. The ST was not rushed on to the market and was never planned around Amiga technology. It was in fact started \*before\* Jack purchased the Consumer Division. Likewise Atari Inc. was certainly not contracting manufacturing to Amiga, they were simply licensing Amiga''s custom chips. And even then it was for a game console, not a computer. The pending licensing agreement was for an Amiga based game console to be released for the Winter of ''84, which would be allowed to expand with a keyboard expansion in ''85. Then finally in ''86 Atari Inc. would be allowed to release a regular Amiga based computer. Amiga wanted the time to release their own computer on the market - which the pending agreement stipulated. We cover the entire situation in Atari Inc. - Business Is fun (on Amazon) including showing some of the original agreement. - author: Marty Goldberg (USA) date: Tuesday 5th March 2013 text: That intro is completely wrong. He did not by Atari Inc., he bought a division of Atari Inc. - the Consumer Division. He in turn folded that in to his own company (TTL) and renamed that to Atari Corporation. related: - /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 - /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: 922 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230606140948/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=922 date: '2023-06-06' --- The Atari 130 ST (ST means sixteen/thirty-two :16 bit data bus & 32 bit address bus) was shown at the Winter Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in 1985. It was the great surprise of the show and was presented only six months after Jack Tramiel bought Atari, Inc. (He later named it Atari Corp). The ST series was rushed onto the market as Atari had originally contracted Amiga Corp. to manufacture a 16-Bit home computer, but legal issues caused the dissolution of that contract resulting in Commodore Computer releasing the [Amiga](/museum/commodore-amiga-1000/) and Atari creating the ST using 'Off The Shelf' electronics to release a computer to coincide with Commodore's release of the Amiga. It was also designed to be a "[Macintosh](/museum/apple-macintosh/) Killer", and was jokingly called the "Jackintosh". It offered lots of features never found on home computers before: 16 bit microprocessor, lots of interfaces, standard MIDI interface, high graphic resolution, lot of colors, enhanced GUI (Graphic User Interface). It was much more powerful and expandable than the Macintosh (MIDI, graphics, colors, and the like) and competitors weren't very numerous ([Commodore 128](/museum/commodore-c128-c128d/), [PC AT](/museum/ibm-pc-at/), & compatibles, and the old CP/M machines). That explains why more than 6 million of Atari ST's were sold around the world. The Atari 130 ST was a prototype for the press demonstration and was never released because of its small memory size : the complete operating system couldn't fit in it. It was replaced by the **Atari 260 ST** and the **Atari 520 ST**. Despite its name, the Atari 260 ST was shipped with 512 KB of RAM, because the 192 KB operating system left less than 64 KB of free RAM. The Operating System was TOS (**T**ramiel **O**perating **S**ystem, later renamed just "The Operating System") which was in fact no more than the old CP/M 68K. Notice that to make easy the transition from the PC to ST, all the high level calls of the TOS (called GEMDOS) were compatible with the DOS calls of the PC (int 21h). All of the ST family systems used the GEM, which stands for Graphic Environment Manager, GUI (from Digital Research) which has a striking resemblance to the Macintosh GUI (windows, dialog boxes, desktop, desktop accessories, & bitmap fonts) even if it is a bit less friendly than the Apple one. The 260ST Operating System (TOS & GEM) was supplied on disquette with earlier models, then into 6 x 32 KB ROM chips when the development of the O.S. was fully finished. ST systems had several dedicated coprocessors for interrupt handling (MFP 68901), sound (the old Yamaha YM 2149, same as General Instruments AY-3-8910 found in [MSX computers](/museum/msx-1/), [Amstrad](/museum/amstrad-cpc-464/) or [Oric](/museum/oric-1/)), video (a custom chip called "Shifter"), and memory (a custom chip called "GLUE" and the MMU).