---
title: Atari Abaq ATW Transputer 800
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1987'
cpus:
- RISC Inmos T-800 32 bits
params:
  name: Abaq ATW Transputer 800
  image: /media/museum/photos/abaq.jpg
  company: /companies/atari
  company_name: Atari
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: Abaq ATW Transputer 800
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Atari
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: U.S.A.
  - label: YEAR
    value: '1987'
  - label: CPU
    value: RISC Inmos T-800 32 bits (4 mips)
  - label: SPEED
    value: Unknown
  - label: CO-PROCESSOR
    value: Unknown
  - label: RAM
    value: 4 MB
  - label: VRAM
    value: 1 MB
  - label: ROM
    value: Unknown
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: Unknown
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: '4 modes, maximums : 1280 x 960 and 1024 x 768'
  - label: COLORS
    value: 16 (1280 x 960), 256 (1024 x 768) among 16.7 millions
  - label: SOUND
    value: Unknown
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: Unknown
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: Unknown
  - label: OS
    value: HELIOS
  tabs:
  - photos
  - links
  forum_thread: 52
  photos:
  - title: ATW TRANSPUTERS AT KODAK'S
    subtitle: ''
    text: This photo was "secretly" taken at a Kodak-owned facility, notice all the Mega ST keyboards linked to a ATW station (once again obtained through classified sources).
    image: /media/museum/photos/atw.jpg
  - title: MY ATARI ATW 800 TRANSPUTER
    subtitle: ''
    text: The picture of the main page shows the Atari Transputer card plugged onto a Mega STf. This photo shows the 'real' Atari ATW 800 Transputer station. There are only 250 (!) transputers in the world ! The 50 first models are prototypes and the 200 other ones were sold to Kodak. My (Thierry speaking here) transputer belongs to the 50 prototypes.
    image: /media/museum/photos/atw0.jpg
  - title: THE ATARI ATW 800 MOTHER BOARD
    subtitle: ''
    text: 'There are three boards in the ATW : the front card is the Atari STf motherboard, & has all the features of the Atari Mega STf 4, except its SCSI port. The board on the background is the ATW board, the yellow chip is the Inmos T800 CPU. Between the two cards, there is a video card with 1 MB RAM.'
    image: /media/museum/photos/atw2.jpg
  - title: ATW 800 OFFICIAL PROMO PICTURE
    subtitle: ''
    text: Thanks to Marcus Baum for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/atw800prm_s.jpg
  links:
  - title: ATW User's lair
    url: http://www.acbm.com/atw/
    text: ATW users mailing list
  - title: Internet Parallel Computing Archive
    url: http://wotug.ukc.ac.uk/parallel/transputer/
    text: Lot of Links about parallel computers
  - title: Ram's Transputer Home Page
    url: http://www.classiccmp.org/transputer/
    text: Very informative page about Transputers
  - title: The Transputer Archive
    url: http://archive.comlab.ox.ac.uk/transputer.html
    text: The Transputer archive contains information relevant to the transputer microprocessor designed by Inmos
  - title: Wikipedia Transputer page
    url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Transputer_Workstation
    text: Nice detailed page
  - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
    url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
    text: The Transputer and OCCAM language
  oc_id: 33
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230324201243/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=33
    date: '2023-03-24'
---

This strange machine was shown at Comdex in 1987. It was designed for graphics intensive applications taking advantage of the parallel processing capacities of the INMOS transputer.

Two models were sold: one of them was a card which could be connected onto a [Mega STf](/museum/atari-mega-st/) bus expansion to use its peripherals (keyboard, disk, etc.). The other was a computer in which there was a motherboard with a single transputer plus a card which contained all the Atari Mega STf hardware to use its peripherals!

The motherboard included slots to add up to four more processor cards, each with up to four transputers, to enable multiprocessing.

It ran under Helios, an operating system done by the British company **Perihelion**, derived from UNIX but specially adapted for parallel processing).

A C language was adapted and a parallel processing language called OCCAM. Only few of these computers were sold, most of them to Kodak.