--- title: Atari FX-1 Sparrow categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1991' cpus: - Motorola MC 68030sx params: name: FX-1 Sparrow image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_main.jpg company: /companies/atari company_name: Atari specs: - label: NAME value: FX-1 Sparrow - label: MANUFACTURER value: Atari - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1991' - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1992' - label: KEYBOARD value: Full-stroke keyboard with numeric and editing keypads - label: CPU value: Motorola MC 68030sx + Motorola DSP 56001 - label: SPEED value: 16 MHz - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: Motorola 68882 (FPU) - label: RAM value: 14 MB - label: ROM value: 512 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 40 x 25 / 80 x 25 - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: ST Modes, TT Modes, VGA (640 x 480) - label: COLORS value: 262144 with paletted mode - label: SOUND value: 8 channel 12 bit PCM audio system - label: I/O PORTS value: RGB, VGA, PAL, DSP, SCSI, Stereo IN/OUT, Midi (2), LocalTalk, Cardridge, RS232c, Centronics, Joystick (3), Mouse, 68030 Bus - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 3.5' FDD (1.44 MB) + 40 MB IDE Hard Disk - label: OS value: TOS 2.07 tabs: - photos - hardware - emulators - links - docs forum_thread: 621 photos: - title: MAINBOARD subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Analog Joystick ports\ **(2)** 68030 Expansion connector\ **(3)** CPU Motorola MC 68030sx\ **(4)** COMBEL (Atari Custom Chip)\ **(5)** Unknown (maybe a 68000 slot)\ **(6)** TOS 2.07 ROM\ **(7)** FPU Motorola 68882\ **(8)** RAM connector\ **(9)** FDC (Floppy Disk Controler)\ **(10)** Cardridge slot\ **(11)** MIDI IN/OUT\ **(12)** MFP 68HC90\ **(13)** ZILOG SCC (Lan controler)\ **(14)** REALTIME clock\ **(15)** 40 MB IDE HD\ **(16)** SDMA (Atari Custom Chip)\ **(17)** VIDEL (Atari Video Chip)\ **(18)** ACIA\ **(19)** CPU Motorola DSP 56001 image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_board.jpg - title: BACK SIDE subtitle: '' text: The mouse & digital joystick connectors are located into the hole on the left. image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_dessous.jpg - title: THE FX1 - OTHER VIEW subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_dessus.jpg - title: RIGHT subtitle: '' text: The Floppy disk drive is a PC compatible 1.44 MB FDD. image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_droite.jpg - title: LEFT subtitle: '' text: 'From top to bottom : MIDI IN / MIDI OUT, Cardridge port, Analogic joysticks (x2)' image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_gauche.jpg - title: IT'S SO DIFFICULT TO FIND A NAME... subtitle: '' text: |- Atari hesitated a lot before finding the right name and the right colors. First, they wanted to call the computer FX-1, it used then the ST case (light grey). Finally, the FX-1 had a dark grey case, so, they changed the logo. When they decided to name it "Falcon", they tried to find the right logo (eventually, the "Falcon 030" logo is the last one without any color in the "030"). Notice that Atari planned to use the FX-1 dark grey case for the Falcon but they finally used the old Atari ST cases (maybe they still have lot of ST cases in their stocks). The Atari Falcon has the FX-1 keyboard and the ST case. I suppose Atari produced the dark grey logos before deciding to use the ST case, so the Falcon has a dark grey logo ! image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_hesitate.jpg - title: ATARI FX-1 LOGO subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_logo.jpg - title: ATARI "SPARROW" STICKER subtitle: '' text: Although it was named "FX-1", everything is related to "Sparrow". image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_label.jpg - title: 14 MB RAM CARD subtitle: '' text: The Atari FX-1 used, as the Falcon, a 16 MB RAM card. Only 14 MB can be used (the 2 other MB addresses are shared with peripherals). image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_ram.jpg - title: REAR SIDE subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** DSP\ **(2)** Sound IN\ **(3)** Sound OUT\ **(4)** SCSI 1\ **(5)** Video Connector\ **(6)** TV connector\ **(7)** Parallel\ **(8)** Serial\ **(9)** LAN\ **(10)** Power Supply & reset image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_rear.jpg - title: ROMS subtitle: '' text: Two 256 KB ROMs, holds the TOS 2.07 image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_roms.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 Sparrow url: http://users.qnet.com/~dons/Sparrow.htm text: '' - 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: The very first sparrow prototype board url: http://www.mindrup.de/atos/online/9604/sparrow.htm text: (in german) - 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 :** 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 - /museum/atari-falcon-030-microbox - /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: 635 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608224112/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=635 date: '2023-06-08' --- In 1991, Atari planned to replace the old [STe](/museum/atari-520-1040-ste/) computers.\ They realized then the "Sparrow Card", which was a development card plugged into the 68000 slot of an [Atari 1040 STe](/museum/atari-520-1040-ste/).\ The "Sparrow Card" had one of the main feature of the future FX-1 / [Falcon 030](/museum/atari-falcon-030/) computers : it was a dual CPU board. It used a Motorola MC68030 and a Motorola DSP 56K.\ The "Sparrow Card" used a 16 MHz 68030, a 16 MHz 68882 (arithmetic coprocessor) and a 32 MHz DSP 56K with 24 KB of static RAM.\ Later, when Atari made the first fully functionnal computer from this prototype board, they planned to name it "FX-1", they eventually name it "Falcon".\ The Atari FX-1, or "Sparrow", is also a prototype machine. Actually, it is almost a Falcon030. It has all its features except its true color mode (not fully implemented in the FX-1) and the PCM sound channels (12 bit instead of 16 in the Falcon).\ These computers used the [Atari Mega STe](/museum/atari-mega-ste/) TOS (2.06) slightly modified to cope with the new graphic modes. This TOS version had the number 2.07 and was replaced in the last Sparrow models with the TOS 4.0 (The Falcon used TOS 4.01 in the earlier models, then the 4.04 and finally the 4.92 (never released)).\ Atari produced less than 100 of these machines. They were built with sample spare parts and were used by developpers to write software for the future Atari Falcon. **Curl Vendel** says :\ Originally, the Sparrow/FX-1 had a better graphics processor, but it was incompatible with most software. A newer processor was built that was more compatible (yet slightly crippled) with ST/e software.