website/content/museum/atari-520-1040-stf-stfm.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Atari 520 / 1040 STf / STfm	Computers	Home Computer	U.S.A.	1986	Motorola MC 68000	name company company_name specs tabs photos adverts hardware emulators links docs comments related oc_id source 520 / 1040 STf / STfm /companies/atari Atari label value NAME 520 / 1040 STf / STfm label value MANUFACTURER Atari label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1986 label value KEYBOARD Full stroke keyboard with numeric keypad, editing keypad and 10 function keys label value CPU Motorola MC 68000 label value SPEED 8 mHz label value RAM 512 KB (up to 4 MB) label value ROM 32 KB with TOS on disk / 192 KB with TOS on ROM label value TEXT MODES 40 or 80 chars. x 25 lines (bitmapped graphics) label value GRAPHIC MODES 16 colors among 512 (320 x 200) / 4 colors among 512 (640 x 200) / monochrome (640 x 400) this last mode needs a special monitor. label value COLORS max. 512 label value SOUND 3 voices + 1 noise channel, 8 octaves (Yamaha YM-2149) label value I/O PORTS Cartridge, Midi (in, out), Centronics, RS232c, Hard Disk, Floppy disk, RGB, Joystick, mouse label value BUILT IN MEDIA 3.5'' disk-drive label value OS TOS + GEM label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit photos adverts hardware emulators links docs title subtitle text image SAME MODELS The 520STF and 1040STF were same machines, apart from RAM size and floppy disk drive capacity. null title subtitle text image LARGE VIEW null title subtitle text image LEFT & RIGHT SIDES **(1)** Midi In and Out DIN sockets\ **(2)** ROM cartridges connector. null title subtitle text image TWO 520 STF VERSIONS The top one has 360 KB floppy disk, the bottom one has a 720 KB version. null title subtitle text image REAR CONNECTORS From left to right: • Serial port dedicated to an external modem\ • Parallel printer connector\ • External hard disk drive interface\ • External floppy disk drive interface (15-pin DIN socket)\ • Monochrome or RGB monitor DIN socket\ • Power switch and plug\ • Reset switch (the grey plastic button is missing) null title subtitle text image INSIDE Like almost all Atari machines, the mainboard, power supply unit and floppy drive are surrounded with a metallic protection against magnetic fields. null title subtitle text image 520 STF MAINBOARD **(1)** 512 KB RAM chips (16x41256). Provision is made to upgrade the RAM size to 1 MB\ **(2)** TOS ROM's (2x32K)\ **(3)** MMU custom chip\ **(4)** 68000 CPU, here a Hitachi version\ **(5)** The Shifter custom video chip is protected by a metallic cover\ **(6)** Glue custom chip\ **(7)** Multi-Function Peripheral (MFP) chip\ **(8)** 2x6850 ACIA chips\ **(9)** Yamaha sound chipset\ **(10)** Floppy disk controller chip\ **(11)** DMA controller chip For more information about each custom chip, see the 'Motherboard' picture of the Atari [520ST](/museum/atari-520-st-st-stm/) page. null title subtitle text image 1040 MAINBOARD All the RAM area is populated with 41256 chips. null title subtitle text image MAINBOARD CLOSE-UP This version doesn't hold the TOS in ROM. null title subtitle text image ATARI 2080 #1 Just before launching the Mega-ST series, Atari sold little quantities of this unofficial 2MB RAM version called 2080STf. A 4160STf was also planned but never left the Commodore research department. Thanks to **Sveto** null title subtitle text image ATARI 2080 #2 Atari labels Thanks to **Sveto** null title subtitle text image U.K. AD. (1986) In U.K., at 1986 Christmas period, the 1040 STF was sold £799 + VAT for the 12" monochrome version, and £999 + VAT for the 14" colour version. null title subtitle text image U.K. AD. (1986) Advert said: As the American magazine 'Byte' commented, "for some time to come the 1040STF will be the clear leader in price/performance." null title subtitle text image FRENCH AD (DEC. 1985) "At the fingertip of the mouse..." "... 16/32 bits technology" null title subtitle text image U.K. AD. 1989 Special 520-STFM bundle advert.\ Advert said: There's no catch. We're giving you the Atari 520 STFM and £500 worth of great software titles for just £399.99.\ The twenty-three super titles include some of the greatest games and three excellent programs which introduce you to the BASIC programming language, computer-created music and the more popular computer applications such as word processing and spreadsheets... null title subtitle text image SF-354 Single density disk-drive /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_sf354-diskdrive_1.jpg title subtitle text image SF-314 Disk-drive /media/museum/hardware/atari_st-disk-drive_sf314.jpg title subtitle text image CUMANA DRIVE /media/museum/hardware/atari_520_cumanadrive_1.jpg title subtitle text image SUPRADRIVE 20 Mb hard-disk /media/museum/hardware/atari_supradrive_20mb.jpg title subtitle text image 170MB QUANTUM HARD-DRIVE This unit has an ICD Host Adapter. /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_quamtum_hd170.jpg title subtitle text image ATARI MEGAFILE 30 This hard-drive has a 30Mb capacity. /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_megafile30_1.jpg title subtitle text image INSIDE THE MEGAFILE 30 **(1)** Seagate MFM 30 MB hard-disk Type ST-238\ **(2)** Power supply\ **(3)** Logical board\ **(4)** Power and disk access LED's /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_insidemegafile_1.jpg title subtitle text image ATARI UNIVERSAL MODEM 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. /media/museum/hardware/atari_520_modemsx212_1.jpg title subtitle text image SML-804 Laser printer 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. /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_slm804printer_s1.jpg title subtitle text image SMLC-804 Laser printer interface This interface allowed the SML-804 printer to be connected to any Atari ST holding at least 1 MB RAM. /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_slmcinterface_s1.jpg title url platform text Pacifist ! http://www.pacifist.fatal-design.com/ MS DOS Pretty good emulator title url platform text Emulators Online http://www.emulators.com/ Windows Demo of Gemulator, a commercial product from BraSoft. title url platform text Gemulator http://www.emulators.com/gemul8r.htm Windows title url platform text MagiCPC http://www.application-systems.de/magicpc/index.html Windows title url platform text Pacifist http://www.pacifist.fatal-design.com/ Windows The best Atari ST emulator title url platform text SainT http://saint.atari.org Windows The best Atari ST Emulator ! title url platform text Steem http://steem.atari.st/ Windows Excellent emulator for 1040/520 STE ! title url platform text STonX Homepage http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/stemu.html Windows The Atari ST Emulator for Linux/X windows title url platform text Toad Computers' Atari Central http://www.ataricentral.com/ Windows Demo of Magic, a commercial emulator for PC/Windows and Macintosh. title url platform text Tos2Win http://www.aixit.com/tos2win/ Windows A good Atari GEM Emulator ! title url platform text TOSBOX Atari emulation homepage http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/4448/ Windows title url platform text WinSTon http://www.winston.fatal-design.com/ Windows An emulator for Win95 / Win NT title url platform text MagiCMac http://www.application-systems.de/magicmac/index.html Apple title url platform text NoSTalgia & PowerST http://users.skynet.be/sky39147/ Apple title url platform text NoSTalgia The AtariST Emulator for the Macintosh http://users.skynet.be/sky39147/ Apple title url platform text Toad Computers' Atari Central http://www.ataricentral.com/ Apple Demo of Magic, a commercial emulator for PC/Windows and Macintosh. title url platform text STonX Homepage http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/stonx.html Unix / Linux title url platform text STonX Homepage http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/stonx.html Unix / Linux title url platform text Atari ST Emulator http://www.atari-st.lovely.net/ Other platform Written in Java ! title url platform text ARAnyM HTTP://ARANYM.ATARI.ORG Multiplatform Multiplatform project title url platform text Hatari http://hatari.sourceforge.net/ Multiplatform 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. title url text Application Systems Heidelberg http://members.aol.com/ashinfo/index.html title url text Atari & Commodore Home Computer Museum http://www.best.com/~hmk/ title url text Atari Demo Scene http://rzserv2.fh-lueneburg.de:8080/Demo_Scene title url text Atari game links http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/cache/369/index.html title url text Atari Music Network http://www.atarimusic.net/ Atari Music Network welcomes and celebrates all vintage digital musicians no matter what their computer title url text Atari ST Demo History http://wwwbrauer.in.tum.de/~brandtf/ataridemos.html title url text Atari ST Download Area http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Services/PDA/atari.shtml Atari 400/800/XL/XE & ST/TT/Falcon Software download page title url text Atari ST Download Area http://www.gpfn.sk.ca/Services/PDA/atari.html title url text ATARI.ORG http://www.atari.org/ Looking for something on any Atari machine ? Follow the links ! title url text Atari-WEB http://web.cnam.fr/Comp/Atari/ title url text Calculating Pi and Atari ST-Falcon http://www.ast.univie.ac.at/~wasi/PI/stuart_lyster/stlib.htm title url text CareBears Online http://hem1.passagen.se/carebear/ title url text Centek Homepage http://www.centek.fr title url text Dead Hackers Society http://www.dhs.nu/ Atari demo scene title url text Elysium Atari & TOS Compatible Pages http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/aseabrook/a_index.htm title url text Emulators Online http://www.emulators.com/ title url text Gem programmer's page http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d2cg/gem/ title url text Little Green Desktop http://www.atari.st/ Largest Atari ST ressource! title url text Medusa computer http://www.kingx.com/kingx/medusa/thes.html You can still buy an Atari ST family clone computer title url text MiNTOS Distribution http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~steve/mintos.html title url text Musique.Atari.Org HTTP://MUSIQUE.ATARI.ORG Web site dedicated to the ATARI and the Music... title url text PLOPBOX - Atari music archive and jukebox http://www.plopbox.net/ listen to atari tunes directly from your browser title url text Polish Atari Wikipedia http://atariki.krap.pl A lot of info about Atari (in polish) title url text ST Anwender Bern http://my.blackpoint.ch/stab/ Atari ST Usergroup Bern (Swiss) title url text The Atari Historical Society http://www.atarimuseum.com/ The complete history of Atari Arcade and Home games and computers. Complete site with pictures, commercials (streaming), and full text articles. Amazing site ! title url text The Atari ST Quick FAQ http://www.megacom.net/~q-funk/ST/ title url text The Atari WebRing Homepage http://b.webring.com/hub?ring=atari Useful ! title url text The New Funkyware Generation http://www.megacom.net/~q-funk/ title url text The Ultimate ATARI Resource http://www.atari.org title url text The Wonderful World of Atari Computing http://inet.uni-c.dk/~netop/atari.htm title url text What is TOS http://www.vanc.igs.net/~roughley/tos_main.htm title url text Atari ST-TT-Falcon030 FTP sites http://www.mcc.ac.uk/~dlms/ftplinks.html title url text Index of -~archive-atari- http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/ title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com French forum title url cover text ATARI 520 ST OWNER'S MANUAL http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarist/index.htm /media/museum/docs/couvs/atari_520st_user_doc.jpg [**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 :** author date text Aex Tb (Italy) Saturday 21st August 2021 I use a 1040 st as main sequencer with cubase 3.0... He never miss, he never crash... When i switch to pc windows based cubase i miss it soo much because soo many system crash... Now made music with pc windows is good but some time ago is a nightmare. author date text Brosen (Switzerland) Friday 17th March 2017 Green Day is a famous country singer, so don''t miss the possibility to visit $a href$http://greendaytourdates.com/$Green Day concert dates$/a$ author date text M-C (France) Monday 10th February 2014 Hello, 20 yers ago, I made an modification inside my 1040 stf : now, it could work as a PC (win 95) or MAC (Sys 7.5 french)... Just for fun !\ After 20 years, I''d like to wake up my sleeping beauty nd show it working to my kids...\ Who''s got SCSI or IDE adaptator on asci or cartridge connector ?\ I''m looking for schematic or buying the adaptator. author date text Doug T. Wednesday 26th December 2012 Hi - yes if anyone has a 1040 ST I would definitely like to buy it! I have some old 1040 ST disks that I would like to get information from, let me know you can email me doug@bluechairmusic.com, thanks. author date text Jamey Orsborn (USA) Thursday 6th December 2012 I also have an old 1040 ST, along with monitor, mouse, external 30MB hard drive. Anyone interested in buying? Thanks! author date text Paul S (UK) Tuesday 7th February 2012 The 520STFM was my 3rd computer (after previously having a Commodore C16 then a ZX Spectrum 128+). I had quite a good setup, the standard mouse was replaced with a far more accurate and comfortable Naksha model, as well as a Blitz Turbo external floppy drive and a Citizen 9-pin colour printer.\ I did a few bits of graphics and fonts for some lesser know demo groups and even a bit of Sound Tracker music with TCB Tracker, I remember getting an assembler routine that could play the mod files and incorporated that into an existing program that displayed a Spectrum 512 colour image with a scrolling message! I was so impressed with that! author date text Mike (usa-texas) Saturday 1st May 2010 I have an atari st 1040 with color monitor sc1224 and mouse. Great condition, has been stored for 12 years. I have all manuals....how much can i sell it for? author date text Thomsonicus (Poland!) Saturday 21st July 2007 heh, I broke quite a couple of joysticks while playing Super Street Fighter 2 on my friend's 520STfm :) author date text Daniel (Sweden) Monday 27th June 2005 Ahh i got a 520stm myself..still got it in its original box..unfortently its not working due to some damage on a chip and also the floppy is not working and got no mouse.\ i upgraded it to 1mb and had around 1000+ discs with games and all kind of programs..have a few hundred left maybe less ;) I also got my cousins 1040STE..its working but have some damage keys on keyboard, and have no mouse. Damn i miss the good ol times :) ATARI RUULES FU** AMIGA ;)) author date text Robert N. (Kansas) Thursday 14th April 2005 I had a 1040STf in high school. It was a great system, and that Mac emulator worked better than you would expect. We had Macs at school, and my friend and I used my 1040ST at home to run the Macintosh verison of Pagemaker to product our school newspaper. In fact, I remember it running a bit better on my 1040ST than it did on the Mac SE at school. I went all out on my ST...had both monitors and a little switch to switch between them. I also had the Supra 20 megabyte hard drive. I think that thing cost me over $700.00 when I bought it in maybe 1997 or 1998. Ouch. author date text Henrik Jakobsen (Denmark) Tuesday 3rd February 2004 All of my buddies had an Amiga500. I had an Atari 520 Stfm (bought it in '89). I still have it, but the external floppydrive is malfunction, so I cant use it, though I have the FD-controller interface yet. I remember the good old days, when ST forum zine was around the shops in Denmark... I also recently found my joysticks---> what a great quality they was made of! compared to daily models. Imagine how it would be like, to play summer games on new ones! author date text Mark P (bangor uk) Tuesday 14th January 2003 Not sure how I ended back here, but a kweschun. Anyone know how the keyboard/mouse/joystick reading chip can be damaged and how to put it right? A local PC shop bizarrely had an ST-TV scart lead as one of the offered products on it's website, so now my atari is alive again in full RGB sharpness :) only half of the discs still work, but hey, it's enough. problem is i get maybe 5 or 10 minutes into a game, if that, and then all the inputs stop working. Gahh!! Looks like the only two games I can play from now on are Dynablaster and Gauntlet II, with the printer port joystick dongle.. author date text Jan K (CZ) Friday 17th May 2002 the Atari has 640x400 monochrome,\ 640x200 with 4 colors and 320x200 with\ 16 colors. Both color resolution are\ displaylable on TV . author date text Mark P (Bangor, UK) Friday 5th April 2002 Mmm, still got one of these (1040) sitting in a cupboard waiting for my soldering skills to improve enough to finally make up a TV connection lead (tricky tricky) as the last known phillips monitor in the world burnt out years ago ^_^ Fond memories, wish I could get it going and work out a way to sync it with my palmpilot.. a machine with twice the processor speed and memory! .....hrm, hands up anyone who remembers the multitude of ST video capture devices? wonder why you can't do it on a palm... :) On the monitor note, the official site specs box is exactly right - 320x200 in 16 colours, 640x200 in 4 colours (both from 512 palette) and 640x400 in black and white with a special monitor (why the hell TV compatibility for that wasn't available baffles me). You could stretch beyond that to higher resolutions and colours - particularly 320x240 in "512" colours - but only with very fancy programming!\ chow... author date text Orbus (Midwest.) Thursday 7th March 2002 The 'Cartridge that could turn it into a Mac' was created by David Small, of 'Small Computing', and came in two flavors:\ The original was called the 'Magic Sac', and was nothing more than a holder for two boot ROMS from a Macintosh - Everything else was done in software, and the MS wasen't capable of reading Mac Disks (They provided a transfer program that allowed you to use a macintosh via serial cables to transfer disks.)\ The second version was called the 'Spectre GCR', and had a loop-through for the external floppy drives that enabled external floppy drives to read Mac floppies, along with much improved emulation.\ As far as I remember, a monochrome ST with 4mb ram (System address limit) could run System 7.5 - but, with less than four MB ram, you can imagine how poorly it ran it. author date text statusbar (Vancouver) Sunday 3rd March 2002 Yes, the Atari ST had 640x200 16 color graphics mode as well as 640x400 monochrome and a 320x200 256 color mode. The monochrome monitor and color monitors were seperate, and the resolutions available to you were dependant on the type of monitor you had. I used to have both. author date text PvK (Seattle) Friday 1st February 2002 640 x 200 graphics mode? I don't think so. 640 x 400 yes, 640 x 200, no. PvK /museum/atari-130-st-260-st /museum/atari-4160-ste /museum/atari-520-1040-ste /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 25 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230406043136/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=25 2023-04-06

The Atari 520 and 1040 STf were the direct successors of the Atari 260 ST and Atari 520 ST. In fact, they had the same technical characteristics except from built-in floppy drive (hence the f of STf).

The 3.5" floppy disk drive has been integrated with the power supply into the computer. The early first versions of the Atari 520 STf had a RAM based Operating System (they have a 32 KB ROM), this ROM will be quiclky replaced by a 192 KB ROM which holds all the operating system (called TOS 1.0).

An enhanced version of the Atari 520 STf was launched a few months later : the Atari 1040 STf to replace the Atari 520+ : It also had the same characteristics as the 520 STf except its memory (1 MB instead of the 512 KB) and the floppy disk drive : it used 3.5" double side disks (720 KB).
Not long after the launch of the 1040 STf, the 520 STf would be "unofficially" equipped with 720 KB floppy disk drives.
There was also a STfM model with a built-in floppy (the f) and an RF Modulator (the M).