website/content/museum/atari-falcon-030-microbox.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Atari FALCON 030 MicroBox	Computers	Professional Computer	U.S.A.	1993	Motorola MC68030	name company company_name specs tabs photos hardware emulators links docs comments related oc_id source FALCON 030 MicroBox /companies/atari Atari label value NAME FALCON 030 MicroBox label value MANUFACTURER Atari label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1993 label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard with numeric and editing keypads label value CPU Motorola MC68030 + Motorola DSP 56001 label value SPEED 16 MHz (68030) / 32 MHz (56001) label value CO-PROCESSOR optional FPU (Motorola 68882) label value RAM 4 MB (up to 14 MB) label value TEXT MODES 40 or 80 chars. x 25 lines (bitmapped graphics) label value GRAPHIC MODES ST Modes, TT Modes, VGA (640 x 480), True Color label value COLORS Two modes : 16 bit with True color mode or 262144 with paletted mode label value SOUND 8 channel 16 bit PCM audio system label value I/O PORTS RGB, VGA, PAL, DSP, SCSI, Stereo IN/OUT, Midi (2), LocalTalk, Cardridge, RS232c, Centronics, Joystick (2) label value BUILT IN MEDIA 3.5'' FDD (internal Hard Disk ?) label value OS TOS + GEM photos hardware emulators links docs title subtitle text image ATARI FALCON MICROBOX nother Atari Falcon Microbox design, which is slightly newer than the version presented on the description page. Thanks to Malcolm Ramage for this picture null title subtitle text image ATARI FALCON MICROBOX ...with keyboard Thanks to Malcolm Ramage for this picture null title subtitle text image ATARI FALCON MICROBOX Thanks to Malcolm Ramage for this picture null title subtitle text image ANY RESEMBLANCE IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL On my left : The Sony PlayStation2, on my right, the Atari Falcon030 MicroBox. Mmmmm... 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 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 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 Tos2Win http://www.aixit.com/tos2win/ Windows A good Atari GEM Emulator ! 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 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 Atari & Commodore Home Computer Museum http://www.best.com/~hmk/ 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.ORG http://www.atari.org/ Looking for something on any Atari machine ? Follow the links ! title url text Dead Hackers Society http://www.dhs.nu/ Atari demo scene 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 Ultimate ATARI Resource http://www.atari.org title url text What is TOS http://www.vanc.igs.net/~roughley/tos_main.htm 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 (Ireland) Monday 10th January 2011 Great site! This was to be the new case for the Falcon 030. The Falcon Microbox is part of the official Sony PS2 Patent mostly pertaining to ergonomic design. All tooling and parts were ready for this case to be turned on but Atari abandoned the computer business in favour of supporting the Jaguar gaming platform. An 040 version was also designed to motherboard stage and a project called "Painter" utilising Jaguar tech was proposed. Another case design was found in proto form and it was based on the "Painter" spec, but it is unclear if this was another "Microbox" design or specifically for "Painter". author date text Sco77y Friday 28th May 2010 Your right about the PS2 case design, they (Sony) bought the rights to the "GRILL" section if memory serves correctly..? I believe in the time the PS2 was launched Atari was nothing more than a rights and patents company.. (I.e still holding all the copyright and patent designs)... It was either this design or the jaguar design grill section that SONY Bought the rights to use? (Very vague but there is truth in this somewhere!) Peace out.. author date text Malcolm Ramage (United Kingdon) Thursday 21st April 2011 This was supposed to be what the falcon should have been all along. The data and address buses were to be full 32 bit and a proper 68030 expansion bus with access to the 68030 burst mode for fast data transfer. The picture here is of one of the case designs, I have another picture of a case design with a CD ROM drive in the top and an Atari logo embossed onto the front. This may have been for the later proposed 68040 model but to be honest, I cant really be sure. author date text Nathan (USA) Wednesday 11th February 2009 I saw one of these about a year ago on ebay. No one knew what it was so it only ended up selling for about 400 dollars. It was complete, with case and motherboard, and I am sure it worked. author date text Desert Eagle (Brazil) Sunday 17th October 2004 Anyone have more pictures of Microbox? It's a very interesting system ^_^ author date text Ben Booth (Leeds/UK) Monday 12th August 2002 It looks very similar to a PS2\ Looks like Sony's contemporary design was not that comtemporary after all!! author date text Markus (Boston) Wednesday 13rd March 2002 Wow! I have never seen a picture of the Microbox.... It really existed! :)\ Nice!\ To bad ATARI is gone ..... /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-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-030 270 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230603022728/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=270 2023-06-03

Few time after the Falcon 030, Atari decided to launch its successor. They worked then on the Falcon030 MicroBox.
Basically, it is a Falcon030 in a new case with a full 32bit data bus. (Remember that the Falcon030 has only a 16bit data bus). An other version was planned with a bigger case and three expansion slots.
The MicroBoxes CPU were supposed to be upgradable to a 68040.
It was never released (How typical!). Only few prototypes were produced, then abandoned when Atari decided to launch the Jaguar game system.

Atari worked for a while on a Falcon040 and one prototype was almost finished, but we can consider the MicroBox as the last attempt from Atari in the world of Computing.
You can find a photo of the motherboard at cyberroach.com.