website/content/museum/atari-600-800-xl.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Atari 600 / 800 XL	Computers	Home Computer	U.S.A.	1982	MOS 6502C	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos adverts hardware emulators links docs videos related software oc_id source 600 / 800 XL /media/museum/photos/atari_800xl_system_s1.jpg /companies/atari Atari label value NAME 600 / 800 XL label value MANUFACTURER Atari label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1982 label value END OF PRODUCTION January 85 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE Atari Basic label value KEYBOARD Mechanical keyboard label value CPU MOS 6502C label value SPEED 1.79 (NTSC) / 1.77 (PAL) MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR GTIA (video), POKEY (sound, I/O), ANTIC (video) label value RAM 16 KB (600 XL up to 64 KB) / 64 KB (800 XL, expandable to 128 KB) label value ROM 24 KB label value TEXT MODES five text modes, max: 40 x 24, min: 20 x 12 label value GRAPHIC MODES 16 graphic modes, maximum : 320 x 192 label value COLORS 256 (16 colors with 16 intensities) label value SOUND 4 voices, 3.5 octaves label value I/O PORTS Composite video output, cartridge slot, peripheral port (SIO), parallel bus, 2 joystick plugs label value POWER SUPPLY External power supply unit label value PRICE 183 (december 84) photos adverts hardware software emulators links docs videos 46 title subtitle text image LARGE VIEW With the 'Flight Simulator II' cartridge /media/museum/photos/atari_800xl_withcart_s1.jpg title subtitle text image KEYBOARD LEFT /media/museum/photos/atari_800xl_keybcloseup_s1.jpg title subtitle text image KEYBOARD RIGHT /media/museum/photos/atari_800xl_fkeys_s1.jpg title subtitle text image LEFT AND RIGHT SIDES Two joystick connectors are located on the right side - The first Atari 800 had four. /media/museum/photos/atari_800xl_leftrightsides_s1.jpg title subtitle text image REAR CONNECTORS From left to right:\ • 13-pin serial connector, specific to Atari peripherals (disk drives, tape recorder, printers) which can be connected in chain.\ • Parallel Bus Interface (PBI), hiden by a plastic lid\ • Video output DIN socket\ • TV channel selector\ • Power in DIN socket and switch. A simple jack would be sufficient as only one 5V voltage is supplied by the external PSU /media/museum/photos/atari_800xl_rearcon_s1.jpg title subtitle text image OPENED To meet US FCC rules, all the active components are covered with metallic protection against magnetic fields. /media/museum/photos/atari_800xl_opened_s1.jpg title subtitle text image 800 XLF MAINBOARD **(1)** 8 x 4264 chips (64K x 1 bit) hold the 64 KB RAM\ **(2)** Two ROM chips (24 KB) hold the Atari BASIC interpreter\ **(3)** Keyboard connector\ **(4)** The POKEY chipset can produce complex sounds; it also manages the keyboard\ **(5)** 6520 I/O chip\ **(6)** 6507 8-bits processor, an evolution of the 6502 using the same instructions set.\ **(7)** FREDDIE chipset, in charge of memory management, only available on the 800XLF version.\ **(8)**GTIA and ANTIC custom chipsets, manage the various text and graphic modes. /media/museum/photos/atari_800xl_mainboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image 800XL BOX /media/museum/photos/atari_800xl_box.jpg title subtitle text image 800XL BOX (2) /media/museum/photos/atari_800xl_box_1.jpg title subtitle text image U.K. AD. 1984 In the same magazine, Robert Hardling, the marketing manager of Atari Corporation said: I envisage the situation where each house in 20 years time will have two, three or maybe more computers, ranging from a basic game machine through a home computer for education and home management and culminating in a fully fledged hyghly sophisticated computing work-station.\ In the future, there may be only 3-4 major worldwide manufacturers. The IBM's, Apple's, Commodore's and Atari's of the world. /media/museum/pubs/atari_600xl_pub_1.jpg title subtitle text image GREEK ADVERT (MARCH 1985) null title subtitle text image INDUS GT 5''/14 disk-drive The Indus GT Double Density Drive is considered by many the best floppy drive available for the 8-bit Atari's with its digital readouts and smoke plexi cover. /media/museum/hardware/atari_800_indus-gt_disk-drive_1.jpg title subtitle text image ASTRA 2001 FD UNIT Dual 5.25 Dual 5.25" FDD unit using single side, single or double density floppy drives /media/museum/hardware/atari_800_astra2001fd_1.jpg title subtitle text image PERCOM DISC DRIVE Advert March 1983 Advert said: The Percom Data AT-88 offers 88 Kbytes (formatted) in single-density, with plug-in ease of attachment to your Atari. The AT-88 has integral power supply, "no-patch" to Atari DOS and critical constant speed regulation.\ Take advantage of this low introductory price of $488... /media/museum/hardware/atari_800_percomad_1.jpg title subtitle text image 1090 EXPANSION BOX #1 The 1090 is the only expansion or card cage unit ever produced by Atari. It had five internal expansion slots, allowing the user to add five different cards to the PBI bus. Atari was planning to produce many cards for the 1090, but only four - the Atari 1066 CP/M module, a 80-column card, a hard-disk card and a 64K memory board - are known to have reached the prototype stage.\ A few expansion boxes were built but never sold before the 1090 project was canceled in 1984. /media/museum/hardware/atari_800xl_1090expansion_2.jpg title subtitle text image COMPLETE SYSTEM As very few top covers were built, a complete expansion box is thus a true rarity! /media/museum/hardware/atari_800xl_1090expansion_1.jpg title subtitle text image CORVUS SYSTEMS HARD-DRIVE 10Mb hard-drive This is a 10Mb hard-drive. With up to 8 multiplexers with 8 ports each it's possible to connect up to 64 Atari 800's up to a single 10 or even 20 megabyte Atari system. Still in use Today at the Fordham Prepatory School in the Bronx, NY is a 64 Atari 800 computer network hooked up to a single Corvus Hard drive system ! The Corvus hard disk system also sported a unique and innovative back-up system called "The Corvus Mirror" which was a VCR interface system that allowed you to plug a standard Video Cassette Recorder (VCR) up to the Corvus Hard Drive System to save back-ups of the hard disk onto actual Video Tapes!!! /media/museum/hardware/atari_atari800_hd-corvus-systems_1.jpg title subtitle text image TOUCH TABLET The touch tablet was the best tool for drawing and painting. It shipped with the AtariArtist cartridge. /media/museum/hardware/atari_800xl_touchtablet_s1.jpg title subtitle text image 1029 PRINTER #1 This printer was a modified version of the Seikosha GP-500. Atari replaced the standard Parallel Centronics interface with the custom Atari serial connectors. It was a 80-column, 50 CPS version with a 7x5 dot matrix head. Commodore used same hardware basis for its MPS-801 printer. /media/museum/hardware/atari_800xl_1029printer_s1.jpg title subtitle text image 1029 PRINTER #2 /media/museum/hardware/atari_800xl_1029printer_s2.jpg title url platform text SIO2PC http://www.cswnet.com/~nkennedy/sio2pc.htm MS DOS PC emulates Atari Disk title url platform text Altirra http://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html Windows Altirra, an 8-bit Atari computer emulator title url platform text Atari800Win http://www.concentric.net/~Twist/atari800win/ Windows title url platform text Atari800Win Plus http://a800win.atari-area.prv.pl/ Windows Atari 8 bit emulator for windows title url platform text WAHCE Home Page http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Node/4391/ Windows title url platform text XFormer http://www.emulators.com/xformer.htm Windows title url platform text Chris Lam's Website http://www.chrislam.co.uk/ Apple homepage for Horizon title url platform text The Atari 800 Emulator for the Mac http://www.serve.com/derekl/atari/atari_emu.html Apple title url platform text WACKE http://www.ctaz.com/~jlfenton/Wacke.html Apple title url platform text ACE http://www.csh.rit.edu/~shaggy/software.html Unix / Linux title url platform text Atari++ http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/~thor/atari++/ Unix / Linux Unix based emulator of the Atari eight bit computers, namely the Atari 400 and 800, the Atari 400XL, 800XL and 130XE, and the Atari 5200 game console title url platform text Atari800 http://atari800.sourceforge.net/ Multiplatform Atari800 is an Atari 800, 800XL, 130XE and 5200 emulator for Unix, Amiga, MS-DOS, Atari TT/Falcon, SDL and WinCE title url text 8-bit ATARI Assembly Language http://oort.com/turbots/asm.htm title url text Antic - The Atari Resource http://www.atarimagazines.com/ title url text APE - Atari Peripheral Emulator for DOS and Windows - Home Page http://www.nacs.net/~classics/ title url text Atari 2600-7800 FAQ http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~dzubera/2600faq.html title url text Atari 8-Bit Computers Frequently Asked Questions http://www.chez.com/cmpi/paleo/8bits/atari/faq_atar.htm title url text Atari 8-bit computers: 400/800/XL/XE http://www.santellocco.com/ATARI/ dedicated website in italian title url text Atari 8-bit New User, Emulator Help FAQ - v2.1 http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/new_and_emu.html title url text Atari 8-bit SpartaDOS Project http://www.celebritybase.net/atari8/ title url text Atari Gaming Headquarters Main Page http://www.atarihq.com/ title url text Atari Magazines http://www.atarimagazines.com/ Contains the full text of all issues of ANTIC magazine and moste of the STart ones ! title url text Atari XL-XE Games And Demos Page http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/~sgl/atari/ title url text ATARI.ORG http://www.atari.org/ Looking for something on any Atari machine ? Follow the links ! title url text ATARIARCHIVES.ORG http://www.atariarchives.org/ Wow! This site is preserving and archiving information about & software for Atari and other classic computers. Everything here is available with the permission of the copyright holders. title url text Dead Hackers Society http://www.dhs.nu/ Downloads, tools, news and more title url text Homepage Nyman Atari 8 bit http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2741/8bit.html title url text Ken's Atari 8-bit Page http://home.columbus.rr.com/ksiders/atari.htm title url text Mac-Atari Fusion http://www2.bitstream.net/~marksim/atarimac/ Atari 8bit Resources for Mac Users title url text MacFalkner's XL Homepage http://members.aol.com/MacFalkner/atariindex.htm title url text Personal Atari Web Page http://rjespino.tripod.com/atari.html jpeg viewer for the Atari 8-bit and some other tools title url text Polish Atari Wikipedia http://atariki.krap.pl A lot of info about Atari (in polish) title url text Reminiscing 8-Bit Atari Games http://www.qlam.com/atari/atari.html title url text Satantronic Atari Crew, Atari XL-XE and Falcon 030 http://www.napri.sk/web/satantronic/ title url text The Atari 800 XE Laptop http://www.benheck.com/Games/Atari_800/Atari_800_laptop_1.htm This guy explain how he made a laptop Atari 800 ! title url text The Atari Historical Society http://www.atari-history.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 www.ataricave.com http://www.ataricave.com Atari 8-bit Games reviews, original manuals, music, maps and more! title url text XL Search - The Atari 8-bit File Archive Search Engine http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/xlsearch/ title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com Programming on the Atari computers title url cover text ATARI SYSTEM REFERENCE MANUAL http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarixe/index.htm /media/museum/docs/couvs/doc_atarirefmanual.jpg [**ATARI SYSTEM REFERENCE MANUAL**](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarixe/index.htm)written by Bob DuHamel (1987)  compiled/archived by Ivo van Poorten\  type of document : PDF\  size : 160 KB\  source : [Daves Old Computers](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield) **... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :** title url text Atari Home Computer laser disc - Introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54mvCo1uq5A Length: 5 min 20 s title url text Atari Home Computer laser disc - Conclusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQDQWvwZ-2w Length: 1 min 30 s /museum/atari-1200-xl /museum/atari-1400-xl /museum/atari-1450-xld /museum/atari-400 /museum/atari-65-130-xe /museum/atari-65xep-65xem /museum/atari-800 /museum/atari-800xe /software/atari-basketball-648 27 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230605140423/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=27 2023-06-05

The Atari 800XL, together with the 600XL, were successors of the Atari 400/800 series and the unsuccessful Atari 1200 XL in a more compact case. They could use almost the same software, just so long as the program was written correctly, because of some slight differences between OS versions.

The 800XL had 64 KB of RAM, two joystick ports and kept all the custom chips (Pokey, GTIA, Antic) of the previous models. It also featured the new Parallel Bus Interface (PBI) providing high speed access to the system bus. The new version of the graphic Antic chip offered 16 graphics modes instead of 12 for the 800.

An enhanced version, called 800XLF, appeared in summer 1984. It was equipped with the new "Freddie" chip which allowed faster memory management, especially for graphics display. This version was released in Europe with SECAM video interface.

Alongside the Commodore 64 and the Apple II, the 600 and 800XL were among the most popular home computers.
They would be replaced in 1985 with the XE series when Atari launched the ST.

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Martin Scott Goldberg says :
Regarding the comment "and can use the same software just so long as the program was written correctly", a translator disk was provided with the 1050 disk drive (the drive released with the XL series) that allowed the 600/800xl to run all older software. What it basicly did was load the original 400/800 OS over the XL one in memory.