website/content/museum/atari-fx-1-sparrow.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Atari FX-1 Sparrow	Computers	Home Computer	U.S.A.	1991	Motorola MC 68030sx	name image company company_name specs tabs photos hardware emulators links docs comments related oc_id source FX-1 Sparrow /media/museum/photos/sparrow_main.jpg /companies/atari Atari label value NAME FX-1 Sparrow label value MANUFACTURER Atari label value TYPE Home Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1991 label value END OF PRODUCTION 1992 label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard with numeric and editing keypads label value CPU Motorola MC 68030sx + Motorola DSP 56001 label value SPEED 16 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR Motorola 68882 (FPU) label value RAM 14 MB label value ROM 512 KB label value TEXT MODES 40 x 25 / 80 x 25 label value GRAPHIC MODES ST Modes, TT Modes, VGA (640 x 480) label value COLORS 262144 with paletted mode label value SOUND 8 channel 12 bit PCM audio system label value I/O PORTS RGB, VGA, PAL, DSP, SCSI, Stereo IN/OUT, Midi (2), LocalTalk, Cardridge, RS232c, Centronics, Joystick (3), Mouse, 68030 Bus label value BUILT IN MEDIA 3.5' FDD (1.44 MB) + 40 MB IDE Hard Disk label value OS TOS 2.07 photos hardware emulators links docs title subtitle text image MAINBOARD **(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 /media/museum/photos/sparrow_board.jpg title subtitle text image BACK SIDE The mouse & digital joystick connectors are located into the hole on the left. /media/museum/photos/sparrow_dessous.jpg title subtitle text image THE FX1 - OTHER VIEW /media/museum/photos/sparrow_dessus.jpg title subtitle text image RIGHT The Floppy disk drive is a PC compatible 1.44 MB FDD. /media/museum/photos/sparrow_droite.jpg title subtitle text image LEFT From top to bottom : MIDI IN / MIDI OUT, Cardridge port, Analogic joysticks (x2) /media/museum/photos/sparrow_gauche.jpg title subtitle text image IT'S SO DIFFICULT TO FIND A NAME... 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 ! /media/museum/photos/sparrow_hesitate.jpg title subtitle text image ATARI FX-1 LOGO /media/museum/photos/sparrow_logo.jpg title subtitle text image ATARI "SPARROW" STICKER Although it was named "FX-1", everything is related to "Sparrow". /media/museum/photos/sparrow_label.jpg title subtitle text image 14 MB RAM CARD 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). /media/museum/photos/sparrow_ram.jpg title subtitle text image REAR SIDE **(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 /media/museum/photos/sparrow_rear.jpg title subtitle text image ROMS Two 256 KB ROMs, holds the TOS 2.07 /media/museum/photos/sparrow_roms.jpg 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 Sparrow http://users.qnet.com/~dons/Sparrow.htm 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 The very first sparrow prototype board http://www.mindrup.de/atos/online/9604/sparrow.htm (in german) 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 Malcolm Ramage (Huddersfield, England) Friday 6th August 2004 Just a small correction to the comments on the name badge page. The eventual Falcon case was a lighter colour than the ST, and though the keyboard looks the same as the FX-1, the key lettering is different. On the FX-1, the key lettering is yellow, with red lettering on the function keys, but the Falcon has white lettering. The Falcon on the Falcon030 page here is in ST colours, only a few of these exist and were shown at trade shows just before the Falcons launch. /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-030 635 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230608224112/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=635 2023-06-08

In 1991, Atari planned to replace the old STe computers.
They realized then the "Sparrow Card", which was a development card plugged into the 68000 slot of an Atari 1040 STe.
The "Sparrow Card" had one of the main feature of the future FX-1 / 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 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.