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website/content/museum/atari-130-st-260-st.md
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yann64andClaude Opus 5.5 de19014649 Content with the complete media download (15,344 files)
228 files were never archived; see docs/not-recovered.md in the extraction repo.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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2026-10-13 16:47:19 +02:00

16 KiB

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params
title categories types origins years cpus params
Atari 130 ST - 260 ST
Computers
Home Computer
U.S.A.
1985
Motorola MC68000
name image company company_name specs tabs photos hardware emulators links docs comments related oc_id source
130 ST - 260 ST /media/museum/photos/atari_260st_system_350_1.jpg /companies/atari Atari
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NAME 130 ST - 260 ST
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MANUFACTURER Atari
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TYPE Home Computer
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ORIGIN U.S.A.
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YEAR 1985
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KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard with numeric and cursor keypads
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CPU Motorola MC68000
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SPEED 8 mHz
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CO-PROCESSOR N/A
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RAM 128 KB (130 ST) / 512 KB (260 ST)
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ROM 32 KB to 192 KB
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TEXT MODES 40 or 80 columns x 25 lines
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GRAPHIC MODES 320 x 200 / 640 x 200 / 640 x 400 dots
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COLORS 16 among 512 (320 x 200) / 4 among 512 (640 x 400) / monochrome (640 x 400) this last mode needs a special monitor.
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SOUND 3 voices, 8 octaves
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SIZE / WEIGHT 47 (W) x 24 (D) x 6 (H) cm
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I/O PORTS RGB, Cardridge, Midi (in/out), Centronics, RS232c, Hard Disk, Floppy Disk, Joystick, Mouse
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BUILT IN MEDIA 3.5'' external disk-drive unit
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OS TOS / GEM
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POWER SUPPLY External power supply unit
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PRICE 520 (260ST with SF354 disc drive unit)
photos
hardware
emulators
links
docs
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ATARI 130 ST -VIEW#2 /media/museum/photos/atari_130st_3.jpg
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ATARI 130ST -VIEW#1 /media/museum/photos/atari_130st_1.jpg
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260ST LARGER VIEW /media/museum/photos/atari_260st_system_1.jpg
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LEFT SIDE ROM cartridges connector /media/museum/photos/atari_260st_leftside_1.jpg
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RIGHT SIDE Joystick and mouse connectors /media/museum/photos/atari_260st_rightside_1.jpg
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KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP /media/museum/photos/atari_260st_keybcloseup_1.jpg
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REAR SIDE **(1)** Reset switch\ **(2)** Power switch. Power is supplied by an external PSU providing +5V, +12V and -12V\ **(3)** Power DIN plug\ **(4)** Midi Out DIN plug\ **(5)** Midi In\ **(6)** RGB monitor output. 13-pin DIN plug\ **(7)** Paraller printer DB25 connector\ **(8)** Serial RS232 DB25 connector\ **(9)** External floppy disc unit 14-pin DIN plug\ **(10)** External hard disc unit 19-pin DIN plug /media/museum/photos/atari_260st_backside_1.jpg
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MAIN BOARD **(1)** DMA controller for external FD/HD drives\ **(2)** Western Digital WDC 1772 floppy disc controller\ **(3)** 2 x 6850 ACIA. Manage Midi IN & OUT\ **(4)** Yamaha YM21149F sound generator (AY-8912 compatible)\ **(5)** Video shifter (shifts video registers). This chip is normally covered with a metallic magnetic shield\ **(6)** Keyboard connector\ **(7)** 512 KB RAM chips - 16 x Fujitsu 81256 (256K x 1 bit)\ **(8)** MMU chip (Memory Management Unit)\ **(9)** MC68000 processor\ **(10)** 68901 chip, also called 'Multi-Function Peripheral', handles peripherals interrupts\ **(11)** 'Glue' custom chip, coordinates all the components of the system\ **(12)** 6 x 32 KB ROM chips, hold TOS operating system and GEM graphics interface /media/museum/photos/atari_260st_mainboard_1.jpg
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SF-354 Single density disk-drive /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_sf354-diskdrive_1.jpg
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SF-314 Disk-drive /media/museum/hardware/atari_st-disk-drive_sf314.jpg
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CUMANA DRIVE /media/museum/hardware/atari_520_cumanadrive_1.jpg
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SUPRADRIVE 20 Mb hard-disk /media/museum/hardware/atari_supradrive_20mb.jpg
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170MB QUANTUM HARD-DRIVE This unit has an ICD Host Adapter. /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_quamtum_hd170.jpg
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ATARI MEGAFILE 30 This hard-drive has a 30Mb capacity. /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_megafile30_1.jpg
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Pacifist ! http://www.pacifist.fatal-design.com/ MS DOS Pretty good emulator
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Gemulator http://www.emulators.com/gemul8r.htm Windows
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MagiCPC http://www.application-systems.de/magicpc/index.html Windows
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SainT http://saint.atari.org Windows The best Atari ST Emulator !
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Steem http://steem.atari.st/ Windows Excellent emulator for 1040/520 STE !
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Tos2Win http://www.aixit.com/tos2win/ Windows A good Atari GEM Emulator !
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MagiCMac http://www.application-systems.de/magicmac/index.html Apple
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NoSTalgia & PowerST http://users.skynet.be/sky39147/ Apple
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STonX Homepage http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/stonx.html Unix / Linux
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Atari ST Emulator http://www.atari-st.lovely.net/ Other platform Written in Java !
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ARAnyM HTTP://ARANYM.ATARI.ORG Multiplatform Multiplatform project
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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.
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Atari & Commodore Home Computer Museum http://www.best.com/~hmk/
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Atari Music Network http://www.atarimusic.net/ Atari Music Network welcomes and celebrates all vintage digital musicians no matter what their computer
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Atari ST Demo History http://wwwbrauer.in.tum.de/~brandtf/ataridemos.html
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Atari ST Download Area http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Services/PDA/atari.shtml Atari 400/800/XL/XE & ST/TT/Falcon Software download page
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ATARI.ORG http://www.atari.org/ Looking for something on any Atari machine ? Follow the links !
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Dead Hackers Society http://www.dhs.nu/ Atari demo scene
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Little Green Desktop http://www.atari.st/ Largest Atari ST ressource!
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Medusa computer http://www.kingx.com/kingx/medusa/thes.html You can still buy an Atari ST family clone computer
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MiNTOS Distribution http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~steve/mintos.html
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Musique.Atari.Org HTTP://MUSIQUE.ATARI.ORG Web site dedicated to the ATARI and the Music...
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PLOPBOX - Atari music archive and jukebox http://www.plopbox.net/ listen to atari tunes directly from your browser
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Polish Atari Wikipedia http://atariki.krap.pl A lot of info about Atari (in polish)
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ST Anwender Bern http://my.blackpoint.ch/stab/ Atari ST Usergroup Bern (Swiss)
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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 !
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The Atari ST Quick FAQ http://www.megacom.net/~q-funk/ST/
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The Atari WebRing Homepage http://b.webring.com/hub?ring=atari Useful !
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The Ultimate ATARI Resource http://www.atari.org
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What is TOS http://www.vanc.igs.net/~roughley/tos_main.htm
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Index of -~archive-atari- http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/
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Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com French forum
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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 :**
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Anand S. (Netherlands) Monday 5th April 2021 Not entirely true: only the 520 STF(M) models have a floppy drive built in. There were also 520 ST(+) models that had the same dimensions as the 260 (in fact, rebranded 260''s) and therefore no built-in floppy drive.
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Lars Vadjina (Germany) Tuesday 19th November 2019 The 260 ST has no build in floppy disc drive. I should know as I was one of the first buyers/owners back in the days. Still own that wonderful machine :-)
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Marty Goldberg (USA) Tuesday 5th March 2013 That Amiga section is wrong as well. The ST was not rushed on to the market and was never planned around Amiga technology. It was in fact started *before* Jack purchased the Consumer Division. Likewise Atari Inc. was certainly not contracting manufacturing to Amiga, they were simply licensing Amiga''s custom chips. And even then it was for a game console, not a computer. The pending licensing agreement was for an Amiga based game console to be released for the Winter of ''84, which would be allowed to expand with a keyboard expansion in ''85. Then finally in ''86 Atari Inc. would be allowed to release a regular Amiga based computer. Amiga wanted the time to release their own computer on the market - which the pending agreement stipulated. We cover the entire situation in Atari Inc. - Business Is fun (on Amazon) including showing some of the original agreement.
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Marty Goldberg (USA) Tuesday 5th March 2013 That intro is completely wrong. He did not by Atari Inc., he bought a division of Atari Inc. - the Consumer Division. He in turn folded that in to his own company (TTL) and renamed that to Atari Corporation.
/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-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
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url date
https://web.archive.org/web/20230606140948/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=922 2023-06-06

The Atari 130 ST (ST means sixteen/thirty-two :16 bit data bus & 32 bit address bus) was shown at the Winter Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in 1985. It was the great surprise of the show and was presented only six months after Jack Tramiel bought Atari, Inc. (He later named it Atari Corp).

The ST series was rushed onto the market as Atari had originally contracted Amiga Corp. to manufacture a 16-Bit home computer, but legal issues caused the dissolution of that contract resulting in Commodore Computer releasing the Amiga and Atari creating the ST using 'Off The Shelf' electronics to release a computer to coincide with Commodore's release of the Amiga.

It was also designed to be a "Macintosh Killer", and was jokingly called the "Jackintosh". It offered lots of features never found on home computers before: 16 bit microprocessor, lots of interfaces, standard MIDI interface, high graphic resolution, lot of colors, enhanced GUI (Graphic User Interface). It was much more powerful and expandable than the Macintosh (MIDI, graphics, colors, and the like) and competitors weren't very numerous (Commodore 128, PC AT, & compatibles, and the old CP/M machines). That explains why more than 6 million of Atari ST's were sold around the world.

The Atari 130 ST was a prototype for the press demonstration and was never released because of its small memory size : the complete operating system couldn't fit in it. It was replaced by the Atari 260 ST and the Atari 520 ST. Despite its name, the Atari 260 ST was shipped with 512 KB of RAM, because the 192 KB operating system left less than 64 KB of free RAM.

The Operating System was TOS (Tramiel Operating System, later renamed just "The Operating System") which was in fact no more than the old CP/M 68K. Notice that to make easy the transition from the PC to ST, all the high level calls of the TOS (called GEMDOS) were compatible with the DOS calls of the PC (int 21h).

All of the ST family systems used the GEM, which stands for Graphic Environment Manager, GUI (from Digital Research) which has a striking resemblance to the Macintosh GUI (windows, dialog boxes, desktop, desktop accessories, & bitmap fonts) even if it is a bit less friendly than the Apple one.

The 260ST Operating System (TOS & GEM) was supplied on disquette with earlier models, then into 6 x 32 KB ROM chips when the development of the O.S. was fully finished.

ST systems had several dedicated coprocessors for interrupt handling (MFP 68901), sound (the old Yamaha YM 2149, same as General Instruments AY-3-8910 found in MSX computers, Amstrad or Oric), video (a custom chip called "Shifter"), and memory (a custom chip called "GLUE" and the MMU).