yann64andClaude Opus 5.5
c913d792c4
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
366 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
366 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Atari FX-1 Sparrow
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categories:
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- Computers
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types:
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- Home Computer
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origins:
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- U.S.A.
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years:
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- '1991'
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cpus:
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- Motorola MC 68030sx
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params:
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name: FX-1 Sparrow
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_main.jpg
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company: /companies/atari
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company_name: Atari
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specs:
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- label: NAME
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value: FX-1 Sparrow
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- label: MANUFACTURER
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value: Atari
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- label: TYPE
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value: Home Computer
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- label: ORIGIN
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value: U.S.A.
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- label: YEAR
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value: '1991'
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- label: END OF PRODUCTION
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value: '1992'
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- label: KEYBOARD
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value: Full-stroke keyboard with numeric and editing keypads
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- label: CPU
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value: Motorola MC 68030sx + Motorola DSP 56001
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- label: SPEED
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value: 16 MHz
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- label: CO-PROCESSOR
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value: Motorola 68882 (FPU)
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- label: RAM
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value: 14 MB
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- label: ROM
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value: 512 KB
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- label: TEXT MODES
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value: 40 x 25 / 80 x 25
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- label: GRAPHIC MODES
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value: ST Modes, TT Modes, VGA (640 x 480)
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- label: COLORS
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value: 262144 with paletted mode
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- label: SOUND
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value: 8 channel 12 bit PCM audio system
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- label: I/O PORTS
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value: RGB, VGA, PAL, DSP, SCSI, Stereo IN/OUT, Midi (2), LocalTalk, Cardridge, RS232c, Centronics, Joystick (3), Mouse, 68030 Bus
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- label: BUILT IN MEDIA
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value: 3.5' FDD (1.44 MB) + 40 MB IDE Hard Disk
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- label: OS
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value: TOS 2.07
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tabs:
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- photos
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- hardware
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- emulators
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- links
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- docs
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photos:
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- title: MAINBOARD
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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**(1)** Analog Joystick ports\
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**(2)** 68030 Expansion connector\
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**(3)** CPU Motorola MC 68030sx\
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**(4)** COMBEL (Atari Custom Chip)\
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**(5)** Unknown (maybe a 68000 slot)\
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**(6)** TOS 2.07 ROM\
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**(7)** FPU Motorola 68882\
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**(8)** RAM connector\
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**(9)** FDC (Floppy Disk Controler)\
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**(10)** Cardridge slot\
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**(11)** MIDI IN/OUT\
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**(12)** MFP 68HC90\
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**(13)** ZILOG SCC (Lan controler)\
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**(14)** REALTIME clock\
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**(15)** 40 MB IDE HD\
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**(16)** SDMA (Atari Custom Chip)\
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**(17)** VIDEL (Atari Video Chip)\
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**(18)** ACIA\
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**(19)** CPU Motorola DSP 56001
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_board.jpg
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- title: BACK SIDE
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subtitle: ''
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text: The mouse & digital joystick connectors are located into the hole on the left.
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_dessous.jpg
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- title: THE FX1 - OTHER VIEW
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_dessus.jpg
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- title: RIGHT
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subtitle: ''
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text: The Floppy disk drive is a PC compatible 1.44 MB FDD.
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_droite.jpg
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- title: LEFT
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subtitle: ''
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text: 'From top to bottom : MIDI IN / MIDI OUT, Cardridge port, Analogic joysticks (x2)'
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_gauche.jpg
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- title: IT'S SO DIFFICULT TO FIND A NAME...
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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Atari hesitated a lot before finding the right name and the right colors.
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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.
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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").
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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).
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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 !
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_hesitate.jpg
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- title: ATARI FX-1 LOGO
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_logo.jpg
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- title: ATARI "SPARROW" STICKER
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subtitle: ''
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text: Although it was named "FX-1", everything is related to "Sparrow".
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_label.jpg
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- title: 14 MB RAM CARD
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subtitle: ''
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text: 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).
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_ram.jpg
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- title: REAR SIDE
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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**(1)** DSP\
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**(2)** Sound IN\
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**(3)** Sound OUT\
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**(4)** SCSI 1\
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**(5)** Video Connector\
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**(6)** TV connector\
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**(7)** Parallel\
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**(8)** Serial\
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**(9)** LAN\
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**(10)** Power Supply & reset
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_rear.jpg
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- title: ROMS
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subtitle: ''
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text: Two 256 KB ROMs, holds the TOS 2.07
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image: /media/museum/photos/sparrow_roms.jpg
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hardware:
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- title: SF-354
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subtitle: Single density disk-drive
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_sf354-diskdrive_1.jpg
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- title: SF-314
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subtitle: Disk-drive
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st-disk-drive_sf314.jpg
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- title: CUMANA DRIVE
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_520_cumanadrive_1.jpg
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- title: SUPRADRIVE
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subtitle: 20 Mb hard-disk
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text: ''
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image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_supradrive_20mb.jpg
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- title: 170MB QUANTUM HARD-DRIVE
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subtitle: ''
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text: This unit has an ICD Host Adapter.
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image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_quamtum_hd170.jpg
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- title: ATARI MEGAFILE 30
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subtitle: ''
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text: This hard-drive has a 30Mb capacity.
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image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_st_megafile30_1.jpg
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- title: INSIDE THE MEGAFILE 30
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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**(1)** Seagate MFM 30 MB hard-disk Type ST-238\
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**(2)** Power supply\
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**(3)** Logical board\
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**(4)** Power and disk access LED's
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image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_insidemegafile_1.jpg
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- title: ATARI UNIVERSAL MODEM
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subtitle: ''
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text: |-
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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
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It was a 300/1200 baud modem compatible with the well-known Hayes 'AT' commands.\
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Cable and software was sold separately, depending of the computer used.
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image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_520_modemsx212_1.jpg
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- title: SML-804
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subtitle: Laser printer
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text: |-
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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.\
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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.
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Thanks to **Francois Michaud** who donated us this printer.
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image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_slm804printer_s1.jpg
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- title: SMLC-804
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subtitle: Laser printer interface
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text: This interface allowed the SML-804 printer to be connected to any Atari ST holding at least 1 MB RAM.
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image: /media/museum/hardware/atari_megast_slmcinterface_s1.jpg
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emulators:
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- title: Pacifist !
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url: http://www.pacifist.fatal-design.com/
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platform: MS DOS
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text: Pretty good emulator
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- title: Gemulator
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url: http://www.emulators.com/gemul8r.htm
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platform: Windows
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text: ''
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- title: MagiCPC
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url: http://www.application-systems.de/magicpc/index.html
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platform: Windows
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text: ''
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- title: SainT
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url: http://saint.atari.org
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platform: Windows
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text: The best Atari ST Emulator !
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- title: Steem
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url: http://steem.atari.st/
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platform: Windows
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text: Excellent emulator for 1040/520 STE !
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- title: Tos2Win
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url: http://www.aixit.com/tos2win/
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platform: Windows
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text: A good Atari GEM Emulator !
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- title: MagiCMac
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url: http://www.application-systems.de/magicmac/index.html
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platform: Apple
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text: ''
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- title: NoSTalgia & PowerST
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url: http://users.skynet.be/sky39147/
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platform: Apple
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text: ''
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- title: STonX Homepage
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url: http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/stonx.html
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platform: Unix / Linux
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text: ''
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- title: Atari ST Emulator
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url: http://www.atari-st.lovely.net/
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platform: Other platform
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text: Written in Java !
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- title: ARAnyM
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url: HTTP://ARANYM.ATARI.ORG
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platform: Multiplatform
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text: Multiplatform project
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- title: Hatari
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url: http://hatari.sourceforge.net/
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platform: Multiplatform
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text: 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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links:
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- title: Atari & Commodore Home Computer Museum
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url: http://www.best.com/~hmk/
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text: ''
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- title: Atari Music Network
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url: http://www.atarimusic.net/
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text: Atari Music Network welcomes and celebrates all vintage digital musicians no matter what their computer
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- title: Atari Sparrow
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url: http://users.qnet.com/~dons/Sparrow.htm
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text: ''
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- title: Atari ST Demo History
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url: http://wwwbrauer.in.tum.de/~brandtf/ataridemos.html
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text: ''
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- title: Atari ST Download Area
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url: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Services/PDA/atari.shtml
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text: Atari 400/800/XL/XE & ST/TT/Falcon Software download page
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- title: ATARI.ORG
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url: http://www.atari.org/
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text: Looking for something on any Atari machine ? Follow the links !
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- title: Dead Hackers Society
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url: http://www.dhs.nu/
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text: Atari demo scene
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- title: Little Green Desktop
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url: http://www.atari.st/
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text: Largest Atari ST ressource!
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- title: Medusa computer
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url: http://www.kingx.com/kingx/medusa/thes.html
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text: You can still buy an Atari ST family clone computer
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- title: MiNTOS Distribution
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url: http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~steve/mintos.html
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text: ''
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- title: Musique.Atari.Org
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url: HTTP://MUSIQUE.ATARI.ORG
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text: Web site dedicated to the ATARI and the Music...
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- title: PLOPBOX - Atari music archive and jukebox
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url: http://www.plopbox.net/
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text: listen to atari tunes directly from your browser
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- title: Polish Atari Wikipedia
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url: http://atariki.krap.pl
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text: A lot of info about Atari (in polish)
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- title: ST Anwender Bern
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url: http://my.blackpoint.ch/stab/
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text: Atari ST Usergroup Bern (Swiss)
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- title: The Atari Historical Society
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url: http://www.atarimuseum.com/
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text: 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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- title: The Atari ST Quick FAQ
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url: http://www.megacom.net/~q-funk/ST/
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text: ''
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- title: The Atari WebRing Homepage
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url: http://b.webring.com/hub?ring=atari
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text: Useful !
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- title: The Ultimate ATARI Resource
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url: http://www.atari.org
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text: ''
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- title: The very first sparrow prototype board
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url: http://www.mindrup.de/atos/online/9604/sparrow.htm
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text: (in german)
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- title: What is TOS
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url: http://www.vanc.igs.net/~roughley/tos_main.htm
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text: ''
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- title: Index of -~archive-atari-
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url: http://www.umich.edu/~archive/atari/
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text: ''
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- title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA
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url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com
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text: French forum
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docs:
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- title: ATARI 520 ST OWNER'S MANUAL
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url: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarist/index.htm
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cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/atari_520st_user_doc.jpg
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text: |-
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[**ATARI 520 ST OWNER'S MANUAL**](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/atarist/index.htm)written by Atari
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compiled/archived by Daves Old Computers\
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type of document : PDF\
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size : 5 Mb\
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source : [Daves Old Computers](http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield)
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**... READ THE ONLINE VERSION BY CLICKING BELOW :**
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comments:
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- author: Malcolm Ramage (Huddersfield, England)
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date: Friday 6th August 2004
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text: |-
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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.
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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.
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related:
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- /museum/atari-130-st-260-st
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- /museum/atari-4160-ste
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- /museum/atari-520-1040-ste
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- /museum/atari-520-1040-stf-stfm
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- /museum/atari-520-st-st-stm
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- /museum/atari-falcon-030
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- /museum/atari-falcon-030-microbox
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- /museum/atari-mega-st
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- /museum/atari-mega-ste
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- /museum/atari-st-book
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- /museum/atari-stacy
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- /museum/atari-stylus-st-pad
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- /museum/atari-tt-030
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oc_id: 635
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source:
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url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608224112/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=635
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date: '2023-06-08'
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---
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In 1991, Atari planned to replace the old [STe](/museum/atari-520-1040-ste/) computers.\
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They realized then the "Sparrow Card", which was a development card plugged into the 68000 slot of an [Atari 1040 STe](/museum/atari-520-1040-ste/).\
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The "Sparrow Card" had one of the main feature of the future FX-1 / [Falcon 030](/museum/atari-falcon-030/) computers : it was a dual CPU board. It used a Motorola MC68030 and a Motorola DSP 56K.\
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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.\
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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".\
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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).\
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These computers used the [Atari Mega STe](/museum/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)).\
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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.
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**Curl Vendel** says :\
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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.
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