Atari 1450XLD
 | |
| A surviving Atari 1450XLD prototype, with the disk drive housing behind the keyboard | |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Atari, Inc. |
| Type | Home computer (announced, not released) |
| Released | Announced June 1983; never released |
| CPU | Atari 6502 (as the 600XL and 800XL) |
| Memory | 64 KB RAM |
| Storage | Built-in double-sided, double-density floppy drive on a parallel controller; SIO peripherals |
| Display | ANTIC and GTIA, as the 800XL |
| Sound | POKEY, plus a Votrax speech synthesiser |
| Dimensions | 15 × 14.5 × 5 in (Atari specification, 1983) |
| Weight | 10 lb (Atari specification, 1983) |
| OS / Firmware | Atari XL operating system |
| Predecessor | Atari 1200XL |
| Model no. | 1450XLD |
The Atari 1450XLD is an XL-series computer with a built-in disk drive, a speech synthesiser and a modem, which Atari, Inc. announced in June 1983 and never shipped. Atari's product specification for it, dated 6 June 1983, calls the machine the 1450XL and says it differs from the Atari 1400XL only in its integral double-sided, double-density disk drive and the larger case needed to hold it.[1]
History
[edit | edit source]Atari introduced the 1450XLD at the Summer CES in June 1983, with the Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL and 1400XL.[2] Atari's specification lists earlier names for it: A1201, 1200XLD, 1200XLT and 1250.[1] In October and November 1983 Atari said the 1400XL and 1450XLD would not ship until late December, and then only in limited quantities.[2]
At the Winter CES in January 1984 the 1450XLD was shown again while the 1400XL was confirmed cancelled. Atari's chief executive James Morgan said the 1450XLD was "exhibited only as a demonstration of the company's intent to market a high-end computer in 1984, although the specifics of such a product are currently under review."[2] At the Summer CES in June 1984 Atari announced a similar machine for Christmas 1984, with 64K RAM, a modem, speech synthesis and a built-in double-sided drive storing 352K; it did not ship either.[2]
According to the Atari Museum, all of Atari's XL systems were cancelled after the sale of the company on 2 July 1984, and were replaced by cost-reduced designs based on the 800XLF, internally called the 900XLF, which reached the market in 1985 as the Atari 65XE and Atari 130XE.[3] Cancelled with the 1450XLD were a lower-cost 800XLD (an 800XL with FREDDIE and a built-in drive, targeted at US$350), a 1650XLD, and an 1850XLD for the first quarter of 1985 which, according to Atari engineer Steve Bristow, would have been based on the Amiga "Lorraine" specification with a 68000 and a detachable keyboard.[3]
Design
[edit | edit source]The 1983 specification gives the machine the 1400XL's features: the 600XL and 800XL architecture, a Votrax SC-01 speech synthesiser and a direct-connect modem on the main board, the Parallel Bus Interface, and FREDDIE to replace discrete logic once it was available. The disk drive and its interface are defined in a separate Atari document, C062063.[1] The case is 5 inches high, 15 inches wide and 14½ inches deep, and the machine weighs 10 lb. It uses a power transformer, Atari part CA062032.[1]
The Atari Museum describes two designs:[3]
- "Dynasty", the 1983 version, with a short main board and the disk controller on a daughter card. Atari planned to sell it as the 1450XL, with the disk controller and one or two drives fitted later by an authorised service centre.
- "TONG", the 1984 version, a single large board with the disk controller on it, a prototyping area and an empty socket for the "KERI" chip, a combined GTIA and ANTIC.
The museum gives the drive as 360 KB double-density, with space for a second drive, on a parallel controller using a WD2797, which it quotes at up to 100 KB per second and which made the drive IBM MFM-compatible.[3] The FREDDIE memory controller and the C061618 memory management unit let the CPU and ANTIC address different areas of memory independently.[3] The modem ran at 300 baud, and the speech synthesiser had a V: device handler; in the 1984 redesign the speech chip changed to the Votrax SC-02, which is not compatible with the SC-01.[3][4]
Two dumps of a 1450XLD operating system ROM, both revision 3, are dated 23 March 1984 and 21 June 1984.[2]
Power supply
[edit | edit source] | Do not connect a 600XL, 800XL, 65XE or 130XE power supply to a 1400XL, 1450XL or 1450XLD. The Atari Museum states that doing so will destroy the GTIA and the speech synthesiser daughterboard, and publishes the pinout for building a connector to a PC power supply instead.[3] |
Documentation
[edit | edit source]- Atari 1450XL Product Specification: Atari's product specification C061908, revision 1A, 6 June 1983 (22-page scan).
The Atari Museum also hosts the 1450XLD engineering notes, the TONG test plan and final assembly drawing, the "Barbara" and "Carmen" gate-array documents, the FREDDIE and C061618 data, the disk controller ROMs, and schematics of both the 1983 short board and the 1984 TONG board.[3]
The machine never went into production, so there is no field service manual, parts list or retail price.
See also
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Atari, Inc., ATARI 1450XL Home Computer Product Specification, C061908, revision 1A, 6 June 1983 ("Engineering released", confidential): sections 1.0 (other names), 2.2 (controlled documents), 3.1–3.2 (comparison with the 1400XL, speech synthesiser, modem and disk drive), 5.1.1 (dimensions and weight), 5.1.5 (power transformer CA062032), 5.2 (CPU board and interfaces). Scanned by the Atari Museum; File:Atari 1450XL Product Specification C061908 Rev 1A.pdf.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Michael Current (ed.), Atari 8-Bit Computers: Frequently Asked Questions, last modified 29 November 2009: 1983 and 1984 timeline entries (Summer CES June 1983; Wall Street Journal reports of 24 October and 2 November 1983; Winter CES January 1984, quoting Creative Computing, May 1984; Summer CES June 1984) and the OS ROM list. Text at faqs.org. Community reference.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 "The Atari 1450XLD Computer Systems", Atari Museum (Curt Vendel), updated 25 June 2019. Secondary source, with scans of Atari's own 1450XLD documents; used for the Dynasty and TONG designs, the drive and controller, FREDDIE, the speech chip change, the cancelled sister models, the 1984 cancellation and the power supply warning.
- ↑ "The Atari 1400XL Computer Systems", Atari Museum (Curt Vendel). Source for the SC-01 and SC-02 speech chips not being compatible.