Atari Stacy
 | |
| Atari Stacy 2 with its adaptor and a C-Lab Unitor 2 MIDI interface | |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Atari Corporation (Atari Taiwan Manufacturing Corp.)[1] |
| Type | Portable computer |
| Released | September 1989[1] |
| Discontinued | Production ended about the end of 1992[1] |
| Intro price | £1,299 (September 1989); US$2,499 (Stacy 2, LST-2144, January 1990)[1] |
| CPU | Motorola 68000 at 8 MHz[1] |
| Memory | 1, 2 or 4 MB[1] |
| Storage | One or two 3.5-inch 720 KB floppy drives; optional 20 or 40 MB 3.5-inch hard disk[1] |
| Display | 11-inch backlit monochrome LCD (Epson), 640 × 400; external monitor port for all three ST modes[1] |
| Sound | Yamaha YM2149, three voices plus noise[1] |
| Graphics | Atari Shifter and BLiTTER[1] |
| ROM | 192 KB, TOS 1.04[1] |
| Input | Keyboard with 85 keys and 10 function keys; built-in trackball[1] |
| Ports / interface | Modem (DB-25), printer (DB-25), floppy (14-pin DIN), hard disk (DB-19), monitor (13-pin DIN), MIDI in and out, ROM cartridge, mouse/joystick and joystick[1] |
| Power | External DC adaptor; converter input 11–18 V DC[2] |
| OS / Firmware | TOS 1.04 |
| Successor | Atari ST Book |
| Model no. | LST-1xx4 (Stacy), LST-2xx4 (Stacy 2), LST-4xx4 (Stacy 4)[1] |
The Atari Stacy (written STacy by Atari, and LST in its engineering drawings) is a portable version of the 1040STF with a backlit LCD, a built-in trackball and an optional hard disk. It was announced in London in April 1988, shown at CeBIT in March 1989, went on sale in September 1989 and was built until about the end of 1992.[1][3] Development took place in Sunnyvale and Cambridge from 1987, and the case, by Atari's industrial designer Ira Velinsky, won an iF Design Award in 1990.[1] Jack Tramiel described it to START in 1989 as a 1040: "There's nothing really to develop on it that's any different than the 1040ST, because it is a 1040."[4]
History
[edit | edit source]Atari announced the machine as the "Stacey" at the Atari User Show in London on 22 April 1988, showed it privately at Fall COMDEX in November 1988 and publicly at CeBIT in Hanover on 8 March 1989.[1] In the September 1989 issue of START, Tramiel said it would be built at Atari's factory in Taiwan, which had tooling to make 35,000 a month, and guessed demand at 5,000 a month.[4] atari-computermuseum.de puts total production at an estimated 35,000 machines.[1]
The Stacy was approved under the FCC's Class A rules, for commercial use, so in the US it was not sold to home users.[1] It was popular with musicians on stage and in studios.[1]
Very early machines have a battery compartment with contacts; it was glued shut and the contacts left out shortly after production began. atari-computermuseum.de says a charge would have lasted barely a quarter of an hour. Early machines also have a cover on the left side for a planned expansion bus that did not reach production; it was glued shut and later left out of the case.[1] Tramiel had described a 72-pin expansion slot, electrically the same as the Mega bus.[4]
Models
[edit | edit source]The model number LST-abc4 encodes the fitted equipment: a is the RAM in megabytes (1, 2 or 4), b the number of floppy drives (1 or 2), and c the hard disk (0 none, 2 for 20 MB, 4 for 40 MB). The Stacy, Stacy 2 and Stacy 4 are the 1, 2 and 4 MB machines.[1]
| RAM | 1 floppy, no hard disk | 1 floppy, 20 MB | 1 floppy, 40 MB | 2 floppies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 MB (Stacy) | LST-1104 | LST-1124 | LST-1144 | LST-1204 |
| 2 MB (Stacy 2) | LST-2104 | LST-2124 | LST-2144 | LST-2204 |
| 4 MB (Stacy 4) | LST-4104 | LST-4124 | LST-4144 | LST-4204 |
Source: atari-computermuseum.de, which says the commonest machines have one floppy drive and a hard disk.[1]
Hardware
[edit | edit source]The chip set is the 1040STF's, with the BLiTTER, a battery-backed real-time clock and a hard-disk controller added.[1] Atari's main board bill of material shows the custom chips in sockets (GLUE and memory controller in 68-pin PLCC sockets, Shifter and DMA in 40-pin sockets, the Shadow LCD controller in an 84-pin PLCC socket). The memory and the HD6301V1 keyboard processor are on a separate sub board; on the 4 MB board the DRAMs are not socketed.[3] When an external monitor is connected, the internal display is switched off.[1]
The display backlight is electroluminescent, driven at 85 V, 590 Hz by the DC-DC converter, whose specified input is 11 to 18 V DC.[2] The clock is kept by a 3 V 560 mAh lithium cell, Atari part C103655-001, at location LB on the main board.[3]
Documentation
[edit | edit source]- Atari Stacy Schematics and Drawing Package: Atari's bills of material, schematics and assembly drawings for the main board, the 4 MB sub board, the lid board, the DC-DC converter and the case, dated December 1988 to February 1990 (PDF).
- Atari Stacy Owner's Manual Addendum
Maintenance and repair
[edit | edit source]- Atari Stacy General Maintenance
- Atari Stacy Troubleshooting Guide
- Atari Stacy Capacitor Replacement Guide
Related pages
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 "Atari Stacy", atari-computermuseum.de, last edited 29 July 2024, https://www.atari-computermuseum.de/stacy.htm (retrieved 2026-10-01). Source for the history, dates, prices, model numbering, specifications, ports, the glued battery compartment and expansion cover, the FCC Class A approval and the production estimate.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Atari Corporation, DC-DC Converter, drawing C101780-XXX Rev B, sheet 6 of 7 (28 February 1990), in the Stacy drawing package (PDF pp. 46–47). Hosted here: Atari Stacy Schematics and Drawing Package.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Atari Corporation, Stacy (LST) drawing package: main board bill of material CA200464-XXX Rev A, Assy PCB LST (sheets 2 to 8 of 9), and sub board bill of material CA200528-XXX Rev B, Assy Sub PCB LST-4. Hosted here: Atari Stacy Schematics and Drawing Package (PDF).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "From Atari's Oval Office" (interview with Jack Tramiel), START vol. 4 no. 2, September 1989, section "Stacy and the Portfolio", https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv4n2/ (retrieved 2026-10-01).