Atari Transputer Workstation Documentation
The Atari Transputer Workstation documentation below is the technical material hosted for the Atari Transputer Workstation (ATW800): Atari's 1988 hardware manual for the Issue 3 Abaq development system, Atari's product specification for the ATW Model 4.3, and Perihelion's manual for the farm cards that carry extra transputers.
Atari ABAQ Issue 3 hardware manual
[edit | edit source]The Atari ABAQ Issue 3 manual is Atari Corp (UK) Ltd's 1988 technical reference for the Issue 3 Abaq, the development system that preceded the production ATW800. It is marked as a draft release for internal use and was written by Richard Miller, Jack Lang, Hugo Davenport and Les Player. The hosted copy is Dave Dunfield's 89-page scan, without a text layer.[1] The Issue 3 Abaq works with an external Mega ST, connected through a SCSI and link interface card fitted in the Mega ST.
Contents
[edit | edit source]| Section | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | Overview |
| 2 | Physical layout and set-up: getting started, connectors, power supply, environmental and RFI |
| 3 | Architecture: processor, main memory bus and arbitration, video memory, blitter, video subsystem |
| 4 | Processor |
| 5 | Memory: configuration, memory map, user RAM addressing, video RAM, external memory interface, bus arbitration, test |
| 6 | Video and graphics: modes, outputs, monitors, address maps, memory organisation, control registers |
| 7 | Raster operations: the blitter's functions, control and rates |
| 8 | I/O and links: links, Mega ST/SCSI interface, expansion memory jumpers, video |
| Appendices 1-7 | Specification; Charity (custom blitter chip); video set-up; connectors; memory; SCSI/link PCB link speed selection |
| Appendices A-G | Start-up instructions; development system contents; development system price list (May 1988); diagnostic software; starting Helios; starting the GEM handler; Bounce slide show |
The scan ends at appendix D; appendices E to G, listed in the contents, are not in it.
What this manual does not contain
[edit | edit source]- A schematic, parts list or power supply circuit.
- Anything on the production ATW800's built-in Mega ST I/O board, which the Issue 3 machine does not have, or on the later Blossom video chip. The manual describes the earlier Charity I blitter.
Download: Atari ABAQ Issue 3 Hardware Manual (draft, 1988).pdf
ATW technical documentation
[edit | edit source]The ATW Technical Documentation is an undated eight-page specification of the Atari Transputer Workstation Model 4.3 from Atari Corporation UK in Slough. It covers memory, video modes with pixel and line rates, the Blossom raster-op co-processor, I/O, processor expansion with the Tram12 motherboard and the diagnostics bus, storage, languages, the standard software package (Helios with X11R4), and a system price of £5,000. The hosted PDF is built from the page scans on Ram Meenakshisundaram's transputer pages.[2] It is a sales specification and has no service information.
Download: Atari Transputer Workstation Technical Documentation (Atari UK).pdf
Transputer FarmCard Technical Manual
[edit | edit source]Perihelion's Transputer FarmCard Technical Manual for the F104 farm card, Issue 2, July 1989, covers installation in Issue 3 and Issue 4 ATWs and other enclosures, the card's processors, memory, links and diagnostic LEDs, the memory map, the diagnostic bus, the connectors and the link speed settings.[2]
Download: Perihelion Transputer FarmCard Technical Manual F104 Issue 2 (1989).pdf
Pages that cite these documents
[edit | edit source]- Atari Transputer Workstation: history, power supply, memory refresh, video modes, monitors, expansion, diagnostics and farm card LEDs
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ Dave Dunfield, "Daves Old Computers: Atari Transputer Workstation", classiccmp.org, file abaq3.pdf. classiccmp.org.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ram Meenakshisundaram, transputer pages, classiccmp.org, file atw_tech_docs.zip. classiccmp.org.