Editing Atari 1040STFM (section)

== History ==

The 1040STFM was introduced in 1987 as Atari refined its ST product line. While the [[Atari 1040STF|1040STF]] (1986) had been targeted at professional users who already owned a monitor, the 1040STFM added the RF modulator to serve the broader home computing market.

In the UK, the 1040STFM was particularly successful, selling alongside and eventually replacing the [[Atari 520STFM]] as the standard Atari home computer. The 1 MB RAM gave it an advantage over the 512 KB 520STFM, as more demanding software and larger applications became the norm.

The BYTE magazine cover from March 1986 famously showed a system labelled "1040STFM" while the article simply called it "the 1040ST", illustrating how the F and FM suffixes were often dropped in casual usage despite indicating important hardware differences.

The 1040STFM was eventually superseded by the [[Atari 1040STE|1040STE]] in 1989, which retained the 1 MB/floppy/modulator configuration but added significant hardware enhancements including DMA stereo audio, hardware fine scrolling, an enhanced colour palette (4096 colours vs. 512), and a BLiTTER chip as standard.