Atari PC5
 | |
| Atari PC5 with monitor and keyboard | |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Atari Corporation (final assembly at Atari Taiwan Manufacturing); main board by American Megatrends Inc. |
| Type | IBM PC/AT compatible |
| Released | Announced 2 November 1987 (Fall COMDEX); shown 14 September 1988 (Personal Computer Show, London); on sale 22 November 1988[1] |
| Discontinued | 1990[1] |
| Intro price | £2,599.99 without monitor (November 1988); £1,999.99 for the PC5/16-2 (May 1989)[1] |
| CPU | Intel 80386 at 16 MHz (PC5/16) or 20 MHz (PC5/20) |
| Memory | 2 MB (PC5/xx-2) or 4 MB (PC5/xx-4) on a 32-bit memory card |
| Storage | 5.25-inch 1.2 MB or 3.5-inch 1.44 MB drive and a 60 MB RLL hard disk; two drives at most |
| Display | — |
| Sound | PC speaker |
| Graphics | None on the main board; supplied with a CGA/EGA/Hercules card or a VGA card |
| FPU / coprocessor | Socket for an Intel 80387 |
| Ports / interface | AT keyboard (5-pin DIN), IEC C14 mains inlet and C13 outlet; all other ports on the fitted cards. No external floppy port |
| Expansion | AMI system board: four 16-bit slots, one 8-bit slot and one 32-bit memory slot |
| Dimensions | 150 × 380 × 410 mm (H × W × D)[1] |
| OS / Firmware | MS-DOS with Windows/386, or EURIX (Unix System V/386 Release 3.2) |
| Predecessor | Atari PC4 |
| Successor | Atari ABC 386 |
The Atari PC5 is the top of Atari's numbered PC range and its only 386. It was announced at the Fall COMDEX on 2 November 1987, shown at the Personal Computer Show in London on 14 September 1988 and went on sale on 22 November 1988, six months before the PC4. A EURIX configuration followed on 25 August 1989. Plans to sell it in the United States were shelved in spring 1989. Production ended in 1990, after which the same machine was sold in a different case as the ABC 386.[1]
Atari did not design the PC5. Its main board was bought from American Megatrends (AMI), and only final assembly was done at Atari Taiwan Manufacturing.[1][2]
Hardware
[edit | edit source]The PC5 documentation stamped by Atari's German subsidiary, Atari Computer GmbH, is AMI's own: the AMI-386 BIOS user manual, the system board manual, and AMI's schematics of the 386PC system board (revision 4A, 28 July 1987, 23 sheets) and of the 32-MEM memory card.[3]
AMI describes the system board as follows:[3]
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Processor | 80386, 16 MHz system clock; can be switched down to 6 MHz |
| Coprocessor | Optional 80387 |
| Cache | 64 KB, covering 16 MB of address space |
| ROM | 64 or 128 KB, user selectable |
| Slots | Four with 62 + 36 pin sockets (16-bit), one 62-pin (8-bit), one 32-bit memory slot |
| Board size | 8.5 × 13 inches |
| Other | DMA, interrupt and timer support; CMOS RAM and real-time clock with battery backup |
On AMI's schematic the 80386 at U1 has a 32-bit data bus, D0–D31, and all memory is on the 32-bit card, which is consistent with ataripc.net's record of an Intel i386DX. atari-computermuseum.de gives an i386SX instead.[3][2][1] Read the part number on the processor before ordering parts.
Configuration
[edit | edit source]- Memory: 2 MB on the 16 MHz machine, 4 MB on the 20 MHz one, all on the memory card.[1][2]
- Graphics: none on the board. Machines left the factory with a CGA/EGA/Hercules card or a VGA card; ataripc.net records a Western Digital VGA Plus 16 with 256 KB.[1][2]
- Disk: ataripc.net records an Adaptec ACB-2372B floppy and hard disk controller and a Kouwell KW-524F multi-I/O card in surviving machines.[2]
- There is no external floppy connector, unlike every other model in the range. The case was offered with a light grey or a dark grey plinth and bezels.[1]
Clock battery and diagnostics
[edit | edit source]The clock and CMOS battery plugs into J21, a four-pin connector on the system board.[3] At start-up the AMI BIOS reports fatal faults with beeps and other faults with messages:[3]
| Beeps | Fault |
|---|---|
| 1 | DRAM refresh failure |
| 2 | Parity circuit failure |
| 3 | Base 64 KB RAM failure |
| 4 | System timer failure |
| 5 | Processor failure |
| 6 | Keyboard controller, gate A20 |
| 7 | Virtual-mode exception |
| 8 | Display memory read/write test (not fatal) |
| 9 | ROM BIOS checksum |
"CMOS battery state low", "CMOS checksum failure" and "CMOS system options not set" point to a flat battery or lost set-up; replace the battery and run SETUP (the Del key at the prompt). See Battery Refurbishment.
Operating system
[edit | edit source]The alternative to DOS was EURIX, a German localisation of Unix System V/386 Release 3.2, which makes the PC5 the only Atari PC offered with a Unix.[1][2] ataripc.net gives the DOS version as MS-DOS 3.3 with GW-BASIC 3.2 and Windows/386 2.0; atari-computermuseum.de gives MS-DOS 5.0.[2][1]
Documentation
[edit | edit source]- AMI AMI-386 BIOS PLUS User Manual, with AMI's system board manual and schematics: BIOS set-up and error codes, jumpers, the 386PC system board schematic and the 32-MEM memory card schematic. It has no Atari parts list and no power supply schematic.
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 "Atari PC5 / PC5/EURIX", atari-computermuseum.de, https://www.atari-computermuseum.de/pc5.htm. Secondary source for the announcement, show and release dates, the shelved US launch, the AMI main board and Atari Taiwan assembly, the ABC 386, the 16/20 MHz and 2/4 MB configurations, the graphics cards, the missing external floppy port, the drive options, the case colours, the dimensions and the UK prices, and for the i386SX and MS-DOS 5.0 readings.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 "Atari PC5 386-16/20" and its motherboard page, ataripc.net, https://www.ataripc.net/pc5-386/. Secondary source for the i386DX reading, the 32-bit memory card, the WD VGA Plus 16, the Adaptec ACB-2372B, the Kouwell KW-524F and the MS-DOS 3.3 / Windows/386 software set.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 American Megatrends Inc., AMI-386 BIOS PLUS User Manual with system board manual and schematics, as supplied by Atari Computer GmbH, Braunschweig: section 3.1, "System overview"; jumper list, section 1.3; BIOS error reporting, section 10; 386PC schematic, sheet 1. Hosted as File:Atari PC5 AMI-386 BIOS Plus User Manual.pdf.