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Pure Bollocks Issue 21_002
* PURE BOLLOCKS * FALCON * ALL THE SHIT *
Now they've released it- not in bulk though, we've got a lot of info on it!
PRICE OF FALCON 030:
Officially 499 for the 1 meg versh, 899 for the 4 meg + HD versh. BUT mail
order companies advertising in ST and midi magazines are starting to sell the
1 meg versh for 450! And when (if) the Falcon gets released in it's
mega-style case, then it's supposed to be selling for -399- in the 1 meg
versh!
FALCON 030 SPECIFICS:
System techie stuff
Motorola 68030 32-bit CPU at 16MHz with a cache
Motorola 56001 24-bit DSP at 32MHz with 32K x 24bit SRAM
Optional 68881/68882 maths co-processor
BLiTTER at 16 MHz (supposedly compatible with old 8 MHZ HOGging one!)
Sound
16 bit DMA sound- 8 channel, up to 50MHz, and 'true stereo'.
8 bit PCM/DMA stereo sound- TT/STE compatible if you're lucky!
16 bit stereo codec DAC/ADC- well they should be both 16 bit!
3 channel crappy YM PSG soundchip- still not compatible yet!
Multiplexer for switching between sound chips.
Video modes
ST & STE modes plus:
640x480 in 256 colours from a palette of 262144 (VGA standard)
320x480 in 65536 " "
768x480 in 256 " " (TV ?)
320x480 in 32768 colours (VGA standard with 'overlay bit')
768x480 in 32768 colours (Interlaced on TV with 'overlay bit')
768x480 in 65536 colours (Interlaced on TV)
(Last 3 modes are -true colour-!)
Hardware scrolling and overscan available in all modes.
Input/output
Parallel port
Serial 9 pin port
MIDI in/out/'soft thru' ports
Cartridge port- same as the old one I expect!
SCSI 2 port
Atari ASCI port (?)
LAN (LocalTalk Atari Network) port- like the Mega STE/TT
Stereo mic input and stereo headphones output.
TWO analogue and TWO digital jotsick ports! (But I bet you can't read all
four at the same time!
1.44mb PC format floppy drive
Internal IDE hard drive interface (Que? The IBM PC hard drives?)
Oh yes, and I forgot- 'improved keyboard handling'. Thanks a lot guys!
HISTORY
Hey get this, the Falcon officially didn't exist until summer 1992, and before
then it was codenamed 'Sparrow'! Yeah well, everyone I know has been calling
it 'Falcon' since at least May 1992! So you can tell that quite a lot of the
hype about the Falcon was due to the usual problems with Atari's publicity!
The first official debut of the machine was at the Dusseldorf Messe in
August, and the official announcement was made a few days previously on the
GEnie and Delphi bbs networks with Sam Tramiel and Bob Brodie appearing on a
realtime 'conference' and plugging the computer. Seems like they chose the
cheapest way of plugging their stuff as usual!
So we Waited for the thing to come out... and waited... and waited... Then it
quietly appeared in small quantities halfway through December. We're still
waiting for the thing in bulk!
DEMO CREWS
There were loads of rumours flying about in May that Delta Force had access to
one of the prototype Falcons. This rumour appears to be mainly thanks to Chris
Holland of Maggie. In September at the Ripped Off party in Bradford, Falcons
were on offer from Comtech at a reduced price, but they weren't any on show,
they were to be available in 'approximately 2 weeks time'!! After this, ROM
images of the German release of the Falcon were flying about. In the meantime,
a message was posted in Fidonet, asking if the Delta Force rumour was true. A
reply came from Michael Raarsch (Daryl of TEX) saying that he had heard
nothing of the sort the last time he talked to New Mode of DF, but -he- had
got a loan of a Falcon for a few days (as apparently had many others including
demo coders) and had been programming 3D routs on it!
The computers now released in Britain, and as we say in the news section, we
know that DML of the Pixel Twins already has his developer version. We saw a
message from a member of Inner Circle (in September) saying that they would
get one in October, so we expect they've got one now! We expect Ripped Off
have got theirs as well seeing as Stick's involved with Comtech! Another
possible group who might have their Falcon now, or will be getting it soon are
the Fingerbobs, who appear pretty clued up on their hardware. (Coder Oberjee
uses a PC cross-assembler to code his programs and ports it to an ST to run!)
One other possible group that could get one soon if not already is, believe
it or not, Sub Humans In Turkey. We say this because members of this group are
involved in legal software ventures. Certainly we know EGB has been doing the
conversion for a well-known game, and we know another member is coding
sharware stuff under his own name. So, who knows... As you can guess, you're
more likely to have contact with a Falcon if you're involved with software
companies! So it's likely we might have one or two other groups out there who
have seen a Falcon and we missed them!
MULTI-TOS
<I'll let Genie type this one...>
As it currently stands, the main TOS and desktop is on ROM, and MultiTOS on
a disk. The boot disk loads the MultiTOS shell into RAM. So if you don't want
to use the memory and don't mind running just one program, then you don't
have to load it. It's a bit like choosing between Finder and Multifinder on
good ol' Mac System 6.
Apparently it going to be fully ROM-ed up later this year. I hope this is
not all there is to it. Having used the Mac, I can see the advantages of a disk
based system. Of course there's pretty big disadvantages if you've not got an
HD! You usually get new Macs with hard drives built-in now. Perhaps it would
be a good idea for a disk-based TOS to be packaged with the 4 meg + HD
version of the Falcon 030? Perhaps this is the way the 040 will turn out?
DEVELOPER MACHINES AND DEVELOPER MACHINES AND DEVELOPER MACHINES.....
The rumours of the Falcon first started in May- the same time the developer
machines went out! The original developer machines, from what we can gether
actually -weren't- Falcon 030's but prototype Falcon 040's! Certainly the
early rumours of what the 'Falcon' prototype could do bears more of a
similarity to the features we now think are on the 040. Maybe Atari had been
concentrating on getting the 040 working before stripping various bits down
to get the 030! By June the first 030's appear to be doing the rounds- but
Atari's developer packaging mysteriously tells developers to use TRAPs and not
system variables- they might be changed around at some later date! That wasn't
the only unfinished thing... The codec ADC/DACs were suddenly 8 bit either way
instead of 16 bit, and BLiTTER was 8MHz and on permanent hog- yep it was the
old STE one!
By October, there were rumours of the 030 being tweaked up to 25MHz, but
this was a load of crap. The developer machines by this time were only
missing a BLiTTER chip! Then suddenly the release date was pushed back to
14th November. Apparently, the operating system needed re-writing... Funny how
it happened just when Eric Smith, Mr 'MultiTOS' joined.... The last
batch of developer machines just before the launch apparently are -almost- the
complete versions. These are the one's ST Format couldn't even run in ST mode!
Of course, as you might know, the YM PSG sound-bleeper hasn't been mapped onto
Falcon system memory entirely correctly, but you can run most software in 'ST
mode' ie blitter off, MultiTOS off, disk cache off, etc., etc. As long as it's
not 'sound intensive' it should run. The really annoying thing though is that
you still have to use TRAPs to access system memory, because it's protect and
any access, even in supervisor mode will crash the machine!
Hopefully these bugs are ironed out in the commercial version....
INTRESTING SNIPPETS
*** The Dusseldorf Messe display included a 24MB Tina Turner demo operating
off a 1 GIGABYTE hard drive! The drive was a Seagate SCSI drive. However,
there's an IDE internal interface, so maybe you could run IBM PC drives
as well? They're cheaper... There are two possible methods of storage for
the future. (1) The 'floptical' drive- already you can get one for the ST
with 20 megs on a single disk, and apparently, it's set to go up to 100
meg! (2) Sony Minidisc - like a CD, but recordable. This is tipped to win
the battle with DCC in the music formats, so it might survive long enough
to find uses here...
*** The Falcon contains a battery backed clock, but also in it's NVRAM is
settings for each country! If you get a piece of German TOS software, then
just change a bit of memory in the Preferences panel!
*** Despite some rumours, MultiTOS will -just- work on a 1 meg system. You're
still stupid if you try and run stuff on an unexpanded 1 meg Falcon, since
the true-colour mode takes up to 750K!
*** If you're looking to expand your 1 meg Falcon, then it doesn't have space
for SIMMS in it's 1040ST case (perhaps it might in it's mega-case). There
is a memory expansion interface on the Falcon, so expect a booming trade
in 3rd party SIMMS -> memory expansion interfaces!
*** You might get a bit of a headache on some of the screen modes if you've
got a TV, that's because some them will be -interlaced- for a TV output.
Though how they'll be able to interlace 65536 colours in an 768x480 rez
without blowing up the TV is beyond me!
*** As you can guess, the 'plans' for 16.7 million colours were not to be on
the Falcon 030, though regarding the features predicted that are now
supposed to be on the 040, perhaps it's 040 that has a pallette of 16.7
million colours!
*** You might have heard that you can do a 'software modem' with the DSP, so
if Atari sell in bulk, then expect a whole load of new bbs's! Also,
imagine linking that with the LAN ports....
*** The Falcon is being treated seriously as a musical instrument by itself.
Sam Tramiel revealed that a MIDI developer from Cambridge (Ho ho, pick a
MIDI developer from Cambridge, everyone!) was working on a package to
exploit it's capabilities. We expect this will be a piece of software to
make the Falcon act like an 8 channel stereo sampling instrument with
editing facilities on samples, and receptive to MIDI commands. Outside
MIDI, apparently a DMA noisetracker style program is being developed in
Germany. Though we expect it'll also have MIDI capabilities as well- the
two areas are now appearing to blur.... If you are able to get the DSP in
on the act as well by spot manipulation of samples, then Falcon
noisetrackers might very well look like MIDI editors in future...
SOFTWARE
There are over 100 developers working on software for the Falcon they include:
KODAK- They wish to use the Falcon as part of their 'Multimedia' project
D2D- they have completed the first version of their direct-to-disk recording
system already. If you don't know what this is- you are able to use a hard disk
as a digital recording medium. Groups like The Shamen and The Orb use this kind
of thing. Until recently, you needed a PC or Mac and an expensive interface
just to get started. With a Falcon and a decent hard disk, the DSP can handle
4 tracks of digital sound with -software-!! (This is why music mags are so
favourable to the Falcon) For more tracks, the DSP can handle it, but the data
bus to the hard drive can't! So you'll need some extra hardware for that...
Anyway, the industry standard 'Sound Tools 2' can only handle 4 tracks!
HISOFT- They've finished touching up (arf arf!) 'True Paint', which as the name
suggests allows you to do pictures in True Colour mode. Presumably they have
some sort of compression algorithm for the pictures, as they take up 700K+!
I don't know any other names but I can tell you of some other software ideas:
MODEM EMULATION - The DSp can emulate a 19.2Kbaud modem with software and an
adapter between the DSP socket and the phone-line. Does this mean HST can be
implemented as well?
FAX MODEM - Yes, the DSPs fast enough to digitise pictures as well as sending
them down the phone lines!
VOICE MAIL - This is another application of the DSPs modem facilities!
The DSP's the important bit of the Falcon, see the seperate feature on it!
GAMES STUFF FROM THE FALCON!
OK, here's a couple of predictions.....
1) Big sprites are good, but I expect much more in the way of 3D shapes a la
Starblade!
2) Expect loads of sampled speech and surround-sound stereo effects a la
Starblade!
3) Look at Starblade in the arcades- it's the future of home computer games!
4) Crappy old console platform pieces of shit will die out unless they're any
good!
5) More multiplayer games- utilising MIDI links, LAN ports, or even built-in
software modems?!?!?
6) Lot of PC concepts coming across with the PC emulator. I've heard of one
PC game about programming a robot flyers, and I can imagine that on the
Falcon.
FALCON CLIPPINGS
Oh I'm just too tired to continue, so here's a couple of stories I ripped off
some bulettin boards...
From Atari Explorer Online #9216...
BOSTON COMPUTER SOCIETY SHOWS FALCON030
---------------------------------------
-=> In: comp.sys.atari.st
-=> From: peters@allvax.enet.dec.com (Don Peters)
-=> Date: 25 Sep 92 19:07:28 GMT
Steven Selick did an excellent job of reporting on the introduction of
the Falcon 030 at the recent meeting of the Boston Computer Society. I
was also there, and have a few additional comments.
- there were about 125 in attendance in the hall
- there was one Falcon in the lobby demoing a MIDI application. The
fellow using it said he was from Dr. T, and just got the machine two
days ago. It had 4 meg.
- there were 3 Falcons near the front stage. All looked like production
machines.
- the term "personal integrated media" was mentioned several times, and
will probably be used many times in the future by Atari
- speedwise, the Falcon is equivalent to a 25-30Mhz 386 machine
[But they're NOT saying it's a 25MHz, OK? -EGB'SS]
- a 19.2K bps modem is now being implemented for the Falcon
- with a box, the Falcon will be able to do CD photo applications
(nothing on who will make the box or what will be in it)
- one of the demos shown on the projection screen was a 20 channel
equalizer. Bill Rehbock was adjusting the channels in real time so
the adjustment effect could be heard.
- the two games to come bundled with the Falcon, Land Mines and
Breakout, will utilize true color mode
- voice mail (from a NeXT programmer) and video phone applications "are
coming"
- James Grunke mentioned that after spending $400 on a monitor and $800
for an adapter, one could use all 8 stereo channels at once, making
the cost about $300 per channel. (assumes a $1300 Falcon)
- why only 16 bits for true color? They felt 16 bits was sufficient and
challenged anyone to see the difference between it and 24 bits in real
world images
- Atari will "definitely" have a US 800 number for user help (didn't say
when though)
- a little box to interface the DSP to the phone line is being developed
and should be available by the first quarter of 93
- in many respects the Falcon is more powerful than the Video Toaster,
containing 98% of its functionality. The cost of the Falcon plus any
associated software/hardware will be less in cost than the Video
Toaster itself. [Wot? -EGB'SS]
- a 1 Meg Falcon is a viable system, since the operating system takes
only a small amount of RAM (from Bill Rehbock) (he didn't say how
much, but I believe he did use the word "miniscule". [ie How much is
LEFT! -EGBSS-
- 386DX and 386SX boards are now being worked on in Germany (I think he
said 486 also) [386 ones are finished now! -EGB'SS]
- the Spectre board will fit within the Falcon, for those who are
worried about the lack of an external drive
- the Falcon docs, with DSP info, are available to anyone for $80 - just
send the check to Atari
- the Motorola DSP assembler and linker is being shipped to Falcon
developers
- video recording will be possible with external hardware (they said it
would have taken too much extra hardware to include direct video input
on the Falcon)
- the audience was generally passive during the presentation, but the
Tina Turner video was so impressive that it got a round of applause
(no, you can't get it - its heavily copyrighted we were told)
- Bill Rehbock, one of Atari's Falcon technical experts, mentioned to me
that he has a Compuserve account and generally manages to answer his
mail every nite
At the end of the formal presentation, everyone gathered near the front
stage to see the 3 Falcons doing a slide show in true color. One
monitor, an Atari 1435, looked especially good. One slide of a baby
surrounded by stuffed animals looked so good I was tempted to reach out
and touch the fuzz!
In summary, yes I was impressed, and I plan to buy one when they are
generally available (a developer friend of mine already has his order
in).
And no, I didn't win the Falcon door prize either (sigh...)
=======================================
Yawn, yawn, I'm too tired now, let's hope it's all for the best....
***
EGB'S SMELLY SOX
***
