Atari 6402A

[+kheller2]

While researching some 1200XL documents on the "Sweet-16", I stumbled upon this package of documents from Harry Stewart of Atari:

 

https://archive.org/stream/AtariHarryStewart/Atari%20memo%20%26%20document%20list_djvu.txt

 

One of the more interesting ones for me was this comparison chart:

 

Atari product comparison.pdf

 

Which compares the 400/800/1200/LIZ/6402.

 

6402??!

 

This 6402?

http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/XL/xl_protos/6402a.html

 

Also note the Relative Price Ranking...

[+slx]

Maybe a high-end IBM-like business machine with a detached keyboard? Can't spot the keyboard connector on that pic. The "price point" comparison kind of disproves the speculation on atarimuse that this might have been an internal test board only, unless "price point" refers to the cost of getting units into a lab.

[_The Doctor__]

Yes it was going (planning) to become a production model, why wouldn't it be used as a test rig, and if memory serves, your comparison chart is early as the expansion port should be on the 6402 the OS relied on loading drivers from devices and disks, it would pair up with the expansion module... no it doesn't plug into a transputer or blossom board...

Edited January 16, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[jmccorm]

Yes it was going (planning) to become a production model, why wouldn't it be used as a test rig, and if memory serves, your comparison chart is early as the expansion port should be on the 6402 the OS relied on loading drivers from devices and disks, it would pair up with the expansion module... no it doesn't plug into a transputer or blossom board...

 

That would explain why the comparison chart lists the 6402A's OS as being the largest (24KB) while the ROMs were the smallest (8K).

 

About the "6402A" name... doesn't it just beg you into believing that it should be paired up with some sort of "100" device to make a complete set?