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Offtopic--but hey, its an Atari PC-1!


charliecron

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I wonder if I could use some sort of parallel storage device on this thing...
If I get one from Curt, I plan to use a Xircom Ethernet adapter that connects to the parallel port. I've used it in the past to get an old laptop onto my Netware network, and it should work well with the PC-1. All I'll need is a boot floppy containing DOS and the network drivers; everything else will run right off of my server!

 

I'll probably use the machine as an APE host (provided it's fast enough), and for burning EPROMs for Atari cartridges. And to play Atarisoft's DOS titles, of course. :)

:cool:

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Well, the PC-1's are all up here in the office, all over the place as I go through them all. I'll have photo's probably later tonight with details and so forth. I wanted a little extra time as something I've wanted to do for several years now is scope out all of the lines on those 2 rows of headers - J2 and J8 which are actually ISA bus pinouts.

 

Well I've got an preliminary pinout completed. Most of the lines marked N/C I'm still scoping out for IRQs, additional Address lines and several other functions, but there is enough here some most basic 8Bit cards to function on IRQ 5 so far....

 

 

 

Curt

 

post-23-1173312322_thumb.png

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Now I only have 1 monitor - is an Amber Mono CGA, what would be really nice is to see if we could interface the video port - set to EGA mode to an Atari SC1224 RGB monitor, they both run at 15Khz, so if we can push a proper signal out to it, that would solve having to find a monitor for the PC's, I'm not a video guy, so I'll leave that to others...

 

 

 

Curt

 

 

Well, the PC-1's are all up here in the office, all over the place as I go through them all. I'll have photo's probably later tonight with details and so forth. I wanted a little extra time as something I've wanted to do for several years now is scope out all of the lines on those 2 rows of headers - J2 and J8 which are actually ISA bus pinouts.

 

Well I've got an preliminary pinout completed. Most of the lines marked N/C I'm still scoping out for IRQs, additional Address lines and several other functions, but there is enough here some most basic 8Bit cards to function on IRQ 5 so far....

 

 

 

Curt

 

post-23-1173312322_thumb.png

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There are a couple of 8bit VGA cards and 8bit ethernet cards on Ebay...

 

 

What would make a nice project is to buy some Megafile cases from Best or B&C, run the ISA lines into it and make a 2 or 3 slot riser card to place vertically inside of the Megafile case to hold 2-3 ISA cards (VGA, Ethernet, Audio) and with the room inside there would be enough left for a small power supply, Hard drive (or better - use Compact Flash with an IDE to CF adapter)

 

We keep this up and Albert will have to set up a new Atari x86 Forum so we can have own our place to talk about the PC1, Portfolio, PC2-5, the Atari ABC systems, the N386SX laptop and anything else related to Atari x86 platforms.

 

 

 

 

Curt

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We keep this up and Albert will have to set up a new Atari x86 Forum so we can have own our place to talk about the PC1, Portfolio, PC2-5, the Atari ABC systems, the N386SX laptop and anything else related to Atari x86 platforms.
:thumbsup:

 

I think an "Atari PC-Compatible Computers" forum would be a great idea!

Edited by jaybird3rd
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It's not a joystick port, it's a mouse port, it uses an ST mouse. Not sure if it's a standard serial port otherwise.

 

 

From what I've read, it's not really an ST mouse, but a serial mouse that shares the same shell as the ST mouse. Also, assuming the Atari is like any other PC, there was no BIOS drive type identification built in. On a real IBM PC or 100% clone, you could just swap out the drive controller for one with the BIOS hooks built in, and choose between 360/720/1.2/1.44. Using the origional controller you could use a 720k drive no problem (it's low density so the controller will work) you just had to inform DOS that it was not 40 track, which it assumed to be the case. You can use a high density 3.5" drive, as long as you use low density (720K) media.

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The PC1 uses a stock STM-1 Mouse, the PC1's did ship with a PCM-1 mouse, same mouse just in white instead of grey. B*C and Best may have some in stock, you'll need to contact them.

 

Now the REAL hard one to find is the PCM-1A which is the first rounded mouse Atari ever did, its a two button mouse and its rounded instead of that ridiculous painfully un-ergonomic wedge shaped STM mouse. I have another Atari mouse, no identification on it, its a 3 button mouse and was supposed to be meant for use with Atari Unix System V.

 

 

 

 

Curt

 

Yes it does say PCM1 on the bottom of the mouse.

 

Are these readily available?

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Hi guys,

 

Some bad news --- I pulled out all of the PC-1's, or what I thought were PC-1's I've only got 3 units and the other 10 or so are actually PCH204 hard drives for the PC-1's which I was rather surprised as I didn't think there were going to be even more then 2-3 HD's, now I've got more HD's then PC's

 

The other problem is only 2 of the PC-1 units have HD interfaces, both are proto's, I have to see how we're going to proceed here with theese.

 

 

 

 

Curt

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Hi guys,

 

Some bad news --- I pulled out all of the PC-1's, or what I thought were PC-1's I've only got 3 units and the other 10 or so are actually PCH204 hard drives for the PC-1's which I was rather surprised as I didn't think there were going to be even more then 2-3 HD's, now I've got more HD's then PC's

 

The other problem is only 2 of the PC-1 units have HD interfaces, both are proto's, I have to see how we're going to proceed here with theese.

 

 

 

 

Curt

 

I'd very much like a hard drive !

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Getting everyone HD's is not a problem, its the interfaces, I will have to see about laying out a new interface board design.

 

 

 

Curt

 

Hi guys,

 

Some bad news --- I pulled out all of the PC-1's, or what I thought were PC-1's I've only got 3 units and the other 10 or so are actually PCH204 hard drives for the PC-1's which I was rather surprised as I didn't think there were going to be even more then 2-3 HD's, now I've got more HD's then PC's

 

The other problem is only 2 of the PC-1 units have HD interfaces, both are proto's, I have to see how we're going to proceed here with theese.

 

 

 

 

Curt

 

I'd very much like a hard drive !

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Charlie--awesome pictures, thanks for taking the time to post them!

 

How can I include thumbnails instead of the actual pic?

In the future if you want to include thumbnails, you need to use the Attachment feature when posting messages. Underneath the text editor are "Browse" and "Add This Attachment" buttons. Using the Browse button you locate a file on your computer, select it, and then cilck "Add This Attachment". The forum will then load the attachment. You can then insert it into your post, or leave it and it'll show up at the end of your post. You can attach multiple images in this fashion. They'll then show up as thumbnails, which you can click to see the full image.

 

We keep this up and Albert will have to set up a new Atari x86 Forum so we can have own our place to talk about the PC1, Portfolio, PC2-5, the Atari ABC systems, the N386SX laptop and anything else related to Atari x86 platforms.

I wonder how much talk there's been about the various Atari PC-related products over the years? Not too much, although from the looks of this thread there are some fans. :)

 

..Al

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Yes it does say PCM1 on the bottom of the mouse.

 

Are these readily available?

 

I bought mine a few years ago from Best and paid like $60 for it Brand New! (Along with a new TT030 KB and case)

Edited by tjlazer
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There seems to be quite a few of us talking about it and it would be nice to have a separate forum to discuss hardware, the various models of Atari PC's, the Portfolio has a great following and a lot of conversation there.

 

It would be good to be able to discuss OS integration and maybe start a nice renewed sort of renaissance of support and development back into the Atari x86 arena, maybe look into working on improvements and developments for GEM on the x86's, discuss optimized memory configs under DOS to maximize the 640K, device drivers and the like. It would be a lot of fun.

 

I plan to put a major update to my PC-1 section of Atarimuseum.com over the weekend based on all of the photo's I'm taking, the pinouts of scoping on the expansion header - which in its self is a major thing as that will open the door for some work on making a proper 8bit ISA expansion header and maybe taking it out of the case to a slot backplane where a couple of card could reside for VGA support, IDE support and Network Support which I feel are the cruxial three expansion cards essential for maximizes the use out of the PC-1's

 

 

 

Curt

 

Charlie--awesome pictures, thanks for taking the time to post them!

 

How can I include thumbnails instead of the actual pic?

In the future if you want to include thumbnails, you need to use the Attachment feature when posting messages. Underneath the text editor are "Browse" and "Add This Attachment" buttons. Using the Browse button you locate a file on your computer, select it, and then cilck "Add This Attachment". The forum will then load the attachment. You can then insert it into your post, or leave it and it'll show up at the end of your post. You can attach multiple images in this fashion. They'll then show up as thumbnails, which you can click to see the full image.

 

We keep this up and Albert will have to set up a new Atari x86 Forum so we can have own our place to talk about the PC1, Portfolio, PC2-5, the Atari ABC systems, the N386SX laptop and anything else related to Atari x86 platforms.

I wonder how much talk there's been about the various Atari PC-related products over the years? Not too much, although from the looks of this thread there are some fans. :)

 

..Al

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I think a forum of the x86 Atari's would be nice. Just on 1 thread look at all the information thats come out. And we are just getting started. Just think of manuals, software, upgrades, photos we can get together. And there are so many models.

 

I damn near wet my pants when Curt mentioned "Atari UNIX System V". I'm a certified UNIX Sysadmin (HPUX). Actually the first thing I tried hooking my PC-1 up to is an IBM 43p Model 140 running AIX 5.1, which sits next to my PC-1, via null modem, no success yet.. An Atari 386 DX40 could probably run linux, my first install of linux was onto a 386 DX40 in 1996.

 

I can answer jaybird3rds question about whether or not someone has installed a 3.5 in floppy into a PC-1, there is the hard disk drive too. I found this at:

 

http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/scripts/p...Atari/index.php

 

Can't wait to see Curts photos of the hard disk unit!

 

Charlie

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Getting everyone HD's is not a problem, its the interfaces, I will have to see about laying out a new interface board design.

Hello Curt!

 

Since I am a packrat (and NEVER throw anything away!),I have about a dozen ISA 8bit MFM

hard drive cards.If anyone needs one,they can have it for postage.

 

Sorry,MFM only,no IDE. :(

 

But I do have some 16 bit ISA IDE cards.

Edited by Albert
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Are they the Adaptec ISA to MFM cards? If so, yes I would like to discuss I can make a very quick and simply interface if they are the older Adaptec's

 

 

I was going to post all of the photo's up tonight, but I'm a little wiped out tonight and I'll get everything up tomorrow, sorry for the delay.

 

 

Curt

 

Getting everyone HD's is not a problem, its the interfaces, I will have to see about laying out a new interface board design.

Hello Curt!

 

Since I am a packrat (and NEVER throw anything away!),I have about a dozen ISA 8bit MFM

hard drive cards.If anyone needs one,they can have it for postage.

 

Sorry,MFM only,no IDE. :(

 

But I do have some 16 bit ISA IDE cards.

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First off, I send a PM regarding my interest in a PC-1, I'll add here that I'd gladly go for a hard drive expansion instead of the PC-1. Regarding the 8-bit hard drive controllers, I have a varity of MFM controllers as well, including two Adaptec boards. They are quite old, and only support 10 or 20 meg drives as I recall (it's been a long time, I had one working with an ST-412 10 meg full height drive ages ago). I wasn't planning to part with them but might be talked into it, what sort of interface can you make that requires an Adaptec?? I've had good sucess using Future Domain 8 bit SCSI cards with a genuine IBM, Unless the Atari's BIOS is drasticly different I don't see why it wouldn't work there as well.

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Are they the Adaptec ISA to MFM cards? If so, yes I would like to discuss I can make a very quick and simply interface if they are the older Adaptec's

 

 

No, they are Xebec controller cards for the original IBM XT that support the Seagate ST412

10 meg MFM hard drives.

 

However,with the use of DiskManager software,you can partition the Hard drive into a first partition of 10 megs and the rest as a second partition.

 

I.E. .... C: = 10 meg and D: = 30 megs (or what have you.)

 

I have a couple of Seagate 8bit MFM and RLL controller cards which have on board BIOS.

(Remember..DEBUG (return), g:= c800 ? )

However,I would like to hang on to them.

 

I have a lot of ISA 8bit cards (sound,CGA,EGA,a few VGA and even a SCSI card,I believe)

 

Let me know if I can help.

 

I have quite a few MFM and RLL hard drives,but they ARE old and very heavy to ship.

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I like this a lot... never really seen one running before.

 

Any more O.S./Game pics?

 

I work on a lot of older PC's. It's nice to see what Atari had to offer. Very sleek looking machine.

 

You know I've tried taking a pic of the boot up, I thought "Atari mouse driver loaded succesfully" on the screen was pretty cool. But, the original owner must of been a photographer, using some trick because my photo was terrible. He must of used an extended exposure or something to get those nice close up screen photos. I'll try again though..

 

Charlie

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