Whoo-Hoo!!! I'm getting a 1040st setup!!!

[Gunstar]

I've wanted an St for ever, and was going to get a Mega or a Falcon, but I was conversing with a fellow electronics student before class today and we somehow wandered into the topic of my collecting "vintage" computers and consoles and he asked me if I would be interested in a 1040ST...he said he used to be into Atari, but it's been sitting in the back of his garage for a couple of years now...monitor, computer, mouse and some software...then he said if $20 for it would be all right... ...I said YES!!! so he's bringing it to school next Wed. for me!!! I'm VERY excited. I will of course be using it for Jaguar development in the future for one thing...although I have an older Gateway 2000 I'll use for that also...once I learn Assembly language next semester at school. My luck has really taken an upswing lately and it's about time&I'm loving it!!!

[LinkoVitch]

Cool. M68K assembly is pretty simple to pick up. Just grab a copy of DevPac, and some other peoples source and it's aasy to pick up. I would have thought schools would teach 6502 or x86 assembly.

 

Why wait.. get stuck in now, it's good fun

 

I managed to tech myself M68K by the age of 12-13 so it can't be that hard

[Atari-Jess]

I managed to tech myself M68K by the age of 12-13 so it can't be that hard

 

wow.

 

*looks for a 68k book*

[Gunstar]

Cool.  M68K assembly is pretty simple to pick up.  Just grab a copy of DevPac, and some other peoples source and it's aasy to pick up.  I would have thought schools would teach 6502 or x86 assembly.

 

Why wait.. get stuck in now, it's good fun

 

I managed to tech myself M68K by the age of 12-13 so it can't be that hard

 

The reason why I'm waiting to take the class and not learn assembly on my own is lack of time; between work and school and homework I barely have a few hours of time to myself each week and I like to use that time to unwind and read, watch TV or play vids...the only reason I'm even here so much is I have access to the internet at school, work and home, so I sneak a few minutes in when I can. As soon as I start assembly language class, I'll make time for studying it and obviously homework for the class. As far as M68K assembly and on the PC for Jaguar development, I won't have time until next summer! The Jaguar may be as old as the 8-bit consoles before I get a game out for it.

[Gunstar]

Cool.  M68K assembly is pretty simple to pick up.  Just grab a copy of DevPac, and some other peoples source and it's aasy to pick up.  I would have thought schools would teach 6502 or x86 assembly.

 

Why wait.. get stuck in now, it's good fun

 

I managed to tech myself M68K by the age of 12-13 so it can't be that hard

 

The reason why I'm waiting to take the class and not learn assembly on my own is lack of time; between work and school and homework I barely have a few hours of time to myself each week and I like to use that time to unwind and read, watch TV or play vids...the only reason I'm even here so much is I have access to the internet at school, work and home, so I sneak a few minutes in when I can. As soon as I start assembly language class, I'll make time for studying it and obviously homework for the class. As far as M68K assembly and on the PC for Jaguar development, I won't have time until next summer! The Jaguar may be as old as the 8-bit consoles before I get a game out for it.

[Gunstar]

Well, I got my ST today. Turns out it's a 1040STf model, I'm not sure what the "f" stands for, but IIRC it just means it has a built-in 3.5" disk, right? This puppy is VERY dirty, and yellowed very badly too, even the mouse, it looks almost bronze in color, but, hey, i got it for $20. It came with the sc1224 monitor, it works, at least the desktop comes up, but I have yet to test it further since I'm taking it apart for cleaning. I got some PD disks with it and a disk that says "Atari USA language disk" on it, don't know what that is yet...STBASIC? I also go some bookkeeping program and Degas Elite art program-cool, i wanted that one...

 

but i've noticed a few curiosities while taking it apart; first off, I think it's been upgraded memory-wise. I'm assuming that the 4 rows of 8 chips (4x8=32) in the back labeled 'tms4256-15nl hhp 8745' are the memory chips comprising the 1megabyte of initial system ram, or is that only 512k in the rear? I guess it depends if those 32 chips in the back are 16k each or 32k.. Also, there are 6 chip sockets in the front with two chips installed, I'm assuming that these are for 6 512k chips to make a grand total of 4megabytes of memory for the computer, and since two chips are installed, i'm guessing it's already upgraded to 2 megabytes...or are those 256k chips in the front (co70705-38 rp231024e),can anyone confirm this? Also, I', curious to know what the empty processor spot is over near the joystick/mouse ports in the front, is this for the installation of a blitter chip or a math co-processor of some type? lastly, there is an open area in the center-back of the main mother board that has holes in the metal sheilding which look like a place to put a couple RCA jacks...is this for a stereo upgrade of some type? or what is it for exactly? there are also two processor in the front, one above the 68000 chip looking from the front and the other to the right, what are those chips (square ones in sockets)- are they possibly blitter and/or object proccessors of some type already equiped? I'll eventually get around to studying the whole mother board and looking at spec sheets, but I'm hoping for a few quick answers to these questions from some of you ST gurus here...thanks!

[LinkoVitch]

stfm is the internal PSU & Floppy. I am pretty sure that a 1040 is a 1 Meg factory machine. I would guess the onboard RAM chips are possibly disabled and it's just running of the expansion card.. could be wrong tho. I never had one

 

The STFM's didn't have a blitter that was the STe. The square chips I would guess were the MMU (was central on my 520 STFM) and the Glue chip (not sure about that last one. I have no idea what the socket is for! unless it is some leftover from STe boards (did they produce STe and STFM at some point?) I'd guess the space for the RCA jacks would be for STe models, I am pretty sure they would start producing cases that would take their old stock of STFM boards and the newer STe ones.. seems to make sence.

 

Check the TOS version on it. The two large chips could be a new version of TOS, my TOS upgrade sat over the CPU, but there were other types availible which went elsewhere in the system.

 

Hope that is of some help.. oh and for when you get started.. the palette on the vide shifter is at memory address $ffff8240 (or is that 8420? ah well been a while maybe 2480 ??? eek I have forgotten too much!)

[RucasRiot]

What is blitter anyways?

[LinkoVitch]

It's a chip that blits!

 

From what I can tell it's a hardware chip that performs lots of handy memory processes. Thus enabling you to do really funky scrolling, and things like sprite rotation and scaling without taxing the CPU heavily.

 

At it's most basic it copies data between memory locations very quickly

 

I could be wrong tho, I have never had chance to use one

[atarian1]

Congrats on obtaining a 1040ST. I still have mine.

 

Yes, the 'f' stands for the internal floppy. The 'fm' models have a built in floppy and RF Modulator.

 

The USA Language disk contains the control panel, ST Basic, and other useless stuff.

 

It doesn't sound like you have a memory upgrade. Those 4 rows of 8 RAM chips in the back make up 1 MB of memory. Memory upgrades usually come on a daughterboard with wires coming out of it and soldered to the video shifter chip (the rectangular chip under the silver metal cover in the middle of the motherboard) and the MMU (one of those square chips). The 6 chip sockets with 2 chips installed is not RAM. That's the operating system in ROM (aka TOS). You have either TOS 1.2 (copyright 1987 on the chips - the older not as good version) or TOS 1.4 (copyright 1989 on the chips - the better version).

 

The empty processor spot near the joystick/mouse ports is for the blitter. Why Atari put it in there, yet not actually install the blitter in there remains yet another Atari mystery. It does give you a slight speed increase in graphics. It's noticable in games that take advantage of it. You can actually install one by soldering in a socket and changing some jumpers.

 

Are you sure there is room for a "couple" of RCA jacks in the back? The spot in the middle back is where the RF modulator would be. But Atari had problems with the FCC with this, so they took it out. (or so I've heard) Bummer. That blank spot is a good place to place any upgrade boards though.

 

Those square chips are either the DMA, GLU or MMU chips. I don't remember which is which though off the top of my head.

 

I always enjoy taking my ST apart so many times. I'm always fascinated to see how this thing work. I don't know why....

[Gunstar]

Thanks guys! But if those two chips in the sockets are for TOS and stuff, why 6 sockets? were there versions of TOS that used 6 chips!?!? I'll have to look into getting a blitter for it and I'll definately be upgrading to 4megs as soon as possible...there are definately 2 holes in the metal shielding in the back, but suppose it may be a shield meant for the STe. I've taken apart and thoroughly cleaned everything, I rigged the space bar from my extra XE to work on it for now, but the metal "whammy bar" under the space bar was too thick to fit on the ST keyboard base, so I had to take it off, hence it being flimsy. The discoloration of the case is really bad and I'm going to have to grab a can of grey spray paint and repaint it and the monitor cases. The disk drive won't load anything, but considering how dirty the system was, I'm sure I need to clean off the head. the mouse buttons don't work, so I have to try and repair it, but I have a mouse from my 8-bit Atari that works fine on it for the time being.

It needs some work, but I'll bring her back from the grave and soon she'll be looking&running as good as new! Now I have to dig up that game of Sierra's Space Quest I was given years ago and try it out finally! (someone knew I had an atari computer and gave it to me years ago, but I only had the 8-bit, not the ST)

 

One more thing...ST disks are formatted the same as PC 3.5's right? so I could download games (for the ST)off the net onto my PC's 3.5 and then just put them in my ST and go?

[RucasRiot]

Well... If you have any old dos-formatted 720k discs they should work fine for that. Some ST discs will work, some won't...

[Gunstar]

Thanks! Yes, I still have a 3.5" on my PC and so I can go into system setup and or even by DOS command and choose to format in 720k. I have some other questions, but I think it's time to start a new thread...

[Gunstar]

I would still like to know what the 6 sockets ar for in the 1040STf if only two are used for TOS/GEM?!?!?

[herr professor]

I would still like to know what the 6 sockets ar for in the 1040STf if only two are used for TOS/GEM?!?!?

 

Quote From http://www.megacom.net/~q-funk/ST/#q24

 

 

The very first few STM came with TOS 0.99 on a floppy disk, while most other ST's operating system came on on ROM chip. Upgrading TOS therefore usually means replacing the old ROMs with new chips.

 

TOS 1.2 (1.02) came on 6 chips, TOS 1.4 (1.04) came on either 6 or 2 chips. All later versions came on 2 chips.

[RucasRiot]

Anyone have an EPROM burner and willing to sell me tos 2.06???

[LinkoVitch]

Instructions on how to build one at this URL:

 

http://www.mikeg2.freeserve.co.uk/eprom/

 

Looks very good, using it as the basis of my own Flash Cart construction

[Gunstar]

I can't tell what version of TOS I have, all I know is it's on two chips. Under desktop infor all it says it "Gem" and "TOS" no version numbers or even copyright date! Where can I find out?

[RucasRiot]

I don't have the time to slap together an EPROM burner. I realized that when trying to build the one it's based on.

 

Besides, I hate Ratshack.

[atarian1]

Gunstar, you have a strange TOS! :wink:

 

Are you sure there's not a series of Copyright dates under the Atari symbol? I've seen them on all the STs that I've used. Wierd...

 

The 2/6 TOS chip thing was probably Atari having a huge stock pile of 6-chip sets lying around. So when they ran out of 6-chip sets, they just install a 74xxx chip (I don't remember which one), change 2 jumpers, then plug in the 2-chip set. They don't have to change the motherboard layout again for a 2-chip set and a 6-chip set. Smart, eh?