Question about 1450XL bare board

[opcode]

I noticed that Best Electronics sells 1450XL bare boards. Has someone here tried them? Are they prototypes or prodution boards? I mean, I heard that the 1450Xl was about to come out in June 1984, so I am supposing Atari could have some of components already manufactured. Anyway, how close of a functional Atari 1450XL can I get with one of those boards?

[Michael_Rose]

I noticed that Best Electronics sells 1450XL bare boards. Has someone here tried them? Are they prototypes or prodution boards? I mean, I heard that the 1450Xl was about to come out in June 1984, so I am supposing Atari could have some of components already manufactured. Anyway, how close of a functional Atari 1450XL can I get with one of those boards?

 

They are? I can't seem to find the item on their site. Their search feature didn't come up with any results for the 1450XL aside from the sold out speech chip.

 

Do you have a link?

[Rybags]

How about 1400XL? IIRC the only 1450 is called XLD.

 

I imagine if you did get a bare board you could build a system, throw in 2 buts though:

 

- if it needs a special MMU or other custom chip besides the usual common crowd we have available in other machines, you'd probably need to make other arrangements.

 

- if like many computers of the era, the working machine had patch wires running around as afterthoughts, you'd need to work out what it needs in that regard.

 

And of course, I think it needs a bigger case than even the 1200XL.

[opcode]

How about 1400XL? IIRC the only 1450 is called XLD.

 

I imagine if you did get a bare board you could build a system, throw in 2 buts though:

 

- if it needs a special MMU or other custom chip besides the usual common crowd we have available in other machines, you'd probably need to make other arrangements.

 

- if like many computers of the era, the working machine had patch wires running around as afterthoughts, you'd need to work out what it needs in that regard.

 

And of course, I think it needs a bigger case than even the 1200XL.

 

The Best catalog calls it the 1450XL board, but yeah, it should be 1450XLD.

Anyway, I know you are a very active user in this forum, and that you owned at least a 1400XL in the past, so I am assuming that nobody here even tried those Best boards. Is that correct?

So let me change my question, have you guys ever seen any fully working 1450XLD prototype? I mean, with the disk drive and all? I am just wondering how difficult it would be to assemble a fully working 1450XLD, if even possible. I believe the 1450XLD uses a couple of custom PAL, but as long as the equations are available that shouldn't be a big problem. I know it uses the Freddie chip, as well as the CO61618 MMU and Carmen (PAL). Not sure about the drive interface, I believe they used an Intel microcontroller, and I think the problem is available online, correct?

 

Ok, actually I just found a document saying that the 1450XLD used at least 3 PALs, and the equations are available. So unless they changed the equations, I should be all set.

 

And of course some reference pictures would help too...

 

Eduardo

[Shawn Jefferson]

Ok, actually I just found a document saying that the 1450XLD used at least 3 PALs, and the equations are available. So unless they changed the equations, I should be all set.

 

Let me know how you make out, as I have one of these that I started populating a couple of years ago (but never really got back to that project after moving...)

[opcode]

Ok, actually I just found a document saying that the 1450XLD used at least 3 PALs, and the equations are available. So unless they changed the equations, I should be all set.

 

Let me know how you make out, as I have one of these that I started populating a couple of years ago (but never really got back to that project after moving...)

 

Excellent, lets do that.

BTW, I was wondering why nobody has ever designed a new 8-bit board using all the stuff Atari Inc created but never released, like the integrated peripherals in the 1450, the PBI, the 1090XL, etc. Now that would be cool...

[Rybags]

I never owned one... I think only dozens ever made it out there.

 

If the logic to the PALs is known, then I'd guess that the machine could be created, at least to the degree that you'd have an 800XL or 1200XL workalike.

 

Modem not worth bothering with (did the 1400 have one?)

 

Don't know about the speech synth - if it was an off-the-shelf job then it could be doable.

[Michael_Rose]

Ok, actually I just found a document saying that the 1450XLD used at least 3 PALs, and the equations are available. So unless they changed the equations, I should be all set.

 

Let me know how you make out, as I have one of these that I started populating a couple of years ago (but never really got back to that project after moving...)

 

Excellent, lets do that.

BTW, I was wondering why nobody has ever designed a new 8-bit board using all the stuff Atari Inc created but never released, like the integrated peripherals in the 1450, the PBI, the 1090XL, etc. Now that would be cool...

 

Isn't that more or less what the Flashback 3 was or is supposed to be?

[oracle_jedi]

 

The Best catalog calls it the 1450XL board, but yeah, it should be 1450XLD.

 

 

Didn't Atari at some point consolidate the 1400XL and 1450XLD motherboards into one?

 

I thought the 1450 had an extra daughter card to provide the parallel disk capabilities?

[opcode]

 

The Best catalog calls it the 1450XL board, but yeah, it should be 1450XLD.

 

 

Didn't Atari at some point consolidate the 1400XL and 1450XLD motherboards into one?

 

I thought the 1450 had an extra daughter card to provide the parallel disk capabilities?

 

I think the board was the same before they cancelled the 1400XL. After that I think they improved the design of the 1450XL, integrated the disk controller into the mainboard, changed the speech chip, etc.

[Shawn Jefferson]

Hi, the board that I have is labeled "1450", and as far as I can tell looking at the board and schematics, and reading the various information is that the board has the modem, speech and an external connector for the PBI drive daughterboard (there is still a daugherboard required.) From what I gathered though, those PBI drives weren't all that reliable anyway. It would be better, IMO, to mount a couple of SIO attached drives instead.

 

There are at three main PAL chips, two of which Best was selling a couple of years ago. I believe that have all the chips I need except for the one PAL chip that Best doesn't sell.

[+bob1200xl]

There are two 1400 series computers, the 1450XLD, with drives and a disk controller integrated into the motherboard, and the 1400XL, with a m/b that says '1450' on it and no disk controller. (just a connector for the daughterboard) I would assume that Best has the 1450 board that goes into a 1400XL. The XLD board is called a 'Tong' board and is very large. The 1450 board is the size of a 1200XL, or so. (with a PBI out the back)

 

Cool thing about the 1450 m/b from Best is that it has a ground plane - very clean waveforms.

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

The Best catalog calls it the 1450XL board, but yeah, it should be 1450XLD.

 

 

Didn't Atari at some point consolidate the 1400XL and 1450XLD motherboards into one?

 

I thought the 1450 had an extra daughter card to provide the parallel disk capabilities?

 

I think the board was the same before they cancelled the 1400XL. After that I think they improved the design of the 1450XL, integrated the disk controller into the mainboard, changed the speech chip, etc.

[opcode]

Hi, the board that I have is labeled "1450", and as far as I can tell looking at the board and schematics, and reading the various information is that the board has the modem, speech and an external connector for the PBI drive daughterboard (there is still a daugherboard required.) From what I gathered though, those PBI drives weren't all that reliable anyway. It would be better, IMO, to mount a couple of SIO attached drives instead.

 

There are at three main PAL chips, two of which Best was selling a couple of years ago. I believe that have all the chips I need except for the one PAL chip that Best doesn't sell.

 

I checked and they are all regular PALs, so I can take care of that if you need. Assuming that the equations available online are correct.

However the BOM available online says that there are 2 daughter boards, modem and disk. Disk isn't available, probably it isn't finished by the time they published that BOM.

Now what I find really intriging is that if Best sells those boards and they are Atari originals, then perhaps the 1400XL/1450XLD were really close to go into production to the point Atari had already ordered the boards, but then the 1400XL was cancelled and the 1450XLD was redesigned and the boards just got scraped.

I just found a picture of your board in another thread, so I am assuming that is the board Best sells. The only thing I am missing is the 4KB handler EPROM program.

[opcode]

Oh, I just noticed that the Best boards need a modem daughter board, and that isn't available, so no modem. And no disk... Perhaps new daughter boards could be produced based on the TONG versions.