Jump to content
IGNORED

Call for (not so technical) questions -- Atari's product manager 1991-96


Recommended Posts

(dunno how to properly announce it also for Lynx/Jaguar fans out there, should I copy&paste it to the related forum?)


Hi guys,


one day I was browsing some old Atari documents and noticed a name I had seen before -- Jerry Smith. Quick search has revealed it's one of the Atari's main guys after the Tramiels, i.e. a person who had to approve every hardware modification, PCB change, issue new revisions, talk to the HW/SW guys and the Tramiels, simply to make sure the production of the given Atari goes as planned.


One way or another I managed to get in touch with him and he agreed to participate in an interview (still not sure whether it will be written, via skype or both). So I'd like to brainstorm some questions, as the title suggests, he spent the worst and best times at Atari, during production of the TT/MegaSTE (perhaps only took over), Lynx, Falcon and Jaguar right to the bitter end.


So far I've been thinking about:

- the famous "how many Falcons is out there" :)

- what was the deal with C-Lab, did they really produce new units (I think so) or just bought old stock from Atari

- who was responsible for cancellation of the Falcon? Was it because of poor market performance, lack of developers (moved to Jaguar?)

- can you remember the Falcon hardware engineering team, who had designed it?

- can you think of some way to obtain ASICs, schematics etc for the Falcon ICs?

- were there any plans to stay in Jaguar business after the JTS merge?


As you can see, mine are mostly Falcon specific, so anything Lynx/Jaguar/Tramiel related is more than welcome. Remember it's stuff from 20 years ago so have mercy. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That sounds great!

 

ASIC designs for ST chips for sure, source code for TOS (is it likely to be abandonware now). Also, why did Atari do so many prototypes of stuff that never went into manufacture. Also why the hell did they not go 32bit for the falcon's 030, Assume it was cost cutting on adding a second ROM to make 32bit access to TOS. Similar with RAM. Assume its all down to costs and time scales. I guess if Atari did any more work on the falcon it would have never got out the door at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

(dunno how to properly announce it also for Lynx/Jaguar fans out there, should I copy&paste it to the related forum?)
Hi guys,
one day I was browsing some old Atari documents and noticed a name I had seen before -- Jerry Smith. Quick search has revealed it's one of the Atari's main guys after the Tramiels, i.e. a person who had to approve every hardware modification, PCB change, issue new revisions, talk to the HW/SW guys and the Tramiels, simply to make sure the production of the given Atari goes as planned.
One way or another I managed to get in touch with him and he agreed to participate in an interview (still not sure whether it will be written, via skype or both). So I'd like to brainstorm some questions, as the title suggests, he spent the worst and best times at Atari, during production of the TT/MegaSTE (perhaps only took over), Lynx, Falcon and Jaguar right to the bitter end.
So far I've been thinking about:
- the famous "how many Falcons is out there" :)
- what was the deal with C-Lab, did they really produce new units (I think so) or just bought old stock from Atari
- who was responsible for cancellation of the Falcon? Was it because of poor market performance, lack of developers (moved to Jaguar?)
- can you remember the Falcon hardware engineering team, who had designed it?
- can you think of some way to obtain ASICs, schematics etc for the Falcon ICs?
- were there any plans to stay in Jaguar business after the JTS merge?
As you can see, mine are mostly Falcon specific, so anything Lynx/Jaguar/Tramiel related is more than welcome. Remember it's stuff from 20 years ago so have mercy. :)

 

 

My biggest curiosity about the Tramiel era was how they could put a groundbreaking computer like the ST together so quickly and affordably- in just a matter of months.

 

But then upgrades to the ST/TT/Falcon line were slow coming, often rather expensive, and outdated by the time they released.

 

Not sure how exactly to phrase it as an interview question. And I could probably guess the answers, but be interested in hearing an explanation from an insider.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would welcome anything he could add towards actual numbers of the Lynx sold, but please don't suggest a figure as we've seen Darryl Still going along with 1 put to him, used as fact in RetroGamer Magazine.

 

Other than that..if he has any thoughts or information on the Panther console or games planned for it, that would be great.

 

Fantastic to see a new source being approached and very grateful to you for doing this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Breakdown of all sales would be great, as was suggested above, specifically I'd like to know

how many STacy's were sold.

 

Also, since some early STacy's came with the expansion port (like a Mega ST's), what were

Atari's plans for that and why did they remove it in later models?

 

Can't wait to read this - thanks for a making it happen Mikro! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Mikro,
you mention that Jerry Smith was main guy after Tramiels but his name was not mention AT ALL in great Atari Corp. timeline by Michael Current: http://mcurrent.name/atarihistory/tramel_technology.html
Maybe we should inform Michael about Jerry Smith?

You mention that he was involved in TT/MegaSTE so I am not sure if he can answer to all these questions:

 

1)
Please ask him about Atari EST. What happened to it and did EST eventually become Atari TT?
http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/16bits/est.html
http://st-news.com/issues/st-news-volume-2-issue-7/features/interview-with-shiraz-shivji/

 

2)
What impact on Atari Corp. have leaving of Shiraz Shivji? Is it connected to not delivering Atari EST and delays in releasing TT?

 

3)
When Jack Tramiel relinquish himself from key decision making in Atari Corp.? Did Sam Tramiel took this role?

 

4)
same question as ZZIP: "My biggest curiosity about the Tramiel era was how they could put a groundbreaking computer like the ST together so quickly and affordably- in just a matter of months. But then upgrades to the ST/TT/Falcon line were slow coming, often rather expensive, and outdated by the time they released."

 

5)
What happened with Atari Falcon040 and Microbox (is it the same project/computer)? What are the boards that we see on internet? e.g. http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/16bits/falcon030.html

 

6)
When, how and why Atari Corp. decide to leave computer market?

 

7)
What happened to STpad?
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=269&

 

8) How is possible that Jack did not see that Federated Group was in bad shape? and how they handle it? How much impact it had on Atari Corp. future?
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/11/business/company-news-atari-is-selling-26-federated-stores.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why Atari made so many different Boards for the 1040 STF?

 

 

maybe answer is in another topic: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/267345-ste-took-advantage-of-moores-law/

 

"Xebec, on 04 Jul 2017 - 3:01 PM, said:

I finally studied the motherboards of the STE vs the ST(fm) and noticed that the new STE chips are often combos of old ST chips (i.e. GST = MMU+GLUE),...

Is it fair to assume these chips were also manufactured on a newer process than the original chips enabling more transistors for the same or lower cost?"

 

ijor replay:

Yes. This happened already even before the STE. There are several generations of the chipset. Each one based in a newer and cheaper process."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

maybe answer is in another topic: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/267345-ste-took-advantage-of-moores-law/

 

"Xebec, on 04 Jul 2017 - 3:01 PM, said:

I finally studied the motherboards of the STE vs the ST(fm) and noticed that the new STE chips are often combos of old ST chips (i.e. GST = MMU+GLUE),...

Is it fair to assume these chips were also manufactured on a newer process than the original chips enabling more transistors for the same or lower cost?"

 

ijor replay:

Yes. This happened already even before the STE. There are several generations of the chipset. Each one based in a newer and cheaper process."

I did not ask for the chipset.

I ask for the Motherboard PCB-designs.

All chipset variants for the ST-line run in all 1040 Mobo.

Maybe i should modify my question:

 

Why Atari made so many differen PCB-designs of the 1040 Motherboard? Position of components, different memory chip package etc.?

Such kind of changes was only made at the 1040 so many times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did Atari use STs themselves to run the company, or did they all have PCs?

 

Interim computers (whatever worked; think Apple Lisas and some random 68K systems) until STs with hard drives were available. We also used Vaxes (running VMS and bsd Unix). The hardware folks had some CAD systems (Mentor, I think). No PCs during my time there.

 

Much of the financial stuff was being done on the VAX/VMS system, but I don't know the packages they used.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was it a real surprise to Atari execs when it turned out that the real winner of the Atari-Commodore war was IBM and Microsoft?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I'm not sure IBM got much benefit, either -- their consumer computer division died about 10 years after Commodore

(circa 2005).... Although Lenovo purchased its corpse and is now thriving with it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Mega's I hope? Much better keyboard for productivity work

 

If I had to guess, they were probably using refurbished, standard ST units. Every cash-strapped computer business that I've ever seen/worked for have tried to use what they can't sell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was it a real surprise to Atari execs when it turned out that the real winner of the Atari-Commodore war was IBM and Microsoft?

I don't think that was obvious to anybody in 84 when the Tramiels took over Atari. By the late 80s, the trend was noticeable, and by the early 90s it was inevitable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...