It keeps some features these machines : The graphic modes (320 x 200 / 16 colors, 640 x 200 / 4 colors, 640 x 400 / 2 colors, 320 x 480 / 256 colors and 640 x 480 / 16 colors) and the sound chips (the old Yamaha PSG and the two 8 bits PCM channels of the STe).
Two new graphic modes have been added : a "small" 256 colors SVGA (640 x 480) and a true color VGA mode (32768 / 65535 colors in 320 x 480). Also when running on a TV, the resolutions are different: True Color mode is 640x480 in PAL and 640x400 in NTSC. The other TV resolutions also have a difference of vertical resolution between PAL and NTSC: 200 or 400 lines in NTSC, 240 or 480 in PAL.
New interfaces were added too : an ADC 16bit 50 KHz and a DSP I/O port. The videochip has also genlocking features.
The Falcon was sold with the single-task TOS operating system in ROM (4.04). It is the old Atari ST TOS with new functions to handle the DSP and the new graphic modes. The GUI was slightly enhanced with colored icons and 3D windows.
Hopefully a multi-task TOS - MultiTOS) was also delivered on disks. This multitasking system uses the MiNT kernel and an enhanced GUI. MiNT (which stands for MiNT is NOT TOS) is a multitasking Operating System with lot of Unix features. It was initially done by Eric Smith. It was bought later by Atari and became then "MiNT is NOW TOS). Atari planned first to put it in ROM, but it was not finished and was shipped on disks.
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More information by Malcolm Ramage:
There are at least 3 types of 'ST' style Falcon, the first version was in an FX-1 type case (Complete with FX-1 keyboard, yellow lettering with red function key numbers), the second was like the machine here (In ST colouring) and the release machine (Lighter case than the FX-1, but still had the dark keys with all lettering in white).
C-Lab licenced the Falcon and released their own version with a slight modification to the audio hardware. The Mk I was a bare falcon with no hard drive, the Mk II included a 500MB hard drive and the Mk X was in a pizza style box with a Mega STe keyboard, but was nothing more than a Mk II in a fancy box.
When C-Lab stopped manufacturing the Falcon in 1995, the machine vanished. No further development was done on the Falcon hardware after 1992.
The Falcon was my baby back in the good old days (also had a ST and a Mega ST), I got my Falcon 030 cpu running 36MHz with a barracuda card from Germany, great stuff $) I loved the DSP - back in the assembly coding days... -Love this "Museum" :)
Sunday 9th October 2011
Jakob J. (Denmark)
My father still has and uses an Atari Falcon 030. I was born in 1975, the first computer we had that I remember using was a TI-99/4A, followed my a Apple IIe clone (can''t remember manufacturer but purchased at Alphatel in Edmonton, AB), followed by an Atari 520STFM and then an Atari 1040ST and eventually the Falcon 030 that is still used today. I think the 520 and 1040 are still operational but haven''t been powered up in decades since the Falcon was purchased... The Atari and Amiga I remember fondly as true leaders of their day.
Saturday 25th June 2011
Jason Thompson (Calgary/Canada)
I now have 2 of these brilliant if compromised machines. Sadly a full 32 bit processor on a 16 bit data bus and a 24 bit address bus, limiting the 68030 to the same data and address width of the 68000 in the ST. Also the internal expansion bus only brought the signals common to the 68000, making it more like the expansion connector in the Mega ST rather than the VME bus in the TT and Mega STE
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