The Atari Mega STe is the successor of the Atari Mega STf. It is an Atari STe with some features of the TT (the case, the VME bus) and has a new version of TOS (2.05 and 2.06).
It has (like the Mega STf) a battery-backed up clock. The user can choose in the configuration panel the speed of the CPU (8 or 16 MHz) and can switch on or off a small memory cache. Thanks to these two features, the Mega STe was really faster than the STf.
Some companies developed VME graphic cards for the Mega STe. This computer had less success than the Mega STf and was used as a publishing station or in music studios.
A minor note: the Mega and TT gave a nod to the earlier integrated-keyboard ST series by adding a tongue-and-groove design element for loosely connecting the keyboard to the base of the CPU.
The Mega STe ended production in 1993. This was also one of the few Atari product to have an Appletalk networking port (or RS432)built-in. The TT030 was the first machine to have it and the Falcon also had one. Some models included hard drives, and some did not. The drives were usually shipped separately to the the dealers, and installed in the store. The internal hard-drives in the Atari Mega STE where SCSI, not IDE. A small internal SCSI adaptor board had to be installed for this feature.
The Mega STE was the fastest released official ST from Atari and included the VME bus from the TT030. The bottom of the range Mega STE 1MB machine had an optional SCSI drive, though all other machines in the range came with SCSI as standard (At least here in the UK). The maximum official RAM capacity was the same as the rest of the ST range at 4MB, though there were upgrades available from 3rd parties that took advantage of the 68000 address bus, allowing for up to 16MB to be added.
The Mega STE makes an excellent MIDI sequencer, and the LAN port can make use of early Apple Macintosh MIDI interfaces, so long as you are using Cubase and the latest version of MROS.
The Mega STE is also the only one of Atari's 'Professional' range of computers to have a TV modulator on the back, allowing it to be used if a monitor is not available.
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Contributors: Steve Martin, Malcolm Ramage
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The Mega STE was the fastest released official ST from Atari and included the VME bus from the TT030. The bottom of the range Mega STE 1MB machine had an optional SCSI drive, though all other machines in the range came with SCSI as standard (At least here in the UK). The maximum official RAM capacity was the same as the rest of the ST range at 4MB, though there were upgrades available from 3rd parties that took advantage of the 68000 address bus, allowing for up to 16MB to be added.
AtariFreakz have a range of mega STE and TT keyboards available and have them on their eBay shop, also 16/32 systems also sometimes carry spares.
The Mega STE makes an excellent MIDI sequencer, and the LAN port can make use of early Apple Macintosh MIDI interfaces, so long as you are using Cubase and the latest version of MROS.
The Mega STE is also the only one of Atari''s ''Professional'' range of computers to have a TV modulator on the back, allowing it to be used if a monitor is not available.
The internal SCSI drive inside was actually connected to an ACSI$SCSI converter card, as the motherboard had only an ACSI controller. The ACSI-SCSI card only supports a maximum of 1GB hard drives, without modification.
Saturday 6th July 2013
Jan Thomas
My Mega STE does not have the RF port for some unknown reason$ was this later $ped from the computer by Atari? This computer was originally a 2MB RAM / 40MB SCSI machine with a French TOS and keyboard, but it was later upgraded to 4MB / 100MB+ and a 68881 FPU chip. Since I bought it, I have turned the keyboard into a UK layout and I am in the process of replacing the floppy drive and TOS chips.
This is an excellent computer and pretty fast when optimised with the right software. It also has great looks.
Friday 2nd September 2011
Shredder11 (United Kingdom)
NAME
MEGA STe
MANUFACTURER
Atari
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
March 1991
END OF PRODUCTION
Unknown
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
None
KEYBOARD
Full stroke 94 keys with numeric keypad, editing keys and 10 function keys
CPU
Motorola MC 68000
SPEED
8 / 16 mHz
CO-PROCESSOR
Optional Motorola MC68881 math co-processor
RAM
1 / 2 / 4 MB - Up to 8 MB thanks to a 4 MB card connected to the VME bus
ROM
256 KB
TEXT MODES
40 or 80 chars. x 25 lines (bitmapped graphics)
GRAPHIC MODES
320 x 200 / 640 x 200 / 640 x 400
COLORS
16 among 4096 (320 x 200) / 4 among 4096 (640 x 200) / monochrome (640 x 400)
SOUND
3 FM channels, 8 octaves + two 8 bit PCM channels
I/O PORTS
Cardridge, Midi (in, out), Centronics, RS232c (2), Hard Disk, Floppy disk, RGB, Joystick, mouse, Stereo, VME Bus
BUILT IN MEDIA
3.5 '' disk drive, Seagate 48 MB hard drive The 'open' version had 2 MB of RAM but no hard disk.
