Planet Irata: Atari 16-bit Computers

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"The ST's readily apparent strong point is speed. Compared to the Macintosh, working with the ST is extraordinary."
-John Dvorak, San Francisco Examiner, 1985

Officially Released Portables

   Atari 260ST 1985    Atari STacy 1989

   Atari 520ST 1985    Atari STBook 1991

   Atari 1040ST 1985

   Atari MEGA ST 1987 Prototypes/Vaporware

   Atari 520/1040 STe 1990    130ST

   Atari MEGA STe 1990    STylus

   1040STe+

   ATW 800*



*The ATW 800 was produced and sold in limited quantities.

When the ST line of computers was released in 1985, Atari's advertising slogan for the new line was "Power Without the Price." How right they were. The ST was released at the same time as the Commodore Amiga, and one year after the Apple Macintosh. The current IBM Compatible machines sported the Intel 286 CPU. The ST offered the best price/performance ratio of them all...

Atari 1040 ST IBM PC AT Apple Macintosh Plus Commodore Amiga

List Price $999 mono, $1199 color $4675 $2195 $1795

CPU Motorola 68000 Intel 80286 Motorola 68000 Motorola 68000

Speed (MHz) 8.0 8.0 7.83 7.16

Standard RAM 1024k 512k 1024k 256k

$ per RAM kb $0.98 $7.80 $2.14 $7.01

OS in ROM? Yes No Yes No

Number of Keys 94 84 78 89

Mouse? Yes No Yes Yes

Disk Drive Type 3.5" 5.25" 3.5" 3.5"

Floppy Drives 1 1 1 1

Hard Disk Port Yes Yes Yes No

Color Video? Yes Optional No Yes

Color palette 512 16 None 4096

Mono Resolution 640 X 400 720 X 350 * 512 X 342 None

Color Resolution 640 X 400 or 320 X 200 640 X 200 None 640 X 200 **

Built-In Midi? Yes No No No

Sound Voices 3 1 4 4

* With optional monochrome board
** Has a 640 X 400 Interlaced mode
Thanks to Mark Freid for the information in the chart above.