Atari Falcon 030

Summary

The Atari Falcon 030 Computer System, or Atari Falcon, is the last home computer of the Atari Corporation. This marks the end of the golden era in 1993. Like the parallel Atari TT030, the Falcon uses the Motorola 68030 CPU. In addition, there is a special chip for digital signal processing, the Motorola DSP56001. With it, the Falcon plays out its strengths in the field of audio processing, so that it is often found in recording studios. The MIDI interface is self-evident.

The operating system MultiTOS is a further development of TOS. While TOS is still available in the ROM, the MultiTOS must be loaded from the drive. That MultiTOS is not preinstalled has a simple reason: the multitasking-capable OS is not ready in time.

The Motorola 68030 CPU does not deliver the maximum possible performance due to the 16 bit data bus (and 24 bit address bus). The Falcon did not include an FPU, but it did have a slot for the optional Motorola 68882.

Atari planned a Falcon040 based on the Motorola 68040, but never completed it. Instead, the company focused on game consoles such as the Atari Jaguar.

Unlike the Falcon, the Atari TT uses the 68030 CPU optimally with a 32-bit bus, but the DSP in the Falcon made the computer attractive for audio processing. And instead of 8-bit sound on the TT, the Falcon offers 16-bit sound. Thus, the TT was more attractive from the performance point of view, but the Falcon better from the audio capabilities.

Even after Atari discontinued the Falcon, third-party manufacturers produced hardware upgrades such as the Afterburner040. The most powerful option was a 68060 running at 100 MHz.

Picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Atari_Falcon030_LHmod.jpg