After Atari was sold to Jack Tramiel, Atari decided for a new series of computers, which had to be more powerful than the others, but still compatible to the old systems. The Atari 130XE is one of the replacements of the Atari 800XL. The system also forms part of the third generation of computers that Atari had produced, with a very compact and very similar shape to the 520 ST. The XE series are compatible with the older Atari version. In fact most of the components are from the previous systems that Atari had released. The only difference is the custom chip code named FREDDIE. This chip was a Memory Management Unit capable of handling memory swapping and large amounts of memory more efficiently. This made the machine faster and less more expensive than other machines. Atari also changed the style and code names of the peripherals to match the colours of the new systems, but their features remain almost the same. The computer has 128 KB of memory, but only 64k are accessible thru the CPU. The rest was used as a Ram drive. Actually it was quite a good idea since you could load a program on the upper memory and then transfer it to the main memory. The 130XE has the same structure as the 600XL and 800XL, which made it fully compatible with old software and games.
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| 130-XE |
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| US$225 in 1985 |
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| Boxed: A1561047892 |
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| 1985 |
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| 6502c 8Bit CPU running on a frequency of 1.79Mhz for NTSC users and 1.77Mhz for Pal users. The system also has 3 Co-processors for sound and video. |
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| 24 Kbytes Rom (16Kbytes OS and 4 Kbytes Basic Interpreter.) 64Kbtes Ram which is handled by an MMU custom chip code name FREDDIE. Memory is expandable to expandable to 128K Ram. |
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| Same shape as the Atari 520 ST with Medium grey colour Case and the keyboard in light grey colour. The usual ATARI function keys are located on top of the keyboard with the same colour of the case. The Keyboard is a typical QWERTY style typewriter with 67 keys including CONTROL, ESC, CAPS LOCK and CAPS. |
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| The 130XE display is identical to the previous models except that with the custom chip FREDDIE the display memory is handled different. The display is controlled by a LSI custom chip named Antic Actually it’s a microprocessor that is capable of running programs. The ANTIC chip controls a gate array chip code named GTIA that generates the TV output from the data sent to it. Although a bit slow, the above method made it possible that even the CPU can talk directly to the GTIA for producing images. The GTIA is also capable of producing sprites on screen.
The Atari Text Resolution are as follow: 40×24 2 Colours, 20×12 5 Colours, 20×24 5 Colours, 40×12 5 colours, 40×24 5 colours & 40×19 2 colours. Characters are formed in an 8×10 matrix with 2 colours. The Atari Graphic Resolution are as follow: 40×24 4 colours 80×48 2 colours, 160×96 2 colours 160×96 4 colours, 320×192 2 colours 80×192 16 colours (Shades), 80×192 9 colours 80×192 16 colours (hues) & 160×192 2 colours 160×192 4 colours. All colours are selected from 16 colours with 16 shades each which gives a total of 256 colours. |
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| The sound is generated by a custom chip processor code named POKEY. The chip is capable of producing 4 channels with 8 bit pitch resolution each. This means that you can produce 256 different tones at 16 different volumes. The channels can be combined into two pairs to produce a 16 bit pitch resolution (65535 tones). |
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| 2 x Joystick Ports, 1 x RF output for TV, 1 x Video Monitor Port, 1 x Cartridge Port. Mainly this port is for game cartridges, but it can be used for another language interpreter such as MC & 1 x I/O Port. This port you could attach any peripheral from a tape recorder with a baud rate of up to 4800 bps, disk drive, and printer. |
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| Very heavy and bulky external power supply, with two +5v outputs and one -5v output. |
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| Dimensions 350mm x 235mm x 65mm (W x L x H). Weight approx 1.4kg. |
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| More than 42,000 units were sold around the world. |
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