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"From a saved backup. . ." |
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"From a saved backup. . ." |
Atari Users in Cyberspace. |
| In this column I hope to foster communication and support for 8-bit and ST computer owners... presenting a positive and directive approach. This will help to strengthen the users group base and encourage the executive element. |
| If you have a question you would like me to answer, or a topic you would like to see covered; send me EMail! |
| What would it be like if you could talk to an Atari Developer in the
comfort of your own home. "Impossible," you might say. You might
live miles from a dealer, Atari show, or even another Atari owner. This
is often the case for many Atari computer owners - not so any longer. The
miracle of telecommunication brings most anyone into your home. Do you
need something to spark your users group meetings. For less then what it
could cost you to attend a show, you could gather enough
information to fill your next meeting. While there are a few providers that offer similar service, I am only familar with GEnie's "Real Time Conference" or RTC. For the price of the connect time you could spend two or three hours with Atari developers and retailers in one of these conferences. |
| In the world of Atari: Computer owners, dealers, and developers are not often near each other. Owners, dealers, and developers are few and far between. However, "few" is a relative term. There are many, many Atari owners using Atari computers. Its just a rare moment to see more then 15 to 20 in one location. But the other day, I had the opportunity to meet a developer face to face. I was in a room with this developer and a host of Atari computer owners located all across America in both the USA and Canada. Most amazingly, they all met in my home.... |
| The room was quiet. I had arrived early. I took a moment to look around.
Two others had arrived before me. The room was quite large with one huge
round table in the center. It looked like it could seat 200 people with
standing room against the wall. The walls were lined with doors. It seemed
to me that there was one door for each chair at the table. I stepped forward
and took my seat. My name tag had my name on it; but I was given a marker
to write in an alternate name to be
known by during this session. I changed my name tag to reflect my first name and then greeted the others who were in the room. More had arrived while I was getting adjusted and I told them hello as well. A few more arrived. I took a moment to go to out to the kitchen and get a couple of pieces of pizza to munch on while I listened. I grabbed a Coke as well. I settled back down in my seat and looked around again. Seems that even more had arrived and the special speaker was here, too. The room was no longer quiet. |
| The virtual reality of cyberspace brought this conference room into my home, and me into the home of each person at the table. This amazing feat of technology was made possible by General Electric's Information Service; called GEnie. Connecting my Atari ST to the phone system at 2400 baud and using the "ST Aladdin" communication program for GEnie I was able to interface with a large number of other Atari ST users. |
| This real time conference, or RTC for short, was called to order by Lou, the moderator. He introduced the guest speaker and set up the agenda. First the guest speaker would have an opportunity to talk about his new product, then each person at the table would be given an opportunity to ask him questions during the Q&A session. After that, Lou would have some prizes to give away. Sounded great. |
| The guest speaker was an active developer on the Atari computer platform.
Ralf Doewich of Cybercube Research Limited. One of his claims to fame is
the CaTTamaram board that was developed for the Atari Graphics Workstation,
the Atari TT030. They have made some improvements, enhancing the product
and making it more compact. The most impressive of its improvements was
the increase in CPU speed, 48MHz. Running a MC68030 at 48MHz is screaming
fast. The speaker
provided users with some handouts, here is copy of the spec sheet: |
| <CYBERCUBE> Here is a short list of the CyReL CaTTamaran
features:
- Works with all TT motherboard revisions. Simple solderless plug- and-play installation for the newer boards. - Our highly acclaimed RUN-ME-FIRST Interactive Installation Program features a graphical installation tutorial guiding the user through all the installation steps. - Increases the performance of your TT030 up to 150%! - Easy-to-use CyReL Dashboard Utility to control the CaTTamaran speed switching functions. Switch anywhere, anytime! - Excellent compatibility with all existing software programs. - Another reliable quality product from Cybercube. - Best value for your money: revitalize your system for a little over $2 per MHz! A great deal for just US $99! <ST.LOU> Whew! Congratulations! Can you give us some test results? <[Ralf] CYBERCUBE> Hmmm... I think I got some here... Here are some benchmarks to show the kind of performance figures you can expect when using the CaTTamaran in _COMBINATION_ with any TT-FastRAM board, a ROM relocator and a replacement VDI driver like WARP9 or NVDI: Integer TT030 ########## 100% TT030 + CaTT ############### 150% Float TT030 ########## 100% TT030 + CaTT ################ 160% ROM TT030 ########## 100% TT030 + CaTT ################# 170% RAM TT030 ########## 100% TT030 + CaTT ###################### 220% Averages: Graphics: TT030 ##### 100% TT030 + CaTT ################################## 681% CPU: TT030 ##### 100% TT030 + CaTT ######### 172% Overall: TT030 ##### 100% TT030 + CaTT ########################### 545% |
| As the meeting came to a close, people said their goodbyes and retreated back through the doors from where they came. A few hanger-ons sat around chatting about this or that. I could easily hear their quiet conversations. Finally, I decided to leave as well. I said my goodbye and was told "so long" by those who were left. I paused for a moment before closing the door. I realized that I had chatted with some of the best people on earth in the comfort of my own home. It was a satisfying thought. I shut the door. And my life would go on; somehow more enriched then before. |
You may contact Ron on the Internet. or view his Atari web page . |