Atari Falcon

"Atari Falcon 030.. the Most Talented Home Micro"

Released in 1992, Falcon 030 was Atari's last computer. Falcon was ahead of its time by featuring the 68030 CPU, the powerful 56001 DSP from Motorolla, 24-bit graphics, and 8 stereo PCM channels (50 kHz). Falcon was more expensive than its main competitor Amiga 1200 and sold only a few thousand units.

• In the UK, it was sold for £599 with 1MB RAM and for £999 with 4MB RAM and a 65MB hard disk 
• It is estimated that only about 29,000 Falcon 030 and 10,000 C-Lab Falcon units were ever sold

THE FALCON 030 AT A GLANCE

Falcon includes the 32-bit Motorola 68030, clocked at 16 MHz, while the CPU is supported by the Motorola 56001 DSP clocked at 32 MHz and running at 16 MIPS. Falcon includes the IDE and SCSI bus for connecting hard drives and CD-ROM drives. 

• Motorolla 68030 CPU (16 Mhz), 5.76 MIPS
• Motorolla 56001 DSP (digital sound processing), 16 MIPS
• 16-bit data bus and a 24-bit address bus
• Videl video graphics (24-bit)
• 16-bit Blitter at 16MHz
• 16 PCM channels (50 kHz - 8 stereo channels)
• 1/4 MB RAM (max 14 MB) and 512K ROM
• TOS 4.00 and Multi-TOS Operating Systems
• 1.44 Mb 3.5-inch Floppy disk (PC compatible)

Operating Systems

• TOS 4.00, 4.01, 4.02, 4.04 (512 KB) for Falcon 030 machines, supporting DSP, the 16-MHz blitter, and video overlay
• The 32-bit Atari computers (Falcon 030 and TT) can also run MultiTOS, which allows multitasking
• Recently, the Atari community has developed an enhanced version of TOS called FreeMiNT

Colors & Graphic Modes

Falcon 030 includes the improved VIDEL programmable graphics system which offers impressive graphics capabilities.

• 18-bit color palette (262,144 possible colors)
• 640 x 480 SVGA with (256 colors / 65,535 colors)
• 320 x 480 True color VGA (32,76 8 / 65,535 colors)
• Chunky 16-bit true color mode
• BLiTTER graphics co-processor running at 16 MHz (backward compatibility with STE)
• ST/STE graphic modes compatibility

The DSP Chip

The Motorola 56001 DSP is a 16 MIPS chip clocked at 32 MHz. The DSP is known mainly for its sound processing features, however, it is capable of performing other tasks as well:

• Graphics processing (fractals calculation)
• 3D projections and JPEG decompression

Sound Capabilities

The sound capabilities of the Falcon 030 are truly amazing. The computer offers 16-bit audio with 8 stereo PCM channels (50KHz). There is also the Yamaha Y3439 chip (3 channels) for backward compatibility with Atari ST and compatibility with the two 8-bit PCM channels of the STE.

• 16-bit audio input and output
• 8 stereo PCM channels (50 kHz)
• SDMA sound/DMA co-processor
• Yamaha Y3439-F PSG (backward compatibility with ST)
• Plays MP3 files in real-time using the Motorola 56001 DSP

I/O Ports

 The Atari Falcon 030 offers a lot of ports, including a 2.5-inch IDE internal HD.

• 2× 9-pin mouse/joystick ports
• 2× analog joystick (compatible with STE and Jaguar)
• 2.5 inch IDE - internal HD
• 1.44 MB 3.5 inch PC compatible Floppy disk - internal
• External SCSI-II connector
• ROM/Cartridge port
• 2x serial ports
• Bidirectional LPT port
• Local area network port
• DSP port
• MIDI IN and OUT
• Stereo microphone for recording (1/8" mini-jack) & Headphone out (1/8" mini-jack)

Expansions & Upgrades

There are plenty of Falcon 030 upgrades, including a 68060 accelerator.

• 14 MB RAM expansion (easy to install)
• 2.5 inch IDE - internal HD
• Gotek drive (internal)
• FPU 68881/68882
• IDE and SCSI bus for connecting external hard drives and CD-ROM drives
• 68060 accelerator (recently available)
• VGA high-resolution upgrade

Monitors

The Falcon 030 can be connected to TVs, RGB, and VGA monitors.

• TV mono output
• VGA monitor (with adapter)
• 15 kHz RGB monitor
• Atari SM124 monitor (with adapter)

Related Models

 In 1995, C-Lab purchased the rights to the Falcon 030 and started to produce their versions.

• C-Lab released the Falcon Mk I, Mk II, and Mk-X (with TOS 4.04)

Falcon 030 Shops

These are some Falcon 030 online shops around the world:

• https://www.arananet.net/pedidos/product/falcon-vga-adapter-with-multisync-switch
• https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/store2
• https://www.best-electronics-ca.com/falcon.htm
• https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=277
• https://www.atariworld.org/atari/
• https://shop.inventronik.de/index.php (GigaFile external SD/HD)
  

Tutorials

■ (Video) Preparing a CF Card to be used as an IDE internal Hard Disk: https://youtu.be

■ (Website) Games Database for STE, TT, and Falcon: https://atari.8bitchip.info/

■ Atari Falcon 030

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