Atari PCH204

From: Curt Vendel <curt_at_atarimuseum.com>
Date: Thu Dec 26 08:13:00 2002

I'm working on a more indepth look at the PC-1's sometime in the future,
there's so many items from Atari I try to do a little bit on each area
across the board and I would certainly like to put a lot more up about the
PC-1's, they were very elegantly designed machines, their only flaw is that
they were only 8088's and not something a tad bit more powerful, but they
run the original version of GEM perfectly :-)

I probably can help you with getting you an additional PCH drive if you need
it, if anyone else is interested in PC-1's, I have numerous spares available
for trade of other vintage items, contact me off-list.

Happy Holidays :-)
Curt

----- Original Message -----
From: "Witchy" <witchy_at_binarydinosaurs.co.uk>
To: <cctech_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2002 11:43 AM
Subject: RE: Atari PCH204


> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: cctech-admin_at_classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-admin_at_classiccmp.org]On
> > Behalf Of Curt Vendel
> > Sent: 24 December 2002 05:08
> > To: cctalk_at_classiccmp.org
> > Subject: Re: Atari PCH204
> >
> >
> > Hi Witchy,
> >
> > I've got a stack of the buggers in my storage room.
> > Basically they were
> > intended for use on the PC Series of computers. Interestingly enough,
> > Atari had about 3 different versions of them, one with an Atari ASCI
> > interface, others SASI and another straight MFM. Inside the
> > PC-1's is an
> > ISA compatible set of headers and you plugged an adaptec
> > controller card in
> > and it would have an external interface port, one had straight
> > pinouts going
> > to a ribbon cable into the PCH204 with an internal MFM controller. I
> > don't think Atari really knew which way that had wanted to go at the
time
> > and while it was a very big and bold project, they canned the PC-1 just
a
> > few months after its launch realizing it was too little too late in
> > releasing an XT-ish clone in 87 and they concentrated on their
> > 286, 386 and
> > 486sx clones.
>
> Thanks for that, Curt and Hans.
>
> I'm now going to have to delve thru the layers of shielding to see exactly
> what's what now; it's been a couple of years since I last had them in bits
> when the machine wouldn't boot because the drive had seized. Mine has the
> ribbon cable between the 2 boxes, but I remember thinking it looked like
> some sort of SCSI/SASI drive though, not MFM, or did some 3 1/2" MFM
drives
> also have the berg style connector on?
>
> There's not a lot of info on the web about this machine and the PC2 and
PC3
> either - I would've thought the likes of atari-history.com would have
access
> to all the details.
>
> Oh, and if you fancy parting with one of the drives I know someone in
> Belgium who's very interested :)
>
> cheers
>
> --
> adrian/witchy
> www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the online computer museum
> www.snakebiteandblack.co.uk - monthly gothic shenanigans
>
Received on Thu Dec 26 2002 - 08:13:00 GMT