
                      ----------------------------------

                      *  F  A  L  C  O  N  *  I  N  F  O

                      ----------------------------------


                            WHAT? WHERE? HOW MUCH?

Yes, Falcons are with us (Or at least with selected mail-order companies in the
middle of  nowhere),  but  not  exactly  at  the  cheap  price  we  expected. A
combination of Norman Lamont's fucking  up  the  economy and exchange rate, and
the scarce availability means that everyone is having to pay 50-100 MORE  than
Atari's original rrp. And since the  1  meg  Falcon  is not with us, (And might
never be- see "1 meg mistake?") then  that  means you've gotta pay 945 MINIMUM
for a Falcon in Britain at the  moment.  Not very nice, especially as I've seen
386sx PCs with HD and VGA   monitors  going  for 586!!! According to ST Report
Online, there's going to be  more  Falcons  being  shipped over, so perhaps the
price will start coming down, but I can't help feeling Atari  might have fucked
up in a big way....

                      -----------------------------------


                        Some delightful Falcon Snippets

**  The Falcon was on show at the  Dusseldorf Muzike festival and, according to
    Genie, even got a mention in "that  luddite music paper" (his words) Melody
    Maker. And if they can take  their  heads  out  their arses for a minute to
    look at a computer, then it  must  be  doing something right (as opposed to
    the Atari execs)!

**  One of the major exhibits  was  from  Steinberg,  who  were launching their
    Falcon version of Cubase Audio. Now this program on the Macs plays MIDI and
    samples at the same time, but  on  the  Falcon  is a bit more special.... 4
    tracks of digital hard drive recording!  And  this is the cut down version-
    the full one controls 60 channels of  MIDI  data, 4 tracks of HD recording,
    AND 4 tracks of stereo DMA samples,  all  with software, and a hard drive!!
    It's like having Cubase, a digital  4  track and a soundtracker program all
    in one! E-Magic (formerly C-lab) have also finished something similar. Like
    we said in PB #21, it's all starting to merge together......

**  Talking  of  which-  we  know  of   at  least  3  companies  going  towards
    implementing desktop video editing on  the  Falcon- Steinberg, E-magic, and
    D2D, who were first out with desktop audio editing. As you can see, these 3
    are currently known for just the  audio  side of things, but hopefully, not
    any more.

**  Still on music, a software company  has  finished making a MIDI player that
    doesn't play through the MIDI ports at all, but through the DMA sound using
    samples of GS standard sounds!  This  is  the  standard  used by Roland for
    their massively successful Sound Canvas. So if  you've got a MIDI file that
    uses Sound Canvas,  but  no  Sound  Canvas,  then  this  could  be for you!
    However, I wonder what would happen if you put THAT together with the likes
    of Cubase Audio!

**  The finishing touches are being made to  a packer that will make the Atomix
    3.5 packer look positively stone-aged! I've  heard  rumours of the likes of
    750K true colour images being packed down to less than 10K, and a depacking
    time of about 2-3 seconds! The secret of  the packer is it's use of the DSP
    chip for it's packing and depacking algorithms.

**  Apparently 50 new products were launched at the Huddersfield Computer show.
    I  haven't  got  any  details,  but  perhaps  we  should  say  "Hooray  for
    Huddersfield!" (Ha ha!)

**  Don't expect to  be  restriced  by  current  screen  modes.  We've heard of
    developement work  that  has  resulted  in  using  an  interlace  system to
    generate a very large  palette-  colours  in  the MILLIONS! Also, increased
    resolution in a couple of  modes!  Perhaps  it  won't  be so long till  the
    problem with VGA "overscan" is sorted out!

**  As for games, well  the  only  3  definate  ones  we  know  of are the ones
    mentioned in ST Floormat- Space junk, the huge sprawling graphic adventure;
    Steel Talcons,  the  great  arcade  helicopter  sim;  and  Lamazap, another
    tedious attempt by Jeff Minter to get us  to play a Defender clone, even if
    the graphics and sound are nice.


                           FALCON SPECIFICATIONS
                           =====================




  Atari Falcon 030 Specifications
  -------------------------------

  CPU: Motorola 68030 32-bit microprocessor @ 16MHz w/32-bit bus
  FPU: Motorola 68881/68882 @ 16MHz (optional)
  DSP: Motorola 56001 Digital Signal Processor running in parallel @ 32MHz
          w/ 32kWords (24-bit) of local zero wait state static RAM
  ROM: 512kB
  RAM: 1, 4 or 16MB(14MB usable) on daughterboard (RAM is 32-bit wide)

  Expansion bus: Internal 'Processor-Direct' slot for 386SX emulation
                 (third party 386SX emulator nearly completed) or other
                 co-processors/etc.

  Video: (See below for specific video modes/resolutions.)
         16-bit BLiTTER @ 16MHz (also handles hard drive access)
         Accepts external video sync to allow high quality genlocking

         Overlay mode for easy video titling and special effects
         Overscan support
         Hardware-assisted horizontal fine scrolling
         VIDEL (video controller) sits on 32-bit bus

  Audio: Stereo 16-bit Analog-to-Digital DMA input
         Stereo 16-bit Digital-to-Analog DMA output
         Eight 16-bit audio DMA record/playback channels
         SDMA sound/DMA co-processor

  Ports: 128kB cartridge port
         2 9-pin mouse/joystick ports
         2 15-pin STe enhanced analog/digital controller ports (Atari also
            has new analog controllers w/ a joystick, 3 fire buttons, and a
            12-key keypad)
         MIDI IN, OUT/THRU
         Bi-directional parallel port
         RS232C serial port
         SCSI II w/ DMA
         Analog RGB/VGA/composite video connector

         Stereo headphone out (1/8" mini-jack)
         Stereo microphone in (1/8" mini-jack)
         DSP port (up to 1MHz data transfer rate)
         RF modulator for TV hookup
         Localtalk compatible LAN (up to 250kbaud transfer rate)

  Misc:  Internal 1.44MB 3.5" HD floppy
         Internal IDE 2.5" hard drive (optional)
         Pre-emptive mulitasking OS (MultiTOS) w/ adaptive prioritization
            and inter-process communication (also 68040 compatible)
         Realtime clock and battery backed up RAM
         1040ST-style case w/ internal fan
         North American availability in mid-October

  Price: 1MB/no HD -  $799 list
         4MB/65MB  - $1399 list


      Resolutions available on the Atari Falcon030 (c) 1992 Atari Corp.
                          Written by John Townsend

  =========================================================================
  This document may be re-printed again and again as long as the Atari
  copyright remains intact.
  =========================================================================

  A couple of notes: Unlike previous machines, there are just too many
  resolutions to give each resolution a name. Therefore, I will do my best
  to describe what the resolution is and which monitor it is on.

  - NOTE: TV and a Color Monitor are the same.. by Color Monitor, I am
    talking about the standard SC1224. By VGA, I mean a standard VGA
    Monitor.

  40 column modes ( "column" means the number of x pixels divided by 8)
  ---------------
     4 color, normal, TV:         320x200,    4 colors, 2 planes
    16 color, normal, TV:         320x200,   16 colors, 4 planes
   256 color, normal, TV:         320x200,  256 colors, 8 planes
  True color, normal, TV:         320x200,  true color


     4 color, interlace, TV:      320x400,    4 colors, 2 planes
    16 color, interlace, TV:      320x400,   16 colors, 4 planes
   256 color, interlace, TV:      320x400,  256 colors, 8 planes
  True color, interlace, TV:      320x400,  true color

     4 color, normal, VGA:        320x480,    4 colors, 2 planes
    16 color, normal, VGA:        320x480,   16 colors, 4 planes
   256 color, normal, VGA:        320x480,  256 colors, 8 planes
  True color, normal, VGA:        320x480,  true color

     4 color, line-doubling, VGA: 320x240,    4 colors, 2 planes
    16 color, line-doubling, VGA: 320x240,   16 colors, 4 planes
   256 color, line-doubling, VGA: 320x240,  256 colors, 8 planes
  True color, line-doubling, VGA: 320x240,  true color

  80 column modes
  ---------------
     2 color, normal, TV:         640x200,    2 colors, 1 plane
     4 color, normal, TV:         640x200,    4 colors, 2 planes
    16 color, normal, TV:         640x200,   16 colors, 4 planes

   256 color, normal, TV:         640x200,  256 colors, 8 planes
  True color, normal, TV:         640x200,  true color

     4 color, interlace, TV:      640x400,    4 colors, 2 planes
    16 color, interlace, TV:      640x400,   16 colors, 4 planes
   256 color, interlace, TV:      640x400,  256 colors, 8 planes
  True color, interlace, TV:      640x400,  true color

     2 color, normal, VGA:        640x480,    2 colors, 1 plane
     4 color, normal, VGA:        640x480,    4 colors, 2 planes
    16 color, normal, VGA:        640x480,   16 colors, 4 planes
   256 color, normal, VGA:        640x480,  256 colors, 8 planes

     4 color, line-doubling, VGA: 640x240,    4 colors, 2 planes
    16 color, line-doubling, VGA: 640x240,   16 colors, 4 planes
   256 color, line-doubling, VGA: 640x240,  256 colors, 8 planes

 and lastly.. there are compability modes for ST Low, ST Medium, and ST
 High on both VGA monitors and SC1224 monitors. (On a color monitor, ST
 High is achieved by using the interlace mode).


 Also, the ST Monochrome monitor (the SM124) will work with Falcon030 as
 well. However, it only supports one resolution: ST High Resolution.

 All modes on a TV can be overscanned. This means multiplying the X and Y
 resolution by 1.2. For example, modes with 320 pixels of horizontal
 resolution (X res) will become 384 pixels across, and modes with 640
 pixels will become 768 across. Overscanning is done in the X and Y
 resolution. You can't do them independently. Special Note: On a VGA
 monitor, overscan is "faked".. since the video hardware doesn't have the
 capability to do overscan on a VGA monitor, we made it so that if a
 overscan mode is set on a VGA monitor, you still see the normal size
 screen, but the screen is a window onto the bigger overscanned image.
 Make sense? We did this for compatibility. This way if a game that has an
 overscanned starup picture can use the same pic on both the VGA monitor
 and the TV monitor. Pretty cool,  eh?  <grin>  [Oh  ha  ha ha! Yes, very cool!
John, ha ha ha! (Starts loading up his Uzi) -EGBSS]

 BTW.. Overscan can NOT be set from the desktop. The AES and Desktop will
 work just fine with it, but because you can't see the parts of the
 screen, we thought that that option shouldn't be available from the

 desktop. We don't want to confuse people. However, Overscan can be set
 using a new XBIOS call (Vsetmode()).. so it is still available.

 I hope I haven't made any mistakes. I triple-checked this document in
 search of errors and I couldn't find any. If you do find some, send me
 Email on GEnie (to TOWNS) or CIS (70007,1135) and let me know.

 -- John Townsend, Atari Corp.

 P.S. Anyone who would like to reprint this message, please do so!
      The smaller the number of times I have to type that message, the
      more my fingers with thank you! ;-)

      After looking at this one more time.. one point to clear up: By
      saying SC1224 Color Monitor, I mean any Color Monitor that Atari
      have manufactured for the ST/Mega/STE/MegaSTE computers. Clear
      as mud? ;-)


 Article: 00000 of comp.sys.atari.st

 Path: xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx
 From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
 Subject: Re: The REAL Falcon specs wanted!
 Keywords: Falcon specs.
 Sender: network-news@cs.ruu.nl
 Reply-To: xxxxxxxxxx
 Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University, The
 Netherlands
 Lines: 470
 In-Reply-To: yyyyyyyyyyyy yyy

 I found this file on the local ATARI Company's BBS : (original in Dutch)
 This article is written by Wilfred Kilwinger (Support Manager) for Atari
 Briefing, the newsletter by Atari (Benelux) B.V. for the Atari user
 groups.  It was specifically stated that it could be reproduced. I have
 translated it in English with the assumption that an English translation
 would be considered the same as the original.

 The original also contained a description of all the features of the
 Falcon which have been reproduced here a zillion of times so I did not
 include those.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ATARI CUSTOM CHIPS

 VIDEL

 The VIDEL takes care of the video functions of the system including
 overscan, overlay mode and true color graphics

 COMBEL

 The COMBEL is the system manager of the Atari Falcon030. This chip
 controls all system functions. Also the BLITTER is built in in this chip.

 SDMA

 The SDMA is the Sound DMA and controls the sound part. We have built in a
 unique matrix switch function in this chip (more details in the second
 part)

 KEYBOARD PROCESSOR

 The keyboard processor has been improved and is now also suitable for high
 resolution mice.

 Besides the above custom chips the Atari Falcon030 has a number of
 standard chips like the Motorola 68030 and 56001 DSP. Another important
 chip is the CODEC in which the 16 bit AD and DA converters are located.

 Video modi

 As you can see in the survey of Operating System calls the video hardware
 is complete sotware controllable. The following combinations can a.o. be
 chosen:


 Mode      Resolution  Bit planes  Colors  Palette

 ST LOW     320x200       4           16     4096
 ST MED     640x200       2            4     4096
 ST HIGH    640x400       1            2     4096

 True Color 640x480       8          256   262144
            320x200     15bpp      32768     N/A

 The last mode asks for some explanation. Here there is no color palette
 but 15 bits per pixel to describe the pixel itself. The format is
 RRRRRGGGGGXBBBBB. VDI supports this mode thus programs that have not been
 written for this mode specifically can use it nevertheless.

 X is the overlay bit and can be used for video titling and special
 effects.

           320x200     16bpp      65         N/A

 This mode is called the slideshow mode, is not supported by the VDI, you
 are on your own. X is an extra green bit.



 True Color in 640x480 is not possible because of the bandwidth of VGA
 monitors.

 Mode      Resolution Bit planes   Colors    Palette

 VGA      320 of 640   1,4,8       2,16,256  262144 (Overscan
 Video    200 of 400

 With Video we mean the Atari SC-monitors, the TV modulator and/or the
 composite video output.

 All modes can be gegenlocked. With adaptors we convert the 15-pole video
 bus to thee standard Atari or VGA connections.

        |----|
        -    -
       /      \
      /        \
     /          \
     |          |

     -|--------|-


 Matrix coupling

 To make the system performance in the audio part as good as possible Atari
 designed a miniature 'telephone exchange' that can easily connect the
 source devices to the receiving devices. Also it is possible to make more
 than one connection at a time.


     Source devices

         EXT INPUT ---*-------*------*------*
          CHANNEL     |       |      |      |
                      |       |      |      |
            DSP    ---*-------*------*------*
         TRANSMIT     |       |      |      |
                      |       |      |      |
            ADC    ---*-------*------*------*

                      |       |      |      |
                      |       |      |      |
            DMA    ---*-------*------*------*
         PLAYBACK     |       |      |      |
                     DMA     DAC    DSP     EXT OUTPUT
                    RECORD        RECEIVE     CHANNEL

                         Receiving Devices


 Ports andn interfacing

 DSP CONNECTOR (DB26 Female)

 Pin   Signal                           Pin   Signal

 1     GP0                              14    GND
 2     GP1                              15    SRD
 3     GP2                              16    GND
 4     P_DATA                           17    +12V
 5     P_CLK                            18    GND
 6     P_SYNC                           19    R_DATA
 7     n/c                              20    R_CLK
 8     GND                              21    R_SYNC
 9     +12V                             22    EXT_INT
 10    GND                              23    STD
 11    SC0                              24    SCK
 12    SC1                              25    GND
 13    SC2                              26    EXCLK


 SCSI CONNECTOR (flat 50 pins SCSI II Female)

 Pin   Signal                           Pin   Signal

 1-10  GND                              37    Not Connected
 11    +5V                              38    +5V
 12-14 Not Connected                    39    Not Connected
 15-25 GND                              40    GND
 26    SCSI 0                           41    ATN
 27    SCSI 1                           42    GND
 28    SCSI 2                           43    BSY
 29    SCSI 3                           44    ACK
 30    SCSI 4                           45    RST
 31    SCSI 5                           46    MSG
 32    SCSI 6                           47    SEL
 33    SCSI 7                           48    C/D
 34    Parity                           49    REQ
 35-36 GND                              50    I/O


 SERIAL PORT (DB9 MALE)

 Pin   Signal

 1     Carrier Detect                   5     GND
 2     Receive                          6     Data set ready
 3     Transmit                         7     Request to Send
 4     Data Terminal Ready              8     Clear to Send
                                        9     Ring Indicator


 PARALLEL PORT (DB25 Female)

 The parallel port has extra signal to ease the connection of scanners.

 Pin   Signal

 1     Strobe          8     Data 6
 2     Data 0          9     Data 7
 3     Data 1         10     Acknowledge
 4     Data 2         11     Busy
 5     Data 3         12-16  Not Connected
 6     Data 4         17     Select
 7     Data 5         18-25  GND


 MONITOR CONNECTOR (DB19 Male)

 Pin   Signal                           Pin   Signal

 1     Red                              11    GND
 2     Green                            12    Composite Sync/Video
 3     Blue                             13    Horizontal Sync
 4     Mono/Overlay                     14    Vertical Sync
 5     GND                              15    External Clock Input
 6     Red GND                          16    External SYNC Enable
 7     Green GND                        17    +12V
 8     Blue GND                         18    M1
 9     Audio out                        19    M0
 10    GND


 SCC LAN-port CONNECTOR (8-pin Mini DIN Female RS-422)

 Pin   Signal

 1     Handshake Output (DTR RS 423)           5     - Received Data
 2     Handshake Input or External Clock       6     + Transmitted Data
 3     - Transmit Data                         7     General-purpose Input
 4     GND                                     8     + Receive



 ENHANCED JOYSTICK (DB15 Male)

 Port A                                 Port B

 Pin   Signal                           Pin   Signal

 1     UP 0                             1     UP 1
 2     DOWN 0                           2     DOWN 1
 3     LT 0                             3     LT 1
 4     RT 0                             4     RT 1
 5     PAD0Y                            5     PAD1Y
 6     FIRE 0 / LIGHT GUN               6     FIRE 1
 7     VCC (+5 VDC)                     7     VCC
 8     Not Connected                    8     Not Connected
 9     GND                              9     GND
 10    FIRE 2                           10    FIRE 3
 11    UP 2                             11    UP 3
 12    DOWN 2                           12    DOWN 3
 13    LT 2                             13    LT 3
 14    RT 2                             14    RT 3
 15    PAD0X                            15    PAD1X


 MIDI PORT (DIN 5 Female)

 MIDI OUT                               MIDI  IN

 Pin   Signal                           Pin   Signal

 1     Thru Transmit                    1     Not Connected
 2     GND                              2     Not Connected
 3     Thru Loop Return                 3     Not Connected
 4     Out Transmit                     4     In Receive
 5     Out Loop Return                  5     In Loop Return


 New Operating System calls

 This information maybe subject to change and is certainly not meant as
 documentation for programmers

 DSP-calls

 Dsp_DoBlock(a,b,c,d)                    (void) xbios(500,a,b,c,d)
 Dsp_BlkHandShake(a,b,c,d)               (void) xbios(501,a,b,c,d)
 Dsp_BlkUnpacked(a,b,c,d)                (void) xbios(502,a,b,c,d)
 Dsp_InStream(a,b,c,d)                   (void) xbios(503,a,b,c,d)
 Dsp_OutStream(a,b,c,d)                  (void) xbios(504,a,b,c,d)
 Dsp_IOStream(a,b,c,d,e,f)               (void) xbios(505,a,b,c,d,e,f)
 Dsp_RemoveInterrupts(a)                 (void) xbios(506,a)
 Dsp_GetWordSize()                       (int)  xbios(507)
 Dsp_Lock()                              (int)  xbios(508)
 Dsp_Unlock()                            (void) xbios(509)
 Dsp_Available(a,b)                      (void) xbios(510,a,b)
 Dsp_Reserve(a,b)                        (int) xbios(511,a,b)
 Dsp_LoadProg(a,b,c)                     (int) xbios(512,a,b,c)
 Dsp_ExecProg(a,b,c)                     (void) xbios(513,a,b,c)
 Dsp_ExecBoot(a,b,c)                     (void) xbios(514,a,b,c)
 Dsp_LodToBinary(a,b)                    (long) xbios(515,a,b)
 Dsp_TriggerHC(a)                        (void) xbios(516,a)
 Dsp_RequestUniqueAbility()              (int)  xbios(517)
 Dsp_GetProgAbility()                    (int)  xbios(518)
 Dsp_FlushSubroutines()                  (void) xbios(519)
 Dsp_LoadSubroutine(a,b,c)               (int)  xbios(520,a,b,c)
 Dsp_InqSubrAbility(a)                   (int)  xbios(521,a)
 Dsp_RunSubroutine(a)                    (int)  xbios(522,a)
 Dsp_Hf0(a)                              (int)  xbios(523,a)
 Dsp_Hf1(a)                              (int)  xbios(524,a)
 Dsp_Hf2()                               (int)  xbios(525)
 Dsp_Hf3()                               (int)  xbios(526)
 Dsp_BlkWords(a,b,c,d)                   (void) xbios(527,a,b,c,d)
 Dsp_BlkBytes(a,b,c,d)                   (void) xbios(528,a,b,c,d)
 Dsp_HStat()                             (char) xbios(529)
 Dsp_SetVectors(a,b)                     (void) xbios(530,a,b)

 De volledige beschrijving van bovenstaande functie's staat in de Falcon030
 Developers Documentation.

 VIDEO SETMODE

 int setmode( int modecode );

 The setmode( int modecode ) call is used to place the Falcon/030 SHIFTER
 into a specific mode. A bit-encoded value (called a "modecode") is passed
 to setmode() to set the mode. setmode() returns the previous mode that
 was set.

 To help make the building of modecode values easier, here is a table of
 defines:

         #define VERTFLAG        0x100
         #define STMODES         0x80
         #define OVERSCAN        0x40
         #define PAL             0x20
         #define VGA             0x10
         #define TV              0x0


         #define COL80           0x08
         #define COL40           0x0
         #define NUMCOLS         7

         #define BPS16           4
         #define BPS8            3
         #define BPS4            2
         #define BPS2            1
         #define BPS1            0

 Using these defines, you can build a modecode for any possible mode.

 For example:

         For True Color Overscan:
         modecode = OVERSCAN|COL40|BPS16;

         For ST Medium Compatibility mode on a Color Monitor/TV:
         modecode = STMODES|COL80|BPS2;

         For ST Low Compatibility mode in PAL on a Color Monitor/TV:

         modecode = STMODES|PAL|COL80|BPS2;

         For 256 color, 80 column mode on a VGA monitor:
         modecode = VGA|COL80|BPS8;

 If you have a modecode and wish to know how many bits per pixel it has,
 use the following:

         if( modecode & NUMCOLS ) == BPS16 )
                 do_something_cool();    /* You have true color mode */

 The setmode() call will return the previous modecode set. You must use
 this value to get back to whatever mode you were in before you made your
 setmode call.


 int mon_type(void)

 The mon_type() function will return the kind of monitor that is currently
 in use. Here are the possible return values:


         0 = ST monochrome monitor
         1 = ST color monitor
         2 = VGA monitor
         3 = Television.


 void ext_sync( int flag )

 This function sets or clears external sync. If flag is set, external
 sync is enabled. If flag is clear, then internal sync is used.


 SOUND-calls

 locksnd();

 Used as a semiphore to lock the sound system. From other applications.

 unlocksnd();

 Used to release the sound system for other applications to use.


 soundcmd(mode,data);

 This command is used to get or set the following sound parameters.  If a
 negative number is used as the input then the current setting is returned.

 MODE    OPERATION       MEANING

 O       LTATTEN Sets the current left channel output

 1       RTATTEN Sets the current right channel output

 2       LTGAIN  Sets the current left channel input gain.

 3       RTGAIN  Sets the current right channel input gain.

 4       ADDERIN Set the output of the 16 bit signed adder to
                 receive it's input from the ADC, Matrix or
                 both.


 5       ADCINPUT        Set the input the the ADC. The input can either
                         be the left and right channel of the PSG or the
                         left and right channel of the microphone.

 6       SETPRESCALE     Used for compatability. This prescale value
                         is used when the DEVCONNECT() internal
                         prescale value is set to zero.


 setbuffer(reg,begaddr,endaddr);

 This function is used to set the play or record buffers. REG selects
 playback or record, while begaddr and endaddr are the buffers beginning
 and ending locations.

         (int)   reg             - (0) Sets playback registers.
                                 - (1) Sets record registers.
         (long)  begaddr - Sets the beginning address of the buffer.
         (long)  endaddr - Sets the ending address of the buffer.

 setmode(mode);

 This function is used to set record or playback mode. The modes are as
 follows:

 MODE            OPERATION
 (int)   0      8 Bit Stereo
 (int)   1      16 Bit Stereo
 (int)   2      8 Bit Mono

 settracks(playtracks,rectracks);

 This function is used to sets the number of record or playback tracks.

 setmontracks(montrack);

 This function is used to set the output of the internal speaker to one of
 the four tracks currently playing. The internal speaker is only capable of
 outputing ONE track at a time.

 setinterrupt(src_inter,cause);

 This function is used to set which interrupt that will occur at the end of
 a frame. If the frame repeat bit is on, this interrupt is used to allow
 for double buffering the playing or recording of sound. Interrupts can
 come from  TimerA or the MFP i7.

 buffoper(mode);

 This function is used to control the operation of the play or record
 buffers in the sound system. The input to this function is a bitmap. If
 mode is set t0 -1 then the current status of the buffer operation bits is
 returned.  NOTE:   The sound system contains a 32 byte FIFO. When
 transferring data to the record buffer, software MUST check to see if the
 record enable (RE) bit was cleared by the hardware. If the bit was cleared
 then the FIFO is flushed, if not then software must flush the FIFO by
 clearing the record enable (RE) bit.

 dsptristate(dspxmit,dsprec);

 This function is used to tristate the DSP from the data matrix.

 gpio(mode,data);

 This is used to communicate over the General Purpose I/O on the DSP
 connector. Only the low order three bits are used. The rest are reserved.
 This call, depending on the mode, can be used to set the direction of the
 I/O bits, read the bits, or write the bits.

 devconnect(src,dst,srcclk,prescale,protocol);

 This function is used to attach a source device to any of the destination
 devices in the matrix. Given a source device, this call will attach that
 one source device to one or all of the destination devices. This call also
 sets up the source clock and prescaler, protocol and protocol source if
 used.

 sndstatus(reset);

 This function gets the current status of the codec. buffptr(pointer);
 This function returns the current position of the play and record data
 buffer pointers. These pointers indicate where the data is being
 read/written within the buffers themselves. This function is also used to
 determine how much data has been written to the record buffer. See
 buffoper().


The above is not yet complete. Atari has also routines for
JPEG and audio conversion.
--
Piet* van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University,
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Telephone: +31 30 531806   Uucp:   uunet%mcsun%ruuinf%piet
Telefax:   +31 30 513791   Internet:  piet@cs.ruu.nl   (*`Pete')


Article: 6027 of comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Path: i2unix%corton%mcsun%uunet%van-bc%jonh.wimsey.bc.ca%jhenders
From: jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca ( John Henders )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: Re: DSP in the Falcon
Message-ID: <H.op5odQJVpyw@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 1 Sep 92 01:20:24 GMT
References: <H.H8xksAVnXI6@kynes.bison.mb.ca> <469@muller.loria.fr>
Reply-To: jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca
Organization: One of these days for sure
Lines: 27
X-Software: HERMES GUS 1.03 Rev. Apr 14 1992

In <469@muller.loria.fr>, Steven Eker writes:

=Things which the 56001 should be useful for include software sound synthesis
=& matrix*vector multiplcation (the basis of 3D vector games).

=If the DSP DMA is implemented right (does anyone have a programmer eye view of
=this yet?) is should be possible to use it as an extremely fast graphics
=processor for polygons/phong shading/texture mapping (I wonder if anyone
=will bother to write an "Ultima Underworld" type game for the Falcon?).
=I worry about this though - the DSP is 24 bits and the 68030 is 32 bits
=so there's plenty of room for Atari to screw up...

     For anyone who hasn't seen the latest AEO, the Falcon appears to
have been design as a 24 bit computer, partly to maintain compatability
with existing software. This doesn't mean third party boards etc can't
extent that, but it explains the 14 meg memory limit. The other captures
from Jim Allen posts to GEnie say that the Falcon chips all seem to talk
at 16mhz. Another poster mentioned here that there's an 8bit processor to
dsp channel, I guess for uploading code into the dsp, though I don't
know if that means you can't tell the dsp to load a program from a memory
location itself, which would be faster, I'd guess.
     Motorola says the top speed the 56001 is clocked at is 33mhz, so the
ad/da converters must be the parts clocked at 50mhz.


--
jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca


Article: 6050 of comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Path: i2unix%corton%mcsun%sunic%dkuug%imada!micro
From: micro@imada.ou.dk (Klaus Pedersen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: Re: DSP in the Falcon
Message-ID: <1992Sep3.182630.19435@imada.ou.dk>
Date: 3 Sep 92 18:26:30 GMT
References:       <H.H8xksAVnXI6@kynes.bison.mb.ca>       <469@muller.loria.fr>
<H.op5odQJVpyw@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca> <262@artech.UUCP>
Sender: news@imada.ou.dk (USENET News System)
Organization: Dept. of Math. & Computer Science, Odense University, Denmark
Lines: 20

clint@artech.UUCP (Clinton Keith) writes:

=The adc/dac channel is driven off the DMA clock, which is driven off a
=sub-divided horizontal scan rate.  The 525 scan line rate sub-divided
=by 12, 24, 48 and 96 give the 6250, 12500, 25000 and 50000 bytes per
=second DMA/CODEC rate.  This is the same as the STE/TT.

In the very techie "test" of the Falcon in the German C'T you can read a
differend story:

"[external/internal clock, prescale 4-24 or 128]. Internally there is a
27.175MHz clock to select the for the STe known sampling rates of
12.5KHz, 25KHz and 50KHz, or 32MHz in order to use the full bandwidth of
the memory transfer, with an sampling rate of 62.5KHz on eight 16bit
channels. This is also the upper limit for the external clock."

(if the about dosn't make any sense then it is probaly because my german
is even worth than my english)

-Klaus


