In 1978 Atari was working on a new chip set for an all new high end video game system. Ray Kassar became the new CEO of Atari and decided that Atari should produce a line of computers to compete against Apple in the home computer field. It was decided that the new chip set was to be "frozen" and used only for the new computer systems. Atari's all new computer division was born.
Atari would introduce a new line of personal computers based around the
MOS 6502 8 bit Processor. Using the new graphics/audio chip
set the computer would come packaged with graphics and sound never before
seen in a personal computer system. Capable of producing
up to 128 colors using the CTIA chip (Colleen Television Interface Adapter)
and later updated to 256 colors using a GTIA chip (General Television Interface
Adapter) and with a maximum resolution of 320 X 192 the new line of Atari
computer systems would have spectacular graphics for a system released
The original Atari OS personality card and Atari 8K and 16K memory cards
were packaged into nice plastic/metal cases, this caused an overheat problem
in the 800's, service centers received bulletins to remove the boards from
their cases and discard the cases when systems came in with overheating
problems, later Atari 800's were released from the factory with their OS
and RAM cards not packaged into these little cases.
The front of the Atari 800 was equipped with 4 controller jacks which were compatible with all of the Atari 2600 joysticks, paddles, and keypads. These jacks were analog and digital input and output ports and were used for many functions. One company called Corvus designed a hard drive interface which used ports 3 & 4, another company made a modem which plugged into ports 1 & 2, other company's made Real Time clock cards and other companies made robot arms, and Atari itself later had a science lab kit called Atari Lab which could measure temperature, light and sound. Analog magazine, an old Atari 8 bit computer magazine even had a home-brew project to build a voice synthesizer for joystick ports 1 & 2. The Atari 800 was a very versatile and usable computer system.
The Atari 800 computer was sold from 1979 through 1982 and was then replaced by the Atari 1200XL home computer. Boosting 64K it was to be the all new future of Atari computers. Unfortunately it had no expansion slots, no external bus connector and lost 2 of its 4 controller ports.... It was a bomb, Atari 800 sales actually increased because people ran out to buy an Atari 800 before they were all gone.
During the development of a new lower cost Atari computer system to replace the Atari 800, a new motherboard was designed, this new all in one motherboard replaced the seven (7) boards that made up an Atari 800 computer. This new motherboard was nicknamed Collette and was a one piece 64K version of the Atari 800, it was never sold.
Atari also developed a 64K RAM card for the Atari 800 to replace all 3
16K RAM cards, this card too was never sold.
Although the system is now almost 20 years old, the Atari 800 is still
one of the most powerful, useful and versatile 8 bit home computers ever
produced. Even though it has limited memory capacity and a
slow 1.79MHZ 8 bit processor, many tried and true Atari users still fire
up and use their Atari 800's to this day.