Atari PaTT/Matrix and MagiC

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For the general specifications of an Atari TT, read this page!


Boot Matrix TC1006 Desk and System Internet Peripherals Benchmarks



Boot


Boot sequence



On the left, the boot sequence showing the memory size and the four connected SCSI units :
  • SCSI 0 : the internal hard drive, 4GB in height 512MB partitions.
  • SCSI 1 : the CD-ROM drive
  • SCSI 4 : the Daynaport, Ethernet card 10Mbits
  • SCSI 6 : the ZIP drive 100MB
Notice the old HD Driver 7.51, only version I could get to work with this hardware. Using versions 7.80 or 10, it was impossible to use the Daynaport, and sometimes it was not detected!

The VGA switch



As this TT comes with a Matrix Graphic Card, the boot settings can't be seen on this card. You have to go back to the original VGA output for that. That's why i use this VGA switch to toggle easely between TT and Matrix outputs.
Once the settings are correct, I do not use it a lot.

Xboot



Then, the tool XBOOT is loaded. Again on the TT VGA output, you can select your settings.

I have seven of them:
  • BASIC : output to TT VGA, no particular tool.
  • MAT and MAT-ST : output to Matrix with or without Sting for Internet and TOS 3.06.
  • MATMAGIC and MATMAGIC-ST: output to Matrix with or without Sting for Internet and multitasking with MagiC 6.02
  • MATTOS4 and MATTOS4-ST: output to Matrix with or without Sting for Internet and new desk TOS 4.


Matrix TC1006


The Matrix TC1006 graphic card is able to display monochrom, 256 colors and True Color resolutions. The graphic processor can also display 16 bits modes, but no driver is available for that.

Installing NVDI for Matrix was imperative : the basic drivers from Matrix are unstable and lead to frequent system hangouts.

Monochrom



Here are the available resolutions using monochrom:

256 colors



My favorite resolution, 1024x768 in 256 colors. Note the Dual Modus button that allows you to have the desktop on the standard TT output and at the same time, the Matrix initialized. But I don't have any software using this feature.

True Color



As the video memory is limited to 1MB, only one True Color mode is available.


Desk and System


The multitasking desktop



The desktop with:
  • Matrix display in 1024x768 and 256 colors
  • Multitasking system MagiC 6.02
  • Desk Jinnee
A very reactive and light system.

System Informations



Using SYSINFO:

  • There are 33MB of free memory after having loaded HD-Drive, NVDI for Matrix, Sting, MagiC, Jinee and Sysinfo and the Control Panel and Kobold.
  • There are close to 80% of free disk space, the 4GB are perfect for my usage of the Atari TT.
  • The version of NVDI is 5.03, it comes with the font management.

PS/2 Mouse Adapter



With the high resolutions, as the 1024x768, the old Atari Mouse is outdated.
Installing a PS/2 adapter allows you to use a more recent mouse, perfect for larger screens.

The optical mice with a USB/PS2 converter can be used !


Internet


Daynaport SCSI



On the hardware side, I use a Daynaport that's inserted into the SCSI chain. Not easy to set up, using the old HD-Drive 7.51 was a soluton to several issues. Equally, it was impossible for HD-Drive to detect the Daynaport when I was using the AztechMonster as the internal hard disk (a SCSI to CompactFlash adapter). So I came back to the noisy Hard Drive.

HUB 10Mbits



The Daynaport can't be connected to the 100MBits, so you have to add a HUB 100/10MBits to make the conversion for it.

HighWire Browser



A fast Internet browser, better than CAB in my opinion.

You can see a Google search and my own Web page displayed.

HighWire requires that you modify by hand its CFG file in order to work properly.


Peripherals


CD ROM drive



Driven by Metados and SPIN_SD.BOS under TOS.
Driven by the SPINMAGC.XFS extension under MagiC.

ZIP 100 drive



Directly driven by HD-Drive. I specified a cluster size of 8192 bytes in the removable drive settings. That's my standard setting for the TOS and DOS format.

Atari CD Master



This is a driver for the CD ROM Infopedia that allows you to browse the dictionnaries and other books stored in this CD.

Here the article about France with its fast train TGV...


Benchmarks


My three TT comparison



  • In BLUE : the TT under TOS with Nova 16 bits, no NVDI. It has the AztechMonster card to replace the internal HD with a 4GB CompactFlash card.
  • In GREEN : this TT under Magic with 256 colors !
  • In RED : the TT under Mint/MyAES with Nova 16 bits and NVDI.