Editing Atari ST (section)

== Development ==
The Atari ST was born from the rivalry between home computer makers [[Atari, Inc.]] and [[Commodore International]]. [[Jay Miner]], one of the designers of the custom chips in the [[Atari 2600]] and [[Atari 8-bit computers]], tried to convince Atari management to create a new chipset for a video game console and computer. When his idea was rejected, he left Atari to form a small [[think tank]] called [[Hi-Toro]] in 1982 and began designing the new "Lorraine" chipset.<ref>{{YouTube|VCREhVvHXL4|History of Amiga video}} (2008-02-18). Retrieved on 2013-04-22.</ref>

Hi-Toro, by then renamed Amiga, ran out of [[Capital (economics)|capital]] to complete Lorraine's development, and Atari, now owned by [[Warner Communications]], paid Amiga to continue its work. In return, Atari received exclusive use of the Lorraine design for one year as a video game console. After that time, Atari had the right to add a keyboard and market the complete computer, designated the 1850XLD.

=== Tramel Technology ===
After leaving [[Commodore International]] in January 1984, [[Jack Tramiel]] formed Tramel (without an "i") Technology, Ltd. with his sons and other ex-Commodore employees and, in April, began planning a new computer. Interested in Atari's overseas manufacturing and worldwide distribution network, Tramiel negotiated with Warner in May and June 1984. He secured funding and bought Atari's consumer division, which included the console and home computer departments, in July. The arcade video game division remained part of Warner. As executives and engineers left Commodore to join Tramel Technology, Commodore filed lawsuits against four former engineers for infringement of [[trade secret]]s. The Tramiels did not purchase the employee contracts with the assets of Atari, Inc. and re-hired approximately 100 of the 900 former employees. Tramel Technology soon changed its name to [[Atari Corporation]].

=== Commodore and Amiga ===
Amid rumors that Tramiel was negotiating to buy Atari, Amiga Corp. entered discussions with Commodore. This led to Commodore wanting to purchase Amiga Corporation outright, which Commodore believed would cancel any outstanding contracts, including Atari's. Instead of Amiga Corp. delivering Lorraine to Atari, Commodore delivered a check of $500,000 on Amiga's behalf, in effect returning the funds Atari invested in Amiga for the chipset. Tramiel countered by suing Amiga Corp. on August 13, 1984, seeking damages and an injunction to bar Amiga (and effectively Commodore) from producing anything with its technology.

The lawsuit left the Amiga team in limbo during mid-1984. Commodore eventually moved forward, with plans to improve the chipset and develop an [[operating system]]. Commodore announced the [[Amiga 1000]] with the Lorraine chipset in July 1985, but it wasn't available in quantity until 1986. The delay gave Atari time to deliver the Atari 520ST in June 1985. In March 1987, the two companies settled the dispute out of court in a closed decision.<ref name="3years">{{cite news |first = Jeffrey |last = Daniels |title = 3 Years With the ST |url = https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv3n1/threeyearsofst.html |work = START Magazine |publisher = James Capparell |page = 22 |date = Summer 1988 |access-date = 2010-05-15 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120521112941/http://atarimagazines.com/startv3n1/threeyearsofst.html |archive-date = 2012-05-21 |url-status = dead }}</ref><ref name="jayminer">{{cite web |url=http://www.heartbone.com/comphist/JayMiner.html |title=Jay G. Miner |url-status=dead |access-date=9 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080218081953/http://www.heartbone.com/comphist/JayMiner.html|archive-date=18 February 2008}}</ref>

=== ST hardware ===
The lead architect of the new computer project at Tramel Technology and Atari Corporation was ex-Commodore employee [[Shiraz Shivji]], who previously worked on the [[Commodore 64]]'s development.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QZS_gXpshd4C&pg=PT230|title=Classic Videogame Hardware Genius Guide|publisher=[[Imagine Publishing]]|page=230|isbn=9781908222220|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=[[InfoWorld]] |volume=11 |issue=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nDAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA44 |title=Elahian Looks for Funding for Firm Devoted to Building Small Laptop PCs |date=October 16, 1989 |page=44}}</ref> Different CPUs were investigated, including the 32-bit [[National Semiconductor]] [[NS32000]], but engineers were disappointed with its performance,{{r|3years}}{{r|chin19850128}} and they moved to the [[Motorola 68000]]. The Atari ST design was completed in five months in 1984, concluding with it being shown at the January 1985 Consumer Electronics Show.<ref name="3years"/>

A custom sound processor called [[Atari AMY|AMY]] had been in development at Atari, Inc. and was considered for the new ST computer design. The chip needed more time to complete, so AMY was dropped in favor of a commodity Yamaha YM2149F variant of the [[General Instrument AY-3-8910]].<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Practical Computing |date= 1985 |page=48 |title=Atari 520ST}}</ref>

=== Operating system ===
Soon after the Atari buyout, [[Microsoft]] suggested to Tramiel that it could port [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] to the platform, but the delivery date was out by two years.<ref name="3years"/> A proposal to write a new operating system was rejected as Atari management was unsure whether the company had the required expertise.<ref name="3years"/>

[[Digital Research]] was working on a new GUI-based system called Crystal, soon to become [[GEM (desktop environment)|GEM]], but was fully committed to the Intel platform. A team from Atari was sent to Digital Research headquarters to work on a port to the 68000. Atari's Leonard Tramiel oversaw "Project Jason" (also known as The Operating System) for the ST series, named for designer and developer Jason Loveman.<ref name="oren">{{cite web|last1=Oren|first1=Tim|title=Professional GEM Column #15|url=http://cd.textfiles.com/crawlycrypt1/program/books/progem/gemdos.15|website=textfiles.com|publisher=Antic Publishing|date=1986}}</ref>

GEM is based on CP/M-68K, a direct port of [[CP/M]] to the 68000. By 1985, CP/M was becoming increasingly outdated; it did not support subdirectories, for example. Digital Research was also in the process of building GEMDOS, a [[disk operating system]] for GEM, and debated whether a port of it could be completed in time for product delivery in June. The decision was eventually taken to port it, resulting in a [[GEMDOS]] file system which became part of [[Atari TOS]] (for "The Operating System", colloquially known as the "Tramiel Operating System"). This gave the ST a fast, [[hierarchical file system|hierarchical]] [[file system]], essential for [[hard drives]], and provided programmers with function calls similar to [[MS-DOS]]. The [[Atari ST character set]] is based on [[codepage 437]].