Editing Atari Transputer Workstation (section)

== History ==
In 1986, Tim King<ref>[https://www.tim-king.com ...Later he became involved in parallel operating systems and novel architecture processors (remember the Transputer?)...] Tim King</ref> left his job at [[MetaComCo]], along with a few other employees, to start [[Perihelion Software]] in England. There they began developing a new parallel-processing [[operating system]] named ''[[HeliOS]]''. At about the same time a colleague, Jack Lang, started Perihelion (later Perihelion Hardware) to create a new Transputer-based workstation that would run HeliOS.

While at MetaComCo, much of the Perihelion Software team had worked with both Atari Corp. and [[Commodore International]], producing the [[programming language]] [[Atari ST BASIC|ST BASIC]] for the former, and [[AmigaDOS]] for the latter. The principals still had contacts with both companies. Commodore had expressed some interest in their new system, and showed demos of it on an add-on card running inside an [[Amiga 2000]]. It appears they later lost interest in it. Atari Corp. met with Perihelion and work began on what would eventually become the Atari Transputer Workstation.

The machine was first introduced at the November 1987 [[COMDEX]] with the name Abaq.<ref name=ram1>Ram Meenakshisundaram, [http://www.classiccmp.org/transputer/rtu_atw800.htm "Ram's Totally Unofficial Atari Transputer Workstation 800 Pages"]</ref><ref>{{cite news
|last1=Stephens
|first1=Mark
|date=9 November 1987
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sj0EAAAAMBAJ&dq=Atari+abaq&pg=PA5
|title=Atari Floods Comdex with Products
|work=[[InfoWorld]]
|volume=9
|issue=45
|page=5
|quote=...a radical computing engine based on the Inmos T- 800 RISC processor. According to Atari president Sam Tramiel, the Transputer-based Abaq requires a 4-mega-byte Atari Mega workstation front end to handle I/O...
}}</ref> Two versions were shown at the time; one was a card that connected to the Mega ST bus expansion slot, the second version was a stand-alone tower system containing a miniaturized Mega ST inside.<ref>[https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=33&st=1 "Abaq ATW Transputer 800"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121035818/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=33 |date=2010-11-21}}, image shows the unreleased single-card solution</ref> The external card version was dropped at some point during development. It was later learned that the "Abaq" name was in use in Europe, so the product name was changed to ATW800. Perihelion remained the exclusive distributor in England. A first run of prototypes was released in May 1988, followed by a production run in May 1989. In total, only 350 machines were produced (depending on the source either 50 or 100 of the total were prototypes).<ref name=ram1/>

The team in charge of the ATW's video system, "Blossom", would later work on another Atari project, the [[Atari Jaguar]] video game console.