Editing Atari 8-bit computers (section)

=== Sweet/Liz project ===

Though planning an extensive advertising campaign for 1980,{{r|tomczyk}} Atari found difficult competition from Commodore, Apple, and Tandy. By mid-1981, it had reportedly lost $10 million on sales of $10–13 million from more than 50,000 computers.<ref name="hogan19810831">{{cite magazine|title=From Zero to a Billion in Five Years|magazine=InfoWorld|date=August 31, 1981|author=Hogan, Thom|pages=6–7}}</ref><ref name="hogan19810914state">{{cite magazine| magazine=[[InfoWorld]] | title=State of Microcomputing: Some Horses Running Neck and Neck| first=Hogan | last=Thom|date=September 14, 1981| url={{Google Books | id=Mj0EAAAAMBAJ | page=10 | plainurl=yes}} | pages=10–12 | access-date=February 9, 2023}}</ref>

In 1982, Atari started the Sweet 8 (or Liz NY) and Sweet 16 projects to create an upgraded set of machines that were easier to build and less costly to produce. Atari ordered a custom 6502, initially labelled 6502C, but eventually known as SALLY to differentiate it from a standard 6502C. A 6502C was simply a version of the 6502 able to run up to 4&nbsp;MHz. The A models run at 1 MHz, and the B's at 2 MHz. The basis for SALLY is a 6502B. SALLY was incorporated into late-production 400 and 800 models, all XL/XE models, and the [[Atari 5200]] and [[Atari 7800]] consoles. SALLY adds logic to disable the clock signal, called <code>HALT</code>, which ANTIC uses to shut off the CPU to access the data/address bus.{{sfn|Current|2023|loc=1.12) What are SALLY, ANTIC, CTIA/GTIA/FGTIA, POKEY, and FREDDIE?}}

Mirroring the 400/800, two systems were planned, the 1000 with 16&nbsp;KB and the 1000X with 64&nbsp;KB, each expandable via a [[Parallel Bus Interface]] slot on the back of the machine.