Upgrades Available

The ATARI Home Computer Division currently offers four upgrades on the Home Computer product line. Each of these upgrades is explained below.

GTIA Upgrade

The GTIA (General Television Interface Adaptor) chip offers enhanced graphics capabilities over the CTIA chip, which was the original graphics chip used in the 400 and 800 computers. The GTIA offers 12 different graphics modes, 16 colors, and 16 intensities. The GTIA is fully compatible with software written for the CTIA since it has a superset of the CTIA's capabilities. The CTIA was the standard chip with all 400 and 800 computers manufactured prior to November, 1981.

Atari's Regional Service Centets will perform this upgrade on outofwarranty-units for $62.52 ($22.52 in parts, $40.00 Iabor).

810 ROM C

An 810 drive with ROM C and DOS 2.0 will offer improved performance in read and write operations between the 810 and the 400 or 800. ROM C causes diskettes to be formatted with an improved sector layout which is more efficient than that used by earlier 810 control ROM's.

ROM C is automatically included in drives manufactured after October, 1981. Atari's Regional Service Centers will perform the upgrade on out-ofwarranty units for $53.56 ($8.56 in parts, $45.00 in labor). 810 units still in the 90-day warranty period will be upgraded free of charge, on request.

Operating System Version B

The OS ROM's in the 400 and 800 are available in a revision B form, which provide a higher level of system performance by improving the operating system peripheral I/0 control routines. OS version B eliminates annoying pauses in disk and printer operations that sometimes occurred with OS version A. OS version B is compatible with DOS 2.

OS version B ROM's have been automatically included in 400 and 800 computers manufactured since November, 1981. Atari's Regional Service Centers will perform the upgrade on out-of warranty units for $49.78 ($30.00 in labor, $19.78 in parts). 400's and 800's still in the warranty period will be upgraded free of charge.

810 Data Separator Board

The Data Separator Board for the 810 improves the drive's ability to distinguish between data pulses and clock pulses on the disk. This is necessary in part because of the variations in the characteristics of different diskettes. The data separator lowers the chance of a misread from the disk.

Data separator boards have been a standard part of all drives produced since October, 1981. Older drives that are out-of-warranty may be upgraded at an Atari Regional Service Center for a charge of $135.61 ($40.00 Iabor, $95.61 parts).

The HCD Factory Authorized Service Centers will also perform these upgrades on request, although their prices may differ from the RSC's. Any 810 still in the warranty period will be upgraded free of charge.