Atari 600XL

NAME	600XL
MANUFACTURER	Atari
TYPE	Home Computer
ORIGIN	U.S.A.
YEAR	1982
END OF PRODUCTION	1985
KEYBOARD	Full size, 54 key, mechanical keyboard
CPU	MOS 6502C
SPEED	1.79 MHz
COPROCESSOR	ANTIC (Scrolling, Sprites, Video), GTIA (Color, Sprites, Collisions), POKEY (timers, sound, keyboard), POKEY (I/O, including the 4 joystick ports, sound)
RAM	16 KB (expandable up to 64 KB)
ROM	24 KB
TEXT MODES	Five text modes from 20x12 to 40x25
GRAPHIC MODES	Several graphic modes, maximum: 320 x 192
COLORS	256 (16 colors with 16 intensities)
SOUND	4 voices, 3.5 octaves
I/O PORTS	Composite video output, cartridge slot, peripheral port (SIO), parallel bus, 2 joystick plugs
OS	Atari Basic in ROM
Power Supply	External PSU
Price	Unknown

The Atari 600XL, together with the 800XL, were the successors of the Atari 400 and 800 series and the unsuccessful Atari 1200XL in a more compact case. They could use almost the same software, just so long as the program was written correctly, because of some slight differences between OS versions.

The 600XL had 16 KB of RAM expandable up to 64 KB, two joystick ports and kept all the custom chips (Pokey, GTIA, Antic) of the previous models. It also featured the new Parallel Bus Interface (PBI) providing high speed access to the system bus. The new version of the graphic Antic chip offered 16 graphics modes instead of 12 for the 800.

Alongside the Commodore 64 and the Apple II, the 600XL was among the most popular home computers. It would be replaced in 1985 with the XE series when Atari launched the ST. .