History of Atari TOS

Historical versions of Atari TOS v1.04

OS	Vendor	Version	Machines	Comments
TOS	Atari	1	260/520ST	Initial release. Fairly buggy; only used for compatibility with older programs. Desk accessories must be named DESKn.ACC. Loaded from disk, so also known as "RAM TOS" or "Disk TOS".
TOS	Atari	1	520/1040ST	First ROM release. Updated GEMDOS and AES. AKA "Old TOS", "ROM TOS".
TOS	Atari	1.2 (later renumbered 1.02)	520/1040ST/STF/SFM/STFM, Mega ST 2 and 4	First ROM-only version. Bug fixes; support for DMA/Blitter and real-time clock chips. AKA "Blitter TOS", "Mega TOS".
TOS	Atari	1.09	520/1040ST/STF/SFM/STFM, Mega ST 2 and 4	Incorrectly-reported number for UK version of 1.(0)2.
TOS	Atari	1.4 (later 1.04)	Stacey laptop (1st release); later on 520/1040STFM, Mega ST 1/2/4	Most common version of TOS; last version to run on pre-STe machines; most compatible with games. More bug fixes (e.g. archive attribute works); improved hard-disk handling and performance. Faster disk copy; file move function; copy preserves date/time stamps; folder renaming; auto-run of GEM apps at startup; larger screen support; file "fastload" flag for faster startup; improved file selector; DOS-compatible disk format; keyboard reset. AKA "Rainbow TOS" because of animated colour Atari "Fuji" logo in desktop "About" dialog box.
TOS	Atari	1.6	1040STE	As 1.(0)4 plus support for the enhanced STe. (Up to 4,096 colours; 8-bit stereo DMA sound; light-gun/paddle; external Genlock; hardware scrolling; 68030 processor; etc.) Mouse support in "show file to screen" function; 4-bit colour values; disk boot-up delay. Bug fixes. AKA "STE TOS".
TOS	Atari	1.62	1040STE	As 1.6 plus bug-fixes, including of 1.6's failure to save selection of medium resolution correctly in DESKTOP.INF.
TOS	Atari	2.02, 2.05, 2.06	MegaSTE	Last version of Atari TOS for the 68000 line. Many bug fixes. Atari logo display at boot-up; automatic cold boot memory test. Supports higher resolutions, 1.4MB diskettes, 6ms step rate, better media-change detection. Adds GTP program support (GEM-Takes-Parameters)
TOS	Atari	2.08	STbook	Special version for 1992 notebook ST. ROM also contains some notebook-specific utilities: STTRANS (null-modem/ parallel-cable data transfer), power management tools, hard disk drive tools and drivers (AHDI, XHDI, BOOKINST and BOOKFMT) and a RAMdisk installer.
TOS	Atari	3.01, 3.05, 3.06	TT	TOS 3.0x was released (for the 68030-based TT) before 2.0x; TOS 2 was essentially a version of TOS 3 for older hardware. Feature parity was achieved with versions 2.05/3.05. Supports fast "TT RAM", special TT screen resolutions etc. ST-hardware-compatible "Line-A" API dropped for extended TT functionality, forcing programmers to use GEM-compliant VDI calls etc. and thus encouraging GEM-compatible (as opposed to ST-compatible) development. ROM size grows from 256KB to 512KB. AKA "TT TOS".
TOS	Atari	4.00, 4.01, 4.02, 4.04	Falcon	New version for the Falcon. 68030 only. Adds support for DSP, 16MHz blitter and video overlay. New v3.40 AES (last single-tasking version, but MiNT/MultiTOS-multitasking-aware) supports: and pop-up menus; 3D window and dialog objects (later modified to to use more compatible ob_state flags instead of extended type); 256-colour "animated" icons; soft-loaded fonts; inter-app drag&drop; background window manipulation; extensible filesystems. New CPX module for international localisation configuration. V4.04 was the last official Atari version of TOS. AKA "3D TOS".
TOS	none (developed by Atari)	4.92, 4.98	Never officially released; distribution illegal	Bug-ridden internal developer version, but sometimes offered for download. Would have become TOS 5.0, "Falcon TOS".
MiNT [MiNT is Not (later, "Now") TOS]	Atari	1.09 (last Atari version of MiNT)	All STs and compatibles	BSD Unix-based pre-emptive multitasking/multiuser kernel originally developed by Eric R. Smith. Replaces GEMDOS - provides process/memory management, filesystem I/O etc.; requires AES, VDI and desktop.
MultiTOS	Atari	1.04 (1.08 in unreleased beta)	Falcon (but runs on all STs and compatibles)	Official Atari version. Extension to TOS 4: MiNT kernel + (very slow) multitasking v4.1 AES (AKA "MultiAES".) Runs on 68000, but requires 68030 for memory protection.
Kaos TOS	Andreas Kromke	1.4.1	All STs and compatibles	Early single-tasking TOS replacement, originally based on a large and complex patch set for Atari TOS 1.4. Supplied on ROM as "KAOS030" and as a disk-loaded version, complete with its own desktop, KaosDesk. Faster and less bug-ridden, but incompatible with TT and Falcon. Supplied with some 68030 accelerator boards. Development stopped after release of TOS 2.06. Some parts (such as MCMD CLI shell) reused in MagiC, developed by the same author.

This document is maintained by Liam Proven
Please submit any corrections, additions or comments to
geminfo@lproven.cix.co.uk

My thanks to the following people, who were of inestimable
assistance in preparing this.
 Mark S. Baines (msbaines@cix.co.uk)
 Joe Connor (jconnor@cix.co.uk)
 Derryck Croker (derryck@cix.co.uk)
 Andrew Giddings (gidds@cix.co.uk)
 Paul Glover (stclub@cix.co.uk)
 Matt Jaap (mjaap@atari-computer.de)
 Ronald van der Kamp (atarist@xs4all.nl)
 Johan Klockars (rand@cd.chalmers.se)
 Ken Macdonald (macdonald@cfc.dnd.ca)
 Eddy Morfan (eddy.morfan@mail.dotcom.fr)
 Frank Naumann (fnaumann@prinz-atm.CS.Uni-Magdeburg.De)
 Martin-ric Racin (q-funk@funkyware.atari.org)
 Henk Robbers (H.Robbers@cable.A2000.nl)
 Oliver Schildmann (Oliver_Schildmann@LU.maus.de)
 John Stean (jstean@cix.co.uk)
 John Whalley (john@whalley.demon.co.uk)
 Michael White (michael@fastlane.net)
 The members of the news:comp.sys.atari-st newsgroup
 The members of the CIX atari.st conference

Version history
1  Original version
1. Information from Mark Baines' "The Atari A to Z" and other
01 sources
1. (20 Oct 1999) Information on replacement desktops added
02
1. (24 Oct 1999) Information on GDOS added; re-ordered
03
1. (25 Oct 1999) SpeedoGDOS relegated to "historical"
04
1. (31 Jan 2001) Finally converted to HTML
05

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