STE

Atari 1040STE

The Atari STE (Sixten Thirty-two Enhanced) which was released in 1989, was the direct replacement for the STFM model and was the last of the ST range aimed at the casual gamer and home consumer to be created by Atari. The enhancements over the last model were primarily aimed at gamers and included:

• Increasing the colour palette from 512 to 4096, albeit while still only allowing 16 colours on screen at once.
• Adding a blitter graphics co-processor as standard.
  • Earlier models has the blitter as a separate chip on the motherboard but later models have it combined with the C302183 Glue chip (AF post) however the socket location remains on the mobo.
• 8-bit DMA stereo sound output through RCA connectors.
• Two enhanced analog joystick ports in more more accessible position on the left of the case. Each port provided support for two joysticks with an adapter.
• Much easier to upgrade RAM thanks to industry standard SIMM slots.
• Genlock support.
• A new version of TOS, TOS 1.6x with bug fixes and speed increases.

Two models of STE were produced by Atari, the 520 and 1040 varying only in the installed ram with 512kb and 1024kb respectively. The style of case is identical to the previous models.

General Information

• member of the ST Family, a subset of the TOS Family
• 1040STE voted family computer of the year in 1990 by 9??!)
• For an overview of STE features, including from a programming perspective see Introduction to the STE

Magazine References

• STart, volume 5, issue 4, p22-28 (Review)

External Links

The STE Fanpage contains information on STE games, programming information, and trivia (Jan 2024 - no longer available)