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Description
Atari 850 Interface Module (newer plastic unit) with one parallel, and four serial ports. From the online Atari Museum: The Atari 850 interface was probably the single most useful peripheral Atari ever created for its computer systems. Designed by Scott Scheiman, the Atari 850 gave the original Atari 400/800 and the last XL and XE systems their "Eyes & Ears" so to speak. The Atari 850 interface provided 4 separate RS-232-C serials ports addressed as devices R1: to R4: and a single Centronics compatible printer port. This allowed the Atari computers to use industry standard modems, terminal, teletypes and printers. The serial interface ports were female DB-9 connections (the same as on the original Macintosh 128,512 and Plus) as opposed to the standard IBM male DB-9 serial port connectors which the entire PC industry adopted and is still in use to this day. The Centronics printer port is a non-standard DB-15 female connector which only Atari used. Almost all other computer systems adopted the PC standard female DB-25 connector. Scott Scheiman recalls: "Atari was preparing to show the new 850 Interface at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and everyone realized we had nothing written to demonstrate the 850 capabilites. So in 4 days I wrote a terminal program that would later become Telelink 1 and would be packaged with the 850 Interface. "
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