Atari 130ST

The Atari 130ST was the entry-level member of the ST range announced at the January 1985 Consumer Electronics Show. It shared the 520ST’s Motorola 68000 architecture, graphics, sound and interfaces, but was planned with only 128KB of RAM.

Atari never placed the 130ST into production. Its limited memory left too little room for practical use once TOS and the GEM desktop were loaded, so the 520ST became the first retail model and the proposed 130ST remained a prototype and announcement.

Notable Features

• Planned as a low-cost 128KB version of Atari’s new 16/32-bit ST architecture.
• Shared the 520ST’s graphics modes, sound hardware and broad selection of interfaces.

Historical Significance

• Announced alongside the 520ST at the January 1985 Consumer Electronics Show.
• Cancelled before commercial production because 128KB was inadequate for TOS, GEM and useful applications.

Collector’s Notes

• The 130ST is known chiefly from Atari announcements, display units and pre-production material.
• Any surviving labelled hardware requires careful provenance because the model was never sold at retail.

Specifications

Technical Information
Name	Atari 130ST
Manufacturer	Atari
Launched	Tuesday, January 1, 1985
Discontinued	Cancelled in 1985
Launch Price	Proposed US$399
Country	United States
CPU	Motorola MC68000 at 8 MHz
Units Sold
Operating System	Atari TOS with GEM desktop
I/O	MIDI In/Out, RS-232 serial, Centronics parallel, ACSI hard-disk, cartridge, floppy, monitor and two joystick/mouse ports
Keyboard	Integrated 95-key keyboard with numeric keypad and function keys
Storage	External 3.5-inch floppy drive planned; ACSI hard-disk support
Sound	Yamaha YM2149 three-channel programmable sound generator
Colour Palette	512 colours
Display	320x200 in 16 colours, 640x200 in 4 colours, or 640x400 monochrome
ROM	192KB TOS ROM planned
RAM	128KB planned
CPU Speed	8 MHz