Atari family - ATARI 65XEP

The 65XEP was the first portable computer Atari designed. It was first exhibited in 1985, at the CES show. With the 65XEP, Atari intended to compete with the Commodore SX-64

It was actually a portable version of the Atari 65XE including a 3.5" 360 KB disk drive, a 5" green CRT and a battery pack. The price was fixed at less than $400, but Atari never released this machine. Apparently only one prototype was built.

At the same time, Atari announced a second variation of the 65XE, the 65XEM (for XE Music). This version featured a new powerful polyphonic sound chip called AMY with 8 independent sound voices and 64 oscillators. It was able to synthesize voice and any musical instrument sound much better than the Commodore 64 's SID chip. However, the AMY chip never reached production, so the 65XEM never passed the prototype stage either.

Image, description and specification taken with permission by

System unit	Description
Processor	MOS 6502C
Clock speed	1.79 MHz (NTSC) / 1.77 MHz (PAL)
RAM	64 KB
ROM	24 kb (16 KB for OS, 8 KB for Atari BASIC)
O.S. version(s)	AtariOS
Built-in software	Self-Test, Atari BASIC Revision C
Colors	16 colors with 16 intensity level each, monochrome green
Sound	4 voices, 3.5 octaves (POKEY chip)
Text modes	Five text modes, max: 40 x 24, min: 20 x 12
Graphics modes	16 graphic modes, maximum: 320 x 192 pixels
Co-processor	GTIA (video output, sprites), POKEY (sound, I/O), ANTIC (video, display lists), FREDDY
I/O ports	Composite video output, Cartridge port, Expansion port, SIO peripheral port (tape, disk, printer, modem), 2 x joystick connectors
Controller port(s)	2
Parallel Bus Interface	Yes
Build-in media	360 Kb 3.5'' floppy disk drive
Power supply	Built-in power supply unit
Keyboard	Full-stroke keyboard, 57 keys, 5 function keys (Help, Start, Select, Option, Reset)