** 2 page feature / 1638 words ** There's been a lot of talk about the Milan but now it's finally a reality. Joe Connor shares his first impressions... ** MILAN_L.JPG to top right ** MING.GIF here ** caption ** The "BeOS" style icons give the Milan a distinctive feel ** /caption ** The Milan, named after another bird of prey, is the unofficial successor to the Falcon and crucial to the future of the Atari market in Germany where there's still the necessary critical mass of developers and users to sustain the Milan as an ongoing venture. Milan runs a modified version of TOS, v4.5. MiNT and Milan Multi OS 1.2 (an offshoot from N.AES) can be installed from the supplied CD-ROM to provide a multitasking environment. This combination will be competing head to head for users with MagiC. Sadly MagiC does not run on the Milan system and with many Atari "power users" raised on MagiC this is a major disappointment. DIY Milan At the heart of the Milan computer system is a motherboard which has sensibly been designed to plug straight into any standard PC AT case. ** BOX.GIF here Although most people will find it easier (and probably cheaper) to buy a complete Milan system from their local dealer I bought a motherboard kit and built the machine myself. So long as you grew up on Lego and you take anti-static precautions it's easier than installing a memory upgrade into an ST! In addition to the Milan motherboard kit you'll need: ** UL ** * Standard PC AT case * PCI graphics card * HD floppy drive mechanism * IDE hard drive (optional) * 16Mb (minimum) EDO 60ns (or faster) memory module * 2 button PS/2 mouse * Standard PC keyboard * IDE CD-ROM mechanism (optional) ** /UL ** The Milan motherboard includes four slots into which EDO memory can be installed. Bank 0 MUST be filled with a 16Mb or larger EDO memory module. The other three banks can be filled, or left empty, which means combinations from 16Mb up to 512Mb are possible. The motherboard is mounted in the case so the keyboard connector lines up with the hole to the rear of the case. After that it's a simple matter of plugging in a PCI graphics card, connecting up the cables, installing the floppy drive then booting the machine from the supplied Milan System floppy disk. If all goes well you should see the Milan boot screen followed by the Milan/TOS desktop in 640x480x2 resolution. Now I had a working system I proceeded to install a hard drive (IBM 520Mb) and CD-ROM (Creative Labs 24 speed) into the device bays using the supplied IDE ribbon cable to make a daisy-chain connection the primary IDE interface on the motherboard. All that remained was to connect the two serial and single parallel ribbon cables between the knockout panels on the rear of the case to the sockets on the motherboard. Unfortunately my parallel ribbon cable was too short - even though I was using the recommended case, and no "pillar" screws were provided to fix the sockets to the knockout panels, a black mark. There are three COM ports, COM2 and COM3 support 115k bps and COM1 is Atari MFP compatible and tops out at 19200 bps. The driver follows the HSMODEM conventions to access the higher speeds. Booting once again using the Milan System floppy HD-Driver (supplied) correctly logged the hard drive and CD-ROM and installed the freeware Spin! CD-ROM driver software and various other widgets before arriving at the TOS desktop once again. At this stage the manual suggests you copy everything from the MILANSYS folder on the CD to the root directory of drive C: - to install MiNT and Milan Multi OS. I did experience a few configuration problems but these were promptly diagnosed by the Milan tech support team and the CD-ROM has since been re-mastered with a GEM installer which should preclude the problems I experienced. Graphics I purchased a PCI S3 Trio V64+ graphics card with 2Mb video memory from Milan Computer Systems so I could be sure it would work with the Milan low level driver which offers a range of resolutions including: ** NP on ** ** UL ** * 800 x 600 x 16M >= 100 Hz * 1024 x 768 x 64k >= 96 Hz * 1152 x 864 x 64k >= 80 Hz * 1280 x 1024 x 256 >= 73 Hz * 1152 x 864 x Mono >= 96 Hz ** /UL ** There's ST-High support but no ST-Medium or ST-Low which rules out most auto-booting games. Most GEM based games including GEM Nethack and Desktop Solitaire, reviewed elsewhere this issue, run fine. ** GB_MILAN.GIF here ** caption ** Milan running at 800x600x256 colours clocks in around ten times faster than a Falcon running 640x480x256 colours ** /caption ** Hardware in the pipeline There's no built-in MIDI, SCSI or ROM ports but expansion cards for all three should be available by the time you're reading this along with other interesting cards including SoundBlaster, parallel port ZIP-Drive and Ultra wide SCSI cards - more details after Neuss when we'll have a clearer idea of exactly what is available. Software bundle Assuming the contents of the German Milan CD-ROM are made available in English the bundled software is very tempting indeed: ** UL ** * Papyrus 6: Home version, seems to be fully working minus the new HTML features * Texel 2.x: Home version, restricted to 64 lines x 32 columns and other minor limitations * HD-Driver 7.x: Full version, used as the hard disk driver * Ming v1.27: Full version, Milan's Thing variant * Milan Multi OS 1.2.x, multitasking OS * Draconis Internet Suite: Home version, only works on Milan, one browser window in browser, seriously crippled emailer * SMURF : Home version, 4 open images, file export limitations * Various demos and utilities ** /UL ** Compatibility As with all previous TOS releases there are some problems. With caches to manage and MiNT/Milan Multi OS to tweak there are so many configuration options it's going to take a while to get the best out of the system and iron out any remaining bugs in TOS. TOS is included on the motherboard on a 512k upgradeable Flash ROM which means it can be upgraded by running a utility program. Updates are maintained on the Milan web pages and I'm on my third revision this week - can you imagine Atari offering this level of support? The bottom line is we're still unfamiliar with the system and compatibility is going to improve so we're going to leave detailed what works and what doesn't discussions for the following issues. In the meantime on-liners can check out the compatibility list on the Milan web pages. The ST Yamaha sound chip is supported via the internal speaker and was put though its paces using Electronic Cow's Sound Chip Synth. However the internal speaker is more suited to beeps and squeaks than audio playback. Summary The Milan Computer System uses industry standard components to offer Atarians a value for money alternative to switching platforms. There are some exciting developments in the pipeline so only time will time tell exactly how the system will evolve. If you already own a PC why not rip out the motherboard and upgrade to a Milan motherboard? ** MILAN.JPG here --- ** boxout ** The Milan case ** CASE3.GIF here The case in the Milan ads are midi tower cases of superb build quality featuring rolled metal edges internally, plastic pop-off side panels and a sliding front cover. You can fit the Milan motherboard into any standard PC AT case but, paraphrasing a respected Atari dealer, these cases are the "dogs' danglies". ** /boxout ** ** boxout ** Inside Knowledge For anyone building a Milan from the motherboard kit, this is the information I had to find out that wasn't in the manual: ** UL ** * The two PC power supply blocks must be connected adjacent to each other on the motherboard with all the black wires together in the centre - the chances are you will damage the motherboard if they are plugged in the wrong way around. * Although most of the supplied cables can only be connected one way it's useful and reassuring to know the small squares on the Milan motherboard block diagrams denote PIN 1. * The manual doesn't indicate which way round the LED and reset cables should be oriented - probably because it's not a serious problem if you connect them the wrong way round. Simply reverse them until they work. * There's nothing in the manual about mounting the motherboard in a PC case or which holes and fixings should be used. You need to position the motherboard so the keyboard socket lines up with the hole in the rear of the case then look through the motherboard holes to see which line up with threaded holes in the case (three lined up in my case). Screw 6mm (brass) pillars into the case then fix the motherboard to these using plastic washers above and below the motherboard. * The supplied floppy drive ribbon cable has various connectors. Note one section of the cable has been reversed. If your floppy drive doesn't work try the connector the opposite side of the reversed cable section. ** CASE1.GIF here Although to the best of our knowledge the information in this article is accurate neither the author, nor Atari Computing, accept any responsibility for any damage caused directly or indirectly from this article. ** /boxout ** ** product ** Milan Manufacturer Milan-Computersystems GbR Moorbl”cken 17, 24149 Kiel, Germany Tel: +49 (0)431 3099034 Fax: +49 (0)431 2099035 Email: Thomas.Raukamp@t-online.de http://www.milan.computer.de/ UK Dealers Titan Designs 6 Witherford Way, Selly Oak, Birmingham, B29 4AX Tel: +44 (0)121 693 6669 Fax: +44 (0)121 414 1630 Email: sales@titan-bss.co.uk http://www.titan-bss.co.uk System Solutions Sales office: 119 Arthur Road, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1RU Fax: +44 (0)1753 830433 Tel: +44 (0)1753 832212 Head office: 17-19 Blackwater Street, East Dulwich, London, SE22 8RS Tel: +44 (0)181 693 3355 Fax: +44 (0)181 693 6936 Email: sales@system-solutions.co.uk Cost Depends on specification - contact dealers for quotations ** /product boxout **