This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Atari  ST BOOK computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

I am the proud owner of this marvel. At my knowledge, only 47 models have been built for sale in France (AZERTY keyboard ?), all distributed by "Informatique $ Nature". This is mainly a prototype material.

I can confirm that the same interface port can be used for a ACSI/DMA device or a dedicated floppy.

I still own the dedicated DMA cable but I don''t remember to ever have used it.

I still own the dedicated external 1.44 floppy drive that was also distributed by "Informatique $ Nature".

The ST-BOOK appendum describes the following options :
- External floppy disk (no mention of 1.44Mb)
- Midi cables (from mini-DIN to DIN)
- Serial transfer cable (similar as null modem but I don''t own the original)
- Keyboard cable (unfortunately, I don''t own it) to connect a MegaST, MegaSTE or TT keyboard - It disables "vector pad" and allow the use of normal mouse or joystick
- Cardrige port
- Mouse/Joystick interface

Currently, original HDD gives weakness symptoms and orginal battery is dead.

Link: That dark strip down the left side of the screen did absolutely nothing.

Me interesa todo lo que sea en relacion con ATARI gracias y ATARFOREVER

The ACSI interface was not the same as the one on the ST/TT as it also included the floppy control lines.

However other than a plastic box, no floppy drive was evr made for this by Atari.

The long edge connector also had nothing made for it, though it was pin compatible with the expansion connector on the ST Pad (Also never released)

No, it's definately ACSI - it was a butchered-up varient of SCSI. If you wanted to use a SCSI harddrive with an atari, you had to buy a third-party circuitboard to do translation.

What did that dark strip down the left side of the screen do? Anything?

Erm... I think it's a little error in the text where it says that the external floppy drives were weird and used the same interface as Atari's desktops (ASCI).

I believe the correct terms is SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) which is still current technology and in use in many high end applications and is in many ways superior to the more common IDE architecture. The terms ASCI is a new one on me but I've heard of something called ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange- I think) which is something else entirely.

Or am I wrong? Can somebody please clarify?

I just found some answers at another web site.
Size: 36x279x216 mm (A4, 36mm thick)
Weight: approx. 2 Kg
Battery life: 5 hours on seven AA alkaline cells or 10 hours on the optional NiCd battery.

What are the ST-Book's dimensions?
How much does it weigh?
How long is its battery life?