''Mapping the Atari'', written by Ian Chadwick and published by COMPUTE! Publications in 1983, is a location-by-location explanation of the memory layout of the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. The introduction is by

Optimized Systems Software Optimized Systems Software (OSS) was a company that produced disk operating systems, programming languages with integrated development environments, and applications primarily for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. OSS was best known f ...

co-founder Bill Wilkinson. The book covers the 64K address space of the system's

6502 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...

processor from low to high, including addresses used by the operating system or mapped to hardware registers, as well as how to use them. For example, location 756 (2F4) CHBAS contains the starting memory address that tells

ANTIC Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977-1978 by ...

where to find the character set. The author explains how to use this feature to build custom

character set Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to graphical characters, especially the written characters of human language, allowing them to be stored, transmitted, and transformed using digital computers. The numerical values tha ...

s. An updated version covering changes to the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

and newer machines like the 130XE followed in 1985. ''

Antic Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977-1978 by ...

'' magazine serialized the book in 1989 and 1990.

Reception

''The

Addison-Wesley Addison-Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson PLC, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison-Wesley also distributes its technical titles throu ...

Book of Atari Software 1984'' recommended ''Mapping the Atari'', calling it "the most valuable reference book for machine language programmers". ''Antic'' stated when serializing the book:

References

External links

*{{IA, ataribooks-mapping-the-atari, ''Mapping the Atari'' 1983 non-fiction books Atari 8-bit family Computer books