Deep Blue C is based on Ron Cain's public domain Small-C compiler, a subset of the C programming language,[1] modified by John Howard Palevich to run on Atari 8-bit hardware.
[1] As a proper subset of V7 Unix C, Deep Blue C code that does not use Atari 8-bit features can be compiled on other systems with the full language.
[4] The following language constructs are not supported:[5] Other non-standard properties of Deep Blue C: The p-code that the compiler produces is slower than native binary.
[4] Antic thought that Deep Blue C's use of p-code was acceptable given Atari's hardware limitations.
The magazine praised Palevich for publishing the source code, and recommended purchasing it with the compiler for study and customization alongside The C Programming Language.