[3] By 1986 software companies began producing fewer titles for the Atari 8-bit computers than for the Apple II or Commodore 64.
In addition to the buffered reading and writing with zero latency and faster serial I/O, it made backups of floppies.
In addition to the buffered reading and writing with zero latency and faster serial I/O, it made backups of floppies.
[1][2] Brian Moriarty of ANALOG Computing wrote in 1983 that the magazine was reluctant to publish reviews or advertisements of the 810 Enhancement "because of its unique potential for misuse", but after testing the board "decided that the legitimate performance benefits it offers are too significant to ignore".
Moriarty's tests confirmed the company's claim that the board and accompanying Happy Backup software could duplicate any disk readable by the Atari 810 drive.
Moriarty concluded, "I hope the ATARI community will not abuse this power by using the Happy drive (and other similar products) to infringe on the rights of others".
In addition to the buffered reading and writing with zero latency and faster serial I/O, it supported true double density (180 KB).
There was also a battery backed up Time of Day clock option in the Discovery Cartridge, a significant oversight the Atari ST lacked in the stock configuration.
[1][2][8] The power of the "HART" chip (Happy Atari Rotating Thing), designed by Richard Adams, allowed standard Atari drives to read the unusual Macintosh variable speed disks without needing a variable speed drive.
The HART chip (IC number HARTD1©87HCI) also allowed copying conventional ST disks much faster.