page_title: Atari 7800
section_title: Technical specifications
hierarchical_section_title: Atari 7800 / Technical specifications
caption_attribution_description: The motherboard of a PAL Atari 7800 that has been officially modded to display RGB for the French market.
context_page_description: The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by the Atari Corporation in 1986. It is almost fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600, the first console to have backward compatibility without the use of additional modules. It was considered affordable at a price of US$140.
  The 7800 has significantly improved graphics hardware over the 2600 but uses the same audio chip. It shipped with a different model of joystick from the 2600-standard CX40 and Pole Position II as the pack-in game. Most of the announced titles at launch were ports of 1981-83 arcade games.
  The 1986 launch is sometimes referred to as a "re-release" or "relaunch" because the Atari 7800 had originally been announced on May 21, 1984, to replace Atari Inc.'s Atari 5200, but a general release was shelved due to the sale of the company.
context_section_description: CPU: Atari SALLY 6502 ("6502C")
  1.79 MHz, which drops to 1.19 MHz when the TIA Television Interface Adaptor or RIOT (6532 RAM-I/O-Timer) chips are accessed
  Unlike a standard 6502, SALLY can be halted to let other devices control the bus.
  RAM: 4 KB (2 6116 2Kx8 RAM ICs)
  ROM: built in 4 KB BIOS ROM, 48 KB Cartridge ROM space without bank switching
  Graphics: MARIA custom chip
  Resolution: 160×240 (160×288 PAL) or 320×240 (320×288 PAL)
  Color palette: 256 (16 hues * 16 luma), different graphics modes restricted the number of usable colors and the number of colors per sprite
  Direct Memory Access (DMA)
  Graphics clock: 7.15 MHz
  Line buffer: 200 bytes (double buffering), 160 sprite pixels per scanline, up to 30 sprites per scanline (without background), up to 100 sprites on screen
  Sprite/zone sizes: 4 to 160 width, height of 4, 8 or 16 pixels
  Colors per sprite: 1 to 12 (1 to 8 visible colors, 1 to 4 transparency bits)
  I/O: Joystick and console switch IO handled by 6532 RIOT and TIA
  Ports
  2 joystick ports
  cartridge port
  expansion connector
  power in
  RF output
  Sound: TIA as used in the 2600 for video and sound. In 7800 mode it is only used for sound.
  At least two games include a POKEY sound chip for improved audio.
caption: European motherboard modified by Atari to output RGB though a SCART connector
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