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SIO2PC and 10502PC hardware come in either RS232 Serial or USB Serial formats.

Why buy RS232 instead of USB when the latter is the newer technology?

Consider these:

Compatibility & Freedom of Choice: A Serial Interface has a wider range of software support. You can choose which software to use. A USB interface on the other hand uses proprietary software and there are no alternatives available at this time.

Cost: RS232 technology has been around for a long time and the cost of the components to build an RS232 device is lower, thus the ownership of such a device is more affordable. You have the option of using public domain emulation software thus keeping the cost of ownership down.

Return on your hardware investment: is higher with a serial interface. You can use and dedicate your legacy PC to serve your Atari on a full time basis (even an Intel 286 based PC will do a good job of emulating Atari Peripherals). You can run server software such as a bulletin board on your Atari without tying up expensive PC hardware, and put that old legacy PC to productive use instead of letting it collect dust in the attic.

And for the most important reason of all, using vintage hardware is simply more fun!
If it wasn't, why would you still keep your 8 bit..

 

Home of the custom SIO2PC/10502PC Serial Interfaces for the

ATARI 8 bit Computers

SIO2PC /10502PC are two simple yet very important hardware upgrades that give your 8 bit Atari computer a new lease in life. They are two small devices that connect your Atari or your 810/1050 drive to a PC using their SIO port and the COM port on the personal computer.

With SIO2PC, the personal computer acts as a peripheral to the Atari, just like your disk or tape drive. In this case however the PC is seen by your Atari as a large and fast disk drive, actually up to 8 large disk drives. With the appropriate emulation software you can boot your Atari from one of those high speed drives (up to 3x faster than your regular floppy) and use the other 7 to store/retrieve/archive your software and your data. No more long waits for your favorite game/application to load or DOS to boot. No more flipping through 100's of floppies. It puts your whole library of ATARI software online, ready to be used by a few clicks of the mouse.  And with most of the Atari software now in public domain, you can download and enjoy all those titles you never had a chance before.

You can also use the internet connection of your PC as a virtual modem to the Atari communication programs, and print to the printers connected to the PC from your Atari software.

With 10502PC, and the appropriate emulation software the personal computer can access your Atari drive to copy files or whole disks into Atari disk images. Not only your regular disks, but also copy protected disks can be copied and stored in the PC's large hard drive and later accessed from your Atari through SIO2PC just like you would normally access them from your real Atari drive. The emulation software can even emulate the copy protection schemes found on the copied Atari disks. 10502PC can also be used to write (unprotected) disk images back to a real floppy.

As you can see those two hardware devices can breath a new life into your aging favorite home computer, just as you thought that they are now completely obsolete.

So don't miss out the fun, get your hardware custom built and delivered to your door in just a few days.

If you're new to the concept of using a PC as an Atari peripheral emulator please see this page for more in-depth information. Note that SIO2PC has evolved since that page was written but the basic idea behind it remains the same and lives through this day.

If you're familiar with either or both hardware, then you will be pleased to know that now you can custom build one to your needs, through our "Build your own SIO2PC" or "Build your own 10502PC"  pages.