Atari Lynx - Technical Specifications

Technical Specifications

• MOS 65SC02 processor running at up to 4 MHz (~3.6 MHz average)
  • 8-bit CPU, 16-bit address space
• Sound engine
  • 4 channel sound (Lynx II with panning)
  • 8-bit DAC for each channel (4 channels × 8-bits/channel = 32 bits commonly quoted)
• Video DMA driver for liquid-crystal display
  • 4,096 color (12-bit) palette
  • 16 simultaneous colors (4 bits) from palette per scanline (more than 16 colors can be displayed by changing palettes after each scanline)
• Suzy (16-bit custom CMOS chip running at 16 MHz)
  • Graphics engine
    • Hardware drawing support
    • Unlimited number of high-speed sprites with collision detection
    • Hardware high-speed sprite scaling, distortion, and tilting effects
    • Hardware decoding of compressed sprite data
    • Hardware clipping and multi-directional scrolling
    • Variable frame rate (up to 75 frames/second)
    • 160 × 102 standard resolution (16,320 addressable pixels)
  • Math co-processor
    • Hardware 16-bit × 16-bit → 32-bit multiply with optional accumulation; 32-bit ÷ 16-bit → 16-bit divide
    • Parallel processing of CPU and a single multiply or a divide instruction
• RAM: 64 KB 120ns DRAM
• Storage
  • Cartridge - 128, 256 and 512 KB exist, up to 2 MB is possible with bank-switching logic.
  • Some (homebrew) carts with EEPROM to save hi-scores.
• Other System Support
  • 8 System timers (2 reserved for LCD timing, one for UART)
  • Interrupt controller
  • UART (for Comlynx) (fixed format 8E1, up to 62500 Bd)
  • 512 bytes of bootstrap and game-card loading ROM
• Ports:
  • Headphone port (3.5 mm stereo; wired for mono on the original Lynx)
  • Comlynx (multiple unit communications, serial)
• LCD Screen: 3.5" diagonal
• Battery holder (six AA) ~4–5 hours (Lynx I) ~5–6 hours (Lynx II)