The Atari Glossary: "P"

PAM

PANTHER

In the late 80s, Atari was thinking about a new video-game-system with enhanced capabilities. They began to develop a new-generation 32bit video-game-system, code-named "Panther". The system never came to life, because the 64bit "Jaguar" took its place. >>jaguar

PIA

PROTOTYPE

A piece of hardware / software in its development stage. A lot of prototypes never made it to the market, especially at Atari. Atari was kind of a master of prototypes. >>loaner (cartridge)

POKEY

Digital I/O chip. Handles the serial I/O bus ("SIO"), audio generation, keyboard scan, and random number generation. Also digitizes the resistive paddle inputs and controls maskable interrupt (IRQ) requests from peripherals.

PONG