DFM -- DATABASE SUB-COMMITTEE

                      Summary of First Meeting -- 6/13/90
                                 J. Ray 6/14/90

         Attendees: Jed Margolin, Rick Moncrief, Tim Hubberstey, Sam
              Lee, Pat McCarthy, Jeff Bell, Mike Jang, Art Jackson,
              Tom Smith, John Ray

         Preferred Parts List (PPL)

              We agreed that a PPL is important and that we want to do
              it. It will be an additional data base that is just a
              list of part numbers that are preferred. Designers
              should use parts from this list when reasonable, but
              they may use parts from the "Active" parts list without
              any special approval process.

              We discussed methods for getting parts on to and off of
              the PPL. Rick Meyette and the Components Engineer will
              be involved in further discussions on this topic. The
              ideas that were suggested are:

              The initial PPL:

                   We will generate a list of parts called out on
                   games in production during the last year. Parts on
                   this list will be crossed out by a group of
                   interested people (designers, component engineers),
                   based upon standardizing on RAM speeds, etc. The
                   remaining list will become the PPL.

              Adding/deleting parts to/from PPL:

                   Approximately once per quarter, the interested
                   group will get together to discuss additions and
                   deletions. The candidates for addition are new
                   parts during the last quarter and any other parts
                   the interested persons would like considered.

                   The candidates for deletion are any parts not used
                   in production during the past year and any other
                   parts the interested persons would like considered.

              This procedure should be finalized by July 13. The
              initial list of parts should be generated and reviewed
              by July 27. The PPL should be implemented by August 17.

         Designer's Tools

              There are two phases of design that need to be
              addressed.  The first phase is in searching through the
              data base to see what the possible parts are, and
              tagging those that should be considered in the second
              phase.  For this first phase, we discussed the "Generic"
              field vs.  the "Description" field.  We felt that if we
              could make the Description field consistent and
              complete, we would not need the Generic field.  Tom
              Smith proposed that we look at the IEEE standard for
              descriptions.

              Assuming Component Engineering agrees with this
              decision, I would like to task them to come up with a
              standard for descriptions by August 10. (Ideally, it
              would be an industry standard that is already well-
              documented and de-bugged.) This standard should be
              approved by this committee by August 17.  All new parts
              will be assigned descriptions according to the standard.
              Preferred parts should have the new descriptions (where
              required) by October 1. The remaining parts should
              receive new descriptions on an ongoing basis until
              completed.

              The second phase of design that needs to be addressed is
              in viewing pertinent information about those parts
              selected in the first phase.

              There is a great deal of information useful to the
              designers in the AVL and MANMAN. We discussed ways to
              make this more accessible. Pat McCarthy will put
              together a list of what is available vs. what is
              desired. The interested parties will meet and finalize
              what should be done. Some of the possibilities are:

                   Write a special program for the designers that
                   quickly displays the info. they need.

                   Document the programs that are available so that
                   more people can use them.

                   Pull a subset of the database in to a text file
                   (weekly) that can be searched more quickly than the
                   data base.

              Pat should have his first pass list of available
              programs and desired features by July 9. He should get
              together with the interested parties and come up with
              the desired programs by July 16. Depending on the
              complexity, the programs could be ready by the end of
              August. Additional changes may be requested after using
              the new programs.

              Pat and Mike Jang should work together to determine what
              changes might be necessary to make the programs more
              useful to the Design Services groups.

         MANMAN Engineering

              With a smaller group (Smith, Jackson, McCarthy, Ray), we
              discussed the advantages MANMAN Engineering would
              provide.  The advantages are significant, and Tom Smith
              will document (as he has time) the specific advantages
              that would be beneficial to Atari. The cost is $12,000,
              which seemed to some to be a far better benefit/cost
              than the nifty new paper shredder.

         Please let me know if you feel any dates are unreasonable or
         have any corrections or additions to this summary.

         Thanks!!

         John