The 130XE (XE stands for XL-Compatible Eight-bit) was announced in 1985 at the same time as the initial models in the Atari ST series, and it visually resembled the ST. The 130XE has 128 KB of memory, accessible through bank-selection and was aimed to appeal at the mass market.

The 130XE added the Enhanced Cartridge Interface (ECI), which is almost compatible with the Parallel Bus Interface (PBI), but physically smaller, since it is located next to the standard 400/800-compatible Cartridge Interface. It provides only those signals that did not exist in the latter. ECI peripherals were expected to plug into both the standard Cartridge Interface and the ECI port.