New Products for Old Computers

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Introduction

Since Acorn was broken up in 1998, a number of people and companies have continued to produce upgrades to help extend the life of aging Acorn Computers. In the last few years a number of upgrades have appeared for BBC Micros and Master 128s as well as for RISC OS computers. The Acorn magazine and internet news sites are slowly consolidating or disappearing. Many of the upgrades come from individuals, who may not have the resources for a lot of advertising, so that if you miss the announcement because it is not announced in Archive, or c.s.a.announce etc. , you may miss the product entirely. Because these are small producers, products may be made in small batches or even on demand which may result in some unavailability or delays.

This is an index for some of these products and links to the producers' sites so you can order them, help sustain a market and prolong the life of your computer. BTW I will be breaking my rule here and including products I do not personally own to ensure they are documented, the ones I do own will also appear in 8bit Upgrades or 32bit Upgrades.

If you have, or know of, a hardware product which you think ought to be included here, please email me at:

Where to buy

There are a number of places to buy upgrades, these include:

• The producer's website, I will include URLs where I can for all listed products
• Ebay auctions, many producers sell on ebay using "Buy IT Now" in category "computing > vintage computing" or similar.
• Computer shows. There are still Acorn computer shows, both traditional shows like Wakefield, and new retro shows like Acorn World 2009. (I usually advertise them on my home page).
• Most products are announced in Comp.Sys.Acorn.Announce or Comp.Sys.Acorn.Hardware newsgroups with details of how to buy.

BBC Micro & Master Upgrades (8-bit)

Networking (includes Econet and Ethernet)

• BeebMaster Econet Clock box
• BeebMaster Econet Module  (for the Master and most Archimedes)
• BeebMaster Econet Upgrade kit  (for BBC Model A and B)
• Sprow's Master 10/100 Net ethernet module  (for the Master and Master Compact)

Memory (including ROMs and RAM)

• Ctorwy31 Switchable Master 128 MOS OS ROM 3.20/3.50   (for Master)
• Ctorwy31 BBC 128K Sideways RAM
• Ctorwy31 BBC Master ROM RAM cartridge card  (for Master)
•  Martin Barr RAMagic! 
• RetroClinic Master 128 Replacement CMOS Battery
• RetroClinic BBC Model B ZIF socket Kit
• RetroClinic DualOS  (for Master)
• Sprow's Doomsday ROM
• Sprow's DOSFS ROM

Speech

• Sprow's reprogrammable speech upgrade for the BBC Model B & B+ 

Storage (Disc controllers and memory cards)

• BeebMaster 8271 Disc Upgrade kit  (for BBC Model B)
• Ctorwy31 BBC solid state disk drive  (for BBC Model B, B+ and Master)
• J.G.Harston BBC IDE Controller (for the BBC Micro)
• J.Kortink GoMMC  (for the BBC Micro, Master 128 and Electron(?)
• RetroClinic BBC 8 Bit IDE Interface  (for BBC Model B, B+ and Master 128)
• RetroClinic DataCentre  (for BBC Model B, B+ and Master 128)
• RetroClinic External Datacentre USB kit  (for BBC Model B, B+ and Master 128)
• RetroClinic External Dual Removable CF Hard Drive Kit  (for the BBC Model B, B+ and Master)
• RetroClinic Internal Compact Flash Hard Drive Kit  (for the BBC Model B, B+ and Master 128)

Second and co-processors

• J.Kortink ReCo6502 external second processor  (for BBC Micro or Master 128)
• J.Kortink ReTuLa (for BBC Micro or Master & second processor)
• Sprow's ARM7 ARMCoPro  (for the BBC Micro and Master 128)

Documentation

• RetroClinic BBC User Guide and Advanced User Guide
•  RetroClinic Manual reprints  (for the BBC Micro)

RISC OS Upgrades (32-bit)

Graphics cards

• John Kortink Viewfinder  (for Risc PC)