Archimedes

[Domesday]  [Computers]  [A3000  ]  

Introduction

By the mid 1980s Acorn realised that the 8bit 6502 processor was reaching the end of its useful life. Future computers would require more powerful processors with a greater memory address range. After approaching Intel for the 80286 core and being rebuffed, Acorn decided to develop their own processor. The story of the design and development is told elsewhere; but the result was the ARM processor (ARM stood for Acorn Risc Machine).

This first appeared as the ARM1 (without a multiply instruction) in the ARM Evaluation System [Wanted ], a BBC 2nd processor design in the standard cheese box.

Then the ARM1 was used in the A500  development system, The A500 was the development machine for all Archimedes family. Subsequently the A500s were upgraded with ARM2 CPUs. The ARM2 was used in the A300 , A400 , A400/1 ranges, R140  and A3000  before being replaced by the ARM3. The Archimedes was the world's first 32bit RISC workstation.

 Here is the brochure Archimedes High Performance Computer System:

Here are the Acorn Archimedes Pricing and Archimedes Retail Price List.

In August 1987 Personal Computer World published a review titled "Acorn Archimedes "

The following products were produced:

• n/a - A500 (prototype)
• AKB10 - A305 - 0.5MB, FD
• AKB15 - A310 - 1MB, FD
• AKB20 - A440 - 4MB, 20MB hard disc
• AKB26 - A410 - 1MB, FD (never produced?)
• AKB30 - A310M - Archimedes Music Workstation
• AKB40 - A410/1 - 1MB, FD
• AKB42 - A420/1 - 2MB, FD
• AKB44 - A440/1 - 4MB, 20MB hard disc
• AKB45 - A420/1 Learning Curve
• AKB46 - A440/1 Learning Curve
• AKB50 - A540