Acorn Risc PC 700

[Risc PC Computers]     [Computers ] 

Introduction

The Risc PC 700 was launched in July 1995, it featured the faster 40MHz ARM710 CPU, RISC OS 3.60, more memory, VRAM as standard, 16 bit sound and bigger hard discs. The ARM710 gave approximately 40% improvement over the original Risc PC 600. Some of the models were:

• ACB70 - 4MB, 1MB VRAM, 425MB hard disc
• ACB71 - 4MB, 1MB VRAM, 425MB hard disc, CD-ROM
• ACB75 - 8MB, 2MB VRAM, 850MB hard disc
• ACB75A - 8MB, 2MB VRAM, 1GB hard disc
• ACB75B - 8MB, 2MB VRAM, 1GB hard disc
• ACB76 - 8MB, 2MB VRAM, 850MB hard disc, CD-ROM
• ACB76A - 8MB, 2MB VRAM, 1GB hard disc, CD-ROM x 4
• ACB76B - 8MB, 2MB VRAM, 1GB hard disc, CD-ROM
• ACB77 - 4MB, 1MB VRAM, 540MB hard disc
• ACB77A - 4MB, 1MB VRAM, 540MB hard disc, CD-ROM
• ACB77B - 4MB, 1MB VRAM, 540MB hard disc
• ACB78 - 4MB, 1MB VRAM, 540MB hard disc, CD-ROM x 4
• ACB78B - 4MB, 1MB VRAM, 540MB hard disc. CD-ROM x 4
• ACB96 - 8MB, 2MB VRAM, 850MB hard disc X System

Documents and Manuals

Here is the Acorn promotional brochure APP890 New Generation Risc PC.

For other Risc PC documents see Risc PC Computers .

Risc PC 700 (1)

I bought my RiscPC 700s in 2004 from an ex-Acorn employee. This Risc PC 700 has an Acorn 40MHz ARM710 CPU , an Acorn ACA57 100MHz 5x86 PC card. and an Acorn Risc PC 2 slot backplane.
 
Here are some photographs of the Risc PC 700:

 RiscPC 700 running RISC OS 3.70

Risc PC 700 (front)

Risc PC 700 front view showing the Risc PC 700 logo on the left and the power on button at the bottom right.

Risc PC 700 (back)

Risc PC 700 rear view showing the podule blanking plates at the top left with the serial number to the right. The interface ports are on the bottom, from left to right: reset button, audio out, video, keyboard, mouse, blank plate for network card, parallel and serial ports.

Risc PC 700 with top cover removed

Risc PC 700, seen from the right hand side with top cover removed, showing the power supply at the bottom, the floppy disc drive in the middle left with the RAM and VRAM card visible to its right. At the top the CD-ROM drive is on the left with the CPU cards to the right. The blue heat sink of the ACA57 586 PC card is just visible.

Risc PC 700 without CPU cards

Risc PC 700, seen from the back with the CPU cards removed, showing the RAM SIMMS in the middle and the VRAM SIMM in front. On the bottom left the 2 large chips are the RISC OS 3.70 ROMs, the 2 connectors above them are for the CPU cards.

RiscPC 700 minus first case slice

Risc PC 700 with the case "slice" removed together with the CD-ROM and floppy drives. On the left hand side, from the bottom, is the hard disc, the IDE connector is immediately above, togther with the floppy drive connector. The square chip is the IOMD. Above the IOMD are the connectors for the CPU cards and finally the RISC OS 3.70 ROMs. In the middle, on the motherboard is the brown slot for the backplane, with the 2 RAM SIMMS above. Next is the VRAM DIMM and above it, the square chip is the VIDC20. The connector to the left of the VIDC is for the network card.

Risc PC 700 motherboard

A close up of the Risc PC 700 motherboard.

Risc PC 700 (2)

My second Risc PC 700 is a 2 slice Risc PC with a 4 slot backplane and a Acorn AEH62 Ethernet Adaptor. The CPU card has been upgraded from an ARM710 CPU to a StrongARM 233MHz CPU card. The operating system has been upgraded to RISC OS 4.02. I was going to add extra discs in the second slice and use it as a file server but have never got round to doing so.
 
Here are some pictures:

 Acorn 2 slice Risc PC 700 (front)

 Acorn 2 slice Risc PC (right)

 Acorn 2 slice Risc PC 700 (back)

Risc PC 700 back view showing the podule slots with the blanking plates missing on both slices. On the bottom slice, the serial number is on the right. The interface ports are along the bottom, from left to right: reset button, audio out, video, keyboard, mouse, network adaptor with BNC and RJ45 connectors, parallel and serial ports.

 Acorn 2 slice Risc PC 700 (bottom)

On the left you can just see the safety instructions in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Acorn 2 slice Risc PC 700 with the top cover removed 

This picture shows the empty second slice with the top of the 4 slot backplane sticking up from the base.

 Acorn 2 slice Risc PC 700 with second slice removed.

The second slice and 4 slot backplane have been removed.

 Acorn Risc PC 700 with both slices removed

This shows the 1 GB hard disc at the front, the power supply and fan on the right and the motherboard at the back. The CPU card is a StorngARM 233MHz card.

 Acorn Risc PC 700 motherboard 

The Risc PC 700 motherboard with 2 MB VRAM and 64MB RAM fitted.
 
Here is a HiRes picture of the Risc PC 700 motherboard .

Risc PC 700 (3)

My third Risc PC 700 is a late model (ACB75B) with a 40 MHz ARM710 CPU, 2MB VRAM and 64MB RAM. It has a 1GB hard disc and an i-cubed EtherLAN 600 network card.
 
Here are some photographs of my third Risc PC 700:

 Risc PC 700 - ACB75B

Another Risc PC, this is an ACB75B with an AKF60 monitor running RISCOS 3.60.

Risc PC 700 - ACB75B - front view

The front view of a Risc PC 700 (ACB75B), note that the logo on the flap now simply says RiscPC.

 Risc PC 700 - ACB75B - back view

Risc PC 700 (ACB75B) back view, you can see the product code in the serial number on the right. This Risc PC has its original blanking plates.

Risc PC 700 - ACB75B - open

Risc PC 700 (ACB75B) with the top off. This model did not have a CDROM drive. The ARM710 CPU is on the top left with the i-cubed Network Interface above and to its right.

Risc PC 700 - ACB75B - motherboard

Risc PC 700 (ACB75B) with the first slice removed along with the floppy drive. At the bottom left is the 1GB Seagate hard disc with the onboard IDE and floppy socket above it. The 2 CPU sockets are near the top on the left with the RISC OS 3.60 ROMs above them. The i-cube EtherLAN600 is in the middle at the top. The 2MB VRAM is below the NIC and to the right, with the memory SIMMS below.

Specification: