Acorn Archimedes (Platform)

Acorn Archimedes

PLATFORM» ACRN» June 1987

The Acorn Archimedes was a range of personal computers from Acorn Computers aimed at both educational and home use. It featured a 32-bit ARM processor and the RISC OS operating system.

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Overview

The Acorn Archimedes found success in the British education sector as it is the successor to the BBC Micro (Platform). The first models released were the A300 and A400 series. These featured an ARM processor, 512KB - 4MB of memory and 8-bit stereo sound. The machines were also capable of emulating BBC Basic and utilised a 3-button mouse as standard. Future models, such as the popular A3000, used the 8MHz ARM2 processor and then later the ARM3 at 25MHz.

The operating system, RISC OS (Reduced Instruction Set Computing Operating System), was stored in ROM which contributed to it's fast speed and other features such as true multi-tasking, context-sensitive menus and anti-aliasing. However, while the Archimedes range were more powerful than the currently available personal computers, they failed to garner much popularity outside of the UK, Ireland and Australasia.

Gaming

Despite a small market outside of education, there Acorn Archimedes boasts a solid video game library. Many games of the decade saw releases alongside the Amiga and PC such as Magic Pockets (Game) and Lemmings (Game). Aside from the multi-platform releases, the Acorn Archimedes was far from devoid of exclusive games. Starfighter 3000 (Game) is an example of a title that originated on the Archimedes and then saw later releases on the 3DO (Platform) and even the Playstation.

Post-Archimedes

The Acorn Archimedes lost popularity in schools in the 90s as other platforms such as Mac and PC improved their multimedia capabilities and programs such as "Computers for Schools" that were originally partnered with Acorn shifted away.

The Acorn RiscPC computers eventually replaced the Archimedes range, offering a dramatic increase in power, more expansion, dual processor slots.
While Acorn Computers Ltd split operations in 1998 and ceased trading in 2000, the operating system RISC OS perpetuates through releases of different variants from RISC OS Select, Adjust and 6. These current releases operate on the RiscPC generation and on modern hardware via a commercial emulator.

Models

Four models were initially released in 1987, followed by a number of variations with minor changes.

Model	CPU	RAM	Storage	Launch Date	Price
BBC Archimedes 305	ARM2	512 KB	None	July 1987	£799
BBC Archimedes 310	ARM2	1 MB	None	July 1987	£875
BBC Archimedes 310M	ARM2	1 MB	None	July 1987	£???
Acorn Archimedes 410	ARM2	1 MB	None	July 1987	£1,399
Acorn Archimedes 440	ARM2	4 MB	20 MB	July 1987	£2,299
BBC A3000	ARM2	1 MB	None	May 1989	£649
Acorn Archimedes 410/1	ARM2	1 MB	None	June 1989	£999
Acorn Archimedes 420/1	ARM2	2 MB	20 MB ST506	June 1989	£1,099
Acorn Archimedes 440/1	ARM2	4 MB	40 MB ST506	June 1989	£1,299
Acorn R140	ARM2	4 MB	47 MB ST506	June 1989	£3,500
Acorn Archimedes 540	ARM3	4 MB	100 MB SCSI	June 1989	£2,499
Acorn R225	ARM3	4 MB	None	July 1990	£3,000
Acorn R260	ARM3	8 MB	100 MB SCSI	July 1990	£5,000
Acorn A5000	ARM3	1 to 8 MB	20 to 160 MB IDE	September 1991	£999 or £1,499
Acorn A4	ARM3	2 or 4 MB	40 or 60 MB IDE	June 1992	£1,399 or £1,699
Acorn A3010	ARM250	1 MB	None	September 1992	£499
Acorn A3020	ARM250	2 MB	up to 80 MB IDE	September 1992	£799
Acorn A4000	ARM250	2 MB	up to 210 MB IDE	September 1992	£999

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