--- title: Acorn Computer Archimedes categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - United Kingdom years: - '1987' cpus: - ARM-2 32 bit RISC params: name: Archimedes image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_system_s1.jpg company: /companies/acorn-computer company_name: Acorn Computer specs: - label: NAME value: Archimedes - label: MANUFACTURER value: Acorn Computer - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: United Kingdom - label: YEAR value: '1987' - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1989' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: BBC BASIC V - label: KEYBOARD value: Complete 102 keys full-stroke keyboard - PC/AT layout - label: CPU value: ARM-2 32 bit RISC (ARM-3 in the A500 series) - label: SPEED value: 4 / 8 mHz - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: MEMC (memory), VIDC (Video and Sound), IOC (I/O) - label: RAM value: 512 KB (up to 16 MB) - label: ROM value: 512 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 132 chars. x 32 lines maximum - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: '21 screen modes, including: 640x480 (256 colours), 640 x 512 (256 colours), 800x600 (16 colours), 896x352 (256 colours), 1280x960 (monochrome)' - label: COLORS value: 256 maximum - label: SOUND value: 8 voices - label: I/O PORTS value: Centronics, RS423, Video composite, RGB, Econet (network 250 KBits). Optional 4 expansion slots (podule slots), the 400/500 series came with 4 slots. - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: 800 KB 3.5'' floppy drive, 3.5'' disk-drive, from 20 to 53 MB - label: OS value: ARTHUR (and RISC OS later) - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Built-in switching power supply unit - label: PERIPHERALS value: Various expansion cards - label: PRICE value: 'A300: from $800 to £1200 - A400: up to £3150, depending on the monitor supplied' tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - emulators - links - docs forum_thread: 90 photos: - title: LARGE VIEW subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_leftside_s1.jpg - title: FRONT VIEW subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_frontside_s1.jpg - title: TOP VIEW subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_topview_s1.jpg - title: REAR SIDE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_rearside_s1.jpg - title: 440/I FRONT PANEL CLOSE-UP subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_frontpanel_s1.jpg - title: KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP subtitle: '' text: The keyboard has the same layout as a standard PC/AT keyboard with the addition of a reset switch, a mouse plug and a plastic stand which allowed users to insert command summaries for various programs. image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_keyboard_s1.jpg - title: REAR CONNECTORS subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Optional buffer card connector. Allows connection of an external 5.25" floppy disk unit.\ **(2)** Monochrome monitor Video and Sync jacks\ **(3)** Analog RGB video output DB9 plug\ **(4)** Serial DB9 plug\ **(5)** Stereo audio output jack\ **(6)** Parallel DB25 plug\ **(7)** Power in and out plugs and power switch image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_rearside_s2.jpg - title: INSIDE subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** Optional drive buffer\ **(2)** 4 expansion connectors back plane\ **(3)** The 440/I version shipped with a 53 MB HDD image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_inside_s1.jpg - title: MAINBOARD EXPLAINED subtitle: '' text: |- **(1)** 2 MB RAM chips (32 x 84256-10)\ **(2)** Memory controller custom chip (improved in the 400 series)\ **(3)** Acorn ARM-2 processor\ **(4)** Expansions back plane connecctor\ **(5)** RISC OS 3 and built-in programs ROM chips\ **(6)** Video controller custom chip\ **(7)** Econet card connector\ **(8)** I/O controller custom chip\ **(9)** MFM hard disk drive connectors. Up to 2 HDD can be connected\ **(10)** Floppy disk drive connector\ **(11)** HDD and FDD controller chips image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_mainboard_s1.jpg - title: ACORN MANUALS subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/acorn_archi440_manuals_s1.jpg adverts: - title: FIRST AD (SEPT. 87) subtitle: '' text: |- It is unlikely that this hideous advert helped early sales of the Archimedes.\ It said: Acorn are proud to announce the fastest micros in the world \* The Archimedes high performance Computer Systems \* Using a 32 bit RISC chip, Archimedes represents a breakthrough in microprocessing technology allowing a new order of magnitude in power... image: /media/museum/pubs/acorn_archimedes_pub_1.jpg hardware: - title: 486 CARD subtitle: '' text: Allowed Archimedes series computers to run 32-bit PC-DOS software. It was delivered with a manual, a driver disk and PC-DOS 6.3 image: /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a39000_486card_1.jpg - title: GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR subtitle: '' text: |- Graphics accelerator card (called "ColourCard") for A3000, Archimedes and A5000.\ Company : Computer Concepts\ Enhanced potential for Archimedes series including 15-bit desktop modes (i.e. 800\*600 @ 256 colours). Thanks to **Chris Syntichakis** image: /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a5000_colorcard_1.jpg - title: CUMANA SCSI CARD subtitle: '' text: |- 16-bit SCSI-1 card\ Company: Cumana.\ There are an external port for scanners/CD-ROM etc. and 2 internal ports for SCSI and Floptical drives. Thanks to **Chris Syntichakis** image: /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a5000_scsicard_1.jpg - title: SERIAL CARD subtitle: '' text: |- From Atomwide's site:\ High speed serial card featuring three ports, each in the shape of a standard 9-pin ‘D’ plug. Each port on the card is capable of running at up to 460,800 bits per second, and employs a 16-byte FIFO buffer to reduce loading on the host computer’s processor, so improving communications reliability. All serial cards are standard single-width podules, and are fully compatible with Atomwide 6 and 8-slot RiscPC backplanes. image: /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a5000_serialcard_1.jpg - title: MIDI CARD subtitle: '' text: Allowed Archimedes systems to interact with any midi sound device. image: /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a4000_midicard_s1.jpg emulators: - title: Archie url: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Campus/5427/ platform: MS DOS text: Archie is an emulation of the Acorn Archimedes hardware (A3xx/A4xx/A3xxx) for Dos/Windows - title: Arculator url: http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/ platform: Windows text: An excellent Windows-based Archimedes emulator, plays many games and has simple usage. - title: Red Squirrel url: http://www.red-squirrel.org/ platform: Windows text: A popular Archimedes emulator - title: Red Squirrel url: http://www.red-squirrel.org/ platform: Windows text: An Emulator of Arm based Acorn machines for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP - title: Virtual Acorn url: http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/ platform: Windows text: Excellent but commercial software - £30 - title: ARCHIE url: http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/5427/ platform: Multiplatform text: Archie is an emulation of the Acorn Archimedes hardware (A3xx/A4xx/A3xxx) for DOS/Windows links: - title: Wocki's Acorn-Site url: http://acorn.revivalteam.de/ text: Downloads for use with emulators and home of ArcDisc docs: - title: TOM'S ARCHIMEDES DOCS (INTERNAL HARDWARE) url: http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html cover: /media/museum/docs/couvs/vide.gif text: |- [**TOM'S ARCHIMEDES DOCS (INTERNAL HARDWARE)**](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html)written by Tom Mowalker  compiled/archived by Tom Mowalker\  type of document : HTML\  source : [Arculator](http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html) related: - /museum/acorn-computer-a4 - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3000 - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3010 - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3020 - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a4000 - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a5000 - /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a7000 oc_id: 75 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230609041933/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=75 date: '2023-06-09' --- The Archimedes was the first **RISC** home computer. There were three series, the **300**, **400** and **500** which shared the same hardware basis: the ARM-2 processor (ARM-3 for the A500) and three custom chips dedicated to memory (MEMC), video (VIDC) and I/O (IOC) controls. The ARM 2 RISC (8Mhz) had about 4 Mips, this means seven times faster than a Amiga 500 (68000 CPU)! The 300 series had 512 KB to 1 MB of memory and two expansion slots (64 pin). The 400 series had 1 to 4 MB of memory and four slots (three 64 pin and one 96 pin). The 500 series had 16 MB of RAM. The operating system, first named **Arthur** then subsequently **RiscOS**, was in ROM along with the WIMP graphic interface (Windows Menu Icon Pointer), the fast BBC BASIC V interpreter and various utility programs, among them a Paint package, a music editor and an [Acorn BBC model 2](/museum/acorn-computer-bbc-model-a-b-b/) emulator. The built-in 800 KB 3.5" floppy drive was compatible with the old 640 KB format. A lot of expansion cards were developed for the Archimedes : MIDI, SCSI, Oscilloscope, IEEE 488, speech recognition, scanner, floating point co-processor. Many programming languages were released as well : BASIC (which could be loaded from disk and ran faster than the ROM BASIC), C, Fortran 77, Pascal, Prolog and Lisp. Although it was at least two times faster than the Atari ST and Amiga models, the Archimedes had no real success because of its high price, except in its country of origin (Great Britain) where it was very well-known and commonly used (especially in schools). These computers were followed by a great family of computers called **RISC PC** which are still in production. Here are the different Archimedes A300 - A400 - A500 versions : **A305** - 512 KB RAM\ **A310** - 1 MB RAM\ **A410** - 1 MB RAM\ **A420** - 2 MB RAM, 20 MB Hard disk\ **A440** - 4 MB RAM, 40 MB Hard disk\ **A540** - 16 MB RAM, 120 MB Hard Disk
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