website/content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a4000.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Acorn Computer Archimedes A4000	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1992	ARM 250 32 bit RISC	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos hardware emulators links docs related oc_id source Archimedes A4000 /media/museum/photos/acorn_a4000_running_s1.jpg /companies/acorn-computer Acorn Computer label value NAME Archimedes A4000 label value MANUFACTURER Acorn Computer label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR september 1992 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE BBC BASIC label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke PC 102 keys style label value CPU ARM 250 32 bit RISC label value SPEED 12 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR MEMC (memory), VIDC (Video and Sound), IOC (I/O) label value RAM 2 to 4 MB label value ROM 2 MB label value TEXT MODES Up to 132 columns x 32 rows label value GRAPHIC MODES VGA video output. Several graphic modes. Among them 640 x 256 or 512 pixels label value COLORS Palette of 4096 colours label value SOUND 8 voices synthesizer label value I/O PORTS Centronics, RS423, VGA, 1 expansion slot (same as A3000, A3010 and A3020) label value BUILT IN MEDIA One 3.5'' FDD, 0 to 210 MB HDD label value OS RISC OS 3.11 label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PRICE Approx. £800 photos hardware emulators links docs 692 title subtitle text image LARGE VIEW /media/museum/photos/acorn_a4000_running_s2.jpg title subtitle text image MAIN UNIT #1 /media/museum/photos/acorn_a4000_system_s2.jpg title subtitle text image MAIN UNIT #2 /media/museum/photos/acorn_a4000_system_s3.jpg title subtitle text image MAIN UNIT #3 /media/museum/photos/acorn_a4000_frontview_s1.jpg title subtitle text image CASE The A4000 case was a slim down version of the A5000's /media/museum/photos/acorn_a4000_a5000case_s1.jpg title subtitle text image REAR PANEL From left to right: • AC Power in/out sockets\ • Keyboard mini din connector\ • Parallel printer DB25 connector\ • Serial RS232 DB9 connector\ • Optional Econet DB15 connector\ • Stereo sound output jack\ • Standard DB15 video output\ • The Midi card provides Midi Thru, Midi in, Midi out and User port connectors. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a4000_rearcon_s1.jpg title subtitle text image OPENED Note the clipped hard disk and floppy disk drive and the Midi expansion card. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a4000_opened_s1.jpg title subtitle text image MOTHERBOARD **(1)** ARM 250 CPU\ **(2)** Expansion connectors\ **(3)** RISC OS 3.11 ROMs\ **(4)** Video and I/O custom chipset\ **(5)** 4 MB RAM chips (2 MB standard + 2 MB in DIP ICs)\ **(6)** FDD and HDD connectors. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a4000_mainboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image 486 CARD 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 /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a39000_486card_1.jpg title subtitle text image GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR 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** /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a5000_colorcard_1.jpg title subtitle text image CUMANA SCSI CARD 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** /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a5000_scsicard_1.jpg title subtitle text image SERIAL CARD 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. /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a5000_serialcard_1.jpg title subtitle text image MIDI CARD Allowed Archimedes systems to interact with any midi sound device. /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a4000_midicard_s1.jpg title url platform text Arculator http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/ Windows An excellent Windows-based Archimedes emulator, plays many games and has simple usage. title url platform text Red Squirrel http://www.red-squirrel.org/ Windows An Emulator of Arm based Acorn machines for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP title url platform text Virtual Acorn http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/ Windows Excellent but commercial software - £30 title url platform text ARCHIE http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/5427/ Multiplatform Archie is an emulation of the Acorn Archimedes hardware (A3xx/A4xx/A3xxx) for DOS/Windows title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com title url cover text TOM'S ARCHIMEDES DOCS (INTERNAL HARDWARE) http://b-em.bbcmicro.com/arculator/index.html /media/museum/docs/couvs/vide.gif [**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) /museum/acorn-computer-a4 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3000 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3010 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3020 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a5000 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a7000 709 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230202014543/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=709 2023-02-02

The Acorn A4000 was a slightly cheaper cut down A5000, with a shorter case, one expansion slot and an ARM250 processor.

Curiously, the machine had its floppy and hard drive fixed to the chassis with a wire clip which meant these could be quickly replaced without tools, whereas replacing the hard disk on the A5000 was a more fiddly operation requiring the expansion slot plane and the whole chassis holding the drives to be removed.

Many of the features (ARM250, VGA screen modes, RISC OS 3) of this model were implemented into the lower end A3010 and A3020 computers.

The keyboard was a much cheaper type more similar to a generic PC unit.

A rare 486 PC emulator on a card was available, similar cards became popular on the later RISC PC models.

Information supplied by Jonathan Hayward