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 company company_name specs tabs photos hardware emulators links docs comments related oc_id source Archimedes A4000 /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 title subtitle text image LARGE VIEW null title subtitle text image MAIN UNIT #1 null title subtitle text image MAIN UNIT #2 null title subtitle text image MAIN UNIT #3 null title subtitle text image CASE The A4000 case was a slim down version of the A5000's null 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. null title subtitle text image OPENED Note the clipped hard disk and floppy disk drive and the Midi expansion card. null 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. null 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 null 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** null 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** null 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. null title subtitle text image MIDI CARD Allowed Archimedes systems to interact with any midi sound device. null 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) author date text Chris (UK) Tuesday 1st February 2011 Hi,\ My old A4000 is sick, when it is booting there is a message "Internal error: undefined instruction at $03877AC8" does anyone have any clues about this ?? Is it corruption on hard drive or does this indicate hardware problems? or is the old machine on the way to the scrap yard? author date text Dean Graham (Selby, UK) Saturday 27th November 2010 Hi Jamie, Thank you for your post! Im pleased to report I got the A4000 up and running and it now has an A3000 to keep it company. Cheers, Dean author date text Jamie Monday 22nd November 2010 Dean:- You are probably not going to see this but yes it will work with a VGA monitor. PS2 Keyboard and mouse? I dont know author date text Bernadette (England) Friday 23rd May 2008 My primary school had one of these, only one! I can't believe the difference ten to fifteen years makes, now my little sister goes to the same school and they have a computer suite with about twenty brand new PCs with broadband internet. (I am 25 and she is 8)\ I remember my teacher showing me how to make pie charts on it, i think thats all we used it for! author date text Dean Graham (Selby, UK) Thursday 23rd February 2006 Hi, I have an A4000 base unit only and would like to know if it will work ok with a standard PS2 keyboard, mouse and VGA monitor? Any help would be greatly apprecaited. Many thanks, Dean author date text George (hialeah) Sunday 15th May 2005 woah, you are right. author date text Andy (England) Sunday 30th January 2005 Hi, It looks like I'm the first to post here! ok, I'm posting cos theres a couple of details I'm sure aren't completely right here... as far as I remember, the A4000 had an 18Mhz CPU (though the RAM ran at 12Mhz), and 2Mb ROM, and the version I had had a 40Mb harddisc - I don't know if they did models without a hard disc, though I doubt it, as this was the 2nd highest spec of the systems they were producing at the time. Please correct me if I'm wrong! /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