website/content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a5000.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Acorn Computer Archimedes A5000	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1991	ARM 3 32 bit RISC	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos adverts hardware emulators links docs related oc_id source Archimedes A5000 /media/museum/photos/acorn_a5000_system_s1.jpg /companies/acorn-computer Acorn Computer label value NAME Archimedes A5000 label value MANUFACTURER Acorn Computer label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR 1991 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE BBC BASIC V label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke 102 keys PC-style label value CPU ARM 3 32 bit RISC label value SPEED 25 or 33 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 80 columns x 25 rows up to 132 x 32 label value GRAPHIC MODES VGA video output. Several graphic modes. Among them 640 x 256 or 512 pixels label value COLORS 4096 label value SOUND 8 voices synthesizer label value SIZE / WEIGHT 43 (W) x 33.5 (D) x 9.8 (H) cm label value I/O PORTS Centronics, RS423, VGA, Econet, 4 expansion slots label value BUILT IN MEDIA 3.5'' FDD (800 KB, 1.44 MB and 1.6 MB formatted capacities), HDD from 20 MB label value OS RISC OS 3 then 3.11 (in ROM) label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PRICE From £1,000 to £1,800 photos adverts hardware emulators links docs 693 title subtitle text image MAIN UNIT Special thanks to **Jerome Mathevet** /media/museum/photos/acorn_a5000_system_s3.jpg title subtitle text image RUNNING When no hard disk is found, the A5000 offers several applications available in ROM: Hardware and peripherals configuration, Time and alarm, Editor, Calc, Paint and Draw programs, as well as a complete help system. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a5000_system_s2.jpg title subtitle text image KEYBOARD CLOSE UP Same keys layout as a standard PC-AT keyboard, apart from the Reset switch and mouse socket located on the back side. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a5000_keyboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image REAR PANEL An optional piggy-back card have to be installed to run the Econet network interface.\ The video socket is a standard 15-pin model.\ The parallel interface is bi-directional. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a5000_backside_s1.jpg title subtitle text image OPENED Note the 3.5" floppy drive (800 KB, 1.6 MB and 1.44 MB formatted capacities) and a Conner 420 MB IDE HDD. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a5000_opened_s1.jpg title subtitle text image MOTHERBOARD This version has 4 MB on-board RAM. It is also equipped with a dual card 8 MB RAM expansion. **(1)** I/O management VLSI custom chipset\ **(2)** VLSI custom video chipset\ **(3)** Econet card connector\ **(4)** 2 MB ROM chips. Hold the RISC OS 3 and several applications - Paint, Draw, utilities...\ **(5)** 8 MB expansion RAM chips\ **(6)** 4 MB on-board chips\ **(7)** ARM 3 processor, moved to the RAM expansion card\ **(8)** On-board memory management VLSI chipset\ **(9)** Second memory management chipset, specific to the RAM expansion card\ **(10)** Optional math coprocessor\ **(11)** IDE HDD and dual FDD connectors\ **(12)** HDD and FDD power leads. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a5000_inside_s1.jpg title subtitle text image RAM EXPANSION CLOSE-UP The RAM expansion is composed of two cards linked together by a flat cable:\ • The RAM card is connected to the expansion slot,\ • the CPU card is connected to the on-board CPU socket, the ARM CPU is thus moved to its new socket. The card also holds a specific memory management chipset. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a5000_cpuexp_s1.jpg title subtitle text image ENGLISH LEAFLET Intended for educational market. /media/museum/pubs/acorn_a5000_pub_1.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 subtitle text image RAM CARD 2MB RAM Expansion for A5000.\ Company: RISC Developments.\ To increase the max RAM to a total of 4MB. Thanks to **Chris Syntichakis** /media/museum/hardware/acorn_a5000_ramcard_1.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-a4000 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a7000 710 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230605132547/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=710 2023-06-05

The Acorn A5000 was an all new model of the Archimedes family replacing the A540. It had 4 slots like previous models but a larger wider case making it look like a workstation computer.

It was built on the new fast ARM3 processor as used in the A4 laptop. VGA output and new extra screen modes were introduced as well using cheap standardised IDE hard disks. The keyboard was the quality 'Brisbane' model as used on the previous high end Acorns. (Or could 'Brisbane' be the codename for the A5000, as I discovered it inside the keyboard PCB when I did some repairs on mine?)

Many A5000s were fitted with SCSI controller cards and used with caddy-type external CD ROM drives for multimedia applications.

Early models had just 2MB of RAM with a slot to allow a 4MB RAM card to be mounted on top. Later A5000s were slightly faster, had 4MB on the motherboard as standard and more generously sized hard disks.

There are rumours that some of the Liteon built Acorn AKF18 SVGA multisync monitors normally supplied with the A4000/A5000 were recalled as they could overheat and catch fire! :(

Information supplied by Jonathan Hayward