website/content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3000.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Acorn Computer Archimedes A3000	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1989	ARM 2 32 bit RISC	name image company company_name specs tabs photos hardware emulators links docs comments related oc_id source Archimedes A3000 /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3000_system_2.jpg /companies/acorn-computer Acorn Computer label value NAME Archimedes A3000 label value MANUFACTURER Acorn Computer label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR 1989 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE BBC BASIC label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke PC-AT style label value CPU ARM 2 32 bit RISC label value SPEED 4 / 8 mHz label value CO-PROCESSOR MEMC (memory), VIDC (Video and Sound), IOC (I/O) label value RAM 1Mb (up to 4Mb possible with slot in card) label value ROM 512 KB (RISC OS 2) 1Mb (RISC OS 3) label value TEXT MODES 132 x 32 maximum label value GRAPHIC MODES 21 label value COLORS 256 maximum label value SOUND 8 voices label value I/O PORTS Centronics, RS423, Video composite (monochrome only), RGB, optional Econet (network 250 KBits). 2 expansion slot (internal 8-bit and external 16-bit) label value BUILT IN MEDIA one 3.5'' 800k disk-drive label value OS RISC OS 2 (3.1 or later models, and most have been upgraded to v3) label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PRICE £650 photos hardware emulators links docs title subtitle text image ARCHIMEDES 3000 FAMILY /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3000_family_1.jpg title subtitle text image RIGHT SIDE /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3000_rightside_1.jpg title subtitle text image A3000 LOGO /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3000_keybcloseup_1.jpg title subtitle text image REAR CONNECTORS **(1)** 16-bit bus expansion connector compatible with both earlier and later Archimedes machines\ **(2)** Analogue RGB DB9 connector\ **(3)** Monochrome composite video RCA jack\ **(4)** Stereo headphone jack\ **(5)** Parallel printer DB25 connector\ **(6)** Serial DB9 connector. Two optional serial chips must be added before using this serial port!\ **(7)** Optional Econet network connector\ **(8)** Mouse connector located at the bottom of the case. Not very practical. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3000_back_1.jpg title subtitle text image UNCOVERED SYSTEM Notice the two loudspeakers (black and white leads), and the poor cardboard power supply protector. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3000_uncovered_1.jpg title subtitle text image MAIN BOARD **(1)** The switching power supply unit was made in Taiwan. It is normally covered with a cardboard protector\ **(2)** Keyboard connectors\ **(3)** Custom sound chip made by Philips\ **(4)** Desktop preferences backup battery\ **(5)** RISC-OS 3 ROM chips (4 x 128 KB)\ **(6)** I/O custom chip (IOC). All other custom chips were made by VLSI\ **(7)** 1 MB RAM Dip chips\ **(8)** Floppy disk-drive connector\ **(9)** RISC ARM 2 processor\ **(10)** 1 MB RAM expansion module\ **(11)** Memory management custom chip (MEMC)\ **(12)** Video management custom chip (VIDC)\ **(13)** Reset switch /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3000_mainboard_1.jpg title subtitle text image MAINBOARD CLOSE-UP In the foreground, the ARM 2 32 bit RISC processor. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3000_mboardcloseup_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 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 Malcolm Ramage (United Kingdon) Friday 22nd April 2011 The Archimedes took regular double density 3 1/2 inch floppy disks, just the same as the ST and Amiga. Later Archimedes machines could also use High Density 1.44MB disks, but the A3000 couldn''t without an internal upgrade. author date text Simon (Manchester) Saturday 25th December 2010 Just wondering what kind of floppy disks the a3000 took?\ are they available on ebay? author date text Daniel Saturday 4th December 2010 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem$item$270673866094$ssPageName$STRK:MESELX:IT This is a beautiful little machine, owned and loved by my good self. Everything works (will upload a picture of the system switched on ASAP). Original manuals, software etc. PHILLIPS 14" Monitor Flashback, Lemmings, ChuckRock, E-type Jaguar, Chocks Away, many more! I will probably update this listing as and when I scrutinise what I have! Any questions, just ask! I love this machine, and to be honest, am very tempted to keep it, but I appreciate that you bidders out there have the same passion, so another good home is a welcome home.... There are some very good online-bookable couriers, so I think £20 should cover it, though maybe over two shipments (at the same time). author date text Harris Khairuddin (Bath) Monday 27th February 2006 I have an A3000 with 4mb upgrade and RISC OS 3.11. Is the RAM module compatible with the A3010 and A3020? author date text michael tesh (sheffield) Wednesday 25th May 2005 does the a3000 have an modem add on? author date text Martin (Scotland) Monday 18th October 2004 My dopey mother sold my A3000 when I was out of the country, but I still have some files I'd like to retrieve - any ideas how i can do this? author date text Ace (sheffield england) Monday 13rd September 2004 is there a acorn risc pc (a5000) around ive been after one for ages im after some games as well\ p.s.i collect old computers and synthesizers author date text Andrew McConville (Scotland) Tuesday 1st June 2004 Have never personally owned an A3000 - had a A3010, but I thought I'd share this: My school Maths department had one(as did most of the depts in the school had an Acorn of some sort - Art topped the list with six! All different variants too.....) and over time it became known as "The beast" for the amount of upgrades that one of the teachers had performed. When I left it was running at "A5000" spec - Arm 3 25Mhz, 120MB internal HD 8MB ram (yes 8MB!) He'd gone and got one of the drive/board upgrades which gave it a 1.6 MB FD and internal podule expansion like the A3020's....\ SO for anyone looking to upgrade... if you can still find them, then these may be worth getting. If I had known that the expansion of the A3000 was so much better than the A3010 that I got, I probably would have paid the extra £100 to buy a new one over the price I paid for my new A3010. author date text Sam Thornley (South normanton) Thursday 17th July 2003 I was setting up my A3000 and noticed on the under side near the mouse port is a compartment\ with a screw.I undid the screw to find what looked like a batery compartment (AA size) .I think this was\ made for CMOS back up batery. :-) author date text ash purdie (pixton England) Wednesday 30th April 2003 I love Acorns there just amazing. author date text Sam Thornley (South Normanton (England)) Saturday 22nd March 2003 I have a A3000 with a internal hard drive. But the hard drive does not work. author date text Ace (Sheffield England) Tuesday 18th March 2003 I own a Acorn A3000 but to add to my collection i was wondering where i could get an A4000 risc pc and a bbc master compact. /museum/acorn-computer-a4 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes /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 697 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230607194932/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=697 2023-06-07

The Acorn Archimedes A3000 was based on the Archimedes A410 but in an 1040ST/Amiga A500-style wedge unit. Designed for the home market, it was intended as a replacement for the BBC Micro and like the earlier Archimedes models it was only really used in British schools up until very recently.

Acorn started to phase out the Archimedes name and the machine was now simply badged Acorn A3000. Rumours have it that some of the Acorn A410 models had serious reliability problems and had to be recalled, so the Archimedes name was dropped to boost the machine's reputation.

Like the Atari and Amiga computers it had a built-in keyboard and disk drive located on the right-hand side, but unusually it also had two stereo speakers on either side of the unit. This form factor is ideal for a school environment as it doesn’t take up too much space and was often used with a metal plinth allowing a monitor to stand on top, usually an Acorn-badged Phillips 8853 (AKF12) or 8833 MK11 (AKF17).

The A3000 had two expansion ports. The internal one was a cut down 8-bit version of the type found on the earlier Archimedes machines. The second one, on the rear of the case, was a 16-bit version fully compatible with both earlier and later machines.

The operating system could read PC 720K disks and provided improved facilities for hard disk and networking, as well as some apps included in ROM which would appear on the task bar, such as Paint, Edit, and other useful programs.

The A3000 was replaced by the A3010 and A3020 models in 1992.

Thanks to Jonathan Hayward for his help.