website/content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a7000.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Acorn Computer Archimedes A7000	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1995	ARM 7500 32 bit RISC	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos hardware emulators links docs related oc_id source Archimedes A7000 /media/museum/photos/acorn_a7000_system_s1.jpg /companies/acorn-computer Acorn Computer label value NAME Archimedes A7000 label value MANUFACTURER Acorn Computer label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR 1995 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE RISC OS label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke 102 keys PC-style label value CPU ARM 7500 32 bit RISC label value SPEED 32 MHz label value CO-PROCESSOR - label value RAM 4 MB label value ROM 1MB label value TEXT MODES 80 columns x 25 rows up to 132 x 32 label value GRAPHIC MODES VGA video output. Numerous graphic modes. Up to 16M colours at 480x352, 32K colours at 800x600 label value COLORS 4 greys or 16 greys or 16 colours or 256 greys or 256 colours or 32K colours or 16M colours.\ The cursor always retains the same blue colour no matter what mode is used. label value SOUND 8 voices synthesizer label value I/O PORTS Centronics, Serial, VGA, PS/2, 1 expansion slot label value BUILT IN MEDIA 3.5'' floppy disc, 420 MB or more hard disk, CD-ROM option label value OS RISC OS 3.6 or 3.7 (in ROM) label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in 35W switching power supply unit label value PRICE From £799 photos hardware emulators links docs 908 title subtitle text image RUNNING /media/museum/photos/acorn_a7000_running_s1.jpg title subtitle text image FRONT VIEW /media/museum/photos/acorn_a7000_frontview_s1.jpg title subtitle text image REAR PANEL From left to right: • Power switch + connectors,\ • Reset switch,\ • Audio output jack (for speakers / headphones),\ • Display port,\ • Keyboard port,\ • Mouse port,\ • Optional network port,\ • Parallel port,\ • Serial port.\ Top blanking plate is for optional expansion cards, e.g. Podule cards. Thanks to **Rob Watts** /media/museum/photos/acorn_a7000_rearside_s1.jpg title subtitle text image A7000 OPENED The hard disk drive is located under the floppy disk drive. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a7000_opened_s1.jpg title subtitle text image A7000 MOTHERBOARD EXPLAINED **(1)** 48-pin Network Interface connector\ **(2)** 16-pin Genlock connector (for video editing hardware and LCDs)\ **(3)** Loudspeaker connector\ **(4)** CD-ROM audio connector\ **(5)** Cirrus Logic PS7500FE "system on a chip", comprised of the following components:\ • 32-bit ARM710 processor with FPU\ • 4kb of unified cache memory\ • Memory Management Unit (MMU)\ • EDO/Fast Page DRAM controller\ • CRT/LCD compatible graphics controller\ • CD-quality audio controller\ • PS/2 keyboard & mouse ports\ • 16-bit, PC-style I/O bus with 8 general-purpose I/O lines\ **(6)** Motherboard DC power connector\ **(7)** LED power connector (supplies the Power and Hard disk activity LEDs)\ **(8)** Fan connector\ **(9)** Backplane interface connector (for Podule cards and similar devices)\ **(10)** 6-pin POST connector (what is this used for?)\ **(11)** 32 MHz crystal oscillator. The 7000+ has 48 MHz + 64 MHz oscillators - produce the clock speeds for the CPU and memory respectively in the PS7500FE.\ • Reference: A7000 and A7000+ specification tables on [this page](http://homepage.ntlworld.com/christopher.whytehead/RiscPC.html):\ • [Fig. 1](http://homepage.ntlworld.com/christopher.whytehead/Pics/A7000E.html): Bottom crystal is not soldered in, so both CPU and memory clocks are delivered by the 64MHz crystal (left of PS7500FE). For the CPU, it is 64MHz divided by 2 = 32MHz. For the memory, it is 64MHz divided by 4 = 16MHz.\ • [Fig. 2](http://homepage.ntlworld.com/christopher.whytehead/Pics/A7000+5.html): 48MHz crystal (below PS7500FE) now soldered in, delivers 48MHz to CPU clock. So now the 64MHz crystal only supplies the memory clock, but at a higher speed - 64MHz divided by 2 = 32MHz.\ **(12)** 2x 16 Mb (Megabit) ROM chips holding RISC OS 3.71\ **(13)** EDO/Fast Page DRAM slot (shown installed: 32MB EDO module)\ **(14)** 2x 2MB onboard RAM chips (the EDO module hides the second one). The 7000+ has 4x 2MB chips\ **(15)** Jumper for clearing the NVRAM (a.k.a CMOS/RTC RAM) contents\ **(16)** Floppy disk drive & IDE interface connectors\ **(17)** CMOS / RTC battery.\ **(18)** SMC FDC37C665GT - controls the floppy disk, IDE, parallel & serial interfaces. Thanks to **Rob Watts** /media/museum/photos/acorn_a7000_mainboard_s2.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-a4000 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a5000 931 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230405101427/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=931 2023-04-05

This machine replaced the A4000/A5000 series and was a lower-cost alternative to the RISC PC. The styling was similar, featuring a very strong but lightweight ABS case with the floppy and CD drive in different places and without the clever stackable case design.

Acorn made the A7000 a very neat system, reducing cost by using far fewer components on the motherboard. 4MB is built into the mainboard with a single 72-pin slot for standard off-the-shelf PC RAM. Gone is the non-standard Acorn 3-button mouse used since the first Archimedes model, which was expensive and difficult to find if broken or lost, instead a standard PS2 unit is supplied. The only slightly annoying quirk is that you can’t use the optional expansion slot backplane and optional CD drive at the same time as they occupy the same physical area of the small case. One surprise with this machine is the connector on the motherboard marked "Genlock", designed for video editing/combining/overlaying hardware, such as the Millipede AlphaLock Studio. One person has even found a way to wire an Acorn A4 LCD into it.

Like the RISC PC, it was usually supplied with a Microvitec multisync SVGA monitor (sometimes with an Acorn badge) which allowed for all the slightly weird screen resolutions that Acorns were capable of, which some PC monitors didn’t like.

When the British supermarket Tesco launched its successful ‘computers for schools’ charity fundraising scheme, it had the A7000 proudly displayed on its campaign posters. Unfortunately due to the increasing march of PC clones into schools this turned out to be the last all-new design Acorn computer released apart from the Phoebe/RISC PC II computer which was never released.

A improved A7000+ was released around 96/97. There was double the amount of onboard DRAM (now 8MB), and a 1.2GB Seagate hard drive.

Submitted by Asteroid

---

Some extra information from Paul Hadfield:
Motherboard was only Archimedes range computer to also have a 72pin SIMM (EDO) RAM slot to take standard PC memory at that time. It could take up to a 128MB SIMM, as well as it's own on board 4MB memory giving it a limit of 132MB RAM.

There is also a network slot on the motherboard to allow you to purchase a network interface card. There are Econet and Ethernet cards available for this slot and, unlike previous versions of RISC OS, TCP/IP is built into the OS ROMs that come with the A7000.