website/content/museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3010.md

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

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Acorn Computer Archimedes A3010	Computers	Professional Computer	United Kingdom	1992	ARM 250 32-bit RISC	name image company company_name specs tabs photos hardware emulators links docs comments related oc_id source Archimedes A3010 /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3010_system_2.jpg /companies/acorn-computer Acorn Computer label value NAME Archimedes A3010 label value MANUFACTURER Acorn Computer label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN United Kingdom label value YEAR 1992 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE BBC BASIC / RISC OS 3.11 label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke PC-102 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 1 MB (up to 4 MB possible with socketed zip ram chips) label value ROM 1 MB label value GRAPHIC MODES VGA 640x256, SVGA 800x600, up to 1152 x 896 dots label value COLORS 16 (SVGA) up to 256 (VGA) among 4096 label value SOUND 8 voices syntesizer label value I/O PORTS Centronics, RS423, VGA, 1 expansion slot (same as A3000, A3020 and A4000) label value BUILT IN MEDIA One 3.5'' 1.6 MB floppy disk-drive label value OS RISC OS 3.11 label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in power supply unit label value PRICE £399 photos hardware emulators links docs title subtitle text image REAR CONNECTORS Rear connectors for both the 3010 and 3020 are quite similar, except for additional RF output and joystick connectors on the A3010 **(1)** Parallel printer DB25 connector\ **(2)** Serial DB9 connector\ **(3)** Optional Econet LAN card\ **(4-5)** Atari compatible joystick connectors\ **(6)** Mouse mini-din connector\ **(7)** Stereo headphones jack\ **(8)** Analog RGB 15-pin connector\ **(9)** Monochrome composite RCA jack /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3010_back_1.jpg title subtitle text image MAINBOARD The mainboard design is quite similar to that of the Archimedes 320. The main differences are:\ **(1)** An RF modulator allowing a TV set to bet used as video monitor\ **(2)** Two Atari compatible joystick connectors\ **(3)** A different RAM configuration. Two soldered chips hold the 1 MB base memory. Additional memory could be added by using DIP chips. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3010_mainboard_1.jpg title subtitle text image MAINBOARD CLOSE-UP ROM, RAM and custom memory management chips. /media/museum/photos/acorn_a3010_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 Spop Monday 24th January 2022 Woow, 32-bit!! author date text hello (herefordshire uk) Saturday 4th September 2010 DOES ANYONE KNOW IF U CAN CONNECT A TAPE DRIVE TO AN ACORN A7000+ author date text ominous Saturday 4th September 2010 I connected a fdd from a bbc micro to my ACORN A7000+ through the serial port and gained access through a program I wrote in BBC basic author date text retroking Tuesday 31st August 2010 does anyone know where i can get a floppy disk drive or a compatible one for my acorn archimedes a3010,thanks author date text Chris Charlton (Manchester, UK) Sunday 2nd April 2006 Still got one of these bad boys in the loft! Remember doing all my GCSE coursework on it and printing out on a dot matrix printer! Might be interested in flogging it if anyone wants it? Drop me an email! author date text Harris Khairuddin (Bath) Monday 27th February 2006 I had Mad Prof! It's a brilliant game! Anyone know where I can get a 4mb memory upgrade for an A3010? author date text Huc (Leicestershire Uk) Thursday 22nd December 2005 Did anybody have mad professor Mariati author date text Huc (Leicestershire Uk) Thursday 22nd December 2005 The A3010 was amazing author date text Andy (Manchester, UK) Monday 11th October 2004 I had one of these, but a very, very early version! My serial number was ...0004, and instead of an ARM250 processor soldered to the motherboard, I had one of the rare 'piggy-back' modules, which was basically a cut-down ARM3. These were only used for the very first run, as Acorn were worried that they would not have the ARM250 modules ready for production of that initial batch. The added bonus was that the piggy-back board was slightly faster than the ARM250, and a company at the time (Simtec?) were able to replace it for a full ARM3! I never did this as it was just too pricey, but over the years it did gain a hard drive! Best of all, I've still got it somewhere... Stunt Racer 2000, anyone? :o) author date text Andrew McConville (Scotland ) Tuesday 1st June 2004 I had one of these! Wish I still did in many ways. Mine was the standard 'Family' pack which I got in December 1992 and had it upgraded to 2MB Ram. Earlier versions of this machine had Risc OS 3.10. Anyway over the years it served me really well and was upgraded a few times- firstly with an 82MB Hard Drive and then one of the fabulous exploding AKF 18's (fortunately this one didnt go on fire and I managed to get it fixed) which blew twice.... By the second time I had bought a PC anyway so it wasn't so important. The last upgrade I got for it was one of the last "Super Turbo" 20Mhz clocked 4MB Ram upgrades which you could get for Arm 250 machines - they were made by a company called Simtec if I recall correctly. Benchmarked it against one of my school's numerous 4MB A5000's once - I was rather surprised to see that mine won by quite a margin. Unfortunately I don't remember what the upgrade actually did to eke out more performance..... In many ways I wish I still had it - you can see the influence on more modern OS's even today... Tried to add some of this info to the main hardware page but couldn't, got an internal server error. So if any of the admin folks see this..... author date text Gilbert Dykes (Scotland) Thursday 11th March 2004 The Archi A3010 had a brilliant draw program I wish my new computer had one half as good. And it was multi tasking not bad for 1meg. author date text mick Thornley (S.normo) Monday 23rd February 2004 Silly me i fogot! author date text Doug (Bedfordshire, UK) Friday 23rd January 2004 Because its an old computer!! And the programs easily fitted on floppy discs :) I added a hard drive to mine. I guess adding a hard drive was just too expensive at the time. author date text mick Thornley (Derbyshire,South Normamton) Thursday 20th March 2003 Why don't the Archimedes A3010 have an hard dirve? /museum/acorn-computer-a4 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3000 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a3020 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a4000 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a5000 /museum/acorn-computer-archimedes-a7000 707 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230329004911/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=707 2023-03-29

The Acorn Archimedes A3000 was replaced by the Acorn A3010 and A3020, two simililar but slightly different models, aimed at the home and educational market.

See common features text in A3020 page.

For the first time, the A3010 was sold in electrical retail stores, next to the Amiga A1200 and Atari Falcon 030, as well as 486 class PCs which where starting to become popular in UK homes.

The Acorn A3010 had two Atari style joystick ports, green function keys and, previously unheard of in the Archimedes family, an RF port for TV, which the A3020 did not have.

There was a little known rare German version of the A3010 which had grey rather than green keys and a German QWERTZ keyboard.

Information supplied by Jonathan Hayward