Acorn Archimedes
Acorn Archimedes :
Acorn Archimedes computers were standard school issue in the early 90s and replaced the aging BBC computers that had served the previous generation.
The Archimedes was the very first RISC-based personal computer and was technically a very advanced machine. Unfortunately the Acorn Archimedes series never proved commercially successful and disappeared from most schools to make way for the popular Intel PCs.
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Acorn Archimedes A3010
£21.00
Computing > Vintage Computing
Acorn Archimedes Software and Games
£2.20
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Laser Printer - Acorn Archimedes A3000 A300/400/500 New
£149.00
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Acorn Computers - RISC DISC 2 CD Risc PC / Archimedes
£5.00
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Acorn Archimedes A410/1
£0.99
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Acorn Archimedes A3000 + Mouse
£4.20
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21 Acorn Archimedes A3000 Games
£2.09
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Also remembered...
The TRS-80 was a family of computers made by Tandy Radio Shack Ltd that was launched in 1977. The TRS-80 Model 1 was a home computer with a 1.77 MHz Zilog Z80 processor and 4kb of RAM and 4kb ROM.
Later the Model 2 (business computer) and Model 3 TRS-80 computers were launched with better specifications but were still very basic computers and were nicknamed "Trash-80". Despite this, the most basic model retailed for a whopping ?369 in 1977.
...and do you remember these?
- Amstrad CPC
- Commodore 64
- Amstrad CPC 6128
- Sinclair ZX-81
- Commodore PET
- SAM Coupe
- Atari 800
- Commodore 128
- Acorn Electron
- IBM or compatible PCs
Comments
It was a great machine, which I used to write my first game which was reviewed. Getting a RiscPC later, I then wrote a link list module, which was accepted by an Acorn magazine (and for which I got around ?30 - a bit late, but I did get it).
Nicholas Kingsley 29-Apr-2005, 11:06:47 AM
Great machines!! main market was schools and the education system but it was a primary home computer also. I still to this day use riscos and currently own a Up-to-date riscps (StrongARM 287Mhz T, RiscOS 4.39 Adjust, CDRW, 64MB EDO Ram, UniPos{usb, fast ide, fast ethernet}) http://www.drobe.co.uk for todays news
HydroUK 30-Dec-2005, 03:01:26 AM
I loved the archimedes series a great technology breakthrough in personal computers we would not be where we are today in computer technology if it was not for the invention of that processor, I remember using one as a child at home ..a310, A3000, A5000 is what we owned..as well as in school although i used it mainly for playing games instead of school work because the graphics were so great. Lander rules!!
Simon Hardwick 14-Jul-2006, 10:00:08 AM
I used an Acorn Risc machine running BSD 4.3 Unix while I was at Hatfield Poly. It was much faster than the Sun 68030 workstations of the day. Acorn lent it to us to test. It was flawless, and very fast. It used to store files in compressed form, as the CPU was so much faster than the hard drive back then.
John Wild 13-Oct-2006, 08:44:06 AM
Home to the best version of Elite. Chocks Away and Holed Out were good fun, too!
Nige 07-Nov-2006, 01:20:33 PM
It is a pity that the Archimedes never took off. Although not as powerful as the 386 or 486 PCs about at the time (as I recall), the 'Archie' was fast, slick, capable and able to compete with the PCs. Sadly, underdevelopment and Acorn's stubbornness in keeping prices high meant that such a wonderful computer was unable to trounce even the Amiga, a point not passed-by by the spectators.
Michael Braisher 13-Nov-2006, 03:00:58 PM
I used to remember using the A300 or 400 series (one of the two, it wasn't the ones where it was built into the keyboard) when I was 4 or 5 at school. That was back in 1990, and it ran on RISC OS2. I remember that if I behaved, I the teachers let play Pac-Mania at break-time!!! But I also did some work on it, a bit of typing and using Paint (or was it Paintbrush). Ah good times. It was better than a PC with Windows 95!
Matthew Forth 29-Dec-2006, 08:28:47 PM
My secondary school had a few rooms of these by the time I left. Were much easier to use than a PC on Windows 3.1, though lack of a hard drive was a problem. I still have a disk or 2 of stuff from school, we were allowed to used them at dinnertimes, & my best friend had one, which should have been for his Dad's business work, but we spent most of the time playing games on it. My Aunt had one about 10 years ago, it might still be in her attic.
Richard Davies 29-Dec-2006, 11:06:25 PM
My Dad was the Head of IT at my school in Solihull. Luckily he was a popular teacher, so I didn't get much stick from other kids! Because I was"connected" my friends and I would be allowed to stay in at lunchtimes and after school and use the machines, and during school holidays my dad would bring the A5000 back home with him! I'm getting all nostalgic thinking about it, even though I'd probably hate to use one now! the idea of 2mb of RAM and an 80MB Hard drive seemed EXTRAORDINARY at the time! Mind you, i was impressed when the school bought a 486 PC with Windows 3.1 on it!
James 02-Feb-2007, 03:14:31 PM
I remember once finding out how to set a system password on the machines, so I set it to be the name of another kid in my class who was mean to me. Shortly after discovering this, I managed to copy a directory into itself, something RISC OS didn't seem to prohibit. The Acorn broke horribly, and they called in the professionals who restored the system and uncovered the password I'd set... The other kid got the blame for it all!
Dave Arter 03-Feb-2007, 07:19:59 PM
Borrowed a brand new Archimedes from school to finish my course work off and spent the entire time playing chocks away!!
Simon R. 13-May-2007, 06:09:06 PM
I remember this geek kid in the library at my school, oneday he showed me how to make a program where i could click the mouse on a box on the screen and it would beep. since that day i have been a geek and now programme every computer lanaguage going.
Mr C 27-May-2007, 05:47:42 PM
I bought this machine when fisrt at university. I programmed it to show 3d charts of two dimensional functions. I really enjoyed it. I also used it to calculate and show fractals, pixel by pixel. I still got it and I am curious if it would work when plugged.
manos protonotarios 14-Jun-2007, 09:01:10 PM
I still have an Acorn 3010 and from time to time run it to transfer resources at present on floppies (ADFS 1.6M), into stuff that can be read on Windows XP.
Tony Newman 16-Jun-2007, 04:31:35 PM