[comp.misc] Acorn Micros?

yoshio@spahn.ucr.edu (yoshio nakamura) (04/10/90)

	I asked Roger Wilson, of Acorn, for information on the Archimedes,
including info on the availability in North America, and here is his
reply...

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From rwilson@acorn.co.uk Wed Apr  4 11:25:21 1990
To: yoshio@ucrmath.ucr.edu
Subject: info
Date: Wed,04 Apr 1990.16:31:10

Yoshio,

It is, in general, too much trouble to answer all queries in detail. I have,
therefore, built a defence - most of the information is just copied from another
file on my disc! So if it seems remote, irrelevant, that's life.....

There are two CPUs: ARM2 [VL86C020], a straight 32 bit no-cache model and ARM3
[VL86C030], with a 4KByte on chip cache. Full information on the ARM chips and
associated MEMC, VIDC and IOC can be had from VLSI Technology Inc, Application
Specific Logic Products Division, 8375 South River Parkway, Tempe, AZ 85284,
602-752-8574. Prentice Hall are/will be publishing the data book - ISBN
0-13-944968-X. A book on the internals of ARM is "VLSI RISC Architecture and
Organization" by S Fuber, Marcel Dekker ISBN 0-8247-8151-1.

Currently available from Acorn UK are:
   Archimedes - stand alone PCs. 0.5-4MBytes, winchester etc.
   Models: A3000 1MByte, 3.5" floppy from 599 pounds
           A410/1 1MByte, 3.5" floppy, winchester i/f & expansion from 1099 pounds
           A420/1 2MByte, 3.5" floppy, 20MByte wini...
           A440/1 4MByte, 3.5" floppy, 50MByte wini...
           R140 above machine with RISCiX (Unix 4.3BSD + X11 + X.desktop + NFS)
   (all machines expandable to 4MBytes (8 from 3rd parties for A4x0))
   (all A4x0 machines upgradable to ARM3).
Contact Dorothy Netherwood at Olivetti Canada for American information.
        Olivetti Canada Ltd
        PO Box 3710
        160 McNabb Street
        Markham
        Ontario
        L3R 6G9
        Canada
Contact Barson for Australian Information

Software: pcc/ANSI C Compiler (as used to build the Unix system)
          ISO Pascal Compiler
          Fortran 77 Compiler
          BASIC Interpreter (RISC OS only)
          {BASIC Compiler from 3rd parties. RISC OS only)
          Assembler (both, but different one on UNIX system)
          LISP (RISC OS only) (Reduce also available from 3rd party)
          Prolog (RISC OS only)
          Desktop Publisher, Spreadsheet, Word Processor etc. (RISC OS only)

>From others in UK (RISC OS only)
          Forth
          any number of spreadsheets, dtp programs
          large numbers of paint programs
          solid modelling, ray tracing
          games
          etc.

Magazines: BBC Acorn User
               Redwood Publishing, 20-26 Brunswick Place, London N1 6PJ; 01 490 4144
           The Micro User
               DataBase Publications, Europa House, Adlington Park, London Road, Adlington, Macclesfield, Cheshire SK10 4NP; 0625 878888
           A&B Computing

           Archive
               Norwich Computer Services, 18 Mile End Road, Norwich, Norfolk NR4 7QY; 0603 507057
           RISC User
               BEEBUG, 117 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts AL1 4JS; 0727 40303

Electronic: eunet.micro.acorn on Usenet
            sidinfo@acorn.co.uk

--Roger Wilson

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	I sent mail asking if I could get the newsgroup "eunet.micro.acorn"
in North America, and here is the reply...

============================================================================
From sidmail@acorn.co.uk Sun Apr  8 08:08:09 1990
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 90 14:35:35 BST
From: SIDInfo@acorn.co.uk
Subject: Cancellation of SIDInfo service
Apparently-To: yoshio@ucrmath.ucr.edu

I am sorry, but the SIDInfo service is no longer available due to the high
costs involved in posting the files back to you. It is hoped that a
replacement service can be offered soon, probably using PSS, in which case it
will be available from around the middle of April.

Regards,

Philip Colmer
Acorn Computers Ltd

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-yoshio


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Yoshio Nakamura                      Internet: yoshio@ucrmath.ucr.edu
University of Calif., Riverside      uucp: {ucsd, uci, ucdavis}!ucrmath!yoshio