Acorn Risc Computers
See bottom of page for picture and details of Phoebe plus an added report (12th June from M.A.U.G. Meeting.) Also note two other machines recently announced. I will try to add details of their specs at a later date.
Latest reports (including August PCW Mag for one) state that 300 Mhz StrongArm chips are being tested with Phoebe and soon after a September launch 360 Mhz chips may be available!!
'The Netwinder'- another StrongARM powered machine announced this time by Corel.Operating System to be Linux. See picture below.
'The Medi'- yet another machine announced - this time based on the A7000+ - and developed by MicroDigital. See picture below.
One of my main interests since 1982 has been computing. Like many of my age group that interest started with the 'BBC Computer Show' and the ordering of a BBC Model B Microcomputer. ( This relates to the BBC starting computer education in the UK in the early 80's. It wasn't long before I was doing my version of "Hello World" using BBC Basic. But of course this was a tape based system with only 28K of useable memory and to write useful programs needed better programing skills than I had. Yet this machine had one of the 'best' games ever written for it - 'Elite.'
I also took my computer into school and was very active in pushing the use of computers in Primary school. In the years that followed I used PenDown, Logo, D.U.S.T. and Droom (adventures with maths,) Granny's Garden, Editext ( a Teletext page maker ) and other programs before taking part in trials of TTNS ( The Times Network for Schools )
That was many years ago now but I moved on from the BBC Micro to the A3000 ( with 2Mgs of Ram Arm3 and a Vidc enhancer ) and now with a StrongArm 34Mg Risc PC with a 586 Pc Card.
Just had the A3000 upgraded with a Simtec Harddisc interface and 340 Mg Harddisc - and it's back in use in my son's room. I don't think many PC owners would be still making use of a computer from the late eighties!
Although I use the computer for a number of uses the last three to six months has been taken up with the Internet. Because of that I have kept the following list down to related software for the moment.
Two books I found useful in getting going with the Internet and Web pages are:-
"The Internet & World Wide Web - The Rough Guide 2.0" by Angus. J .Kennedy (ISBN 1-85828-216-0 Price U.K.£ 5.00, U.S.A.$8.00)
Version 3 of the Rough Guide now out - Nov '97 (ISBN 1-85828-288-8)
"Instant HTML - Programmer's Reference" by Steve Wright ( ISBN 1-861000-76-6 Price U.K.£13.99 U.S.A.$15.00 )
Here is some useful software from the Web that works on the Acorn Risc PC. To download these or to see my links to other Acorn related sites click on either of the next two buttons.
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Intergif 6.03 now available. |
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Creator
drag and drop. The author is John Kortink. This and other software is available on his site. |
even animated gifs!
Here are some details of the new Risc Pc II -
They are based on my understanding of what was said at Wakefield - so no guarantees as to how accurate these details are.
The Risc 4 desktop and case looked good at the show but all the hardware was not in the machines so no idea as to how fast they will run but they are expected to be 3 to 4 times as fast with same StrongArm chip as Risc Pc.
Phoebe seems likely now to be the machines name when released.
64Mhz motherboard 32 SRRAM 4(EDO)VRAM 6.4 GIG Harddisc
3 old sytle podules, 4 PCI slots, 32 speed CD Rom and 230W power unit.
New Risc OS 4 allowing file names of up to 255 letters (truncation can be user set)
80,000 items per directory new LFU harddisc making large discs waste less space (for any given size disc the block size will 16 times smaller! ie instead of 32k blocks - 2k blocks) will support harddiscs up to 128 Gigs!!! :-)
Tidy up of desktop with new 'bring to the front window' to support built in screen saver.
A new 'minimise' button on window frames.
Two serial ports , joystick port Midi in/out, parallel port inproved Vidc20 getting twice the video speed (1600*1200*36,000 cols) Microphone in socket
EIDE harddisc interface to level 4 (ie 16Mbs per second) supporting 4 devices.
On sale as from September with or without Iiyma 15in monitor (1500 plus VAT without monitor) but at show they said that as prices of things like harddiscs kept dropping these specs/prices could alter.
Here is some newer info from the June 98 M.A.U.G. meeting.
Report on June Meeting
The last meeting of the Manchester Acorn User Group before the Summer break was held at 6:45pm on Tuesday 9th June (Main Debating Hall - Manchester University Students' Union Building.)
Russell Scoates and Dave Walker from Acorn brought along (unfortunately) a non-working Phoebe 2100 prototype. At a demonstration the week before in Holland - 'The BigBen Club Show?' - the Vidic20 had blown.
However the talks given by both and the full and frank way in which they answered many questions about the new hardware and software made the meeting very informative.
Apart from a few areas where 'non-disclosure' agreements held back the free flow of information a number of details of the new machine were clarified.
