Differences between version 21 and revision by previous author of Acorn.
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Newer page: | version 21 | Last edited on Sunday, November 9, 2003 5:15:27 pm | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
Older page: | version 19 | Last edited on Sunday, November 9, 2003 1:32:01 pm | by JohnMcPherson | Revert |
@@ -3,27 +3,23 @@
[Acorn] is a now disfunct, innovative british system design company - and the story of an underdog who didn't but did win, kinda. See also [FOLDOC|http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?query=acorn]
%%%
-!!!Rising Action: Electron
-
-One of their first products was the Electron computer. It plugged into the television, had 16 KB of memory, and ran [BASIC] in [ROM]. You could load programs from cassette tape via a normal audio tape deck, or you could type them in. A floppy disk, even a harddrive, were available as insanely expensive expansion modules. The [CPU] was a 6502B, just slightly different from what powered the hugely successful [Commodore64] home computer. Unfortunately, neither graphics nor sound capabilities could hold a candle to those of the [Commodore64].
-
-
-''I had one of those.. *sigh* memories..'' --AristotlePagaltzis
-
-According to http://www.museummc.org.uk/ - Acorn's first real computer product was the Acorn
Atom, the Electron was considerably later - after the BBC Model B in fact....
+!!!Rising Action: Atom
+Acorn's first real computer product was the Atom. ''AddToMe - needs description.''
%%%
!!!Mounting Tension: [BBC]
-The next model was the
Acorn [BBC]. Because they were British, schools in the UK used the [BBC] computers. Some schools in NewZealand followed suit. The [BBC] Model B also had a 6502 processor. This
was probably mid-
to-late 80's to early 90's
.
+The Acorn [BBC] Model B appeared in 1981
. Because they were British, schools in the UK used the [BBC] computers. Some schools in NewZealand followed suit. The [BBC] Model B also had a 6502 processor. Its builtin [BASIC] dialect had some impressive language features; procedural programming with parameter passing and local variable scopes remained foreign to other microcomputers for a long time. The modularity of its operating system and its use of interrupts were far ahead of the curve as well. There
was a MOS for all the basic functions like video graphics, buffered keyboard input, vectored interrupts, buffered sound. 16k ROMs were available
to accomodate networking routines and many different programming languages ([BASIC], LOGO, [Pascal], [Forth], you name it)
.
-The BBC's graphics
and sound hardware were well accessible under [BBC] [BASIC] with
the powerful plot
and envelope
[1
] command, respectively. They were both far ahead of anything any other computer
in this class had to offer. What really set the
[BBC
] apart was the modularity of its operating system and its use of interrupts
. There was
a MOS for all the basic functions like video graphics
, buffered keyboard input
, vectored interrupts
, buffered sound. 16k ROMs
were available to accomodate networking routines and many different programming languages (
[BASIC
], LOGO,
[Pascal
], [Forth
], you name it)
.
+The Electron was a later, smaller brother of the
BBC built to attack the Sinclair Z80
and early Commodore microcomputers. It plugged into
the television, had 16 KB of memory,
and ran
[BASIC
] in [ROM
]. You could load programs from cassette tape via
a normal audio tape deck
, or you could type them in. A floppy disk
, even a harddrive
, were available as insanely expensive expansion modules. The
[CPU
] was a 6502B
, just slightly different from what powered the hugely successful
[Commodore64
] home computer. Unfortunately
, neither graphics nor sound capabilities could hold a candle to those of the
[Commodore64
].
-The BBC Model B actually appeared in 1981. Most impressive feature
of BBC BASIC is procedural programming with parameter passing and local variable scopes
, rather than its
graphics and audio capability
.
+''I had one
of those.. *sigh* memories..'' --AristotlePagaltzis
+
+In both computers
, the
graphics and sound hardware were well accessible with powerful __plot__ and __envelope__ commands, respectively (though there was little to access in the Electron). The envelope command took 14 parameters that controlled a full [ADSR] synthesizer
.
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!!!Climax: Archimedes
@@ -37,26 +33,20 @@
%%%
!!!Falling Action: RiscPC
-An attempt to counter the rising popularity of the then so-called "[IBM] compatibles" was called __RiscPC__ and ran the [StrongARM] series [CPU]s
. These too ran RiscOS and had a novel system design consisting of modules. To update the hardware, you didn't have to open the case, you just added a new module just as
you do to
"update" your stereo system
.
+An attempt to counter the rising popularity of the then so-called "[IBM] compatibles" was called __RiscPC__. These too ran RiscOS and had a novel system design consisting of modules, ie a box in the same design as the computer's case that contains the desired extension and plugs into the computer's [Bus] with a connector
. To update or expand
the hardware, you didn't have to open the case, you just stacked modules, much the way
you'd
"update" your !HiFi
stereo.
-RiscPC started with the ARM610 then the ARM710 based on ARM's ARM6 and
ARM7 core. These processors are not in the StrongARM series. Later
RiscPC clones (
such as those manufactured by Castle) feature
StrongARM processors. I'm not sure than *any* Acorn branded machine used one....
-
-Modules were a feature of the OS on all of Acorn's ARM based machines not just the RiscPC. Modules are software components and their performance is obviously limited by the hardware itself. No machine yet invented allows you to update (change??) the hardware without opening the lid!
+While [Acorn] equipped their
RiscPC started with the ARM610 (ARM6 core) and
then the ARM710 (
ARM7 core), later
RiscPC clones such as those manufactured by Castle featured [
StrongARM]
processors.
%%%
!!!Denouement
In the end, [Acorn] Computers Ltd. was shut down (accompanied by much mourning in the connaissant geek community), as [WinTel] machines dominated the market and drove them out of business.
-However, the [CPU] design was
sourced out to the newly funded
[ARM Ltd.|http://www.arm.com], an IntellectualProperty only company that holds the rights to the [StrongARM]
architecture. Even [Intel] have licensed it, and a huge market share of hand held and embedded devices nowadays run on [StrongARM] derivatives.
+However, the [CPU] design had been
sourced out to [ARM Ltd.|http://www.arm.com], founded 1990 in a joint venture with AppleCorporation as
an IntellectualProperty only company that holds the rights to the ARM processor
architecture. Even [Intel] have licensed it, and a huge market share of hand held and embedded devices nowadays run on [StrongARM] derivatives.
So, in a way, "the king is dead - long live the king"...
-
-The CPU design was actually "sourced out" to ARM in 1990 (way before Acorn's demise) in a joint venture with Apple.
----
Part of CategoryCompany and CategoryOldComputers
-
-[1] Actually, the electron had the envelope command as well (it also ran BBC BASIC). The envelope command took 14 parameters, and I must have spent many hundreds of hours playing with the parameters to see what effect it had on the resulting sound, without ever figuring out what each parameter did :) Obviously it wasn't just a single pitch; one command could rise and fall multiple times with varying loudness...