From: neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Postlethwaite) Subject: New Acorn Kit out today (27/08/92) Date: 27 Aug 92 10:53:42 GMT >From Today's Computer Section in The Guardian (Thursday 27/08/92) 'Custom chip off the old block' - It's a busy time for Acorn, Ian Burley assesses the company's four new computers. Today, Acorn will announce four new computers, including the worlds first sub- #500 RISC system. Three of the new machines use a development of the ARM (Acorn RISC Machine) processor, the fourth is the result of Acorn joining forces with Psion to badge-engineer a custom version of the Series-3 pocket organiser. Acorn Prefers not to use the original Archimedes logo any more: the three new machines running Acorn's proprietry RISCOS (Reduced instruction set computer operating ststem) are dubbed the A3010, A3020, and the A4000. Both the new A3010 and A3020 resemble the three-year-old A3000, though the case is slightly taller and has a more steeply-angled keyboard. The #499 one- megabyte A3010 is aimed at the consumer market: it has a pair of joystick ports, a TV modulator, a grey case and bright green function keys. The A3020 retains Acorn's traditional cream finish and red function keys to denote that it's a schools computer. It has two megabytes of memory, expandable to four (as is the A3010), the joystick ports give way to a networking interface option, and IDE hard disc controller circuitry is built in. An A3020 with a 60 Mb hard drive and standard resolution colour monitor will sell for #899, or for #749 without the hard disc. The A4000 - #949, including an 80 Mb hard disc - has the same electronics as the A3020, but housed in a more conventional metal box with a seperate keyboard. The keyboards on all the examples I tried were disappointing and lifeless. Both the A3020 and A4000 are compatible with Acorn's new AUN (Acorn Universal Network) hybrid networking environment. This provides a common RISCOS-based user interface on both the traditional Acorn Econet system used by many schools and standard Ethernet networking. The new machines' most impressive technical feature is a large custon chip that integrates the four seperate circuits - ARM processor, IOC input/output controller, VIDC video and sound chip and MEMC memory controller - which made up the original ARM chip-set. This new ARM 250 chip does not use the newer ARM-6 series technology destined for Apple's Newton electronic organiser. However, the ARM 2 processor core is clocked at 12 MHz, 50 % faster than the originals 8 MHZ. Acorn rates the ARM 250 at 6 MIPS (million innstructions per second) and claims it is 40 % faster than a 386 DX PC chip. Performance can be more than 50 % better than the 8 MHz ARM 2 Archimedes because programs won't need to slow down so much when a lot of bus bandwidth is claimed by the video circuitry. One application which works surprisingly well on the new machines is the new version of PC-Soft, Acorn's PC emulator. The long standing problem of lethargic CGA-resolution graphics has been solved: the latest release now behaves like a perfectly respectable PC/XT with a colour VGA screen. Like the A5000, introduced last year, and the A4 notebook launched last month, all the new models use a Chips & Technologies PC input/output controller for serial and parallel ports plus the floppy drive. This offers 1.6Mb Acorn and 1.4Mb PC compatible formats. They have one "mini-podule" expansion slot, compatible with the older A3000, but no external full-size podule card expansion slot as on the A3000. For the A3020, this disadvantage is minimised because the internal hard drive doesn't use an expansion slot. An A3010 owner must use that slot to add a hard drive, and so won't be able to add a scanner interface or whatever. But Acorn say it isn't aiming the A3010 at people with those requirements: they should go for an A5000. RISCOS 3.1 is now officially released. ROM chip-sets are available to A5000 owners for #19 (without manuals) and to all other RISCOS users for #49 (including manuals). Owners of older Archimedes 310 and 400 machines may need a hardware upgrade costing #30. RISCOS 3.1 enhancements include a dozen outline fonts in ROM, faster graphics, printer drivers that work in the background, and a nice new bas-relief look to the desktop. Acorn's biggest surprise today must be the unveiling of its new Pocket book organiser, based on the 256K version of the Psion Series-3. Being aimed at students it has a spreadsheet as standard, at the cost of the Series-3 diary software, though this is available as an optional ROM cartdidge. The Pocket book's recommended price is identical to the Psion version at #249.95 including VAT. Naturally you can hook your pocket computer up to a RISCOS computer. On the screen the Pocket books files appear in a standard directory viewer and can be "dragged and dropped" in the usual way. How will they do ? The A3020 is a much improved A3000 for roughly the same money: Acorn is confident it will maintain the A3000's achievement of being the best selling computer in schools. The future of the A3010 is harder toi predict. Several high street multiples are declaring undying devotion to Acorn's new baby, but since Commodore has just cut the pribe of the Amiga 600 to #299, the battle may already be lost. ----- End of Article ----- Neil ****************************| Sig' Time |********************************* JANET: neilp@uk.ac.hw.cs * Neil Postlethwaite, Rm G.25, INTERNET: neilp@cs.hw.ac.uk * Dept of Computer Science, UUCP: ..!uknet!hwcs!neilp * Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton Campus * Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, United Kingdom. ------------------------------*------------------------------------------- Computer Science Account * Phone +44 (0)31 449-5111 x4174