Date : Fri, 02 Dec 2005 09:02:45 +0000
From : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Order of Acorn Computers?
Pete Turnbull wrote:
> On Dec 1 2005, 14:04, Jules Richardson wrote:
>> Peter Craven wrote:
>>> Can someone tell me the order of the Acorn Computers in terms of
> 'release time'
>> I think the "Full Acorn Machine List" is basically in chronological
> order:
>> http://www.nostalgia8.nl/banks/machinelst.htm
>>
>> ... except that:
>>
>> 1) I suspect the M4 came before the A680
>
> Not sure about that...
The M4 board just looks more hack-like than the A680; it's littered with
design changes and just seems much more like a prototype than the A680 (even
the SCSI connector is made from chopped up bits of IDC socket rather than
someone buying a complete 50 pin socket!). I suppose it would need a sample of
all surviving A680's to see what sort of build dates they likely had...
> But that page misrepresents the Master Compact, which is a particular
> favourite of mine for several reasons: partly because I had a modified
> one that didn't rely on the big disk box
Heh, I never did quite understand the design logic there. I mean nice idea
having a small lightweight keyboard unit, but somewhat scuppered by the huge
floppy cable connecting it to the disk unit!
> It misses out the Master Scientific and Master ET (Econet Terminal),
> the other members of the five-strong Master Series. These *do* share
> the same hardware as the M128.
Agreed about the ET. I suspect that the Scientific isn't on there because
there's no evidence that it ever actually existed except on paper. (but then
the same should be said of Xenix for the ACW!)
> It also describes the A410 and A420 which were listed but not sold
> (only the A440, and then the 400/1 series)
I never knew that!
> There's some information missing from the Olivetti M19 section.
I sort of regret not saving a whole pile of those many years ago. I don't
think I've seen one since.
> The text says the R140 is functionally identical to an A440...
> And the drive interface on all those machines is ST412, not ST506
> (nitpick!)
probably a valid one though :)
> The A540 and R260 were eventually available with 33MHz processors
> instead of just 25MHz.
Hmm, yep. I think we've ended up with both flavours. I certainly remember
something about the CPU not being the same on all of ours (we ended up with
four of the darn things all at pretty much the same time - only one has the
full 16MB of memory sadly)
> All in all, though, that's a pretty impressive page from Banksie.
I also feel that the US-spec BBC B should really go on there as a separate
machine, same with the Domesday setup, just for completeness sake (I don't
*think* you could buy the bits separately to roll your own Domesday system).
There's also this Multiworks A5000 that we have, which looks to be a stock
A5000 in a totally new case with a CDROM drive added.
And if the list mentions the M19, it should probably include the Prophet
machines as also being not-quite-Acorn. Then of course you start justifying
Eurobeeb hardware too (no less valid than a Reuters board I suppose), and
taken to extreme, the Torch machines which used BBC B's as I/O processors... :-)
BT also used BBC B's in their phone exchanges at one point. More than likely
they were stock machines, but I haven't been able to confirm whether BT did
something odd with them, like rack-mount them.
There were also a couple of gadgets from very late in the day, around the NC
era - I seem to recall one of them enjoyed a short production run to a single
client only, whilst the other never made it beyond prototype (albeit fully
working)
I've since found the last email from Banksie, earlier this year. The 'offical'
page is actually at:
http://www.khantazi.org/Archives/MachineLst.html
Same content, it's just that's the copy which will be updated (assuming it
ever is).
cheers
Jules