Photo of me with the latest computer at school in 1994
This was a strange time...the old Acorn BBC Computer was now not fit for purpose and replaced with the Acorn Archimedes series of computers. First came a the A3000 then various upgrades. They were amazing machines at the time and had in built digital storage...not a hard drive in sight! Programmes like 'My World' with the high reolution graphics and mouse controlled released schools into the the high tech world of Graphic User Interface (GUI) Amazing!
The Archimedes had a problem...networks...it wasn't ready yet, so they brought out a later machine that looked like a PC but didn't work well.
At that stage I took a very bold decision in school to phase out the Archimedes machines and bring in the PCs. That was probably the best decision ever, even though others frowned at what I was doing. I took the school into the 21st century and had a networked PC system before most other schools in Bolton dared to venture.
Specs for the Archimedes 3020
| NAME | Archimedes A3020 |
| MANUFACTURER | Acorn Computer |
| ORIGIN | United Kingdom |
| YEAR | 1992 |
| BUILT IN LANGUAGE | BBC BASIC / RISC OS 3.1 |
| KEYBOARD | Full-stroke PC-102 style |
| CPU | ARM 250 32 bit RISC |
| SPEED | 12 MHz |
| CO-PROCESSOR | MEMC (memory), VIDC (Video and Sound), IOC (I/O) |
| RAM | 2 MB (up to 4Mb possible with socketed zip ram chips) |
| ROM | 1 MB |
| Video Modes | Text Modes: 132 chars. x 32 lines maximum; Graphic Modes: 21 screen modes, including: 640×480 (256 colours), 640 x 512 (256 colours), 800×600 (16 colours), 896×352 (256 colours), 1280×960 (monochrome) |
| SOUND | 8 voices |
| I/O PORTS | Centronics, RS423, VGA, Network, 1 expansion slot |
| BUILT IN MEDIA | One 3.5 |
| PRICE | £749 with floppy, £899 with a 60Mb hard disk. |
No comments:
Post a Comment