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Looking for working Acorn A5000 or Risc-PC 600

A

Arnuph1s

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2014
Messages
44
Of all the computers I have owned, the later Acorn line were probably the most impressive I have encountered. I still regret parting with them and moving to a PC. Would love to have one again to enjoy. However, since I am now in the US, there is no trace of them here.

So, looking ideally for a working Risc-PC (with keyboard/mouse) or failing that, an A5000.

Let me know if you have one you want to part with.

Will pay for shipping to US.

Thanks
 
Not an actual desktop computer, but uses RISC OS as the embedded computer for some test equipment, search for riscos and my for sale advert from July plus another query thread should appear.

Not at home at present to test it out, but still have a couple. They will boot and run using VGA and PS2 keyboard and mouse and should then be a standard ROSC OS machine.

They are in a heavy steel case, far too expensive to ship, but the set of boards are easy enough.

Might be what you want?
 
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Thanks for the reply! I found your post.

Those units certainly look...interesting, To be honest I wouldn't know what was needed to convert them into a basic working Archie machine for regular use as they seem to have been modified for some other purpose.
 
My knowledge of the Acorn RISC machines is decades old now. As far as I know these computers booting into RISCOS means they are pretty well identical to any other ARM machine similarly booting into RISCOS. The actual processor board is made by Acorn, the other boards were custom made for the application but still useful if you can work out how to drive them.

I had an A3000, the very bottom end computer. This used a four chip setup to make a complete RISCOS computer, the CPU, memory controller, video and general i/o. These chips are not obvious on this newer board, but possibly because integration in the subsequent 10 years allowed it all to go in one chip. I simply don't know.

Try asking on the ARM forums, I have reached the limit of my knowledge.
 
You've probably already read up on it, but the Raspberry Pi has a RISCOS distribution running that still has active development last time I looked. Not a lot of $$ to get system up and running.

Tom
 
Yes I am looking at the Pi RiscOs option as there seems to be a dearth of actual Risc-PCs available for sensible $$
 
Depends on the location you're in. Pi would be the best option as far as bang for your buck goes. Woodchips' setup just appears to be just a standard RiscPC board with a xtra add-ons cards plugged in to it. Should be easy enough to tell which model it is by looking at the board ID number. You can modify an AT psu to work with these as folk have, at times, relocated RicsPC mobos into standard AT tower cases to get around the cabling nightmare of slices.
 
I ordered a Raspberry Pi (The case already arrived - typical!) and it should be here in a few days so I look forward to messing with it. The other good news is that I managed to locate a nice working Strongarm Risc-PC that a kind gentleman will be shipping over. Glad that the Pi has re-ignited interest in this wonderful system.
 
So the machine arrived today. 4 days from the UK. That was fast!
Specs are as follows:

RISC OS 4.02
64MB (2x 32Mb) SIMM Memory
2MB VRAM Memory
233MHz StrongARM Processor
40GB ADFS F+ formatted hard disc drive
Mk III Motherboard (including 16-bit sound)
103 watt PSU
4 slot podule card
CD-ROM drive
Ethernet - i-Cubed 10/Base NIC
Floppy Disc Drive - 640k, 800k, 1600K RISC OS formats
also 360k, 720k, 1440K PC MSDOS formats.
Castle SCSI-2 interface podule.

Everything works wonderfully. Genius build design. Will post some pics when it is daylight. Need to track down a better screen that is more suited to the 1280 display. Next job will be to get it online once a get a bridge to connect it to the wireless router in the other room. Then, get myself a copy of Easiwriter and some other software. Good to be messing with RiscOS again.

Also got the Pi B+ up and running but need a HDMI to VGA adapter so I can set it up with a regular monitor. What an amazing little machine!
 
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