
Acorn Archimedes – A Technical Introduction (1987) [video] - pjmlp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKTa54UikgE
======
arexxbifs
Apart from RiscOS, Acorn also licensed UNIX for the A440 series, RISC iX.
'Selecting Motif, however, causes things to go from "dire" to "apocalyptic".'
[0]

Incidentally, the D. J. Braben from the demonstration programs in the end is
of course David Braben, of Elite fame. [1]

[0] [http://www.typewritten.org/Media/](http://www.typewritten.org/Media/)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Braben](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Braben)

~~~
goatinaboat
_part from RiscOS, Acorn also licensed UNIX for the A440 series_

Acorn also dabbled with a UNIX called PanOS, for the 16032 second processor
for the Beeb.

~~~
jlarcombe
Panos wasn't a Unix (and ran on the 32016 only). A real oddity! Written in
Modula-2.

------
jacquesm
If there is one thing besides the excellent version of BASIC that I will
remember Acorn for then it was their detailed technical documentation,
excellent quality. More than you ever wanted to know or needed, nothing hidden
to give the manufacturer an advantage and rock solid software, to the point
that there only ever was a _single_ bug found in the BBC Basic implementation.

edit: on reflection, there probably were more than just one, it is just that
the others were found much later and did not make it in time for the errata
page to be printed.

~~~
parenthesis
What was the bug?

~~~
jacquesm
Oh good question. Unary minus in combination with ABS. So - ABS 1 would not
give you what you would expect, the precedence was wrong.

Probably many more were found later but that one was detected in time for the
manual and actually made it to the printer.

It is interesting how our distribution model of software (ROM vs say apt-get
or even SaaS) has changed our attitude to bugs. Back then a bug was something
to feel bad about, now it is fixed in the next release in 20 minutes and
nobody even feels anything about it. The only kinds of bugs that people feel
bad about nowadays are the ones that lead to security issues.

------
the-dude
I just finished watching it ( again, definitely seen it before ).

Featuring : introduction to programming, GUIs, basic usage and
troubleshooting, processor design with Roger Wilson, manufacturing including
pick & place, flow soldering, desoldering.

I was lucky to be in a neighbouring country to the UK and was exposed to the
Electron first in our local library, then went on to a school which had a
classroom full of BBC Micro's with central server.

Just imagine if I had been able to watch this video at the time. This is
awesome content and for me in the same league as The Mother of All Demos [0].
Such a pity the UK didn't keep it up.

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-
zdhzMY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY)

------
the-dude
This is the origin of the ARM microprocessor, which at the time stood for
Acorn Risc Machine IIRC.

~~~
leoc
Later the ARM architecture had a big breakthrough when Apple selected it for
its groundbreaking mobile device: I refer of course to the Newton. :)

~~~
sys_64738
John Sculley was a visionary who was 20 years ahead of even Steve.

~~~
chipotle_coyote
While I don't think I'd go that far, I think Sculley often gets an undeserved
bad rap in Apple history, mostly because people think of him only as "the guy
who pushed out Steve Jobs" rather than looking at what Apple did under his
leadership.

------
talideon
Another interesting thing is that Eidos Interactive started off producing non-
linear editing and video compression software for the Acorn Archimedes.

If you do musical composition, Sibelius started off on the Archimedes and was
one of its killer apps for a long time. I suspect that it was originally
inspired by !Maestro, which came bundled with with RISC OS. I can't recall who
wrote !Maestro, but I suspect it may have been Sophie Wilson.

If you've ever seen Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the production made heavy
use of RISC OS based machine to run everything, including produce the on-
screen graphics.

------
viler
Always wondered why a machine like the Archimedes didn't catch on quite like
the Amiga did in the enthusiast/demoscene/etc. space. Both were certainly
revolutionary for similar reasons. Was it the more limited reach outside of
the UK? The focus on educational markets?

~~~
detritus
Having gone from The Acorn Electron to the Spectrum to the Amiga and always
keeping up with the nerdy magazines of the time, I remember it being about
price point and 'cool factor'.

The older I got, the more I appreciated how cool the Archimedes could be
(especially after seeing Zarch which I think was more technically impressive
than anything on the Amiga 500 at the time - I might be exaggerating), but it
was a rare and strange beast mostly seen in school IT departments, and the
teachers even then tended to be quite protective of the expensive machines.

Being as it was a relative of the BBC Microcomputer, it would always have been
an uphill struggle to win the hearts of school kids wearing their parents'
wallets down at Christmas time, and was anyway a lot more expensive.

Everyone had Amigas because there was a very healthy Euro/Global trade in
pirated games from crackers on BBS' \- Amiga had an ecosystem useful to
schoolkids, Archimedes did not.

That said - I too would love to have a peek at an alternate timeline! I
distinctly remember sitting as an UnMin in Gatwick airport reading some Acorn
computer magazine heralding the new age of the Archimedes and getting quite
excited. Oh well.

\- ed

additionally - I _think_ the demo scene tended to be very tightly wrapped into
the cracker/pirate scene, ie. they were pretty much one and the same.

~~~
cheerlessbog
Zarch blew me away at the time (in my high school computer room) as well as
Conqueror, built on the same engine. Most home computer games at the time were
inferior to arcade games : it was only years later that arcade games were
surpassed at home, at least where I grew up in the UK.

~~~
sys_64738
Written in BASIC Too.

~~~
cheerlessbog
Source? Surely not.

------
woodylondon
My first real computer after my BBC Micro B - oh those were simple times :)

