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Acorn Archimedes A3000

1989–1992 · desktop

Specifications

Cpu: ARM2, 8 MHz
Ram: max: 2 MB on-board via an internal upgrade; further expansion required a podule (expansion card) since the base machine had no expansion slots of its own · base: 1 MB
Ports: RGB video · Composite/TV video · Analogue stereo audio out · Centronics printer port · RS-423 serial · Analogue joystick port · Single expansion port (for an external podule backplane)
Display: VIDC video controller, multiple modes up to 640x512 in 16 colors (fewer colors at higher resolutions); RGB and composite/TV output
Storage: base: Built-in 3.5" floppy disc drive (800 KB per disc) · options: External hard disc via a podule expansion, e.g. SCSI or ST506 interfaces sold by third parties
Os Support: latest: RISC OS 3.1 via ROM upgrade · shipped: Arthur 1.2
Release Price: £649

Variants

Models

A3000 Learning CurveLearning Curve1989 education/home bundle with monitor and software

Upgrade paths

RAM

2 MB via an internal RAM upgrade board fitted under the keyboard · This is the machine worth pausing on: it shipped with the original ARM2, the first commercial silicon of the ARM architecture that, decades later, ended up running almost every phone on Earth. In 1989 that 8 MHz chip was just a fast, cheap way to run a desktop; it was not obviously the ancestor of the world's dominant CPU family.

~£100 at the time

MODERATE

storage

External hard disc via a third-party podule, tens of MB in period, far more with later SCSI units · The A3000 has only a single expansion connector rather than a full podule backplane, so most hard disc solutions used an external box that took the connector itself.

varies widely, several hundred pounds for period SCSI/ST506 kits

HARD