On Jan 25, 1:32, Tony Duell wrote:
> > On Sat, 23 Jan 1999, Bill Yakowenko wrote:
> > > 2. Nothing PC- or Mac-compatible can ever be classic. Sorry, that's
> > > just an indisputable fact. :-)
> >
> > How about a VAX emulating a PC?
>
> Or more seriously an Acorn Archimedes running the PC-emulator. The
> Archimedes is undoubtedly a classic (or will be as the machines get to 10
> years old). It was the first (popular?) desktop system to use a RISC
> processor.
The first Archimedes 310 was sold in July 1988. It might just qualify as
the first desktop machine using a RISC processor, though there's not a
whole lot of difference between that and a small deskside machine.
Machines using MIPS chips, the Clipper, and the IBM RT were around first,
but they were at least an order of magnitude more expensive. The
Archimedes real claim is that it was the first mass-market RISC-based
computer.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Received on Mon Jan 25 1999 - 01:37:17 GMT