> I would argue that just about _all_ Acorn machines were interesting and
> on-topic: The ancestry is roughly :
>
> `Systems' (19" racks of cards) -> Atom -> BBC micro -> Archimedes -> RiscPC.
Those Systems sound interesting too! Did they have 6502s or something else?
> The Electron is an offshoot of the BBC micro family IMHO.
I can see your point -- the Atom is small because it's a precursor to the
BBC micro, but the Electron is small because it's a shrunken mutated BBC
micro.
The parallels between Acorn and Apple are very interesting -- the Atom and
original Apple ][ were more or less on equal footing (in terms of RAM and
ROM sizes and the capabilities of their BASICs). The Atom grew into the BBC
micro and the ][ grew into the ][+ though I think the BBC micro surpasses
the ][+ in terms of capability. The Master and //e both had to deal with
limited address space, add new features, and maintain backward
compatibility. Again the Master is more powerful than the //e. On the
other hand, the Master's memory map is much more convoluted than the //e's.
I'm not going to try to force the Electron, Apple //c, Apple ///, or the
later machines of either company into the analogy though.
> > you a copy. Other than that, I can't help you, 'cause I'm looking for
> > information (and maybe a machine or two) myself!
>
> What info do you need? I have a couple of shelves of manuals for Acorn
> machines...
My main sites for documentation have been:
http://members.magnet.at/marku/bbc.htm
http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/bbc/
Unfortunately the Advanced User's Guide for the Model B isn't done yet, and
the graphics are missing from the regular User's Guide. The Master
documentation is excellently done, however. Right now I only have a few
questions.
- Acorn seems to have made a lot of peripherals and also produced
slightly "tweaked" models (e.g., the model B and B+, the BBC
Master and Master Compact and some kind of Master Econet terminal,
not to mention ROM revisions). Do you know of an authoritative
catalog from them?
- Was the source to the MOS ever released or reverse-engineered?
It's very well documented but there are some undocumented features.
(One example came up in the discussion of the Torch Z-80 card.
It involved interrupts at power-on time, I think.) How about
the source or disassembly for BASIC?
- The Proton _is_ the same as the BBC micro, right? Some Web sites
seem to disagree on this!
As for finding a machine, I thought there was a place in London selling them
new but I haven't checked yet.
Thanks,
-- Derek
Received on Thu May 13 1999 - 01:56:15 BST