ACORN LAUNCH NEW MICRO

Mike Williams reviews Acorn's recently launched A3000, the new BBC microcomputer.

Since the new year, various magazines including RISC User have carried speculative items on a new Archimedes from Acorn. Now the truth is revealed with Acorn's announcement of the A3000, the new BBC microcomputer.

INTRODUCTION

The A3000 marks a radical change from the Archimedes as we have come to know it, reverting to the single box approach of the BBC micro and Master 128, and used so successfully by the Atari ST and others. The moulded plastic case is in standard Acorn crackle-finish cream. The dimensions of 48.5cm by 32cm by 6.5cm make it about 1cm wider than the Master 128, but the depth from front to back, and the height are less. The new machine has the same 'PC-enhanced' style of keyboard as other Archimedes (built into the front, sloping fascia), but it is of different construction, and has a much lighter and more positive feel to it.

A recessed on/off switch is fitted at the left-hand side, while a standard 3.5" disc drive is built into the right-hand side of the new machine, to the rear of the keyboard. The Reset switch is located beneath this and is also recessed.

The disc drive feels comfortable to access for inserting and removing discs, though the eject button requires a little more effort than I might have wished, and my fingers were often slightly blocked by the edge of the casing. However, I found no confusion in use between the eject button and the Reset switch.

In use, the disc drive is noisier compared to the Archimedes 300 series, but this may be the consequence of the use of a plastic rather than a metal case. One useful touch is the provision of a repeat 'telltale' light on the front panel to indicate when the drive is in operation.

All the connectors (bar one) are fitted at the rear of the machine and include analogue RGB, composite video, Econet, printer port, serial port, stereo sound jack and a podule expansion socket. However, the serial and Econet interfaces are both upgrades to the standard machine. An Archimedes mouse is included with the system, and this plugs into a socket recessed into the underside of the machine. This is clearly difficult to access, but has the advantage that the mouse can readily be positioned to either the left or right of the keyboard (or wherever it is most convenient in use).

The A3000 is designed for use with either an analogue RGB monitor, or one which will accept a mono composite video input. A stand will be available to raise any monitor above the casing, and help ventilation.

HARDWARE

Lifting the lid, which is easily achieved, reveals the power supply, circuit board and disc drive. The power supply is quite unprotected, leaving dangerous voltages exposed, which means (officially at least) that any upgrades are dealer only. The A3000 uses the same ARM chip-set and disc controller and offers the same performance as the latest 400 series (themselves about 10% faster than the original Archimedes 305 and 310). It is also fitted with RISC OS as standard, which should remove any doubts about software compatibility.

General circuit layout is very similar to existing Archimedes models, but takes advantage of the latest 'surface mounted' components. These are minute, and look little more than mere blobs of solder. The 1MByte of memory is in the form of eight vertically mounted chips (as on the 400/1) which thus use less space on the board than the more traditional horizontal ones. A row of pins is waiting for the plug-in 1MByte upgrade that will double the memory to 2MBytes, the maximum that the machine is designed to accommodate.

The board also provides for internal expansion. Econet uses the existing plug-in board, while the serial interface requires just two chips to be fitted. Acorn claims that it is using a completely bug-free controller to avoid the problems encountered in earlier Archimedes with the serial interface.

There is also a new-style mini-podule expansion capability. The only suitable podule currently announced is a combined User Port/MIDI interface from Acorn, though other manufacturers will no doubt step in. Only one such podule may be fitted anyway, but no existing podules will fit. However, there is also an external expansion socket fitted at the rear of the machine, and this will accept single card podules, including a hard disc interface if required. A podule expansion box offering up to four podule connections can also be mounted here. Provision has been included in the moulding for add-ons to be securely attached to the A3000, but this will obviously require a certain amount of re-design on the part of manufacturers

The new machine also sports stereo loud speakers (i.e. using the same miniature speaker as previously fitted), though hardly hi-fi stereo sound. It is very easy to change the stereo position of any sound channel (*STEREO or STEREO in Basic), and the effects were well demonstrated using the Maestro application from one of the two supplied Applications discs.

The A3000 is also fitted with NiCad battery back-up, the batteries being constantly recharged while the machine is switched on.

SOFTWARE

The A3000 is supplied with the same RISC OS chips as the Archimedes, and thus provides the same multi-tasking WIMP environment. The machine thus includes Archimedes BBC Basic, while standard RISC OS applications such as Edit, Paint and Draw are supplied on two Applications discs, identical (as far as I can judge) to those supplied with RISC OS on other Archimedes, apart from the disc labels. No support disc is included. Acorn, probably correctly, assume that A3000 users will not be 'upgrading' from any other Archimedes, and that any new software purchased will already have been converted to RISC OS by the supplier.

The 6502 emulator (65Host and65Tube) is included as part of the system, and there should be no problem in running the PC emulator, although this is not included.

Although the existing ROM set accounts for 0.5MBytes of memory, the design of the A3000 would permit ROM software up to a massive 2MBytes.

One interesting piece of information is that the new machine officially takes over the mantle of 'BBC microcomputer', the revamped 400 series machines on which we reported last month being Acorn-badged only, while the existing 300 series is likely to be phased out shortly.

MANUALS

The A3000 is supplied with a Welcome Guide and a User Guide. These are very similar to the two guides supplied with the RISC OS upgrade, and now with the 300 and 400 series. The Welcome Guide consists largely of new material, as it is specific to the A3000, although very much in the same style as before. The User Guide is essentially unchanged, but there are numerous detailed revisions, and both it and the Welcome Guide have been completely re-typeset with new style covers. Curiously, neither manual now makes any reference (as far as I could find) to the 'Archimedes' name.

No guide to Basic is supplied with the A3000. The new owner is therefore faced with the additional purchase of the Acorn BBC Basic Guide (£19.95), unlike purchasers of the 400 series where it is supplied as standard.

COMMENT

It is good to see Acorn capitalising on the power and flexibility of the Archimedes by packaging it up into an Atari style machine. It is fully Archimedes and RISC OS compatible with no dilution or watering down of the Archimedes' essential features. Clearly it is aimed more at the home user (than the business market for which dual disc drives if not a hard disc are a standard and essential requisite). It is also likely that Acorn will target the machine strongly into the educational market, where it may well prove successful as a lower cost entry system for primary schools, and as a cheaper network station for Econet systems.

Has Acorn got the price right? That is always a difficult question to answer, and in fact there is no absolute answer. If the A3000 captures the public imagination and becomes THE machine to buy and be seen buying, Acorn would probably feel that they had priced the machine too low. If it is seen as a relative failure, then critics will no doubt argue that it is because Acorn set the price too high. On first impressions Acorn has got the price about right. The Archimedes has already established itself as one of the most desirable micros around, and packaging that up as Acorn has done at a lower price has to be a good move.

Lastly, the question is, "When will the new machine be ready?" Acorn says that it will be available in quantity by the time of the BBC Acorn User Show in July, which will also be the first public showing for the new machine. All in all, exciting times lie ahead for Acorn.

The A3000 System

Hardware
Single box design
1Mb RAM (expandable to 2MBytes)
Internal 3.5" 800K floppy disc
Internal stereo speakers
NiCad battery back-up
Mouse
Side-mounted on/off switch
Integral power supply

Connectors
Centronics compatible printer
Analogue RGB
Mono composite video
Stereo sound
Econet (option)
Expansion connector (for podules)
User port/MIDI (internal expansion)
Serial (internal expansion)
User port for Concept Keyboard

Price
£649 ex. VAT (£746.35 inc. VAT)
Monitor extra.