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Acorn Archimedes A310

The first Archimedes, built around Acorn's own ARM2 and running RISC OS from ROM. It put a RISC processor in a home computer years before the idea reached the mainstream.

Manufacturer
Acorn Computers
Released
June 1987
Region
United Kingdom
Record status
provisional
A cream Acorn Archimedes A310 photographed against white: a flat system box with a floppy slot, a separate keyboard in front of it and a three-button mouse to the right.

An Acorn Archimedes A310, the first machine built around Acorn's own ARM processor, with its keyboard and three-button mouse.

mikkohoo · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

About this machine

Acorn designed its own processor after concluding that nothing on the market was a fit successor to the BBC Micro. The ARM2 it produced was cheap and unusually quick for its transistor count, and the architecture outlived the company that commissioned it.

Configuration

A310 retail configuration

United Kingdom

Component Role Count Clock Capacity
Acorn ARM2 Main CPU 1 8 MHz Nominal clock —
Acorn VIDC GPU 1 unknown Nominal clock — shared
Acorn Archimedes A310 RAM System memory 1 — unknown shared
Acorn Archimedes ROM Read-only RISC OS ROM. System memory 1 — unknown

Figures for the whole machine

Acorn Archimedes A310: system figures

provisional A figure marked provisional is recorded but not accepted: its evidence is unsettled. It may rely on one source, an unconfirmed announcement, or a digit read from a damaged scan. The reason appears under the figure. The catalog shows the figure but never uses it in a multiplier. How records are judged.

Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Clock frequency cpu provisional 8 MHz Rumored Vendor-rated Nominal clock From community documentation The cited Acorn manual states no clock. Wikipedia gives 8 MHz for the ARM2 in the first machines of this range, this one among them, and the catalog carries it as rumored.
Rated power consumption whole-system provisional 100 W Reported Vendor-rated Rated power Stated by the vendor This is the continuous output rating of the A500-series power supply, not a measured operating draw.
3 documented absences
Acorn Archimedes A310: system figures: documented absences
Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Clock frequency gpu provisional unknown The reviewed manual gives no single nominal graphics-clock figure. Not stated Vendor-rated Nominal clock Stated by the vendor The manual lists selectable video clock settings, but no single nominal graphics-clock frequency for the A310.
Memory bandwidth memory provisional unknown The reviewed manual gives no memory transfer-rate figure. Not stated Vendor-rated Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor The manual says the system uses fast-page DRAM access, but gives no transfer-rate figure from which memory bandwidth can be stated.
Memory capacity whole-system provisional unknown No whole-system total can be derived without a verified RAM figure. Not stated Vendor-rated Design capacity Stated by the vendor No whole-system memory total can be supported while the verified source provides no RAM figure.

Figures for its components

1 documented absence
Acorn ARM2: documented absences
Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Peak FP32 rate cpu provisional not applicable ARM2 has no integrated floating-point hardware; the later FPA is a separate option. Not stated Vendor-rated Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor Provisional record for acorn-archimedes-arm2:peak-fp32-rate: the cited primary manual is registered, but its page-level transcription and independent review are still pending.
1 documented absence
Acorn Archimedes A310 RAM: documented absences
Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Memory capacity memory provisional unknown No page-level RAM figure has been verified in the cited manual. Not stated Vendor-rated Design capacity Stated by the vendor The verified archive index does not expose a page-level RAM quotation.
1 documented absence
Acorn Archimedes ROM: documented absences
Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Memory capacity memory provisional unknown No page-level ROM figure has been verified in the cited manual. Not stated Vendor-rated Design capacity Stated by the vendor The verified archive index does not expose a page-level ROM quotation.

Sources