Acorn Archimedes 310

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The A305 and A310 were launched in June 1987 and were the first RISC CPU-based computers in the world. They were two of the first models to be launched in the Archimedes range of Acorn computers.

The A310 ran an operating system (OS) called Arthur. It was based on an earlier OS Acorn wrote in 1979 for the BBC Micro, a 6502-based microcomputer. Arthur was quite modern for a PC and included features like modularity between the OS and file system (two different file systems were supported), a graphical user interface (GUI) called Desktop, and a built in scripting language. The A310 was installed with an ARM2 processor and 1 MB RAM. The A305 could be upgraded to the A310 specification.

The Arthur OS was only supposed to be a stop gap while Acorn continued development on the ARX system, the original project led by Paul Fellows was only given 5 months to develop it from scratch. However the ARX project was delayed time and again, until eventually it was dropped when it was deemed possible for Arthur to have a window manager and full desktop. It was also small enough to fit in the 512K of memory, where as ARX required 4MB of RAM and a hard drive.

Following its release the Archimedes 310 was awarded the British Microcomputing Awards 'Micro of the Year' title, and it also won the 1988 TOBIE award for Best New Technology Application of the Year.

Our model was kindly donated by Roy Child.

Manufacturer: Acorn
Date: 1987

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Magazines RELATED to Acorn Archimedes 310 in our Library

Item Manufacturer Date
Personal Computer World - August 1987 1 Aug 1987
Archive - Vol 1, No 1 - October 1987 Norwich Computer Services Oct 1987
Archive - Vol 1, No 2 - November 1987 Norwich Computer Services Nov 1987
Archive - Vol 1, No 3 - December 1987 Norwich Computer Services Dec 1987
Archive - Vol 1, No 4 - January 1988 Norwich Computer Services Jan 1988
Archive - Vol 1, No 5 - February 1988 Norwich Computer Services Jan 1988
Byte January 1988 Jan 1988
Personal Computer World - January 1988 1 Jan 1988
Archive - Vol 1, No 6 - March 1988 Norwich Computer Services Mar 1988
Archive - Vol 1, No 7 - April 1988 Norwich Computer Services Apr 1988
Archive - Vol 1, No 8 - May 1988 Norwich Computer Services May 1988
Archive - Vol 1, No 9 - June 1988 Norwich Computer Services Jun 1988
Archive - Vol 1, No 10 - July 1988 Norwich Computer Services Jul 1988
Archive - Vol 1, No 11 - August 1988 Norwich Computer Services Aug 1988
Archive - Vol 1, No 12 - September 1988 Norwich Computer Services Sep 1988
Personal Computer World - January 1989 1 Jan 1989
PC World Focus March 1989 Number 1 Personal Computer World Mar 1989
Personal Computer World - March 1989 1 Mar 1989
Personal Computer World - April 1989 1 Apr 1989
Acorn - Higher Education News 2 - Summer 1989 Acorn Computers Limited May 1989
Personal Computer World - July 1989 Jul 1989
Personal Computer World - November 1989 1 Nov 1989
Personal Computer World - February 1990 1 Feb 1990

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This exhibit has a reference ID of CH6332. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

 

Acorn Archimedes 310

  Book Archive   [8]
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  Software Archive   [534]
  Peripherals   [259]
  Promotional Items   [8]

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