The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltd's first general purpose home computer based on their own 32-bit ARM RISC CPU. The name is also commonly used to describe computers which were based on the same architecture, even where Acorn did not include 'Archimedes' in the official name.

The first models were released in June 1987, as the 300 and 400 series. The 400 series included 4 expansion slots (although a 2 slot backplane could be added to the 300 series as an official upgrade, and third parties produced their own 4 slot backplanes) and an ST506 controller for an internal hard drive. Both models included the Arthur OS (later replaced by RISC OS as a paid-for upgrade), BBC BASIC and an emulator for Acorn's earlier BBC Micro, and were mounted in two-part cases with a small central unit, monitor on top, and a separate keyboard and three-button mouse. All models featured onboard 8 channel stereo sound and were capable of displaying 256 colours on screen.

Four models were initially released with different amounts of memory, the A305, A310, A410 and A440. The 300 and 400 were followed by a number of machines with minor changes and upgrades:

The Archimedes A305 is the same as the A310, but with only 0.5MB RAM instead of the 1MB RAM in the A310

This model is the 305 (Serial No. 27-AKB10-1002793 which was kindly donated by Derek Tate together with software and manuals

Manufacturer: Acorn
Date: 1987

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH9407. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.