In April 1994, Acorn announced the release of the second generation of ARM machines – the Acorn RISC PC 600. Code named the Medusa project, this was set to replace the then ailing flagship A5000 machine.
As the name suggests, one of the main features of this computer was that it could run both Acorn and IBM-PC software side by side. This was achieved by a second CPU slot that could accept a daughter board with a PC CPU, such as a 486 or 586. This second processor then had shared access with the primary CPU to all the system resources. No more CPU intensive software PC emulation required!
As well as the second processor, other major enhancements included an updated video controller with the option for dedicated video RAM. The graphics chip in previous Archimedes range machines had shared the system memory with the rest of the computer which often proved to be a bottle neck without true DMA. Now the video controller could have video memory of it’s own, removing the bottle neck.
The system data bus was doubled in size to 32bits wide, and the MEMU and IOC chips were combined to create the IOMD20. This resulted in much better overall I/O, yet another bottle neck removed from previous machines. The system memory was also upgraded to a maximum of 256MB and the memory bus was designed to use the more widely available EDO SIMM’s.
A unique feature of the RISC PC was its case. This came in the form of the base holding the motherboard and power supply, a mid section for mounting one 3.5" device, one 5.25" device and two single width expansion cards, and then a lid. The magic was that you could add up to 8 slices at any time, giving you a very easily expandable computer, and all held together with clips and springs negating the need for a screwdriver. Very neat.
There were 2 other Acorn RISC PC's. The RISC PC 700 was released July 1995 and the RISC PC-2 was much publicised by Acorn and then dramatically cancelled at the last minute.
Thanks to Paul Hadfield for his kind help.
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Hi. I use a riscpc600. The canon bjc 2100. Has just died any advice on what I should replace it with. Presumably I can pick something up on ebay
Sunday 29th May 2016
Douglas Piper
i want one
Friday 20th August 2010
CLASSIFIED
To add my two pence worth and expand on the main article. After the Risc PC 700 released in July 1995 with a 40 Mhz Arm 7 CPU, there was a "Strongarm" Risc PC released in September 1996 with either a 202 or 233 Mhz Digital Strongarm CPU and RISC OS 3.70. Strongarm CPU cards can be fitted in any Risc PC.
There are also the 233 and 300 Mhz Strongarm-based Kinetic upgrades by Castle Technology which have their own onboard memory augmenting the RAM installd on the motherboard. This goes some way towards reducing the impact of the slow front-side bus.
Acorn may have long since gone, but the RISC PC appears to be a hardy little beast (or big depending on the number of case slices you have) RISC OS has been developed beyond 3.7, there is now 4.x in ROM which can be softloaded with version 6.20 which is available from Risc OS LTD.
I have just succeded in getting my RPC on the internet! Of all the retro/old systems I have from its era, the RPC is perhaps the most expandable, and certainly the most versatile.
Unlike a few years ago there are a few emulators (free and commercial) around for both classic Risc OS and 4.x - current.
Sunday 27th June 2010
Andrew (Glasgow (UK))
NAME
Risc PC
MANUFACTURER
Acorn Computer
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
United Kingdom
YEAR
1994
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
BBC Basic
KEYBOARD
Full 102 Key PS/2 PC style
CPU
ARM 610
SPEED
30 MHz
CO-PROCESSOR
Choice of IBM-PC CPU’s including 486/586
RAM
4 MB (Up to 256 MB)
ROM
4 MB containing most of the OS
GRAPHIC MODES
Numerous - 1280 x 1024 at 256 colours, 800 x 600 16M colours
