The Acorn A5000 was an all new model of the Archimedes family replacing the A540.
It had 4 slots like previous models but a larger wider case making it look like a workstation computer.
It was built on the new fast ARM3 processor as used in the A4 laptop. VGA output and new extra screen modes were introduced as well using cheap standardised IDE hard disks. The keyboard was the quality 'Brisbane' model as used on the previous high end Acorns. (Or could 'Brisbane' be the codename for the A5000, as I discovered it inside the keyboard PCB when I did some repairs on mine?)
Many A5000s were fitted with SCSI controller cards and used with caddy-type external CD ROM drives for multimedia applications.
Early models had just 2MB of RAM with a slot to allow a 4MB RAM card to be mounted on top. Later A5000s were slightly faster, had 4MB on the motherboard as standard and more generously sized hard disks.
There are rumours that some of the Liteon built Acorn AKF18 SVGA multisync monitors normally supplied with the A4000/A5000 were recalled as they could overheat and catch fire! :(
Information supplied by Jonathan Hayward
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I have a pristine A5000 full spec DVD with manuals and loads of software. Does anyone want to buy it?
Sunday 8th February 2015
PVT (Worcesttershire)
Hi everyone, I wonder if any of you could help us out. We have a A5000 in great condition (plus printer) which we are hoping to sell to pay the bills!
Is the price listed on this page (1000-1800 pounds) a realistic asking price for selling it today? It seems rather high $ (it''s surely not listing the original price by any chance is it?)
Friday 12th October 2012
J C (UK)
Just some additions - Econet was optional, my A5000 came without. Then, the highest standard resolution was 800x600. Maximum colour depth was 8 bit - 16 colours and the other four bits were used for hue and saturation IIRC. Also, with 3rd party upgrades RAM could be expanded to 8MB. Finally, the keyboard may have some superficial resemblance with PS/2 keyboards but it really isn''t. Not even close. Some keys are labeled differently, there''s a standard bus mouse port and a hardware reset button in the back of the keyboard. The mouse that came with mine was made by Logitech no less. And the connector is actually a serial port, reset line and power supply for the mouse controller in the keyboard. Plugging a PS/2 keyboard in would blow some fuses. Mouse events are merged into the keyboard data stream, there is no separate line for mouse data, The mainboard of at least some revisions was actually prepared for PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports. There''s a jumper to switch between acorn and PS/2 mode but no PS/2 connectors are fitted and there are no holes in the case.
Wednesday 11th March 2009
Michael Lorenz (USA)
NAME
Archimedes A5000
MANUFACTURER
Acorn Computer
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
United Kingdom
YEAR
1991
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
BBC BASIC V
KEYBOARD
Full-stroke 102 keys PC-style
CPU
ARM 3 32 bit RISC
SPEED
25 or 33 Mhz.
CO-PROCESSOR
MEMC (memory), VIDC (Video and Sound), IOC (I/O)
RAM
2 to 4 MB
ROM
2 MB
TEXT MODES
80 columns x 25 rows up to 132 x 32
GRAPHIC MODES
VGA video output. Several graphic modes. Among them 640 x 256 or 512 pixels
COLORS
4096
SOUND
8 voices synthesizer
SIZE / WEIGHT
43 (W) x 33.5 (D) x 9.8 (H) cm
I/O PORTS
Centronics, RS423, VGA, Econet, 4 expansion slots
BUILT IN MEDIA
3.5'' FDD (800 KB, 1.44 MB and 1.6 MB formatted capacities), HDD from 20 MB
