From: roger@oit.itd.umich.edu (Roger Espinosa)
Newsgroups: umich.for_sale,misc.forsale,misc.forsale.computers.other
Subject: FOR SALE: Acorn Archimedes 440/2
Date: 8 Nov 1992 22:50:40 GMT
Organization: University of Michigan
Distribution: mi
NNTP-Posting-Host: helen.oit.itd.umich.edu
Summary: RISC-based ARM system


Sigh. It would appear that my "dream machine" and I have parted ways. I
can no longer justify supporting two computers, and would rather see the
Archimedes go to a good home than sit idle in the hope of being tinkered
with. 

So...

Acorn Archimedes 440/2
	(the label says "410/1", but it's got 2Mb RAM and 40Mb HD)
	40Mb ST-506 HD
	RISC-OS 2 multitasking operating system: it's a fast, compact, 
	 windowing system that finally justifies a 3-button mouse. 
	4096-color palette (it's one big weakness, if you're used to 
	 16 million colors...)
	ARM2 CPU running at @ 4 MIPS
	standard serial, parallel ports
	music produced I'm not sure how, but it sounds cool; I've got
	 applications that play SoundTracker files in the background

The Archimedes has over 20 graphics modes, that are totally compatible
with each other. Resolutiont can vary from 320x256x2 to 640x256x256 to
1152x256x256 to 640x480x256 (it's psuedo-VGA mode). Nifty stuff. :-)

RISC-OS 2 provides a good multitasking windowing operating system. It's not as
elegant as the Mac, but it's lightyears ahead of Windows. *And* RISC OS 2
also has a command-line mode (the ShellCLI) in which you can do everything
you do on the Desktop (except run Desktop-specific files). Drag-and-drop
happens (sort of) on the icon bar...suffice it to say that it's *not* based
on the Mac-menubar-style interface, but uses context-sensitive pop-up
menus. Totally intuitive style (as opposed to SunView, say...)

With the machine comes scads of software:
	Desktop C v.4 - an ANSI compiler that can generate CLI programs
	 as well as Desktop applications
	Impression Jr. - a combo entry-level word processor/DTP package.
	 Works pretty well, but it ain't Word. You can do some pretty
	 powerful stuff, albiet the British spellings get surreal.
	Lemmings! - Blazing color and sound!
	Lotsa UNIX-style ports: I got this machine to hack on, and the
	 software shows! Tar, uuencode, uudecode, GNU make, GNU awk,
	 GNU grep, micro emacs, vi, UNIX-compatible libraries, etc. etc.
	Ray tracing software: POV, I believe.
	Charm! Language
	Chess
	Too many Othello games
	MS-DOS disc readers and formatters
	Terminal Emulators
	Translator graphic conversion application

and more.

Built into the Archimedes is an amazingly fast BASIC V interpreter. 
It's amazing that windowing applications can be done in interpreted BASIC
(but they are! :-)

Of course, the drawback to the Archimedes is that it's only really supported in
Europe (the UK mostly). Mail order works, and there's comp.sys.acorn, but
it can get lonely. RISC OS 3 is out now as a ROM-upgrade and Acorn seems
pretty strong as a company these days, what with Apple using its ARM610
CPU and all...

Wonderful public domain/freeware/shareware stuff is available from 
comp.binaries.acorn, comp.sources.acorn, and the Newcastle mail server,
which is really how I got most my stuff. One of the *great* things about
Archimedes "contributed" software is that full source code is commonly
provided. 

So that's the story. It's a *great* hacking machine. Unfortunately, I find
my future moving ever so quickly away from having enough time to hack on
two computers. :-( If you've ever wanted to play around in RISC systems 
(along with the Assembler I forgot to mention) then this is an inexpensive 
way to do it. In fact, you can even read up on ARM technology in the 
latest Byte...

THE PRICE: $1000 will get you the Archimedes 
The monitor you'll have to provide (the Arc likes VGA and multisyncs).

Any offers, of course, will be considered. :-)

Roger Espinosa
roger@trillium.soe.umich.edu
roger@oit.itd.umich.edu
677-3513