Acorn RISC OS Computers

About Acorn Computers
    Acorn Computers Ltd was a British microcomputer manufacturer founded in Cambridge in 1978 by Herman Hauser and Christopher Curry. Acorn was responsible for the development of the BBC Microcomputer, and later the Acorn Archemedes, along with the ARM processor architecture and the RISC OS operating system. During the 1980's and early 1990's, Acorn Computers were widely used in schools throught the United Kingdom, drawing may comparisons with Apple in the U.S. In the mid 1990's, Acorn began to loose ground to the (then) inferior 'IBM Compatibles', mainly due to Microsoft's superior marketing tactics. Acorn Computers Ltd was finally broken up in 1998, their assets were sold off to companies such as Castle Technology ltd and RISC OS Ltd, as well as the creation of an entirely new company, ARM ltd.


About RISC OS
    RISC OS (Reduced Instruction Set Computer Operating System) was designed in 1987 as the operating system of the Acorn Archemedes. It was designed to run specifically on the ARM chipset, which Acorn also designed. When Acorn was broke up in 1998, RISC OS was sold off to Pace Micro plc, and was then later aquired by Castle Technology in 2003. In december 2002, just before Castle aquired RISC OS from Pace, Castle released the Iyonix computer running RISC OS 5. In 2007 Castle implemented a 'Shared Source' Liscence, which made the source code for various components of RISC OS 5 freely available for developers to modify and add extra features. The RISC OS source code is managed by a company called RISC OS Open Ltd. These enhancements would then be incorporated into the next RISC OS update, similar to open source Linux distributions. Meanwhile, since 1999, RISC OS Ltd have been developing a version of RISC OS (RISC OS 4) for use on (now) legacy hardware such as the Acorn RiscPC, as well as for new third party machines such as the A9home, released in 2005.

    For more information about RISC OS, visit the Wikipedia article (please ignore the crappy illustrative screenshot, it does not reflect RISC OS's true capabilities).



Why Choose RISC OS?
  • A superior, cutting-edge GUI - The RISC OS GUI is extremely easy to learn and use, as well as being simple and uncluttered. The RISC OS GUI is still considered to be ahead of its time and one of RISC OS's best features, even though it has remained largely unchanged since it was first created.
  • Reliable/Stable - the OS is stored in flash ROM, meaning that it is uncorruptable, immune to viruses and the computer will still boot into the desktop even in the absence of a hard disc.
  • Extremely efficent OS - RISC OS requires a minimum of 16MB of RAM to run and the OS itself is stored in 4MB of flash ROM. Also the ARM processor uses far less power than Intel chips, eliminating the need for a fan, or any form of cooling for that matter. Despite this, it is still able to cope with the demands of a modern desktop computer.
  • Full drag and drop - the use of drag and drop instead of Cut 'n' Paste and Open/Save dialogue boxes means that there is greater clarity throught the UI, such as dragging and dropping pictures/graphics into a blank Artworks document. This makes the RISC OS GUI very easy to learn for children and people new to computers.
  • Software support - RISC OS supports a wide range of software from advanced word processors, to web browsers as well as World-Class graphic design, photo, and DTP software packages. RISC OS can import, edit and export a wide range of industry standard formats such as Microsoft Word and Excel, and Adobe PDF, Illustrator and Photoshop formats.
  • Support for modern standards - you may remember Acorns as those 'crappy' computers you used at primary school, - not any more! RISC OS has support for the USB 2 interface including printers, SD card readers and USB sticks. Also support for Gigabit Ethernet, DVD RW, PCI, and modern graphics capable of ultra high screen resolutions in millions of colours, as well as multiple monitors.
  • Simplicity - RISC OS contains no annoying wizards, e.g. instead, applications can be installed simply by dragging them from their zipped folder and dropping them where you want them to be stored. Also at the bottom of the screen is the Iconbar, invented by Acorn in 1987, this gives access to all connected devices, disc drives and running applications - meaning no annoying start menu to navigate.
  • It just works (literally) - out of the box, a new RISC OS computer can be switched straight on and boot up into the desktop ready for use within a few seconds, with all fully liscenced software pre installed on the hard disc. Also throught its lifetime, it will require virtually zero maintenance, and will always boot up ready to use.
  • Extremely fast startup time - under 10 seconds on the Castle Iyonix.


Screenshots
    Click the screenshots below to see RISC OS in action.
    A screenshot of the RISC OS desktop with a filer window open, a 'Netsurf' browser window open, and a drawing of an apple done in Artworks. Also other apps are running, on the right side of the iconbar.A screenshot showing the RiscPC's 486 PC card running Windows 95 in a window. The RiscPC had a slot on the main board so that an Intel or compatible processor could be fitted to run PC software.A screenshot demonstrating RISC OS's multimedia capabilities. Including Maestro, a music scoring program, ROTunes, an iTunes 'clone', and KinoAMP playing an MPEG video.
    A screenshot showing Ovation Pro, a DTP package (left), and Techwriter, a technical word processor, with MS Word export (right).A screenshot showing PhotoDesk, a bitmap photo editor, similar to PhotoShop (top left), and Draw, a vector drawing package with an ArtWorks drawing imported into it (bottom right).A screenshot showing the homepage of this website being displayed in Netsurf.

Videos



RISC OS in the real world ... beyond education
    The Spice Girls used and Acorn RiscPC to write their songs on, and even announced their support for Acorn. The original article is here.

    An Acorn RiscPC was sent into space by the European Space Agency (ESA) on a data logging mission.

    The ITV television series 'Who Wants to be a Millionare' uses a RiscPC to control the questions and answers etc. Such as when Chris Tarrant says "computer take away two of the wrong answers, leave the right answer and the one remaining wrong answer".

    The Science Museum in London still uses RISC OS/Acorn computers to run all of its animations etc.

    The Hong Kong stock exchange displays were powered by RiscPC's for displaying share indexes etc.

    Network Rail used Acorn computers to display the train times on its screens.

    The National Lottery ball machine, called 'Arthur' is powered by a RiscPC.

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