Acorn System Computers Acorn System Hardware Acorn System Software Change Log
The 19" Rack & Eurocard Standards The Acorn System Backplane Acorn System Filing Systems
My Systems Replica Boards Control Universal Development Tools
Semiconductor Datasheets The 6845 CRTC PROMs and EPROMs Programmers
I bought my Acorn System 1 back in 1979 and later expanded this into a card frame based System 2 using homebrew boards as well as Acorn's. I moved onto a BEEB and eventually PC's, the Acorn computers being consigned to the back of a cupboard for many years.
My interest was rekindled a few years ago, I started off restoring the System 2 Computer but this led to expanding the collection to include a range of System Computers. I still have all the Acorn paperwork from the early 80's as well as disassembled software and was surprised how little seems to be on the web hence I have created this website to ensure the information is not lost.
Follow this link to My Systems to see how my System Computer(s) has been brought back to life.
Some of the info on the site has come from other sources in particular:
[1] Steve Bagley who posted a large number of schematics on stardot
[2] Chris Whytehead (Chris's Acorns now www.chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/) for the System 5, 6809 & 8K RAM + 8K ROM Board manuals
[3] Centre for Computing History (Cambridge) who now look after the Chris Whytehead collection including his System 3, 4 & 5 (see www.computinghistory.org.uk/news/34175/Acorn-Collection-Donated/) and who kindly allowed me to photograph the three machines
[4] Ben Harris for various schematics
[5] Volker Bosch for the EPROM programmer switch
[6] Dave 'hoglet' for some of the Control Universal documents
[7] Alan Bain for the DOS Technical Manual and System BASIC Manual
[8] IanB (stardot) for the MK14 VDU kit photos
[9] Derek at bygonebytes.co.uk for the loan of a Softy 1
[10] Buzby123 (vintage-radio) for the MK14 cassette interface photo
[11] Beebmaster (www.beebmaster.co.uk) for allowing me to use his Atom Econet Node photos
[12] rick at heyrick.eu/econet for allowing me to use his FileStore info
[13] Simon Inns for BeebSCSI without which the FileStore E01E would not have had SCSI
[14] The National Museum Of Computing (TNMOC) for allowing me to photograph their System Computers
[15] Tim Gilberts for the loan of a Softy 2
[16] Boydie on stardot for scans of the Analogue and Laboratory Interface Technical Manuals
I have adopted a standard format for filenames as follows:
<part name><acorn part number><item><issue><date><view>[ref]
<part name> Acorn were not always consistent with their product names, I have used the most common
<acorn part number> these start with either 100 or 200 not sure why, perhaps 100 was draft/pre-production ?
<issue> the issue or version number when known
<item> e.g. Schematic, Technical Manual, PCB etc.
<view> e.g. top or bottom
[ref] is a reference to the source of the item (where I can remember), a reference to [0] refers to my own collection.
I am happy for any of my information on this site to be taken and used/reproduced as long as its not for commercial gain.
All text in "double quotes" is taken from Acorn literature.
Prices are from the Acorn 1979 Price List and do not include VAT which was then at 15%.
Please note that I have no connection with any of the companies mentioned on this site, just a happy customer/user.
This website was put together using Microsoft Expression and is hosted by Webhosting.uk.com.
Please drop me an email if you spot any errors or omissions (however trivial) or you have any information that can be added to the site.
Apologies if I haven't added a link to the source of any material, I usually just forget where I found it !, let me know and I'll add a reference.
Chris Oddy
ChrisO on stardot.org.uk
ChrisOddy on vintage-radio.net
acornreplicas on eBay