Acorn Business Computer

The Acorn Business Computer (ABC) was a series of microcomputers announced at the end of 1983 by the British company Acorn Computers. The series of eight computers was aimed at the business, research and further education markets. However, the ABC range was cancelled before any of the models were shipped to customers. The ABC 210 was subsequently relaunched as the Acorn Cambridge Workstation, sold in modest numbers to academic and scientific users.

The ABC range was developed by Acorn essentially as a repackaged BBC Micro, expanded to 64 kB RAM, to which was added (in some models) a second processor and extra memory to complement the Micro's 6502. The electronics and disk drives were integrated into the monitor housing, with a separate keyboard.

The Zilog Z80, Intel 80286 and National Semiconductor 32016 were all used as second processors in the various models. Two of the eight models produced, the Personal Assistant and the Terminal, had no second processor.

Range and specifications

The following models were announced:

ABC Personal Assistant

*64Kb RAM memory.
*640Kb floppy disk drive
*6502 processor running at 2MHz.
*4MHz RAM bus.
*Acornsoft View and Acornsoft ViewSheet in ROM.
*Green phosphor monochrome monitor

ABC Terminal

*64Kb RAM memory.
*Diskless
*6502 processor running at 2MHz
*4MHz RAM bus.
*VT100 emulator in ROM.
*Green phosphor monochrome monitor

ABC 100

*64Kb RAM memory.
*Twin 720Kb floppy disk drives
*Z80 processor. (6502 acting as I/O processor)
*CP/M 2.2 operating system
*Green phosphor monochrome monitor

ABC 110

*64Kb RAM memory.
*10 Megabyte hard drive.
*Z80 processor. (6502 acting as I/O processor)
*CP/M 2.2 operating system
*Colour monitor

ABC 200

*512Kb RAM memory.
*10MHz or 8MHz RAM bus.
*Twin 720Kb floppy disk drives
*32016 processor. (6502 acting as I/O processor)
*Monochrome monitor

ABC 210/Acorn Cambridge Workstation

This model entered production with a 20 MB hard disk as the Acorn Cambridge Workstation (ACW 443).
*4096Kb RAM memory.
*6MHz RAM bus.
*10 Megabyte hard disk.
*32016 processor. (6502 acting as I/O processor)
*32016 firmware ("Pandora") in ROM. The ABC 210 was intended to run Xenix, however, the ACW was shipped with Panos.
*Colour monitor

ABC 300

*1024Kb RAM memory.
*Twin 720Kb floppy disk drives
*80286 processor. (6502 acting as I/O processor)
*Concurrent DOS with Desktop Manager
*Monochrome monitor

ABC 310

*1024Kb RAM memory.
*10 Megabyte hard disk.
*80286 processor. (6502 acting as I/O processor)
*Concurrent DOS with Desktop Manager
*Colour monitor

References

*cite web
url=http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/Computers/ABC.html
title=Chris's Acorns: Acorn Business Computer
accessdate=2008-04-10
*cite web
url=http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/Computers/ACW.html
title=Chris's Acorns: Acorn Cambridge Workstation
accessdate=2008-04-10
*cite journal
url=http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/docs/Mags/PCW/PCW_Apr85_ABC310.pdf
last=Bright
first=Peter
title=Acorn ABC 310
journal=Personal Computer World
year=1985
month=April
volume=8
issue=4
* [http://www.stairwaytohell.com/articles/AU-AcornHistory.html "From Atom to ARC - The ups and downs of the development of Acorn"] , from October, November and December 1988 editions of "Acorn User".
* [http://www.khantazi.org/Archives/MachineLst.html#ABC "Full Acorn Machine List"] , Philip R. Banks, 1999