By Silas S. Brown
(With comments from D.G.Shimmin)
I don't know very much about the
Archimedes, but I must say that I'd
rather have access to an A3010 than the
PC I have access to at the moment (a
286 roughly equal in price to an A3010
but including extras like hard disk
drive and monitor). Here are my
reasons:
Operating System Maybe not many people find multitasking
helpful, but I do, as I often write
programs that tend to tie up the
computer in a long calculation. The
file management, printing, etc. also
benefits from multitasking, as you can
be getting on with other stuff while
it's going on in the background. Task
switching, the user interface and the
ability to 'drag' data around programs
(as well as the ability to increase
your productivity if you work with
several programs on the same task.
Fine, you can use Windows on the PC to
do all that, but it's not as reliable
as RISC OS is and it consumes a lot
more resources to match the speed. OS/2
is even more so, and DesqView doesn't
come anywhere near to its standards on
a similarly priced machine. And in
RISC-OS the command line is always
available if you need to use it, and it
works, too, unlike some MS-DOS sessions
in things like Windows.
Memory A lot of PCs have more memory than the
A3010 has or can be expanded to, but
the A3010 manages its memory more
efficiently than PCs. Let's take an
example. I switch the 1Mb 286 on and it
goes through the bootup routines (which
are quicker on the Archimedes so you
don't have to wait for ages just to do
a one minute job), loading DOS and
loading drivers and pieces of software
like that which are provided in ROM on
the Archimedes anyway, and leaves me
with about 540K free memory. The A3010,
on the other hand, in the same status,
gives 584K - and even more if you don't
want things like fonts. I load QBasic
to do some programming, and that leaves
about 450K free. On the A3010, on the
other hand, it's still 584K unless you
want to speed the already fast micro up
a bit and load it into RAM, and even
then you have more than on the PC.
Fine, you may say, who needs all this
memory anyway? Well, if you're
multitasking you do.
Speed
As I mentioned earlier, the A3010 boots
faster than the 286. It also IS a lot
faster in operation. Don't think that
RISC is cheating - it's quite an
adequate instruction set, especially
with all the OS calls. This 286 runs at
16MHz and so does the ARM250. But the
ARM250 handles instructions in less
clock cycles and offers about twice the
speed of a 286 - just the thing for
multitasking. And as the ARM250 is
integrated CPU, IOC, MEMC and VIDC,
never mind any PC local bus and video
cards because on the A3010 they're all
there on the same chip, interfacing at
the same fast speed.
Sound There's no question about it - the
Archimedes sound is far better than the
PC's, unless you add a sound card to
your PC, which costs about £100-£200
extra (more like £80 to £100, I've been
told - DGS) and isn't well software
implemented anyway (unless you program
in machine code, that is).
Graphics The Archimedes graphics matches, in
some cases, SVGA standards (and long
before SVGA was out) in 360K or so of
memory. Also, you don't have to pick
out a few more hundred pounds for a
graphics card. The screen updating is,
I believe, also a lot faster, and there
is more OS support.
(DGS says: I've been led to believe
that the Archimedes gets 256 colours on
screen at once, while £800+ PC's
(colour SVGA) have millions, not that
256 colours doesn't look brilliant
anyway, and few PC's are fast enough to
use all their colours productively.
Most new 386/486 PC's have graphics
cards included).
Mouse
While this is supplied on all
Archimedes models as standard, it costs
extra on many PCs (except 'bundled'
packages) and often has only 2 buttons.
TV Modulator If you can't afford a monitor on PCs,
you'll have to spend almost just as
much buying an expansion card for a TV
modulator, and all your expansion slots
would probably be filled up by now so
you can't fit it in anywhere!
Ports With most PC ports you have to get
ANOTHER - aargh! - expansion card! For
the Archimedes, there is a device
available which plugs in to one
expansion slot and gives you four -
mind you, you're not likely to use
them, as all the ports you need (unless
you're doing something like controling
your house with your computer) are
already there.
Software The OS and many software items are
ready on ROM in the A3010, whereas they
often aren't even there on PCs. On the
A3010 they can be shadowed for extra
speed, or, if you prefer, left alone
for extra memory. Just about all the
software you need for 'everyday' things
and more is included.
Networking
While the software for this is bundled
on most Archimedes models, on the PC
you need another....you should know the
story by now! It's also compatible with
both Econet and Ethernet in some of the
later models.
Compatibility I have heard that the Archimedes is
compatible with both PC and BBC
software, (to a limited extent) and the
A5000 etc. may even run BBC software at
the same speed as on a BBC. This gives
you the best of all 3 worlds, though
I'm not sure if the PC emulator is
'bundled' with the A3010.
Why the A3010? It's the cheapist I've seen (the latest
price I've seen advertised is £399 for
an A3010 Family Solution and a few
demonstrations of games, advertised as
the A3010 action pack) and seems
reasonable value for money. If I had
the say and the money I'd much rather
buy it than any other PC or Archimedes.
Hard Disk Drive Yes, I know it doesn't come with the
A3010 as standard, but you very rarely
need one with most software and the OS
on ROM, and the 'pinboard'. If you want
one, though, they are available, and
you don't need as many megabytes as on
the PC, as, as well as many
applications being on ROM, applications
don't tend to have such huge data files
and swap files as on the PC.
Floppy Disk Drive Compatible with many 3.5" formats
including a 2Mb one. You rarely need a
second drive. A 5.25" drive is
available.
What about the BBC? If the 6502 Emulator can provide a
'virtual' BBC complete with all the
Sideways RAM and things like that, I'd
prefer the Archimedes. If it can't,
though, (it can't - DGS) I really
wouldn't be able to make a choice. For
non-programming applications, the
Archimedes would almost always be
better, however, the BBC is actually
'there', ie. it's less virtual than the
Archimedes is, and you can write code
like LDA &355:CMP #7:BEQ inMode7
without the machine crashing on you.
However, if you stick to structured
Basic (dare I say those two words?),
you'll probably find Basic V a better
place to be.
One other thing, too, if you want to
fiddle about with the BBC's insides,
it's easier and you can't invalidate a
non - existant guarantee. And also,
while the Archimedes hasn't got as many
viruses as the PC, I don't know of any
for the BBC. Surprising, really,
because I would have thought that it
would have been very easy to write
one....
(DGS says: I have heard of three
viruses for the BBC, two of them
written by friends of mine, and one by
someone who is now no longer a member
of 8BS. So how many others are out
there I really wouldn't know).