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In article <1630@chinet.UUCP> sid@chinet.UUCP (Sid Grange) writes:
>
>	[... multitasking with the Acorn Archimedes ...]
>
>In the Byte article describing the machine, they say it has the capability
>for VM and demand paging.....
>... As was stated, the proprietary system doesn't
>multitask, but this machines *seems* to have a reasonable potential for
>running real Unix ...

A potted background. As many of you will know, Acorn are the company
behind the BBC Micro, a successful family of 6502-based micros (well,
successful over here). Two models under the Archimedes flag have been
introduced so far, the 300 and 400. The 300 has been blessed with the
BBC tag, the 400 is sold as an Acorn machine ; both models are similar,
but the 400 includes hardware FPU option, co-processor bus, HDC and
greater RAM capacity. The current OS, Arthur, is very similar to the
OS on the BBC range. It is not multitasking.

Facts. Acorn have been developing their own Unix look-alike (ARX)
at their California R&D site. They have hinted at an Archimedes
model 500 running said ARX, targeted at the engineering/workstation
market.

Now some speculation. Believe this at your peril - it may well be
a load of dingos' kidneys.

Arthur was produced to satisfy the 'I want a fast Beeb' market.
For the rest of us, ARX in some form or other will appear on the
400, which is currently selling at the 1500 quid level. Acorn
will neither confirm or deny this - their salesthings are under
threat of castration if they even talk about it. My guess is that,
having produced Arthur, their development effort is currently
directed at getting Unix running. They certainly don't seem
too bothered about the future direction of Arthur ; it seems
Arthur is capable of multitasking, but the windowing system isn't.
Acorn haven't got round to deciding whether to rectify this in a
later release.

I'm hoping for an Arch 400 running ARX in the foreseeable future. By which
time I might even be able to afford one.

Usual disclaimers/trademarks. BBC, it seems, is not an international
trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation, but it is to that
august institution I refer.
-- 
Jim Hague       UUCP: ..!mcvax!ukc!jmh		Failure has gone to his
		TG:   72:MAG10135		head. - Wilson Mizner.