RiscOS hardware in the US?

[Jules Richardson]

Mr Ian Primus wrote:
> I know the Acorn
> Archimedes runs RiscOS, but what else?

Full Acorn machine list here:

   http://www.khantazi.org/Archives/MachineLst.html

... most of the 32-bit stuff is RISC OS-capable. I don't think the A500, A680 
or M4 could ever be coaxed into running it (very unlikely you'd find any of 
those three in the US though). I think the various set-top boxes and NC were 
sufficiently capable to do so with a bit of hacking.

Things like A4xx/1's, A30x0's, and RISC PC 600's are common as mud in the UK 
still, and have no resale value (they were incredibly common in schools, and 
are still turning up in cupboards all the time). Chances are you might find 
someone on ebay (UK) prepared to ship one to the US if it meant they ended up 
getting a little more out of the deal than they would selling nationally.

> I'm not sure
> that the Acorn was ever even sold in the US.

The Acorn model B (aka BBC micro) made it to the US, but didn't do well (lack 
of sales effort I think, rather than price - and certainly not technical 
ability! :-)  - but then that was pre-ARM and pre-RISC OS.

I think there was a distributor for the Acorn RISC PC in the States, but 
they're unlikely to still be around (the OS seems to be barely clinging on 
this side of the pond, and I believe that the hardware these days is nothing 
more than a rebranded IBM-compat. PC)

Other than that, I don't think there was ever any Acorn presence in the US. I 
have a vague memory of some US company with an ARM-powered portable, but I 
don't recall if it ran RISC OS, and I'm almost certain it never made it out of 
prototype stage anyway.

> I know, I can probably just go get an emulator, but
> I'd still love to play with a real computer.

If it comes to it, I might be able to shift one across the pond for you later 
this year depending on how things pan out with shipping all the other vintage 
stuff I want to move over. If the charges are banded by weight anyway then it 
may end up not mattering if I ship a few 'extras'.

Personally, I was never much interested in the RISC OS years. Sure, the ARM 
processors were fast as all hell, but the earlier Acorn 8-bitters were always 
far more fun to hack around with (which makes the large amount of ARM-powered 
stuff that I've ended up accumulating rather worrying ;)

cheers

Jules