Acorn A7000 Documentation

Acorn's surviving product literature for the A7000 series is hosted here: the Acorn Risc Technologies datasheet for the Acorn A7000, Acorn's leaflet on the ARM7500 chip it is built around, and the leaflet for the Acorn A7000+. The Centre for Computing History holds Acorn's A7000+ Welcome Guide (part 1402,215, issue 1, March 1997), but no scan of it, or of the A7000 Welcome Guide, has been found online. No Acorn circuit diagram, parts list or service manual for either main board has been found; repairers on stardot use the Acorn Risc PC Technical Reference Manual drawings, since much of the A7000 follows the Risc PC.

A7000 datasheet (ART DS002)

Two pages, reference DS002/ART/RK, February 1996, from Acorn Risc Technologies, which offered the A7000 as a product, as a licensable design, as a main board on its own and as an ARM7500 development platform. The technical overview gives:

• 32 MHz ARM7500, "around 29 MIPS (Dhrystone 2.1) peak", 4 KB cache, integrated I/O, MMU and video
• 2, 4 or 8 MB of fast page mode DRAM on the base card plus one SIMM socket, maximum 136 MB; 4 MB of ROM; 240 bytes of battery-backed CMOS RAM; a 48-bit unique identifier
• RISC OS 3.6 in ROM; 16-bit stereo sound with a mixer for a CD-ROM; screen modes up to 1280 × 1024
• Network expansion slot (Ethernet or ATM), a 32-bit expansion slot, a 5.25-inch bay for a second IDE disc or ATAPI CD-ROM
• Ports: 9-pin serial, 25-pin parallel, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, 15-way VGA, internal video genlock port
• 357 × 283 × 102 mm, about 4 kg; integral 35 W switch-mode supply with IEC inlet and outlet, auto-ranging 110 to 240 V AC, 50 or 60 Hz

ARM7500 leaflet (APP 868)

Two pages, first edition July 1995. It describes the ARM7500 as "almost a Risc PC on a chip": an ARM704 processor with MMU, write buffer and 4 KB cache, a video generator similar to VIDC20, most of the functions of IOMD, two PS/2 ports and a four-channel joystick interface. Its benchmark table gives the A7000 25 MIPS and 44 thousand Dhrystones, against 12 MIPS for a 25 MHz A5000.

A7000+ leaflet (AGP24.79.04)

Four pages, 1997. Its specification gives a 48 MHz ARM7500FE with integrated floating point, "around 29 MIPS (dhrystone 2.1) peak", 8 MB of EDO RAM on board with one socket for a SIMM of up to 128 MB, RISC OS 3.71, a 1.2 GB hard disc, an optional 8-speed CD-ROM, the same ports, case size and 35 W auto-ranging supply as the A7000, and screen modes including 1024 × 768 in 256 colours and 800 × 600 in 32,000 colours.

What these documents do not contain

• No circuit diagrams, parts lists, board layouts or capacitor values.
• No service or fault-finding information.
• The ART datasheet and the A7000+ leaflet both give "around 29 MIPS", although one describes a 32 MHz ARM7500 and the other a 48 MHz ARM7500FE; Acorn's ARM7500 leaflet gives the A7000 25 MIPS.

Pages that cite these documents

• Acorn A7000
• Acorn A7000+
• Acorn A7000 Maintenance Guide
• Acorn A7000 Troubleshooting Guide

Downloads: A7000 datasheet, ARM7500 leaflet, A7000+ leaflet