Acorn Cambridge Workstation Documentation

Two Acorn documents for the Acorn Cambridge Workstation are hosted here: the ACW 443 Service Manual and the sales brochure that Acorn's Scientific Division issued for the Cambridge Workstation range.

ACW 443 Service Manual

The ACW 443 Service Manual is Acorn Computers' manual for authorised service agents, reference 0420,001, issue 1, dated 7 January 1987, written by C. Watters, J. Wilkins and others. It replaced a draft numbered 0.56. The copyright line on the title page reads 1985, and the monitor sections are copyright Microvitec plc 1986.

The hosted file is a 195-page scan. Printed pages 1 to 153 (PDF pages 3 to 155) carry an OCR text layer; the OCR has errors, so check figures against the page image. The drawings and parts lists that follow are image-only. Printed page numbers are two lower than PDF page numbers throughout the text section.

Contents

ACW 443 Service Manual contents

Chapter or appendix	Printed pages	What it covers
1 Introduction	5-10	Hardware overview, power supply tolerances, environment, keyboard, Panos and filing systems
2 Assembly, packaging and installation	11-24	Rear panel connectors, safety, opening the case, the scissor-stay cradle, removing the power supply, CRT, monitor PCB, 32016 board, Adaptec board, host adapter, mouse board, drives and the I/O board
3 The monitor	25-32	Microvitec colour monitor: user and factory adjustments, specification, circuit description
4 I/O Processor board	33-86	Specification, circuit description, ROM fitting, selection links S1 to S30, component-level fault finding, IC descriptions
5 32016 Processor PCB	87-104	Circuit description, configuration links, memory expansion, fault finding, the 32016 test program menu
6 Winchester and floppy disc systems	105-122	Head parking, drive specification, SCSI and ST-412 interfaces, the 1 MHz bus, host adapter, current draw and fault finding
Appendix A	123-126	ADFS utilities disc, compacting the Winchester
Appendix B	127-130	Formatting floppy and Winchester discs, drive parameters
Appendices C to E	131-138	Star commands, guide to documentation with Acorn part numbers, glossary
Appendix F	139-145	Connector pinouts
Appendices G to J	146-151	32016 memory chip and address map, oscilloscope sync aid, test software part numbers, memory test fault reports
Appendix K	152-153	Fitting the mouse adaptor

Drawings and parts lists

The image-only section at the end of the scan holds, in PDF page order:

• PDF 156-157: Winchester host adapter circuit diagram and assembly drawing.
• PDF 158: keyboard circuit.
• PDF 160-164: "Large" 32016 second processor circuit diagram, memory array and PCB layout.
• PDF 166-169: ABM control board (I/O processor) circuit diagram and component layout, board 0233,000.
• PDF 170: power distribution board circuit.
• PDF 172-175: Microvitec monitor circuit diagram, tube base and main PCB layout.
• PDF 176-179: assembly drawings.
• PDF 180-183: ACW 443 final assembly parts list (drawing 0020,233).
• PDF 184-189: ABM control board parts list (A4/0133,400, issue 3, 28 July 1986).
• PDF 190-192: 32016 Large (4 MB) PCB parts list.
• PDF 193: ABM power distribution PCB parts list (0120,005).
• PDF 194: ACW keyboard assembly parts list (0020,001).
• PDF 195: Winchester disc host adaptor assembly parts list (0127,000).

What it settles

• Power supply: +5 V 4.9 to 5.2 V and +12 V 11.4 to 12.6 V (printed page 6); the I/O board itself asks for +5 V ±0.1 V, +12 V ±10 % and −5 V ±10 % (page 36). The 32016 board needs at least 5.00 V at both of its Faston pairs (page 100). The supply is an 85 W unit, part 0831,104 (final assembly parts list, PDF 182).
• DC wiring: Faston connectors with identical posts for positive and 0 V, coloured red +5 V, black 0 V, purple −5 V, orange +12 V, with a red and blue pair feeding the lower fan (page 17).
• Fuse: the final assembly parts list gives a 3.15 A 20 x 5 mm HBC fuse, part 0815,223 (PDF 181), and a moulded mains cable with a 5 A plug (page 3).
• The I/O processor board is the BBC Model B+ board with a few parts omitted, chiefly the UHF modulator (page 33). Its polarised capacitors are listed in Acorn Cambridge Workstation Capacitor Guide.

What this manual does not contain

• No component data for the 85 W power supply, which Acorn treats as a field replacement unit (page 6).
• No parts list for the Microvitec monitor. Acorn refers servicing to Microvitec's own manual, GP0019AA0 (page 25), which is not hosted here.
• No component data for the Adaptec ACB-4000 Winchester controller or the drives, which Acorn says must be returned or replaced (page 108).
• An accurate text layer. The OCR has errors (the appendix H heading reads "Osilloscope", and printed page 144 is numbered 149); read the page image when a value matters.

Pages that cite this manual

• Acorn Cambridge Workstation
• Acorn Cambridge Workstation Maintenance Guide
• Acorn Cambridge Workstation Troubleshooting Guide
• Acorn Cambridge Workstation Capacitor Guide
• Acorn ABC210, Acorn ABC300, Acorn ABC310

Download: Acorn ACW 443 Service Manual.pdf

Cambridge Workstation brochure

Acorn's Scientific Division brochure for the Acorn Cambridge Workstation is a 12-page scan with a text layer. It is undated and carries no reference number.

• Pages 1 to 4: the case for a desktop 32-bit workstation, distributed computing over Econet and an X.25 gateway, a direct link to a DEC VAX, and a SPICE circuit simulation timing against a VAX 11/750.
• Pages 5 to 8: the languages (Fortran 77, C, ISO Pascal, Cambridge LISP, BBC BASIC) and Acorn's company background.
• Page 9: the product range table for the ACW 100, ACW 121, ACW 143 and ACW 443, with the hardware and software supplied.
• Page 10: performance at an 8 MHz clock, with instruction times and the SPICE results.
• Pages 11 and 12: Panos and the supplied utilities.

It gives no service or circuit information.

Download: Acorn Cambridge Workstation brochure.pdf

Related pages

• Acorn Cambridge Workstation
• Acorn Business Computer Documentation
• Acorn 32016 Second Processor Documentation
• BBC Microcomputer Service Manual October 1985 Section 2 (BBC Model B+, the basis of the I/O processor board)