I picked up an Acorn RiscPC 600 base unit the other
day, my first
Archimedes-
type Acorn machine.
Good for you.
I've got one too - 16MBs of RAM, ARM610 CPU - and it runs rings round my
Windoze box.
Anyway, I have a few questions. Perhaps someone can
point me to a decent
web
site about the Acorn machines?
- I'm assuming the RiscPC 600 uses an Archimedes-type mouse. This should
not
be a major problem, as a simple pin-to-pin adapter
should allow a
three-
button Amiga mouse to be connected.
Yup. It
uses an Acorn quadrature mouse. Available from
www.castle.org.uk.
- Can I use a PS/2 type PC keyboard, or is a custom
Acorn keyboard
needed?
Yes, the Acorn k/b is a standard PS/2 keyboard.
- Before powering it up, I want to remove the hard
disk and create an
image
file of its contents. The CD-ROM drive needs to be
removed in order to
get
to the hard disk. I can't see how to do that.
Any ideas?
There are two long L-shaped locking pins that hold the case together at
the
back and two near the front of the slice. Pull the back L-clips out and look
for two circular clips with small (3mm or so) tags on. Rotate them and pull
them out. Lift off the slice and you can get at the HD. It will probably be
a standard IDE interface.
If you really want to get help with this machine, try joining up to the
newsgroups comp.sys.acorn, comp.sys.acorn.announce, comp.sys.acorn.apps and
comp.sys.acorn.hardware.
Chances are, someone there will be able to help. I'm also a regular in CSA,
CSA.misc, CSA.hardware and CSA.programmer.
If you want, I'll scan in the relevant part of my Risc PC Welcome Guide and
upload it to my i-drive.
--
Phil.
http://www.philpem.f9.co.uk/
philpem(a)bigfoot.com