RISC OS Computers: Acorn's "Rocket Ship" Computer
For several years, Acorn experimented with the idea of adding as many slices and as much hardware as possible to their flagship RiscPC computer, culminating in this ten-slice version seen at the Acorn World Show in November 1996. It had just about everything the engineers at Acorn could think of, including (literally) the kitchen sink!
Here is the full specification of this monstrous beast:
Rocket Ship Specification
10 Slices with a 21" monitor.
Base:
- 2.5 GB IDE Drive.
- StrongARM 228MHZ Processor.
- 586 100MHZ PC Card.
- 64MB Main RAM + 2MB Video RAM.
Slice 1:
- 8 Speed Atapi CD-ROM.
- 3.5" Floppy Drive.
- 2 Irlam Instruments Risc TV Podules.
Slice 2:
- 5.25" Floppy Drive.
- Second Power Supply.
- 2 Irlam Instruments Risc TV Podules.
Slice 3:
- 2GB PC-Formatted SCSI Drive.
- 540MB Mag Drive SCSI Removable.
- PowerTec SCSI II Podule.
- Irlam Instruments 24i16 MultiMedia Podule.
Slice 4:
- 4GB SCSI Drive.
- 270MB Syquest SCSI Removable.
- Network Computer 28k8 Internal Modem Podule.
Slice 5:
- Pocket Book Docking Station.
- Infra Red Sensor.
Slice 6:
- Iomega 1GB Jaz SCSI Removable.
- Serial Switch (for A-Link & Casio QV-10a Camera).
Slices 8-10:
- Stainless Steel Sink.
- Pipes.
- 12v Circulating Pump.
- Top Of Pizza Oven.
External Hardware:
- SVHS Video Recorder (for RiscTV Cards 1).
- "Golf Ball" Composite Video Camera (for RiscTV Card 2).
- Loft TV Antenna (for RiscTV Cards 3 & 4).
- Infra-Red Remote Control.
- Casio QV-10a Digital Camera.
"...everything including the kitchen sink!"
Notes:
- Infra-Red is capable of mapping any *Command to any button for the remote,
with a maximum of 5 commands per button. The sensor is from an Online Media
SetTopBox, but wired to the parallel port. Sink was remotely controlled by
wiring the enable line for the pump to an interrupt pin of the parallel
port. InfraRed also had an interface to the control Audio CD-ROMs fully,
including ejecting and closing of the CD-ROM drawer, and volume control
independant of the main soundsystem.
- 5.25" Floppy Drive allowed BBC software to be run directly from floppy using
!6502Em and !ImageDFS from Warm Silence Software.
- A new application was written to allow the Remote Control to function with
the RiscTV cards. The software could change channel on the TV, open, close
& resize the 4 RiscTV windows, and alter the volume levels independantly of
the main soundsystem.
- The Rocket Ship backdrop was created in PhotoDesk2 by Alastair France of ART.
- The 2GB SCSI Drive was DOS formatted and used exclusively with the PC Card.
- The standard demonstration used during Acorn World was 4 RiscTVs running
together, 3 Replay movies multitasking together along with Artworks resizing
and rotating the Midget image without slowing down the Replay movies.
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