old box contest [was Re: [SC.LUG] Damn!]

[Ian Molton]

On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 17:12:42 +0000
Richard Smedley <richard.smedley@futurenet.co.uk> wrote:

> >if so, you will need to run uClinux on it.
> >
> 
> You're absolutely right about this. uClinux should be fine
> - however I understand that most A500s ended up
> fitted with expansion (acceleration) boards - the majority
> of which carried chips with MMUs.

I dunno about 'most', as those boards were horrendously expensive, but
there are certainly a lot of '020 or better machines out there...

> If this one doesn't have one I imagine they are cheaply
> available second hand.

Possibly.

> I'm learning lots already - and I haven't even got my hands
> on the box, yet :-)

Cool.

The A500 is of a similar vintage to my Acorn A410/1 (although obviously
the inferior machine, performance wise).

The Amiga /did/ have some fantastic games though.

I keep meaning to break out the old 'UAE' and have a bash at some old
classix like 'supercars' ;-)

Features of note in the A500 were its 2D graphics stuff - it was some of
the earliest /accelerated/ graphics around. The Archimedes had a 'dumb'
framebuffer, and relied of pure power to make up.

Perhaps when we have linux running on our respective machines, we should
bring them both to a meet ;-)