Editing RISC iX (section)

==Legacy==
Despite Acorn stating an intention to offer a Unix system from as early as 1982,<ref name="acornuser198207">{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser001-Jul82/page/n7/mode/1up |work=Acorn User |title=National Semiconductor Deal |date=July–August 1982 |access-date=1 September 2020 |pages=4}}</ref> with the [[National Semiconductor 32016]] platform being the proposed vehicle for such a product, technical difficulties with the 32016's chipset led to the [[Acorn Cambridge Workstation]] - the surviving product from the [[Acorn Business Computer]] range - shipping with a proprietary Acorn operating system instead of the planned [[Xenix]]-based Unix offering.<ref name="acornuser198508">{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser037-Aug85/page/n8/mode/1up |work=Acorn User |title=Workstation puts power on desks |date=August 1985 |access-date=30 August 2020 |pages=7, 11}}</ref>

With the development of the ARM chipset, however, Acorn was finally in a position to deliver its own system capable of running Unix, announcing work as early as the autumn of 1987 on an "upmarket ARM-based workstation to run the Unix operating system" for release in mid-1988 to compete with Sun and Apollo models in the higher education market, featuring a built-in WE32206 "arithmetic co-processor".<ref name="acornuser198711">{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser064-Nov87/page/n10/mode/1up |title=Acorn 'disappointed' by £1.4 million loss |work=Acorn User |date=November 1987 |access-date=16 April 2021 |pages=9}}</ref> The company eventually brought the R140 to market in early 1989 alongside the second iteration of ARM2-based Archimedes 400-series models, following up in 1990 with the R225 and R260 alongside the high-end, ARM3-based Archimedes 540, thereby delivering on their earlier ambitions within the space of a couple of years. The introduction of the R225 and R260 renewed the enthusiasm of some commentators who conceded that the earlier ARM2-based R140, alongside competition based on the [[80386]], [[68020]] and [[68030]] processors, were underpowered to run "wedding-cake configurations" of the X Window System, Motif, X.desktop and other software, but considered Acorn's ARM3 products, alongside competition based on the [[80486]], SPARC and 88000 processors, to be more capable of such tasks.<ref name="abcomputing199009_workstations">{{ cite magazine | title=Acorn's workstations enter the big league | magazine=A&B Computing | last1=Vogler | first1=Jon | date=September 1990 | pages=10 }}</ref>

Nevertheless, Acorn discontinued R260 production in 1993,<ref name="acornsn_issue76" /> shortly after announcing the floating point accelerator unit,<ref name="acornsn_issue75">{{cite news |url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/SN/Acorn_SalesNews75.pdf |title=Sales News |publisher=Acorn Computers Limited |date=29 June 1993 |issue=75 |access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref> which had been promised for 1991 and repeatedly delayed,<ref name="riscuser199210">{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/Risc_User_Volume_5_Issue_10_1992-10_BEEBUG_GB/page/n55/mode/1up |title=A Plea to Acorn |work=Risc User |last1=Crennel |first1=Kate |date=October 1992 |access-date=10 April 2021 |volume=5 |issue=10 |pages=56}}</ref> and subsequently offered no new RISC iX system products. Although there were expectations that Acorn's corporate parent, [[Olivetti]], might have provided opportunities for ARM-based Unix workstation products, leveraging its relationship with [[AT&T]] as the proprietor of Unix, it became apparent that AT&T's own interests lay with products based on the [[SPARC]] architecture,<ref name="acornuser198801">{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser066-Jan88/page/n14/mode/1up |title=Competition hots up for Unix on RISC |work=Acorn User |date=January 1989 |access-date=28 March 2021 |pages=13}}</ref> with AT&T also having an ownership stake in Sun.<ref name="computerworld198809_risc">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_computerworld_1988-09-05_22_36/mode/1up | title=Sparcs flying over RISCy turf | magazine=Computerworld | last1=Margolis | first1=Nell | date=5 September 1988 | access-date=23 February 2023 | pages=1 }}</ref> Olivetti's own workstation strategy was incoherent at the turn of the 1990s, with the company announcing products based on MIPS and Alpha architectures before settling on Intel's architecture once again.<ref name="electronicnews19930913_olivetti">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_electronic-news_1993-09-13_39_1980/page/n13/mode/1up | title=Data Topics | magazine=Electronic News | date=13 September 1993 | access-date=20 June 2022 | pages=14 }}</ref>

[[File:RISCiX performance.svg|thumb|upright=2|Performance of the Acorn R-series and various competitors in approximate chronological order of introduction]]

Olivetti itself had previously made a workstation, the CP486, based on the Intel 80486 running [[SCO Unix]] or Xenix and offering support for the [[Weitek 4167]] floating point unit and [[Intel i860]] "application accelerator". This machine was available in 1989 and described as the basis of a "high-cost authoring workstation" in a European initiative,<ref name="multiworks2105">{{cite web |url=http://research.cs.ncl.ac.uk/cabernet/www.laas.research.ec.org/esp-syn/text/2105.html |title=Multimedia Integrated Workstations |website=IST NoEs Information Service |date=December 1993 |access-date=25 September 2021}}</ref> but was rather more expensive than Acorn's RISC iX workstations, costing $16,250 for a configuration with 4&nbsp;MB of RAM and 150&nbsp;MB hard disk.<ref name="personalworkstation199001_cp486">{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_personal-workstation_1990-01_2_1/page/41/mode/1up |title=Cheetah and Olivetti 486s |magazine=Personal Workstation |date=January 1990 |access-date=27 November 2021 |last1=Rinko-Gay |first1=William L. |pages=41–44}}</ref> Crude hardware performance comparisons based on Dhrystone benchmarking under like-for-like environments - taking results from CP486 benchmarks run under [[MS-DOS|DOS]] and from Archimedes benchmarks run under RISC OS<ref name="stardot_benchmarks">{{cite web |url=https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=286141#p286141 |title=Benchmarks |website=stardot.org.uk |date=6 May 2021 |access-date=24 August 2021 |last1=Walker |first1=Sarah}}</ref> - indicate that the CP486 was around four times faster than the R140 and was still faster than the R260. [[Floating-point]] arithmetic performance of the CP486 was approximately double that of the R260 with FPA fitted.<ref name="personalworkstation199001_cp486" /> Of more relevance to RISC iX itself, in the context of the workstations developed for European initiatives, the [[ChorusOS|Chorus system]] was to be used as the basis of the Unix operating system provided, both on the 486-based authoring workstation and the ARM3-based "low cost delivery workstation",<ref name="opensyst19910605_europe">{{ cite journal | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_world-publishing-monitor_1991-08_1_8_0/page/725/mode/1up | title=Europe United with Multimedia | journal=Open Syst. | volume=2 | issue=5 | date=5 June 1991 | access-date=13 June 2022 | last1=Davidson | first1=C. | pages=28–30 }}</ref><ref name="icl199011_multiworks">{{ cite journal | url=https://archive.org/details/ICL-Technical-Journal-v07i02/page/288/mode/2up | title=An Overview of Multiworks | journal=ICL Technical Journal | last1=Morris | first1=M. E. | last2=Cole | first2=I. | date=November 1990 | access-date=30 May 2024 | volume=7 | issue=2 | pages=288–295 }}</ref> with Chorus having been ported to the ARM3 processor.<ref name="guard-lineup-1991">{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79844445/ | title=Microfile: Chorus line-up | author-first=Jack | author-last=Schofield | newspaper=The Guardian | location=London  | date=10 January 1991 | page=31 (Computer) | via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

In computational performance terms, Acorn's R140 compared unfavourably with other 1989 models such as the Sun [[SPARCstation 1]]<ref name="unixreview198911_sparcstation1">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_unix-review_1989-11_7_11/page/n114/mode/1up | title=Tested Mettle: Sun Microsystems' SPARCstation 1 (the Sun-4/60) | magazine=UNIX Review | date=November 1989 | access-date=30 January 2023 | last1=Wilson | first1=David | pages=109, 111–116, 118–120 }}</ref> and Digital [[DECstation]] 3100,<ref name="unixreview198910_decstation3100">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_unix-review_1989-10_7_10/page/n126/mode/1up | title=Tested Mettle: Digital's DECstation 3100 | magazine=UNIX Review | date=October 1989 | access-date=30 January 2023 | last1=Wilson | first1=David | pages=121, 123–132, 135 }}</ref> particularly with regard to floating-point performance, although such disadvantages could perhaps have been somewhat overlooked in an entry-level workstation costing around {{nowrap|£4,000}} or approximately ${{FormatNum:{{ToUSD|4000|GBR|year=1989|round=yes}}}}, compared to {{nowrap|$12,620}} for the DECstation 3100, or {{nowrap|$7,995}} for the entry-level DECstation 2100.<ref name="unixreview198910_decstation3100"/> The R260 compared more favourably in terms of [[integer]] performance with its contemporaries employing processors such as the Intel 486 and Motorola 68030, but comparing less favourably with 68040-based models and newer models from traditional RISC workstation vendors.<ref name="unixreview199105_hp9000_425t">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_unix-review_1991-05_9_5/page/63/mode/1up | title=Tested Mettle: Hewlett-Packard 9000/425t | magazine=UNIX Review | date=May 1991 | access-date=30 January 2023 | last1=Wilson | first1=David | pages=63–67 }}</ref> In terms of pricing, although the R260 maintained a similar price point to the R140, increasing pricing competition between Digital and Sun brought models like the DECstation 2100 down to {{nowrap|$5,950}} even before the R260's introduction at an already reduced price of {{nowrap|£3,995}}, equivalent to ${{FormatNum:{{ToUSD|3995|GBR|year=1990|round=yes}}}}.<ref name="computerworld19900507_sun">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_computerworld_1990-05-07_24_19/page/n7/mode/1up | title=Sun to lower stakes with Sparc entry | magazine=Computerworld | last1=Daly | first1=James | date=7 May 1990 | access-date=14 November 2023 | pages=1, 8 }}</ref> At the point of the introduction of floating-point hardware for the R260 in 1993, the performance of the R260 was decidedly uncompetitive with the final MIPS-based DECstation models and contemporary SPARCstation models.<ref name="unixreview199303_sparcstation10">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/sim_unix-review_1993-01_11_1/page/n58/mode/1up | title=Tested Mettle: The Sun SPARCstation 10: Models 30 and 41 | magazine=UNIX Review | date=March 1993 | access-date=30 January 2023 | last1=Wilson | first1=David | pages=51–57 }}</ref>

In 1994, the [[Risc PC]] launched with an improved chipset that was amenable to running Unix, and amidst a certain level of interest in the "large potential" of Unix running on the new machine,<ref name="unix_on_riscpc">{{cite newsgroup |url=https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.acorn/c/k0cd74iJAvQ/m/Kcw6Eu8PRwsJ |title=UNIX on RiscPC's ???? |newsgroup=comp.sys.acorn |date=21 April 1994 |access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref> the independent RiscBSD initiative was announced in August 1994 to bring "a base of BSD4.4 - probably the NetBSD flavour" to this hardware platform.<ref name="riscbsd_announcement">{{cite newsgroup |url=https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.acorn/c/G19nI9eac-o/m/qJhAOaV4-u0J |title=RiscBSD: UNIX for the Risc PC |newsgroup=comp.sys.acorn |date=15 August 1994 |access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref> A "very, very alpha [[Kernel (operating system)|kernel]]" was demonstrated after six weeks of initial effort by the RiscBSD developers at the Acorn World show in late 1994. Meanwhile, another initiative, ArcBSD, sought to port [[FreeBSD]] to "all 32-bit Acorn machines with sufficient RAM and hard disk space".<ref name="acornuser199502_hotline">{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser152-Feb95/page/n82/mode/1up |title=Postcards from the edge, part 2 |work=Acorn User |date=February 1995 |access-date=24 July 2021 |last1=Walker |first1=Dave |pages=83}}</ref>

Although not developed with any significant Acorn involvement, RiscBSD eventually became [[NetBSD]]/arm32 (being imported in NetBSD 1.2<ref name="netbsd1.2">{{cite web |url=https://www.netbsd.org/changes/changes-1.2.html#port-arm32 |title=Significant changes from NetBSD 1.1 to 1.2 |website=NetBSD |access-date=16 February 2021}}</ref>) and was used in a Risc PC-based product sold by Acorn's education joint venture, Xemplar, called NCServer.<ref name="precedence">{{cite web |url=http://www.precedence.co.uk/news/timewarp/ |title=It was 20 years ago today... |website=Precedence Technologies |last1=Borrill |first1=Stephen |date=19 October 2016 |access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref> Support for this product continued after the Apple takeover of Xemplar in 1999 through a company, Precedence Technologies, founded to continue development having acquired the remaining network computer inventory.<ref name="netbsd_thin_clients">{{cite conference |url=https://www.bsdcan.org/2009/schedule/attachments/77_BuildingProductsWithNetBSDthin-clients-Stephen-Borrill.pdf |title=Building products with NetBSD - thin-clients |last1=Borrill |first1=Stephen |conference=BSDCan 2009 |date=8 May 2009 |access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref><ref name="acornuser200108">{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser236-Aug01/page/n51/mode/1up |title=Why use lazy old FAT clients, when you can have fast and efficient THIN clients? |work=Acorn User |date=August 2001 |access-date=19 May 2021 |pages=52}}</ref> The product evolved to employ server hardware based on the Simtec CATS board, providing access to files and applications stored on the server via an HTML-based interface, with RISC OS-based network computers being able to run the NCWorks suite of applications customised from various familiar RISC OS applications such as Draw, Paint, EasiWriter, DataPower and Schema.<ref name="acornuser200101_nc">{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser229-Jan01/page/n60/mode/1up |title=Secret societies |work=Acorn User |date=January 2001 |access-date=26 July 2021 |last1=Skegg |first1=Richard |pages=61–63}}</ref> NetBSD support for Acorn machines was eventually provided by the acorn32 port for Risc PC and [[Acorn A7000|A7000]] family models,<ref name="netbsd_acorn32">{{ cite web | url=https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/acorn32/ | title=NetBSD/acorn32 | website=NetBSD | date=2 June 2019 | access-date=8 August 2022 }}</ref> along with the acorn26 port for Archimedes, A-series and R-series models, thus bringing a more modern Unix variant to Acorn's original Unix workstations.<ref name="netbsd_acorn26">{{ cite web | url=https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/acorn26/ | title=NetBSD/acorn26 | website=NetBSD | date=2 June 2019 | access-date=8 August 2022 }}</ref>