Editing RISC iX (section)

=== R260 ===

Based on the A540,<ref name="A500_R200_service">{{cite book |url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/Manuals/Acorn_A500R200SM.pdf |title=Acorn Archimedes 500 series Acorn R200 series Service Manual |publisher=Acorn Computers Limited |date=June 1991 |isbn=185250093X |pages=vi}}</ref> the R260 originally contained a 30&nbsp;MHz [[ARM3]] processor, 8&nbsp;MB RAM (upgradable to 16&nbsp;MB) SCSI adapter and a 100&nbsp;MB<ref name="acornuser199008" /><ref name="pcw199008" /> or 120&nbsp;MB<ref name="AcornR260">{{cite book |url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/Brochures/Acorn_APP480_R260.pdf |title=Acorn R260 |publisher=Acorn Computers Limited |edition=1 |date=August 1992 |access-date=8 September 2020 |pages=2}}</ref> SCSI hard drive (typically a [[Conner Peripherals|Conner CP30100]]). It booted in the same style as the earlier R140, but was normally configured for customers to boot straight into RISC iX.<ref name="byte199012">{{cite news |url=https://vintagecomputers.sdfeu.org/mags/byte/Acorn_R260_review.pdf |title=A RISC Workstation from Acorn |work=Byte |date=December 1990 |last1=Pountain |first1=Dick |pages=72IS–15 |quote=As normally delivered to customers, though, the R260 boots straight into RISCiX multi-user mode; you never see RISC OS. To enter RISC OS, you must log out of Unix by typing halt -RISCOS.}}</ref> The machine was supplied with an [[Ethernet]] adapter.

The system was released in 1990 priced at £3995 plus VAT,<ref name="acorn_news16">{{cite news |url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/NL/Acorn_NewsIss16.pdf |title=Acorn Newsletter |date=1990 |issue=16 |publisher=Acorn Computers Limited |pages=1}}</ref> having been announced with a price of £5000 plus VAT.<ref name="acornuser199008" /> A [[floating-point unit|floating point accelerator]] or "arithmetic co-processor", the FPA10, was made available in 1993 for the R260, as well as for the A540 and A5000 machines, priced at £99 plus VAT. These machines were designed to support the FPA device via a dedicated socket on the processor card (or, in the case of the A5000, on the motherboard), and offered a peak throughput of 5&nbsp;MFLOPS at 26&nbsp;MHz.<ref name="acorn_fpa10">{{cite press release |url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/PR/FPA_release.txt |title=Acorn Releases Floating Point Accelerator |publisher=Acorn Computers Limited |date=1993 |access-date=7 April 2021}}</ref>

A similarly configured A540 could run RISC iX.<ref name="acorn_a252unix" /> Production of the A540 and R260 was discontinued in mid-1993.<ref name="acornsn_issue76">{{cite news |url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/docs/Acorn/SN/Acorn_SalesNews76.pdf |title=Sales News |publisher=Acorn Computers Limited |date=5 July 1993 |issue=76 |access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref>