RE: [XaraXtreme-dev] Interview with Charles

["Charles Moir" <CharlesM@xxxxxxxx>]

Not 100% accurate interview, it has to be said, but broadly speaking
it's correct. The 4 chip machine was early prototype of the Acorn
Archimedes, not BBC Micro. All 4 chips were designed by Acorn (the first
ARM processor, VIDC, IOC, MEMC) and that was just about it apart from
ROM and RAM. I've even built myself a wire-wrap prototype using these
chips, that I have around somewhere still - it was that easy. In its day
it was revolutionary in every way, and the production costs of that
machine were a small fraction of the equivalent Atari ST and Amiga of
the same era.

I have a document dated 1987 that very briefly describes the plan for
what was to become Artworks, which is the direct predecessor of Xara
Xtreme today. So this software goes back a long, long way.

Charles

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:owner-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andy Armstrong
> Sent: 28 November 2005 14:37
> To: xara-dev
> Subject: [XaraXtreme-dev] Interview with Charles
> 
> Just in case anyone missed it:
> 
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/28/techscape_moir/
> 
> I'm not sure what Acorn machine they're talking about that 
> had four chips + RAM - maybe the Electron[1] - but it's a 
> great interview.
> 
> It made me incredibly nostalgic for the BBC Micro :)
> 
> [1] http://piazza.iae.nl/users/bverhoev/Specs/Specs.html
> 
> --
> Andy Armstrong, hexten.net
> 
>