Specifications |
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Manufacturer
Name Electron Origin U.K. Year 1983 CPU 6502A, 1.79 MHz RAM 32 kbytes. Some models used a single 4x64 kbit chip as memory. The ULA had to split the bytes into nibbles and put them in the right places, which effectively halved the speed of memory accesses. ROM 32 kbytes. Like on the Acorn BBC-B, the use of banked ROMs allowed the Electron to have a lot of system software built-in. There were actually word processors and other packages which came on an EPROM. The basic system did not have EPROM sockets like the BBC B, but there were two ROM cartridge slots on an add-on peripheral. Motherboard layout
Case
Smallish white case with white keys. Rather unimpressive, compared
to the BBC model B. There is a single orange LED to indicate Caps
Lock Display
Driven by the ULA (Undedicated Logic Array). 7 possible modes (BBC
model B mode 7 is missing): Audio One channel of sound, plus one channel of white noise. Driven by the ULA (Undedicated Logic Array). The sound came out of an internal speaker. There were three virtual sound channels, but all were mapped to the single available physical channel. This was done to maintain compatibility with the Acorn BBC-B. Input/Output
Minimal to non-existent. All the BBC B's I/O is missing. In its
place is a wide connector which accepts an expansion box offering
all the missing connectivity. So here's the complete list: |