Did any early RISC OS precursor run on the BBC Micro?What's the TUBE interface of the BBC micro all about?Was the first ARM “processor” a BBC BASIC program?Reading the BBC Domesday ProjectHow did Elite (BBC Micro) compress resources?What's the TUBE interface of the BBC micro all about?What kinds of expansion ROMs and cartridges are available for the BBC Micro?Can the BBC Master 128 work fine with no battery?Was the first ARM “processor” a BBC BASIC program?Can the BBC Master co-processor execute a program in the I/O processor's memory?How did the BBC Micro stay cool?On the bbc-micro, a half-size mode 1 screen mode with 16 colours instead of 4 can fit in memory but can the video chip be programmed for it?Why is the BBC Micro's Mode 7 so different to the other display Modes?

Are there variations of the regular runtimes of the Big-O-Notation?

What does formal training in a field mean?

Translation of the latin word 'sit' in Thomas Aquinas' works

How did Thanos not realise this had happened at the end of Endgame?

No such column 'DeveloperName' on entity 'RecordType' after Summer '19 release on sandbox

Is it a good idea to copy a trader when investing?

Two researchers want to work on the same extension to my paper. Who to help?

We are two immediate neighbors who forged our own powers to form concatenated relationship. Who are we?

Exception propagation: When to catch exceptions?

How can I avoid subordinates and coworkers leaving work until the last minute, then having no time for revisions?

Is it nonsense to say B -> [A -> B]?

Examples where existence is harder than evaluation

How to efficiently lower your karma

spatiotemporal regression

Why does it take longer to fly from London to Xi'an than to Beijing

A Cunning Riley Riddle

Is it bad writing or bad story telling if first person narrative contains more information than the narrator knows?

What was the notion of limit that Newton used?

Is ‘despite that’ right?

Improving Sati-Sampajañña (situative wisdom)

How to get a ellipse shaped node in Tikz Network?

Best species to breed to intelligence

How to find the tex encoding of specific fonts?

Why is PerfectForwardSecrecy considered OK, when it has same defects as salt-less password hashing?



Did any early RISC OS precursor run on the BBC Micro?


What's the TUBE interface of the BBC micro all about?Was the first ARM “processor” a BBC BASIC program?Reading the BBC Domesday ProjectHow did Elite (BBC Micro) compress resources?What's the TUBE interface of the BBC micro all about?What kinds of expansion ROMs and cartridges are available for the BBC Micro?Can the BBC Master 128 work fine with no battery?Was the first ARM “processor” a BBC BASIC program?Can the BBC Master co-processor execute a program in the I/O processor's memory?How did the BBC Micro stay cool?On the bbc-micro, a half-size mode 1 screen mode with 16 colours instead of 4 can fit in memory but can the video chip be programmed for it?Why is the BBC Micro's Mode 7 so different to the other display Modes?













18















Acorn famously developed the ARM microprocessor using their existing BBC Micros internally, both to simulate the ARM and to develop for actual ARM using a Tube-connected second processor.



Later, Acorn would ship the ARM-based Archimedes platform, which started the commercial life of RISC OS.



I can't find any history on what Acorn used as the development environment for early versions of RISC OS, but a BBC Micro with an ARM second processor seems possible. Was any early form of an ARM-specific OS ever made public for this hardware setup?










share|improve this question


























    18















    Acorn famously developed the ARM microprocessor using their existing BBC Micros internally, both to simulate the ARM and to develop for actual ARM using a Tube-connected second processor.



    Later, Acorn would ship the ARM-based Archimedes platform, which started the commercial life of RISC OS.



    I can't find any history on what Acorn used as the development environment for early versions of RISC OS, but a BBC Micro with an ARM second processor seems possible. Was any early form of an ARM-specific OS ever made public for this hardware setup?










    share|improve this question
























      18












      18








      18


      1






      Acorn famously developed the ARM microprocessor using their existing BBC Micros internally, both to simulate the ARM and to develop for actual ARM using a Tube-connected second processor.



      Later, Acorn would ship the ARM-based Archimedes platform, which started the commercial life of RISC OS.



      I can't find any history on what Acorn used as the development environment for early versions of RISC OS, but a BBC Micro with an ARM second processor seems possible. Was any early form of an ARM-specific OS ever made public for this hardware setup?










      share|improve this question














      Acorn famously developed the ARM microprocessor using their existing BBC Micros internally, both to simulate the ARM and to develop for actual ARM using a Tube-connected second processor.



      Later, Acorn would ship the ARM-based Archimedes platform, which started the commercial life of RISC OS.



      I can't find any history on what Acorn used as the development environment for early versions of RISC OS, but a BBC Micro with an ARM second processor seems possible. Was any early form of an ARM-specific OS ever made public for this hardware setup?







      bbc-micro arm risc-pc






      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question











      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question










      asked May 6 at 15:20









      Brian HBrian H

      19k70164




      19k70164




















          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          23














          This page describes one of the prototype A500s used by Paul Fellows (who led the team in charge of developing Arthur, the operating system which eventually became RISC OS). Paul Fellows himself said




          This machine is the one I used for development of the Operating System at Acorn. Originally these machines were hooked up to BBC micros via an umbilical into the tube port and all the I/O was done by the Beeb. Over time we gradually got the various sub-systems alive, and moved them over to the A500 native. First the video and graphics, then the keyboard, then the file systems and so on. This machine was on my desk when for the very first time ever we removed the umbilical, and rebooted it - and watched it come up to the basic prompt on its own. Arthur was born!




          So Arthur never ran on a BBC Micro, at least, not using the 6502 as the main CPU, but a BBC Micro was necessary at first to provide the I/O (as you’d expect from a system using the tube).



          Arthur was released to the public with the A305 and A310. I don’t think a BBC Micro-using version was ever released. It was supposed to be a stop-gap operating system until ARX was completed, but when the latter failed to materialise, development of Arthur was extended and it became RISC OS with the release of version 2.



          All this is described in more detail on the dedicated Wikipedia page.






          share|improve this answer




















          • 5





            Note that the Tube interface mentioned was designed for using an external "second processor" with the BBC Micro. Prior to the ARM's development, there were Z80 and (faster) 6502 second processors available commercially, among others. In that regard, the ARM processor was using the BBC Micro for I/O in the same way that a Z80 second processor running CP/M would.

            – Kaz
            May 6 at 16:54






          • 3





            Right, so really the answer depends on how “running on the BBC Micro” is defined.

            – Stephen Kitt
            May 6 at 17:17


















          5














          When a second processor (or "co-processor") was used through the BBC Micro's Tube, the Beeb's internal CPU and RAM was used for display and I/O purposes, whereas the main program code would be run on the CPU and RAM in the second processor's case. This code would include an operating system to suit the processor in question, e.g. CP/M on the Z80 second processor, DOS-plus on the 80186 coprocessor, etc.



          The ARM Evaluation System was shipped in 1986, and as well as a ROM-based OS (like the Beeb) it was provided with software on six floppies. These included an assembler and debugger, some example utility programs, a port of BBC Basic, and LISP, PROLOG and FORTRAN.



          As the ARM was a brand new processor, this was the first OS and software released for it. But rather than being related to RISC OS, it was running an early version of Acorn's ARX operating system:




          By 1986, the full four-chip set was working, and a second processor version of the ARM was built for software development. 'We did a lot of software development both in the UK and the States, and a Xerox-like operating system was developed,' explains Wilson, 'This was called ARX. We had it working well on just a single chip - a windows system with VDU calls across the Tube.'




          Quotation source.



          The Archimedes line, with RISC OS's antecendent OS "Arthur", was released one year later in June 1987. Arthur was a rushed stop-gap OS for the A305 and A310 while ARX was being finished. When ARX was further delayed, a revised edition of Arthur (with a graphical interface) was released as RISC OS 2.0.



          On that basis, it seems that no early version of RISC OS ran on the BBC Micro, but an early version of ARX did.



          Do bear in mind that the software on the ARM Evaluation System, like the other second processors, ran on the external processor, and could only communicate with the Beeb through the window of the Tube. Some, such as the ARM E.S., had a ROM of software that was inserted into the Beeb, but these were effectively library functions that could be called by the ARM E.S. through the Tube. They were actually 8-bit code running natively on the Beeb's 6502 and MOS operating system.



          There are more resources relating to the Arm Evaluation System, including documentation and copies of the on-board ROM, here.






          share|improve this answer




















          • 1





            This article on the history of Acorn quotes Roger Wilson saying that the evaluation board OS was an early version of ARX, and that Arthur was developed from scratch (based on MOS) when they realised that ARX wouldn’t be finished on time. BTW Arthur had a GUI before RISC OS 2.

            – Stephen Kitt
            2 days ago












          • @StephenKitt Thanks for the correction. Answer edited accordingly.

            – Kaz
            2 days ago











          • Thanks, +1. You’re still giving the impression Arthur 1.2 didn’t have a GUI ;-).

            – Stephen Kitt
            2 days ago











          Your Answer








          StackExchange.ready(function()
          var channelOptions =
          tags: "".split(" "),
          id: "648"
          ;
          initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

          StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
          // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
          if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
          StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
          createEditor();
          );

          else
          createEditor();

          );

          function createEditor()
          StackExchange.prepareEditor(
          heartbeatType: 'answer',
          autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
          convertImagesToLinks: false,
          noModals: true,
          showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
          reputationToPostImages: null,
          bindNavPrevention: true,
          postfix: "",
          imageUploader:
          brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
          contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
          allowUrls: true
          ,
          noCode: true, onDemand: true,
          discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
          ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
          );



          );













          draft saved

          draft discarded


















          StackExchange.ready(
          function ()
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fretrocomputing.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f10953%2fdid-any-early-risc-os-precursor-run-on-the-bbc-micro%23new-answer', 'question_page');

          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown

























          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes








          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

          votes









          23














          This page describes one of the prototype A500s used by Paul Fellows (who led the team in charge of developing Arthur, the operating system which eventually became RISC OS). Paul Fellows himself said




          This machine is the one I used for development of the Operating System at Acorn. Originally these machines were hooked up to BBC micros via an umbilical into the tube port and all the I/O was done by the Beeb. Over time we gradually got the various sub-systems alive, and moved them over to the A500 native. First the video and graphics, then the keyboard, then the file systems and so on. This machine was on my desk when for the very first time ever we removed the umbilical, and rebooted it - and watched it come up to the basic prompt on its own. Arthur was born!




          So Arthur never ran on a BBC Micro, at least, not using the 6502 as the main CPU, but a BBC Micro was necessary at first to provide the I/O (as you’d expect from a system using the tube).



          Arthur was released to the public with the A305 and A310. I don’t think a BBC Micro-using version was ever released. It was supposed to be a stop-gap operating system until ARX was completed, but when the latter failed to materialise, development of Arthur was extended and it became RISC OS with the release of version 2.



          All this is described in more detail on the dedicated Wikipedia page.






          share|improve this answer




















          • 5





            Note that the Tube interface mentioned was designed for using an external "second processor" with the BBC Micro. Prior to the ARM's development, there were Z80 and (faster) 6502 second processors available commercially, among others. In that regard, the ARM processor was using the BBC Micro for I/O in the same way that a Z80 second processor running CP/M would.

            – Kaz
            May 6 at 16:54






          • 3





            Right, so really the answer depends on how “running on the BBC Micro” is defined.

            – Stephen Kitt
            May 6 at 17:17















          23














          This page describes one of the prototype A500s used by Paul Fellows (who led the team in charge of developing Arthur, the operating system which eventually became RISC OS). Paul Fellows himself said




          This machine is the one I used for development of the Operating System at Acorn. Originally these machines were hooked up to BBC micros via an umbilical into the tube port and all the I/O was done by the Beeb. Over time we gradually got the various sub-systems alive, and moved them over to the A500 native. First the video and graphics, then the keyboard, then the file systems and so on. This machine was on my desk when for the very first time ever we removed the umbilical, and rebooted it - and watched it come up to the basic prompt on its own. Arthur was born!




          So Arthur never ran on a BBC Micro, at least, not using the 6502 as the main CPU, but a BBC Micro was necessary at first to provide the I/O (as you’d expect from a system using the tube).



          Arthur was released to the public with the A305 and A310. I don’t think a BBC Micro-using version was ever released. It was supposed to be a stop-gap operating system until ARX was completed, but when the latter failed to materialise, development of Arthur was extended and it became RISC OS with the release of version 2.



          All this is described in more detail on the dedicated Wikipedia page.






          share|improve this answer




















          • 5





            Note that the Tube interface mentioned was designed for using an external "second processor" with the BBC Micro. Prior to the ARM's development, there were Z80 and (faster) 6502 second processors available commercially, among others. In that regard, the ARM processor was using the BBC Micro for I/O in the same way that a Z80 second processor running CP/M would.

            – Kaz
            May 6 at 16:54






          • 3





            Right, so really the answer depends on how “running on the BBC Micro” is defined.

            – Stephen Kitt
            May 6 at 17:17













          23












          23








          23







          This page describes one of the prototype A500s used by Paul Fellows (who led the team in charge of developing Arthur, the operating system which eventually became RISC OS). Paul Fellows himself said




          This machine is the one I used for development of the Operating System at Acorn. Originally these machines were hooked up to BBC micros via an umbilical into the tube port and all the I/O was done by the Beeb. Over time we gradually got the various sub-systems alive, and moved them over to the A500 native. First the video and graphics, then the keyboard, then the file systems and so on. This machine was on my desk when for the very first time ever we removed the umbilical, and rebooted it - and watched it come up to the basic prompt on its own. Arthur was born!




          So Arthur never ran on a BBC Micro, at least, not using the 6502 as the main CPU, but a BBC Micro was necessary at first to provide the I/O (as you’d expect from a system using the tube).



          Arthur was released to the public with the A305 and A310. I don’t think a BBC Micro-using version was ever released. It was supposed to be a stop-gap operating system until ARX was completed, but when the latter failed to materialise, development of Arthur was extended and it became RISC OS with the release of version 2.



          All this is described in more detail on the dedicated Wikipedia page.






          share|improve this answer















          This page describes one of the prototype A500s used by Paul Fellows (who led the team in charge of developing Arthur, the operating system which eventually became RISC OS). Paul Fellows himself said




          This machine is the one I used for development of the Operating System at Acorn. Originally these machines were hooked up to BBC micros via an umbilical into the tube port and all the I/O was done by the Beeb. Over time we gradually got the various sub-systems alive, and moved them over to the A500 native. First the video and graphics, then the keyboard, then the file systems and so on. This machine was on my desk when for the very first time ever we removed the umbilical, and rebooted it - and watched it come up to the basic prompt on its own. Arthur was born!




          So Arthur never ran on a BBC Micro, at least, not using the 6502 as the main CPU, but a BBC Micro was necessary at first to provide the I/O (as you’d expect from a system using the tube).



          Arthur was released to the public with the A305 and A310. I don’t think a BBC Micro-using version was ever released. It was supposed to be a stop-gap operating system until ARX was completed, but when the latter failed to materialise, development of Arthur was extended and it became RISC OS with the release of version 2.



          All this is described in more detail on the dedicated Wikipedia page.







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited May 6 at 18:56

























          answered May 6 at 16:02









          Stephen KittStephen Kitt

          43.1k8178183




          43.1k8178183







          • 5





            Note that the Tube interface mentioned was designed for using an external "second processor" with the BBC Micro. Prior to the ARM's development, there were Z80 and (faster) 6502 second processors available commercially, among others. In that regard, the ARM processor was using the BBC Micro for I/O in the same way that a Z80 second processor running CP/M would.

            – Kaz
            May 6 at 16:54






          • 3





            Right, so really the answer depends on how “running on the BBC Micro” is defined.

            – Stephen Kitt
            May 6 at 17:17












          • 5





            Note that the Tube interface mentioned was designed for using an external "second processor" with the BBC Micro. Prior to the ARM's development, there were Z80 and (faster) 6502 second processors available commercially, among others. In that regard, the ARM processor was using the BBC Micro for I/O in the same way that a Z80 second processor running CP/M would.

            – Kaz
            May 6 at 16:54






          • 3





            Right, so really the answer depends on how “running on the BBC Micro” is defined.

            – Stephen Kitt
            May 6 at 17:17







          5




          5





          Note that the Tube interface mentioned was designed for using an external "second processor" with the BBC Micro. Prior to the ARM's development, there were Z80 and (faster) 6502 second processors available commercially, among others. In that regard, the ARM processor was using the BBC Micro for I/O in the same way that a Z80 second processor running CP/M would.

          – Kaz
          May 6 at 16:54





          Note that the Tube interface mentioned was designed for using an external "second processor" with the BBC Micro. Prior to the ARM's development, there were Z80 and (faster) 6502 second processors available commercially, among others. In that regard, the ARM processor was using the BBC Micro for I/O in the same way that a Z80 second processor running CP/M would.

          – Kaz
          May 6 at 16:54




          3




          3





          Right, so really the answer depends on how “running on the BBC Micro” is defined.

          – Stephen Kitt
          May 6 at 17:17





          Right, so really the answer depends on how “running on the BBC Micro” is defined.

          – Stephen Kitt
          May 6 at 17:17











          5














          When a second processor (or "co-processor") was used through the BBC Micro's Tube, the Beeb's internal CPU and RAM was used for display and I/O purposes, whereas the main program code would be run on the CPU and RAM in the second processor's case. This code would include an operating system to suit the processor in question, e.g. CP/M on the Z80 second processor, DOS-plus on the 80186 coprocessor, etc.



          The ARM Evaluation System was shipped in 1986, and as well as a ROM-based OS (like the Beeb) it was provided with software on six floppies. These included an assembler and debugger, some example utility programs, a port of BBC Basic, and LISP, PROLOG and FORTRAN.



          As the ARM was a brand new processor, this was the first OS and software released for it. But rather than being related to RISC OS, it was running an early version of Acorn's ARX operating system:




          By 1986, the full four-chip set was working, and a second processor version of the ARM was built for software development. 'We did a lot of software development both in the UK and the States, and a Xerox-like operating system was developed,' explains Wilson, 'This was called ARX. We had it working well on just a single chip - a windows system with VDU calls across the Tube.'




          Quotation source.



          The Archimedes line, with RISC OS's antecendent OS "Arthur", was released one year later in June 1987. Arthur was a rushed stop-gap OS for the A305 and A310 while ARX was being finished. When ARX was further delayed, a revised edition of Arthur (with a graphical interface) was released as RISC OS 2.0.



          On that basis, it seems that no early version of RISC OS ran on the BBC Micro, but an early version of ARX did.



          Do bear in mind that the software on the ARM Evaluation System, like the other second processors, ran on the external processor, and could only communicate with the Beeb through the window of the Tube. Some, such as the ARM E.S., had a ROM of software that was inserted into the Beeb, but these were effectively library functions that could be called by the ARM E.S. through the Tube. They were actually 8-bit code running natively on the Beeb's 6502 and MOS operating system.



          There are more resources relating to the Arm Evaluation System, including documentation and copies of the on-board ROM, here.






          share|improve this answer




















          • 1





            This article on the history of Acorn quotes Roger Wilson saying that the evaluation board OS was an early version of ARX, and that Arthur was developed from scratch (based on MOS) when they realised that ARX wouldn’t be finished on time. BTW Arthur had a GUI before RISC OS 2.

            – Stephen Kitt
            2 days ago












          • @StephenKitt Thanks for the correction. Answer edited accordingly.

            – Kaz
            2 days ago











          • Thanks, +1. You’re still giving the impression Arthur 1.2 didn’t have a GUI ;-).

            – Stephen Kitt
            2 days ago















          5














          When a second processor (or "co-processor") was used through the BBC Micro's Tube, the Beeb's internal CPU and RAM was used for display and I/O purposes, whereas the main program code would be run on the CPU and RAM in the second processor's case. This code would include an operating system to suit the processor in question, e.g. CP/M on the Z80 second processor, DOS-plus on the 80186 coprocessor, etc.



          The ARM Evaluation System was shipped in 1986, and as well as a ROM-based OS (like the Beeb) it was provided with software on six floppies. These included an assembler and debugger, some example utility programs, a port of BBC Basic, and LISP, PROLOG and FORTRAN.



          As the ARM was a brand new processor, this was the first OS and software released for it. But rather than being related to RISC OS, it was running an early version of Acorn's ARX operating system:




          By 1986, the full four-chip set was working, and a second processor version of the ARM was built for software development. 'We did a lot of software development both in the UK and the States, and a Xerox-like operating system was developed,' explains Wilson, 'This was called ARX. We had it working well on just a single chip - a windows system with VDU calls across the Tube.'




          Quotation source.



          The Archimedes line, with RISC OS's antecendent OS "Arthur", was released one year later in June 1987. Arthur was a rushed stop-gap OS for the A305 and A310 while ARX was being finished. When ARX was further delayed, a revised edition of Arthur (with a graphical interface) was released as RISC OS 2.0.



          On that basis, it seems that no early version of RISC OS ran on the BBC Micro, but an early version of ARX did.



          Do bear in mind that the software on the ARM Evaluation System, like the other second processors, ran on the external processor, and could only communicate with the Beeb through the window of the Tube. Some, such as the ARM E.S., had a ROM of software that was inserted into the Beeb, but these were effectively library functions that could be called by the ARM E.S. through the Tube. They were actually 8-bit code running natively on the Beeb's 6502 and MOS operating system.



          There are more resources relating to the Arm Evaluation System, including documentation and copies of the on-board ROM, here.






          share|improve this answer




















          • 1





            This article on the history of Acorn quotes Roger Wilson saying that the evaluation board OS was an early version of ARX, and that Arthur was developed from scratch (based on MOS) when they realised that ARX wouldn’t be finished on time. BTW Arthur had a GUI before RISC OS 2.

            – Stephen Kitt
            2 days ago












          • @StephenKitt Thanks for the correction. Answer edited accordingly.

            – Kaz
            2 days ago











          • Thanks, +1. You’re still giving the impression Arthur 1.2 didn’t have a GUI ;-).

            – Stephen Kitt
            2 days ago













          5












          5








          5







          When a second processor (or "co-processor") was used through the BBC Micro's Tube, the Beeb's internal CPU and RAM was used for display and I/O purposes, whereas the main program code would be run on the CPU and RAM in the second processor's case. This code would include an operating system to suit the processor in question, e.g. CP/M on the Z80 second processor, DOS-plus on the 80186 coprocessor, etc.



          The ARM Evaluation System was shipped in 1986, and as well as a ROM-based OS (like the Beeb) it was provided with software on six floppies. These included an assembler and debugger, some example utility programs, a port of BBC Basic, and LISP, PROLOG and FORTRAN.



          As the ARM was a brand new processor, this was the first OS and software released for it. But rather than being related to RISC OS, it was running an early version of Acorn's ARX operating system:




          By 1986, the full four-chip set was working, and a second processor version of the ARM was built for software development. 'We did a lot of software development both in the UK and the States, and a Xerox-like operating system was developed,' explains Wilson, 'This was called ARX. We had it working well on just a single chip - a windows system with VDU calls across the Tube.'




          Quotation source.



          The Archimedes line, with RISC OS's antecendent OS "Arthur", was released one year later in June 1987. Arthur was a rushed stop-gap OS for the A305 and A310 while ARX was being finished. When ARX was further delayed, a revised edition of Arthur (with a graphical interface) was released as RISC OS 2.0.



          On that basis, it seems that no early version of RISC OS ran on the BBC Micro, but an early version of ARX did.



          Do bear in mind that the software on the ARM Evaluation System, like the other second processors, ran on the external processor, and could only communicate with the Beeb through the window of the Tube. Some, such as the ARM E.S., had a ROM of software that was inserted into the Beeb, but these were effectively library functions that could be called by the ARM E.S. through the Tube. They were actually 8-bit code running natively on the Beeb's 6502 and MOS operating system.



          There are more resources relating to the Arm Evaluation System, including documentation and copies of the on-board ROM, here.






          share|improve this answer















          When a second processor (or "co-processor") was used through the BBC Micro's Tube, the Beeb's internal CPU and RAM was used for display and I/O purposes, whereas the main program code would be run on the CPU and RAM in the second processor's case. This code would include an operating system to suit the processor in question, e.g. CP/M on the Z80 second processor, DOS-plus on the 80186 coprocessor, etc.



          The ARM Evaluation System was shipped in 1986, and as well as a ROM-based OS (like the Beeb) it was provided with software on six floppies. These included an assembler and debugger, some example utility programs, a port of BBC Basic, and LISP, PROLOG and FORTRAN.



          As the ARM was a brand new processor, this was the first OS and software released for it. But rather than being related to RISC OS, it was running an early version of Acorn's ARX operating system:




          By 1986, the full four-chip set was working, and a second processor version of the ARM was built for software development. 'We did a lot of software development both in the UK and the States, and a Xerox-like operating system was developed,' explains Wilson, 'This was called ARX. We had it working well on just a single chip - a windows system with VDU calls across the Tube.'




          Quotation source.



          The Archimedes line, with RISC OS's antecendent OS "Arthur", was released one year later in June 1987. Arthur was a rushed stop-gap OS for the A305 and A310 while ARX was being finished. When ARX was further delayed, a revised edition of Arthur (with a graphical interface) was released as RISC OS 2.0.



          On that basis, it seems that no early version of RISC OS ran on the BBC Micro, but an early version of ARX did.



          Do bear in mind that the software on the ARM Evaluation System, like the other second processors, ran on the external processor, and could only communicate with the Beeb through the window of the Tube. Some, such as the ARM E.S., had a ROM of software that was inserted into the Beeb, but these were effectively library functions that could be called by the ARM E.S. through the Tube. They were actually 8-bit code running natively on the Beeb's 6502 and MOS operating system.



          There are more resources relating to the Arm Evaluation System, including documentation and copies of the on-board ROM, here.







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited 2 days ago









          Tommy

          16.8k14883




          16.8k14883










          answered 2 days ago









          KazKaz

          2,8161046




          2,8161046







          • 1





            This article on the history of Acorn quotes Roger Wilson saying that the evaluation board OS was an early version of ARX, and that Arthur was developed from scratch (based on MOS) when they realised that ARX wouldn’t be finished on time. BTW Arthur had a GUI before RISC OS 2.

            – Stephen Kitt
            2 days ago












          • @StephenKitt Thanks for the correction. Answer edited accordingly.

            – Kaz
            2 days ago











          • Thanks, +1. You’re still giving the impression Arthur 1.2 didn’t have a GUI ;-).

            – Stephen Kitt
            2 days ago












          • 1





            This article on the history of Acorn quotes Roger Wilson saying that the evaluation board OS was an early version of ARX, and that Arthur was developed from scratch (based on MOS) when they realised that ARX wouldn’t be finished on time. BTW Arthur had a GUI before RISC OS 2.

            – Stephen Kitt
            2 days ago












          • @StephenKitt Thanks for the correction. Answer edited accordingly.

            – Kaz
            2 days ago











          • Thanks, +1. You’re still giving the impression Arthur 1.2 didn’t have a GUI ;-).

            – Stephen Kitt
            2 days ago







          1




          1





          This article on the history of Acorn quotes Roger Wilson saying that the evaluation board OS was an early version of ARX, and that Arthur was developed from scratch (based on MOS) when they realised that ARX wouldn’t be finished on time. BTW Arthur had a GUI before RISC OS 2.

          – Stephen Kitt
          2 days ago






          This article on the history of Acorn quotes Roger Wilson saying that the evaluation board OS was an early version of ARX, and that Arthur was developed from scratch (based on MOS) when they realised that ARX wouldn’t be finished on time. BTW Arthur had a GUI before RISC OS 2.

          – Stephen Kitt
          2 days ago














          @StephenKitt Thanks for the correction. Answer edited accordingly.

          – Kaz
          2 days ago





          @StephenKitt Thanks for the correction. Answer edited accordingly.

          – Kaz
          2 days ago













          Thanks, +1. You’re still giving the impression Arthur 1.2 didn’t have a GUI ;-).

          – Stephen Kitt
          2 days ago





          Thanks, +1. You’re still giving the impression Arthur 1.2 didn’t have a GUI ;-).

          – Stephen Kitt
          2 days ago

















          draft saved

          draft discarded
















































          Thanks for contributing an answer to Retrocomputing Stack Exchange!


          • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

          But avoid


          • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

          • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.

          To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




          draft saved


          draft discarded














          StackExchange.ready(
          function ()
          StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fretrocomputing.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f10953%2fdid-any-early-risc-os-precursor-run-on-the-bbc-micro%23new-answer', 'question_page');

          );

          Post as a guest















          Required, but never shown





















































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown

































          Required, but never shown














          Required, but never shown












          Required, but never shown







          Required, but never shown