Acorn Registered Developers

How Acorn helped third parties make software and hardware

Items that have not previously been made available via Chris's Acorns are marked new.

Acorn's Registered Developer scheme, was a paid-for service that provided RISC OS hardware and software developers with;

• Early access to Acorn's new technology, the ability to order pre-production prototype hardware and specification documents.
• Early access to Acorn's new software, beta versions.
• Significant discounts off the RRP of Acorn products.
• Email and telephone support from Acorn engineers.

Miscellaneous Documents

All files are in PDF format.

• Registered Developers' Flyer (221 KiB) - Sign up to the Registered Developer scheme new
• The Acorn Hardware Conformance Scheme (604 KiB) new
• Acorn's New Hardware Conformance Scheme Offers Qualify Assurance to Customers (324 KiB) new
• Acorn Hardware Conformance Scheme - Draft Document For Discussion (862 KiB) new
• Acorn Questions Apple over PowerPC Claims (331 KiB) - Acorn is upset about Apple's advertising of their new PowerPC based machines new
• Developer Technology Briefing - Thursday 1 July 1993 (961 KiB) - Pre RiscPC testing and demonstrations in Cambridge new
• IMPORTANT INFORMATION on the Risc PC 486 Card (289 KiB) - Get one for 99ukp (+vat) with a new RiscPC new
• Registered Developer Guidelines for good practice (395 KiB) new

Registered Developer Newsletters

All files are in PDF format.

• 18 - May - June 1990 (1.2 MiB)
• 19 - August 1990 (1.7 MiB)
• 21 - February - March 1991 (2.0 MiB)
• 22 - May 1991 (2.0 MiB)
• 23 - September 1991 (1.4 MiB)
• 24 - November 1991 (3.3 MiB)
• 25 - February 1992 (2.3 MiB)
• 26 - May 1992 (2.4 MiB)
• 27 - October 1992 (1.1 MiB)
• 28 - March 1993 (2.2 MiB)
• 29 - August 1993 (1.6 MiB)
• 28 - May 1993 (Supplement) (435 KiB)
• 30 - October 1993 (687 KiB)
• 31 - December 1993 (1.6 MiB)
• 32 - March 1994 (1.4 MiB)
• 32 - March 1994 (additional) (416 KiB)
• 33 - April 1994 (1.6 MiB)
• 34 - July 1994 (856 KiB)
• 35 - October 1994 (1.4 MiB)
• 36 - December 1994 (706 KiB)
• 37 - March - April 1995 (994 KiB)
• 37 - November 1992 (Supplement) (463 KiB)
• 38 - August 1995 (1.6 MiB)

Registered Developer Price Lists and Offers

All files are in PDF format.

• Registered Developers' Discount Price List - March 1994 (283 KiB)
• Registered Developers' Discount Price List - October 1994 (479 KiB)
• Registered Developers' Discount Price List - March 1995 (488 KiB) new
• Registered Developers' Discount Price List - August 1995 (418 KiB)
• A3010 Price Reduction (87 KiB) new
• Developers' June Opportunity (99 KiB)new
• Order Form AUN Level 4 Fileserver (Release 2) (142 KiB)new
• Order Form Multimedia Expansion Unit (162 KiB) new
• Order Form Pocket Book (147 KiB) new
• Order Form Pocket Book II (156 KiB) new
• Registered Developers' Order Form (64 KiB)
• Registered Developers' PRM Special Offer Order Form (77 KiB)

RISC OS Black (3.60) specifications

All files are in PDF format.

• Acorn Registered Developer Information About RISC OS 'Black' (193 KiB) new
• Black Draw Functional Specification (281 KiB) new
• Black Paint Functional Specification (264 KiB) new
• Black Printing Enhancements Functional Specification (781 KiB) new
• Black (RISC OS) !ChangeFSI JPEG Output Functional Specification (565 KiB) new
• Black (RISC OS) ROM and Disc Structure Functional Specification (1.2 MiB) new
• Black Support For Network-Only Machines Functional Specification (1.6 MiB) new
• Black Video Software Functional Specification (1.1 MiB) new
• Joystick Module for Risc OS Black (275 KiB) new

Registered Developer Newsletter Support Discs

All files are in .ADF disc image format.

• DevDisc25 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc26 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc27 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc28 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc29 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc30-31 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc32 (800 KiB)
• DevSupp32 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc32S (800 KiB)
• DevDisc33-34 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc35 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc36 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc37 (800 KiB)
• DevDisc38 (800 KiB)

Miscellanious Developer Discs

All files are in .ADF disc image format.

• NewRoDocsD (800 KiB) - 1988, many documents related to aspects of RISC OS, from kernel to Apps new
• ARM Code Check (800 KiB) - 1991, ARM code check utility new
• NewDesk (800 KiB) - 1993, test Window manager and other modules for Risc PC like behaviour on RISC OS 3.1 machines. Used in Risc PC compatibility testing. Sometimes mistakenly called RISC OS 3.22 new
• FontEdSrc (800 KiB) - 1994, !FontEd+, !FontEd and source code new
• FunctionalSpec (800 KiB) - 1994, Documents relating to Aquarius (Acorn C/C++) project new
• AppUpdate1 (800 KiB) - 1994, RISC OS 3 Applications Upgrade Disc #1, 1994. Printers 1.22
• Prt1HDRs.A (800 KiB) - 1994, RISC OS assembler headers for RISC OS 3.50 era new
• KeyHandler (800 KiB) - 1995, Related to generating keyboard handlers for different countries keyboards new

Mirror of 1998 FTP site new

In the archive is a mirror of the FTP site for registered developers from September 1998, at the time of the closure of Acorn's Workstation Division.

It contains many interesting historical items, here are some highlights.

RISC OS 3.80 new

As part of the development of the Phoebe Risc PC2 Acorn developed a new version of the OS, RISC OS 4. However they made an early version (retronymed to 3.80) available to the registered developers. It contained many of the advances that weren't directly related to the Phoebe hardware. It had a much improved (though buggy, see below) file-system. It also featured the first major graphical overhaul of the GUI since RISC OS 3 came out.

3.80 as released to developers does not work on a StrongARM, only ARM610/710 and the A7000/A7000+. However an Acorn internal StrongARM compatible ROM image is available from this site.

RISC OS 4 was finished off and released for Risc PC users by RISCOS Ltd in 1999.

Also check the readme.txt and knownbugs.txt.

Important note: RISC OS 3.80 has a known data-loss bug in the new file-system, it therefore is not a good OS to trust with your data or use long term. However it does have a historical relevance as the last version of RISC OS Acorn released (even if not publicly).

Soft-loadable RISC OS 3.70 new

As part of the StrongARM development the new OS was made available to developers to test their programs. Of course this was before most had StrongARM processors so you could only test non-ARMv4 issues.

This soft-load works over the top of RISC OS 3.50 and 3.60.

Check out the ReadMe.txt for details.

Developer Mailing List new

Dave Walker, Engineering Support Manager (later Developer Support Specialist) at Acorn, would email regular missives out to developers with details of the latest news, downloads and support. Here are some highlights.

• 22/01/1997 - Risc PC 2 (Phoebe) development noted.
• 17/04/1997 - A7000+ announced.
• 13/10/1997 - RISC OS is Y2K compliant.
• 03/04/1998 - Acorn tries to relaunch the Acornsoft brand.
• 24/04/1998 - Schedule for the 5th May developer conference.
• 08/06/1998 - Preliminary guidelines for developing for the Phoebe/Risc PC 2.
• 25/06/1998 - Dave explains the new management changes with Stan Boland as the new CEO.
• 04/09/1998 - RISC OS 3.80 soft-loadable OS made available.
• 15/09/1998 - The last entry on the mailing list, Phoebe (Risc PC 2) powered up and so close to production. Two days later the project is cancelled.

Other Items new

Other parts of the FTP mirror include, but there is still more to find if you dig deep;

• API Documentation - Before it was rolled into the next Programmers Reference Manual.
• Appnotes - Some of the later Acorn Application Notes.
• Field Change Orders - Recommended hardware changes for many Acorn machines.
• Phoebe Functional Specification
• Price list - How much, or little, did a developer pay?
• Example code - How to write a file-system, a browser plugin, use the nested WIMP and more.
• Risc PC J233 disc - The disc archives of Acorn's last released machine.
• Hardware Test - Hardware test programs for most Acorn 32 bit machines, be careful, may format your hard disc!
• NC documents - Documents about Acorn's Network Computers.
• NC Boot system for Unix - Boot you Network Computers from a UNIX server.
• Updates - Updates for many previously released Acorn programs.

Update 6/2015 new

Two CDROMs that were made available to registered developers are available on the CDROMs page, including beta test, utility and support programs.

A copy of the handouts given to registered developers at the August 1997 developer conference is online. Including information on Phoebe and Galileo.

Can you help out?

I am sure there is a lot of other material related to the Registered Developers that hasn't yet come to light. Do you have copies? Please get in contact! I am looking for files, documents, price lists and anything else that may be relevant.