The ultimate accessory for 8 bit Acorn users, an ARM7 co-processor, is now available to order. Robert Sprowson’s ingenious project to produce a second processor sees a 64MHz ARM7TDMI from OKI running alongside a BBC Master’s dinosaur 6502 CPU. The box of tricks uses an Altera FPGA as digital glue to bind together the second processor, 16M of RAM, 512K of Flash ROM, and optional serial port and EEPROM chip. The ARM7 chip includes a 8K cache, and the kit took over six months to develop.
the original ARM coprocessor for these machines was/is really hard to find. Now pretty much anyone can get one
I wonder whats going to get released for it… now it would be possible to have a slimmed down *bsd/linux running on the master 
too bad the tube is only 1mhz…
I really wanted a BBC B, but could not afford it. It was the best 8-bit homecomputer, but it was way overpriced. You could get the Acorn Electron, which was very similar in specs, but not as expandable as the BBC B. I remember you could add a Z-80 or even a Moto 68000 to the beeb (as it was known in UK).
I don’t know the specs of the BBC Master, though. Seems to belong to the same line of 6502-based Acorn micros. Then Acorn made the Archimedes, which is a different story completely..
> even a Moto 68000
No, it was a NatSemi 16032.
Or a faster 6502. Could run Elite on that. 😉
if im not mistaken, elite would use dual 6502’s if installed too
pretty cool stuff for back then.
Back in the day an office I worked at used BBCs with a Z80 to run CP/M. With the Beeb’s 6502 acting as a co-processor they were pretty fast, and even after buying the separate Z80 they worked out cheaper than most alternative business computers. The best thing about them was that you could play Elite in your lunch break 🙂
There was a x86 second CPU available too, I remember seeing a BBC running MS-DOS. Of course they were great computers without any extra hardware, but I can’t think of another 8-bit computer that was so upgradeable and versatile.
I brought my Beeb to America and never switched it on again. After being in the closet awhile I let it find its way back home to a public library as a donation.
After seeing a mini ITX hack on the Beeb case, I wonder if I should have kept it also for a similar FPGA cpu lobotomy. It was a superb piece of hardware in its day but really also a dinosour when it came out. I don’t miss the tapes or 5″ floppies or Basic one little bit.