title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Acorn's original C compiler and assembler products were superseded by its Desktop C and Desktop Assembler products in mid-1991. These products comprised Acorn's Desktop Development Environment, aiming to reduce the time and effort involved in developing applications and modules along with supporting such activities in the desktop environment itself. Both products provided an enhanced version of Edit known as SrcEdit for source code editing that supported "throwback": navigation to locations in source code produced by other tools such as the C compiler. The Desktop Debugging Tool (DDT) was described as "a rather impressive line by line debugger" supporting breakpoints and watchpoints and allowing conventional application code (as opposed to modules) to be stepped through by "actually stopping the desktop", with control over this activity exercised through desktop-like windows operating separately from the actual desktop. Alongside compiler, assembler and linker tools, a build utility known as Make and supporting Makefiles was provided along with an improved version of the FormEd tool used for application window design. Desktop C cost £229 plus VAT, and Desktop Assembler cost £149 plus VAT.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Acorn's C++ strategy was the subject of a degree of criticism. Initially, the company announced the availability of AT&T's CFront to its registered developer community, this translating C++ code for further compilation by Acorn's Desktop C product. Acorn followed up by offering a new product, replacing Desktop C, that integrated CFront 3.0 to support C and C++ compilation, albeit without support for exceptions. Feedback from developers had been negative, however, citing poor-quality code and slow compilation times, with developers apparently wanting "a true native C++ compiler with good RISC OS environment support". Despite the adoption of C++ class libraries on other platforms, Acorn chose to provide user interface component functionality using a collection of modules, known as the Toolbox, accessible at the system call level instead.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Apart from a port of the GNU C++ compiler, itself requiring at least 4 MB of RAM to run, the only significant competition to Acorn's C and C++ products were the Easy C and Easy C++ products from Beebug, with the former being announced in late 1993 as a Risc Developments product costing £49 plus VAT. Priced significantly less than Acorn's compiler, Easy C provided a narrower range of tools, lacking the debugger of Acorn's product in particular, and had also not been validated as conforming to the ANSI language standard, unlike Acorn's compiler. Nevertheless, it did provide the essential compiler, assembler, linker and build tools, aiming to be "an easy to use C development system aimed at the lower end of the market". In late 1994, Beebug followed up by announcing Easy C++ in advance of the availability of Acorn's own C++ product. Easy C++ compiled C++ source code directly to ARM object code and supported both templates and exceptions. It was priced at £99 plus VAT or £49 plus VAT as an upgrade from Easy C. The product was seemingly positively received, with the developers having "achieved the target they set themselves" by delivering a native C++ compiler, although the lack of updated documentation and the need for further development to improve the product were also identified.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Ultimately, the stated lack of a suitable C++ compiler and accompanying class libraries for the platform led prominent development houses to focus on products for other platforms and to abandon plans to release new software for RISC OS. In 1994, Mark Colton of Colton Software criticised Acorn for not complementing its C compiler with "C toolbox" libraries to assist with application development, and regarded Acorn as being "at a standstill" relative to broader development tool trends such as the introduction of Visual Basic and the increasing adoption of C++ together with class libraries for application development. Charles Moir of Computer Concepts justified the development of Xara Studio, a graphics application described as effectively "ArtWorks for the PC", indicating that only the larger market for Windows software could make the necessary investment in such a sophisticated application worthwhile. Since Windows development could leverage C++ and platform-specific class libraries, Computer Concepts had expected Acorn to deliver comparable tools and resources to make the development of such software possible on the Acorn platform "to no avail". Ben Finn of Sibelius Software indicated that Sibelius 7 had been a "completely new piece of software" written in C++, in contrast to earlier versions written in assembly language, primarily due to the difficulties of implementing requested features in such a low-level language. The portability of C++ software also permitted Sibelius to be made available for the PC and Mac platforms. However, with Acorn unable to provide a suitably updated C++ development suite, the company was unable to deliver its new product on RISC OS.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The Archimedes machines (and their equivalents running RISC iX) used the VIDC1a video chip to provide a wide variety of screen resolutions, expanding on those available on the BBC Micro, including the following:


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Since the video controller would not support display modes smaller than 20 KB, the lowest resolution modes were supported in the operating system by employing modes with twice the horizontal resolution and duplicating horizontally adjacent pixels.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The introduction of RISC OS brought support for a number of new display modes including the following:


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Apparent confusion about monochrome monitor support upon the launch of the Archimedes models led Acorn to clarify that the A400 series had "extra circuitry" offering two additional display modes "of up to 1280 by 976 in monochrome, and 160 columns by 122 lines of text, but only using a special monitor", this being connected using two BNC sockets (one for signal and one for sync).


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The A540 (and corresponding R-series workstations) offered three BNC sockets, adding one for a separate horizontal sync connection for certain monitors. Acorn suggested the 19-inch Taxan Viking and Philips M19P114 monitors, with the former being offered in a bundle with the R140 workstation. The Taxan Viking R140 product bundled the existing Viking product with appropriate cabling and produced a "rock steady" 66 Hz mode 23 display, albeit with mouse pointer corruption at the extreme right of the screen due to "a bug in the VIDC chip".


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: An expansion to speed up the VIDC chip in the Archimedes from 24 MHz to 36 MHz was announced by Atomwide in 1990, offering higher resolution display modes for machines connected to multisync monitors. Although resolutions up to and were supported, flicker due to a decreased refresh rate was reported as a problem, with appearing to be more comfortable in this regard. The SVGA resolution of was also supported in up to 16 colours. One side-effect of increasing the frequency of the VIDC was to also increase the frequency of generated sounds, since the VIDC was also responsible for sound generation. VIDC enhancers were supplied by some monitor vendors together with the appropriate cable for Archimedes machines, although fitting the device still required approved service work to be performed. Monitors such as the Taxan 795 Multivision were only usable in multisync modes without the VIDC enhancer whose accompanying software sought to "redefine all modes" to be compatible with the display as well as providing new modes.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: One drawback of VIDC enhancer solutions was the increased memory bandwidth used by the VIDC at its newly elevated frequency, slowing down machines when using higher resolution modes, particularly machines with ARM2 processors and slower memory busses. Consequently, other solutions were adopted to work around the limitations of the built-in display hardware, notably "graphics enhancers" such as the PCATS graphics enhancer from The Serial Port, and "colour cards" such as Computer Concepts' ColourCard and State Machine's G8 which provided a separate framebuffer, holding a copy of the normal screen memory, for use in generating a video signal independently of the system's main memory. This permitted higher refresh rates (up to 70 Hz) even for higher resolution modes, although the maximum size of the screen memory imposed by the VIDC () also imposed a limit on available resolutions and colour depths, with being the highest resolution 256 colour mode that could be supported. However, such cards were also able to support more flexible palettes in 256 colour modes than the VIDC, and for lower resolutions, greater colour depths offering over 32,000 colours could be supported. The ColourCard was reported to allow an ARM2 system to use a display mode with 16 colours (occupying 480 KB) with an operating speed of "160% of the speed of the considerably lower resolution Acorn mode 28", this being with 256 colours (occupying 300 KB).


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: State Machine, founded by former hardware designers from Computer Concepts and Watford Electronics, announced a range of colour card peripherals, starting with the G8 and G8+ in late 1992, followed by the G8 Professional, these cards being demonstrated at the BBC Acorn User show in 1992, as was the Computer Concepts ColourCard. One potentially significant difference between the different product ranges was the role of the VIDC, with the ColourCard employing a "video switch" that permitted the VIDC to generate an output signal independent of the card for traditional display modes, with the card only generating output for enhanced modes, whereas the State Machine cards were entirely responsible for output and thereby provided emulations of the traditional modes, this leading to a "letter-box" effect for some modes in early versions of the State Machine software and also causing compatibility issues with software, particularly games, that accessed VIDC registers directly to configure the display. Subsequent developments from State Machine brought the G16 card, offering application-specific support for 15 and 16 bits per pixel modes.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Alongside bandwidth constraints, a fundamental limitation to the size of VIDC framebuffers was imposed by the memory controller, limiting the size of framebuffers transferred to the VIDC through DMA to a specific 512 KB physical memory region. State Machine's ColourBurst card, announced together with its G16 card, employed memory mapping techniques to provide 1 MB of video RAM instead of the 512 KB of earlier cards and thus supporting larger screen modes. The ColourBurst was, when reviewed in late 1993, the first 24-bit colour card available for the Archimedes, also supporting various upgrades including the "video switch" capability absent from earlier cards, PAL encoding, and other professional capabilities.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Coincidentally, ARM Limited announced the VIDC20 - the successor to the VIDC10 in the Archimedes - at around the same time as the introduction of the Computer Concepts and State Machine product ranges in late 1992. By late 1993, rumours about Acorn's next-generation system (eventually released as the Risc PC), particularly 24-bit colour support, led to suggestions of improved support for higher colour depths in RISC OS, accompanied by the observation in the context of State Machine's ColourBurst card that "it seems unlikely that another manufacturer will release such a powerful device before the launch of Acorn's new baby". In late 1993, Computer Concepts announced the ColourCard Gold, developed in conjunction with Acorn to offer 15 bits per pixel support in the desktop environment. Meanwhile, State Machine announced the ClusterCard for 33 MHz A5000 models, plugging into the memory controller socket and supporting upgrades to 8 MB of RAM alongside graphics enhancements offering 1 MB or 2 MB of video RAM. The ClusterCard, employing the G335 Cluster Module was reported to be the first graphics card for the Archimedes series not requiring the use of the VIDC.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: With IBM PC compatible systems leaving the Archimedes "well behind the competition in the display stakes", the ClusterCard was seen as attempting a solution similar to a local bus architecture on the A5000, with the potential to "transform the A5000 into a serious graphics machine, with possibly as good a display potential as the next Acorn series equipped with VIDC20s". The launch of the Risc PC in 1994 demonstrated Acorn's successor to the Archimedes, to which State Machine responded with a product called ColourView, "an all-new replacement for the original G8 and G16 State Machine graphics cards", offering 16 bits per pixel desktop-compatible screen modes, with a modular version also available for the ClusterCard without the 1 MB framebuffer. The full version of the card was reportedly available for A300 series, A400 series, A5000 and A540 machines.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Somewhat distinct from general graphics enhancements, various products were also introduced to support the broadcasting industry and other professional imaging applications. In late 1990, Millipede Electronic Graphics announced an imaging product called APEX (Archimedes P3 Expansion) featuring "four P3 (pixel pipeline processor) chips, together with an Arm3 processor running at 27 MHz". With support for "broadcast quality graphics at 32 bits per pixel", hardware support for windows and sprites, emphasising real-time image combination and manipulation, the product was aimed at professional users and priced accordingly, with the version providing 4 MB of RAM projected to cost £2750. Nevertheless, a licensing agreement had been reached with Acorn to "enable Risc OS graphics functions to be fully emulated". Following up from this earlier product, Millipede offered an "all new Apex Imager" video card in early 1994 featuring the four custom chips, ARM3, FPA, and 16 MB of video RAM on a double-width podule costing £3975, this being virtually unchanged from the pricing of the original product from 1990. This product appears to make extensive use of FPGA devices and offers numerous video input and output facilities. Apex hardware was used by the Eidos video capture and compression solution, Thumper, which ran on a Risc PC and was able to process "MPEG 1 resolution video at full PAL frame rate in real time", being regarded in early 1995 as "the best digitiser for our needs on any platform" by Eidos' managing director. Previous Eidos capture solutions used A540 machines with 8 MB of RAM.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The Archimedes was capable of producing eight-channel, 8-bit, stereo sound, with the video controller chip being responsible for sound generation, it having direct memory access capabilities to independently stream audio data to the output circuitry. Some users sought to bypass the audio filtering circuitry to improve sound from the external audio connector.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The Archimedes did not provide hardware support for floating-point arithmetic as standard, but the system was designed so that one might be added, with a floating-point co-processor instruction set architecture having been defined by Acorn for programs to use. Accompanying this, a software module providing an emulation of such a co-processor, handling these additional instructions in software written using conventional ARM instructions. The co-processor was described as a "cut-down" ARM with only eight registers available instead of sixteen, offering instructions to transfer values to and from memory (supporting single, double, extended double and packed binary-coded decimal representations), to transfer values between the main CPU and co-processor, to transfer status information from the co-processor, to perform unary and binary operations on values, and to perform comparisons.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: In the first generation of Archimedes 300 and 400 series machines, only the 400 series had the appropriate expansion capability to add a floating-point unit (FPU) or co-processor, although the emulator was supported on all models. The expansion capability was retained in the 400/1 series. The FPU expansion card was delivered for the R140 workstation and 400 series in 1989, priced at £599 plus VAT, and was based on the WE32206, with a "protocol converter chip" being used to translate between the ARM and the WE32206. The WE32206 card was also offered for Acorn's Springboard expansion card for IBM PC compatibles. Although Acorn had expected that interfacing the ARM to an existing FPU chip would be "a much quicker route" to delivering a hardware-based floating-point solution than developing a new co-processor, the complexity involved in developing the custom gate array responsible for interfacing to the WE32206 was apparently greater than anticipated, taking two years to deliver.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Reviews of the FPU were generally unenthusiastic, noting that Acorn's claims of an eight-fold speed-up were unlikely to be achieved in "a practical program", nevertheless reporting that programs performing repeated floating-point operations yielded speed-ups ranging from around four to sixteen times that of a base ARM2-based system. Somewhat more applied testing demonstrated speed-ups for benchmark programs of up to eight times, aligning with Acorn's claims, but contrasted these gains with the broader performance increases attainable from an ARM3 upgrade, these offering a more general four-fold speed improvement. Largely focusing on BASIC programming, one reviewer concluded that the FPU was "all but obsolete" with the availability of the ARM3 upgrade. Another conceded that some but not all C programs would benefit from the FPU since "a good programmer will avoid using floating point instructions if at all possible", suggesting that Acorn's R140 workstation would benefit more from the upgrade. However, BASIC programs compiled using the Archimedes BASIC Compiler achieved over nine-fold speed-ups for certain benchmarks, unlike those running on the standard BASIC interpreter whose floating-point routines avoided using FPU instructions, thus delivering no real performance improvements with the FPU fitted.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The Archimedes models based on the ARM3 processor supported a completely new "arithmetic co-processor" or "floating-point accelerator" known as the FPA. Released in 1993 for the R260 workstation and the A540 and A5000 machines, priced at £99 plus VAT, the FPA device—known specifically as the FPA10—was fitted in a dedicated socket on the processor card for the R260 and A540, or in a motherboard socket in the A5000. It offered a peak throughput of 5 MFLOPS at 26 MHz. The models officially supporting the FPA had been introduced some time prior to availability of the device, and various ARM3 upgrade cards for earlier models had also been made available with an FPA socket in anticipation of eventual availability. Fabrication of the device was performed by GEC Plessey Semiconductors and was reported to be in "an advanced stage of production" in early 1993. Availability remained unclear, with ARM releasing technical details indicating that the chip, at 134,000 transistors was reportedly "Arm's most complex IC to date" and comparing its performance at "around 4 MFLOPS" to the MIPS R3010 floating-point co-processor, whilst claiming a substantial power consumption advantage. Further details were given upon the eventual release of the FPA10, stating a 26 MHz operating frequency and a power consumption of 250 mW. Reception from major software producers such as Computer Concepts and Colton Software was cautious, with the former's products not making any use of floating-point instructions and thus not standing to benefit, and with the latter's using such instructions but indicating skepticism about any significant benefits in performance.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Observations from testing the FPA10 confirmed that applications such as Resultz and PipeDream 4—both Colton Software products—and other spreadsheets, whilst ostensibly standing to benefit as number processing applications, exhibited "no noticeable speed improvements", this being attributed to these applications' avoidance of unnecessary calculation and the more significant overhead of servicing a graphical user interface. Other programs such as Draw and ArtWorks—a Computer Concepts product—used their own arithmetic routines instead of the floating-point emulator (FPE) and, as anticipated, were therefore unable to take advantage of the accelerated floating-point instructions. However, various free of charge or low-cost programs ported from other systems, such as POV-Ray, plus selected native applications such as Clares' Illusionist and Oak Solutions' WorraCAD, did exhibit substantial performance gains from the FPA with speed-ups of between five and ten times. The Basic64 interpreter bundled with RISC OS which was "much slower than Basic V normally", with the former using the FPE and the latter providing its own floating-point arithmetic routines, ended up "slightly faster" due to observed speed-ups of around four to around eleven times, with non-trigonometric operations benefiting the most. Programs compiled by Intelligent Interfaces' Fortran compiler were reported as running "some routines up to 20 times faster with the FPA10". The product was perceived as "good value" but having restricted usefulness with the general lack of support in many applications, these employing their own routines and techniques to attempt to provide performant arithmetic on the base hardware platform, and a lack of incentive amongst software producers to offer support without a large enough market of users having the FPA fitted.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: With the FPA10 having finally become available but only rated to run at 25 MHz, and with ARM3 upgrades being delivered at frequencies as high as 35 MHz, a higher-rated part, the FPA11, supporting 33 MHz operation was developed and apparently delivered in products such as a processor card upgrade for the A540. ARM3 upgrades were also produced with 33 MHz ARM3 processors, but unlike their 25 MHz counterparts which were available with FPA10 co-processors already fitted, these faster cards were not supplied with FPA11 co-processors, perhaps due to availability issues with the faster part.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: In early 1990, Aleph One introduced an upgrade board for Archimedes A300 and A400 series models featuring the ARM3 processor which had been designed by Acorn but was sold independently by VLSI Technology. Although the ARM2 employed by current models could reportedly be run at 20 MHz, it was only ever run at 8 MHz due to external limitations, these being the speed of the data bus and of the "relatively slow", but correspondingly relatively inexpensive, RAM devices in use. The ARM3 incorporated a 4 KB on-chip combined instruction and data cache, loosening such external constraints and thus permitting the processor to be run productively at the elevated 20 MHz frequency. With a processor running at this higher speed, the overall performance of a computer with the ARM3 upgrade was reported as double that of the machine without the upgrade ("on average, execution times were halved"), with programs performing input/output benefiting rather less ("a worst case of 30 percent improvement"). Original A300 and A400 series models, as opposed to the A400/1 series, required an upgrade to MEMC1a. One hundred percent compatibility with the ARM2 was claimed, and a facility was provided to disable the on-chip cache and to slow the clock to 8 Mhz in order to handle software that ran too fast with the ARM3 running at full speed, but as originally provided, the ARM3 was not compatible with the existing hardware floating point co-processor solution due to the introduction of a different co-processor interface in the device, this interface eventually being used by the FPA device. The upgrade was introduced at a price of £684.24, with the MEMC1a costing £57.50 for those users who needed it.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: By the end of 1991, an ARM3 upgrade had been offered for the A3000 by Aleph One in association with Atomwide and by Watford Electronics. Since the ARM2 was soldered directly to the motherboard in the A3000 using surface mounting techniques, the upgrade had to be performed by a fitting service, and prices included courier collection, fitting, testing and return within five working days. With the A5000 having been launched with a 25 MHz ARM3 fitted, these A3000 upgrade boards carried a processor running at this higher frequency relative to earlier upgrades. Originally, the Aleph One product had been priced at £468.83, but the announcement of a board by Watford Electronics led to a reduced price of £392.45. The Watford product had an introductory price of £274.95.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Other vendors produced ARM3 upgrades. In late 1992, Simtec Electronics announced a board with an additional socket for the FPA device, thus allowing older machines to join the A540 and A5000 in potentially taking advantage of it. By this time, prices for ARM3 upgrades had been reduced to the point that this Simtec upgrade cost only £175 plus VAT. Competitors including IFEL and CJE Micros followed Simtec's lead and announced similar combined ARM3/FPA upgrades. In contrast, Aleph One stated that the FPA would "not be available for a long time yet", indicating the pursuit of "a better solution based on the newer Arm600 chip plus an FPA". Other vendors had apparently ruled out similar ARM600-based products on the basis of cost. In 1993, IFEL later announced a 35 MHz ARM3 upgrade based on a limited quantity - approximately 1500 - of available suitably rated parts, these having a ceramic package whose volume ruled out its use in machines with limited internal space, making the upgrade suitable for A300, A400 or R140 machines. A combined ARM3/FPA upgrade with the faster ARM3 was under consideration, although the lack of suitably rated FPA chips meant that a switch would be provided to manually change the clock frequency between 25 MHz and 35 MHz. A target price of £199 including VAT was estimated.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Prior to the availability of the FPA, Simtec reduced the price of its combined ARM3/FPA board to £165 plus VAT. The company also released a "turbo RAM" upgrade for ARM250-based machines to provide similar performance benefits to an ARM3 upgrade, replacing the RAM with a faster type that then permitted the processor to be run at a higher frequency, thus pursuing the alternative approach to enhancing system performance (increasing both the processor and memory speed) to that pursued by ARM3 upgrades (introducing a faster processor with a cache). With the upgrade, performance of these machines was reported as increasing from 7 MIPS to 10 MIPS, this compared to almost 13 MIPS for a 25 MHz ARM3. By employing a 16 MHz clock signal, as envisaged by Acorn in the design of the A3010, in conjunction with dynamic RAM devices with a 70 ns access time, the upgrade provided a total of 4 MB of RAM and a 40 percent performance improvement. Unlike standard RAM upgrades, the turbo upgrade needed to be fitted at a suitable facility, and the board was priced slightly higher than a standard RAM upgrade at £129 plus VAT. A "super turbo" version of the board with 20 MHz crystal and 45 ns dynamic RAM devices was reviewed and apparently available subject to component availability, reportedly achieving 12.25 MIPS.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Aleph One, having founded the ARM3 upgrade industry, found that increased competition from "six or eight companies making Arm3 upgrades" drove down prices to the point that "margins fell, and the bottom fell out of the Arm3 market". However, revenues from ARM3 upgrades allowed Aleph One to pursue the development of IBM PC-compatible podule expansions and eventually the PC processor card for the Risc PC, these having "a higher intellectual content than Arm3 upgrades" and being more difficult for potential competitors to make. Plans were indicated to develop a PowerPC processor card for the Risc PC. Neither the PowerPC upgrade for the Risc PC nor the earlier ARM600-based upgrade for the Archimedes series appeared, with Acorn itself abandoning plans to combine newer ARM600 or ARM700 parts with FPA devices to provide improved floating point performance.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: ARM3 upgrades were produced for several years, but with the ARM3 part being "officially discontinued" by its manufacturer VLSI in 1996, upgrade vendors such as IFEL were predicting scarcity and unable to guarantee further supplies of such products. Demand for such upgrades, even in 1996, was reported as "steady" with schools still upgrading "batches of old A300 and A400 machines". Later still, in 1997, Simtec announced a "special batch" of ARM3 upgrades for A300 and A400 series machines and the A3000, featuring a socket for the 25 MHz FPA10 or 33 MHz FPA11, with the former being supplied already fitted for a total product cost of £199 plus VAT.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Acorn initially planned to produce an IBM PC-compatible system on a podule (peripheral module), complete with 80186 processor (running at 10 MHz) and disk drive support. Subsequent pricing and competitiveness considerations led to the product being shelved. However, in late 1991, hardware supplier Aleph One announced a PC podule based on a 20 MHz Intel 80386SX processor with VGA display capability. Launched in early 1992, the podule fitted with 1 MB of RAM cost £595, whereas a 4 MB version cost £725. Known as the 386PC, the expansion was "in effect, a PC within your Archimedes" whose RAM could be upgraded from the minimum of 1 MB, the price of this configuration having fallen to £495 at the time of its review, to the maximum of 4 MB, with this configuration also being offered at a reduced price of £625. A socket on the board permitted the 80387 maths co-processor to be fitted for hardware floating point arithmetic support, this costing an extra £120. Integration of the PC system involved the Archimedes providing display, keyboard and disk support. In the initial version, the supplied 386PC application would put the Archimedes into dedicated display mode and thus take over the display, but subsequent versions promised operation of the PC in a window, much like the updated PC Emulator from the era. Screen memory requirements were around 256 KB for MDA and CGA, with EGA and VGA requiring another 256 KB. Separate serial and parallel ports were fitted on the expansion board due to limitations with the ports on existing Archimedes machines, but integration with those ports was also planned for subsequent versions of the product.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Watford Electronics, in association with "prolific ex-Computer Concepts hardware expert" Chris Honey, announced a PC podule in early 1992, this effectively delivering "a stand-alone PC" within the host computer and potentially allowing two independent users with their own keyboards and monitors, although the PC system would be accessible via a desktop window and have access to RISC OS hard drive partitions. This product was apparently never released, however, and its designers subsequently formed graphics expansion producer State Machine. In late 1992, Aleph One reduced the price of the 386-based card by £100, also upgrading the processor to a 25 MHz part, and introduced a card featuring a 25 MHz Cyrix 486SLC processor, with the new card retaining the maths co-processor option of the earlier product. The stated performance of this new card was approximately twice that of the 386-based card but only "40 percent of the performance of a standard 33 MHz 486DX PC clone". However, upgraded Windows drivers reportedly allowed even the 386-based card to exceed the graphical performance of such a 486-based clone, effectively employing the host Archimedes as a kind of "Windows accelerator". A subsequent review moderated such claims somewhat, indicating a Windows performance "not noticeably better than an average un-accelerated 386SX PC clone", although acceleration support was expected to improve, with device drivers for various direct drive laser printers also expected. The product was priced at £495 for the 1 MB version and £595 for the 4 MB version, with a future revision of the product anticipated that would support up to 16 MB of RAM.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: In 1993, Aleph One collaborated with Acorn to produce Acorn-branded versions of the PC cards for use with the A3020 and A4000 which used a distinct "mini-podule expansion system". The 25 MHz 386SX and 486SLC cards were offered in this profile to provide DOS and Windows compatibility, branded as the PC386 and PC486, priced at £275 and £499 respectively. In late 1993, the supplied software was upgraded and discounts to the products announced, bringing the respective prices down to £225 and £425. Acorn also offered bundles of the A4000 with a hard drive and each of the cards. Coincidentally at this time, with speculation building about future Acorn computer products, Acorn's product marketing manager had been reported as suggesting that such products "would have an empty Intel socket for customers to add PC Dos and Windows compatibility". Such remarks were clarified by Acorn's technical director, indicating that an Intel "second processor" was merely an option in an architecture supporting multiple processors. Ultimately, Acorn would release the Risc PC with dual processor capabilities and support for using a "low cost (£99 upwards) plug-in 486 PC processor or other CPUs" alongside an ARM processor.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Redesigned PC cards were released in 1994, introducing the option of a faster 50 MHz 486SLC2 processor for a reported doubling of the performance over the fastest existing cards. Up to 16 MB of SIMM-profile RAM could be fitted, and a local hard drive controller was added. The supplied software was also upgraded to support Windows in a resolution of at up to 16 colours, and optional network driver support was available to use the card as a Novell NetWare client and for Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Pricing remained similar to earlier models. Reported performance was better than the previous generation of cards but "still slow compared to all but the most basic of modern PCs, but certainly usable". The Windows User benchmarks rated the performance as similar to a fast 386SX-based system or a "standard" 386DX-based system, with the faster processor yielding a more favourable rating, but with the hard drive and graphics tests bringing the overall rating down. Use of a hard drive fitted directly to the card, using its own dedicated IDE interface, was reported as providing up to ten times the level of hard drive performance relative to using the system's own drive, but use of the SmartDrive caching software made any resulting performance difference marginal.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: A range of podules providing access to parallel processing capabilities using Inmos Transputer processors were announced by Gnome Computing in late 1989. Aside from a "Link Adaptor" podule for interfacing to external Transputer hardware, the "TRAM Motherboard" podule combined the Link Adaptor's interfacing logic with the hosting of up to four "TRAMs" (Transputer plus RAM modules), providing a complete development system based on the Archimedes. Also offered was a "Transputer Baseboard" podule featuring a T425 or T800 with up to 8 MB of RAM. A single podule with four TRAMs, each employing a T800 processor, was stated as giving 40 MIPS of performance, with a hypothetical 160 MIPS available on an Archimedes with four podule slots.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Digital signal processing capabilities were provided by the Burden Neuroscience 56001 DSP Card, originally developed by the Burden Neurological Institute as in-house hardware for use in conjunction with Archimedes systems but marketed by The Serial Port. This card was fitted as a single-width podule but, unusually, needed manual configuration instead of identifying itself to the host computer. The podule itself offered a 32 MHz Motorola 56001 digital signal processor together with 192 KB of RAM, two 16-bit analogue-to-digital converters, two 16-bit digital-to-analogue converters, and serial communications capabilities. A 25-pin connector provided the means to interface the board to other hardware. An assembler was provided, although this reportedly required Acorn's Desktop Development Environment to function, and software was also provided to interact with the board, view memory and register contents, and to visualise memory ranges in real time. Described as appropriate for "high speed analogue data acquisition or output" supporting real time signal processing, the product was considered "a useful 56001 development test bed", requiring a certain level of expertise, but was also considered good value at a price of £449 plus VAT.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: CD-ROM technology was introduced to the Archimedes range in 1990 with the launch of Next Technology's CD-ROM solution for the A3000 and earlier Archimedes models. Combining an SCSI interface and CD-ROM drive and supplied with a sample disc for a total price of £995, the solution provided a filing system so that standard CD-ROM media could be browsed and read like any other kind of disc. An application was also provided to play audio tracks on CD Audio and mixed-format discs through the drive's headphone socket. The drive itself used a caddy to hold the discs inserted into the drive. One limitation experienced on RISC OS was with the content on various CD-ROM titles, this often being designed for MS-DOS and featuring DOS-only software to offer search and database-related functionality. Next Technology aimed to remedy this situation by offering a service to let users create their own CD-ROMs at around £300 per disc, leading to the initial conclusion that schools and institutional users would benefit from the format much more than home users.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Two years on from the introduction of CD-ROM products, adoption of the technology was still at a "tentative state", with £8 million having been spent on equipment and an estimated 3,000 drives deployed in UK schools. Drive prices had fallen significantly, from around £1,000 to £300 and with a further decline to £200 anticipated. As a significant technology in the delivery of multimedia content, the focus had shifted from merely using CD-ROM as a cheap storage medium for large amounts of graphics and text to aspirations of providing "high-quality, full-screen graphics coupled with hi-fi stereo sound" on CD media, with the principal challenge identified as being able to deliver compressed video that either a computer or a drive could decompress without compromising video quality or introducing incompatibilities between different manufacturers' products.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Acorn's video solution for its own computers was the Replay system, introducing compression formats and associated software for playback and authoring. However, laserdisc technology, which had been used several years earlier by Acorn for interactive video applications, notably in the BBC Domesday Project, was still seen as being a "promising rival" to CD-based video formats, having finally "become successful in multimedia training" and by then "being aimed at well-heeled home video enthusiasts". Reservations about the read-only nature of CD-ROM discs was also seen as a "wounding flaw", leaving users to consider alternatives for convenient bulk storage, with magneto-optical drives emerging at this time. Nevertheless, CD-ROM adoption was seen as inevitable, particularly given the format's benefits for holding large amounts of text and making the searching of such text convenient, and with government initiatives having helped to make an estimated 100 titles available for both MS-DOS and RISC OS. The dual-function nature of the media and the ability to use drives to play audio also made such products generally attractive purchases, particularly for home users and with Photo CD also regarded as an attraction, although the introduction of Philips' CD-i and Commodore's CDTV risked a level of confusion in this market as well as presenting another challenge in terms of compatibility for Acorn's own products and technologies.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Acorn would go on to announce Photo CD support in its products in early 1993, with operating system and application enhancements being delivered by the end of that year. Although the video and memory capabilities of the Archimedes machines were generally unable to take advantage of the higher colour depths or the largest sizes of the scanned images on Photo CD media, the introduction of future hardware from Acorn, featuring the next generation of video controller from ARM and supporting 24-bit colour displays, was anticipated. Support for multi-session CD-ROMs entailed some upgrades to existing SCSI interfaces as well as the use of drives with the appropriate capabilities such as Acorn's own Multimedia Expansion Unit.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The Archimedes was launched with provision for an optional Econet module to be installed, this module being the same as that used by the Master series. Acorn introduced Ethernet connectivity with the launch of the company's R140 Unix workstation, also offering expansion cards for Archimedes models. In 1992, Atomwide also introduced Ethernet cards for the traditional Archimedes expansion bus and for the internal expansion slot in the A3000. Ethernet could be used as faster medium for existing Econet-style networking, or the TCP/IP protocol stack could be employed instead. Acorn sought to introduce Econet functionality on top of Internet protocols with its Acorn Universal Networking (AUN) suite of technologies.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Numerous vendors offered Ethernet expansion cards, such as Ant Limited (via Atomwide), Digital Services, i-cubed, Oak Solutions, and Risc Developments. Although compatible with AUN, some of the cards offered support for vendor-specific enhancements such as Oak Solutions' ClassNet and Digital Services' NetGain. Other networking approaches were available, including the sharing of hard drives using a SCSI bus, and emerging technologies such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode were deployed on the Acorn platform, notably in SJ Research's Nexus product.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: As a way of offering continuity with the BBC Micro and the user port, 1 MHz bus port and analogue port that were provided by the earlier range of machines, Acorn announced an I/O podule at the launch of the Archimedes, this being fitted with the 6522 VIA featured in the BBC range, with the possibility of upgrading the podule to provide a MIDI port. A ROM podule was also announced with the anticipation that users upgrading from the earlier machines would choose to fit their application and language ROMs in their new machine, these running under the 6502 emulator provided with the operating system.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: In early 1988, Computer Concepts announced its own ROM/RAM podule that was capable of accepting seven chips, each with a maximum capacity of 128 KB, supporting the use of installed RAM as "a RAM-disc filing system" with optional battery backup to retain the contents with the machine powered down. The company also announced the availability of its existing BBC Micro productivity suite for use with the board. Acorn also released its ROM and I/O podules in the first half of 1988. Other companies also offered I/O expansions, such as the Unilab I/O Box 3000 for the A3000 that provided three user ports, analogue port and 1 MHz bus port. HCCS and Morley Electronics supplied podules for the A3000 that provided user and analogue ports, with Morley's product also offering an I2C bus connector ostensibly for the use of subsequent peripherals from the company.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: A mid-1987 "Personal Computer World" preview of the Archimedes based on the "A500 Development System" expressed enthusiasm about the computer's performance, that it "felt like the fastest computer I have ever used, by a considerable margin", indicating that the system deserved success in the education market and might have more success than Acorn's earlier models in the business market, comparing favourably to the Mac II or IBM PS/2 80. Similar enthusiasm was reflected by the same writer in a "Byte" magazine preview of the A310 the following month. However, dissatisfaction with the availability of essential applications, such as the lack of a word processor specifically written for the system at its launch, and the incoherent user experience presented by early applications, highlighted perceived deficiencies with the product from the perspective of users and potential users.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Acorn had predicted sales of 20,000 Archimedes machines by the end of 1987 and 120,000 by the end of 1988. However, by mid-1988 only 14,000 units had reportedly been sold. One commentator attributed such disappointing sales to the lack of software support for the system, noting that Acorn had not invested sufficiently in software availability and that few established companies in the Acorn market were delivering native applications. Acorn's strategy of commissioning applications available for other platforms, such as First Word Plus and Logistix, was regarded as "hardly innovative" and that the platform needed "a massive injection of native, innovative software", perhaps by a revitalised Acornsoft.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: With the imminent arrival of RISC OS for the Archimedes, later coverage around the start of 1989 praised the desktop and supplied applications, noting that "RISC OS is everything the Archimedes' original Desktop should have been but wasn't", and looked forward to future applications from Acorn and third parties, only lamenting that it was "a shame that this impressive environment was not in place at the Archimedes' launch, but it's still not too late for it to turn some heads". The introduction of the A3000, launched with RISC OS fitted, delivered better than expected sales for Acorn, with an estimated total of 50,000 Archimedes and A3000 systems having been sold by the end of 1989.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: By early 1991, 100,000 Archimedes machines had been sold, with the A3000 being the largest selling computer in UK schools, with Acorn's Archimedes and Master 128 accounting for 53% of sales in an eight-month period during 1990, and with the 32-bit machines "outselling the Master 128 by a factor of two to one". By mid-1992, a reported 180,000 Archimedes machines had been sold, again due to strong A3000 sales. By 1994 and the launch of the Risc PC, over 300,000 Archimedes machines had been sold, and the A3000 had become the fourth best selling computer in the United Kingdom. By the launch of the StrongARM J233 variant of the Risc PC in 1997, over 600,000 Archimedes, A-series and Risc PC systems had been sold.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The Archimedes was distributed to varying degrees outside the UK. Enquiries about the Archimedes range were reportedly handled for the US and Canada via Olivetti Canada, with distribution and servicing in Canada being undertaken by Comspec in association with Olivetti Canada. In Italy, the Archimedes was promoted and distributed by G. Ricordi & C., by then a division of Olivetti, previously appointed as Acorn's exclusive distributor in the country.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Acorn's original claims for the Archimedes noted a performance of 4 million instructions per second (MIPS), these reportedly being equivalent to DEC VAX 11/750 instructions. With the VAX 11/750 rated at , Acorn's claimed translates crudely to around . However, the initial Archimedes 310 model achieved a Dhrystone score of 4901 (), delivering competitive performance against more expensive contemporary personal computers such as the Compaq Deskpro 386 (priced from $6,499 including 40 MB hard drive), with the Compaq achieving a score of 3748 (). (A VAX 11/780 running VMS 4.2 produced the baseline Dhrystone score of 1757 corresponding to , this also being used to calculate MIPS ratings for Dhrystone 2 benchmark results.)


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: This level of performance made the Archimedes one of the most powerful home computers available during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with its CPU outperforming the Motorola 68000 found in both the cheaper Amiga 500 and Atari ST machines as well as the more expensive Macintosh and Amiga 2000. Although an 68000 has a performance rating of around , the 68000-based Amiga 1000 reportedly achieved around when benchmarked as a system. In comparison, systems based on the ARM2, such as the BBC A3000, produced Dhrystone benchmark scores ranging from 4728 () up to 5972 (), depending on the operating system version and display configuration.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Performance improvements would be delivered over time for the Archimedes and its competitors. For example, the Compaq Deskpro 386/16 model was replaced in 1988 with a 386/20 model offering somewhat improved CPU performance (around ) and in 1989 by a 386/33 model improving CPU performance still further (to around ). Upgraded Amiga models also offered steadily improving performance, with the Amiga 2500/20 appearing in 1988 and the Amiga 2500/30 appearing in 1989, these delivering approximately and respectively, with an Amiga 2000 upgraded to a 68030 processor achieving a performance rating of around .


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The increasing performance deficit relative to the x86 architecture was somewhat reduced with the introduction of the ARM3 in 1990: an Archimedes system such as the A410/1 upgraded to use a ARM3 could achieve a Dhrystone score of 18367 (), with the ARM3-based A5000 achieving a reported , rising to in its variant. ARM3 upgrades were initially rather expensive but decreased significantly in price and were available for all ARM2 systems, even the relatively inexpensive A3000. Thus, Acorn's ARM3-based machines, generally priced for business or institutional users, remained broadly competitive. Acorn's low-end A3010, fitted with an ARM250 processor, was capable of delivering Dhrystone scores from 5500 () up to 8871 (), remaining competitive with upgraded Amiga models such as the Amiga 2500.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: With development of ARM technologies having been transferred to ARM Limited as a separate company, the performance advantages of Acorn's ARM-based computers, maintained by the transition from the ARM2 to ARM3, eroded somewhat in the early 1990s relative to competitors using processors from established vendors such as Intel and Motorola, as new ARM processors gradually arrived offering more modest performance gains over their predecessors. With ARM Limited focusing on embedded applications, it was noted that "the large performance lead Arm2 and Arm3 once enjoyed" over contemporary Intel processors was over, at least for the time being.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The introduction of the 68040, and particularly the introduction of the 80486 with its subsequent evolution, put ARM3-based Archimedes models at an increasing performance disadvantage. An Amiga 4000 with 68040 CPU (or a suitably upgraded Amiga 2000 and 3000) could achieve a reported , whereas Compaq Deskpro 486/25 and 486/33 models achieved a reported and with 25 MHz and 33 MHz 80486 CPUs respectively, with the introduction of 486DX2 CPUs at 50 MHz and 66 MHz during 1992 raising this to as much as around . Against such performance ratings only Acorn's Risc PC 600 ( to ) fitted with an ARM610 CPU would be able to respond. However, by the time of its introduction in 1994, two years after the reported incorporation of the ARM610 in the Apple Newton, such performance had already been surpassed by Pentium-based models such as the Compaq Deskpro 5/66M Model 510 delivering .


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Although the Archimedes, emulating floating-point arithmetic instructions in software, achieved Whetstone benchmark results comparable to Acorn's earlier Cambridge Co-Processor product based on the 6 MHz NS32016 CPU with NS32081 floating-point unit, the floating-point arithmetic performance of the Archimedes was rather less impressive in comparison to contemporary systems equipped with hardware floating-point support, reaching a performance level "within a factor of two or less" of IBM PC/AT systems equipped with a 80286 CPU and 80287 floating-point co-processor. Already, in 1988, a 20 MHz Compaq system with a 80386 CPU and 80387 co-processor would achieve around or around 20 times the performance of the ARM2 emulating floating-point instructions. Acorn's WE32206-based Floating Point Unit (FPU), available for the A400 series and R140, was expected to deliver ten-fold performance benefits, and was eventually claimed to offer eight-fold speed-ups. This left FPU-equipped systems delivering around half the performance of accelerated 386-based systems.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The claimed performance of Acorn's Floating Point Accelerator (FPA10), available for ARM3-based Archimedes systems, was originally 5 MFLOPS, subsequently revised to "around 4 MFLOPS", and may ostensibly have been broadly competitive with the MIPS R3010 (as claimed by ARM) in some systems under benchmark testing, with an A5000 fitted with FPA10 reportedly achieving around 4.3 MFLOPS, compared to various R3000/R3010-based systems achieving between 5.4 and 9.7 MFLOPS. However, unlike the R3010, announced in 1988 with claimed performance ratings of 4 MFLOPS for double-precision arithmetic and 7 MFLOPS for single-precision arithmetic, and available in workstation products the same year, the FPA10 was eventually delivered in 1993, by which time numerous subsequent MIPS products had been delivered with steadily increasing performance, diminishing the relevance of comparisons with the R3010. For example, the MIPS R4400, available from 1992, achieved around when benchmarked in systems. In contrast with the declining competitive situation of the ARM3, the ARM3 and FPA10 combination did appear to rather more competitive with the 486DX2 systems introduced in late 1992, these rated at around , but a year later these would be eclipsed by the performance of Pentium-based systems starting at .


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The range won significant market share in the education markets of the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Acorn's considerable presence in primary and secondary education had been established through the Archimedes' predecessors – the BBC Micro and BBC Master – with the Archimedes supplementing these earlier models to see Acorn's products collectively representing over half of the installed computers in secondary schools at the start of the 1990s.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: In 1992, the Tesco supermarket chain initiated its "Computers for Schools" scheme in association with Acorn, offering vouchers for every £25 spent in Tesco stores that were redeemable against software and hardware products including complete computer systems, with this promotional campaign taking place over a six-week period. Over 15,000 schools registered to participate in the scheme and over 22 million vouchers were issued during the campaign period, placing the estimated value of the distributed products at over , although the actual value of distributed products was later reported as . Tesco and Acorn repeated the scheme in 1993 on the basis of the response to the previous year's campaign, distributing software and hardware at an estimated value of to over 11,000 schools including 7,000 computers, and even introducing Acorn computers to some schools for the first time.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Despite the benefit to Acorn of expanding its customer base, dissatisfaction was expressed by dealers and software companies about the effects of the scheme, with anecdotes emerging of a reluctance to buy equipment that could be obtained for free, thus harming dealer revenues, although Acorn's education marketing manager argued that the scheme's effect was generally positive and actually produced sales opportunities for dealers. The inclusion of software products in the scheme was regarded by one commentator as harmful to both the companies whose products were featured, these "not making enough profit from the transaction", and to those whose products were not, these seeing potential customers choose their competitors' "free" products. Noting that the scheme was "not purely philanthropic", concern was expressed about the effect on the Acorn market and that schools were needing to "resort to charities and publicity stunts to get the basic tools to do the job". In response to such criticism, independent software titles were dropped from the scheme in 1994, which ultimately distributed products to over 10,000 schools including 4,000 computers, with a total of 15,000 computers having been given away over the first three years of the scheme.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: With Tesco having expanded its presence in Scotland through acquisitions, the Tesco scheme was extended to Scotland for the first time in 1995. Alongside updates to the featured product selection, the possibility was introduced of saving unredeemed vouchers for redemption in the 1996 campaign. By the end of the 1996 campaign, worth of products had been distributed, with the scheme having distributed products worth a total of , including 26,000 Acorn computers in its first five years.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: By the mid to late 1990s, the UK educational market began to turn away from Acorn's products towards IBM PC compatibles, with Acorn and Apple establishing a joint venture, Xemplar, to market these companies' products in the education sector as part of a strategy to uphold their market share. Through Xemplar's involvement in the Computers for Schools scheme, Apple products were featured for the first time in the 1996 campaign. Xemplar's involvement continued in subsequent years, introducing information technology training for teachers in 1998, and seeking to offer Acorn products in the 1999 campaign despite the turmoil around Acorn as the company sought to move away from the desktop computing market, subsequently selling its stake in Xemplar to Apple. In 2000, Tesco changed its partner in the Computers for Schools scheme from Xemplar to RM plc.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Acorn conducted other promotional initiatives towards the education sector. The Acorn Advantage programme, launched in September 1994, offered a loyalty scheme whereby points were accrued through purchases and redeemed for "curriculum resources" that included non-computing items such as musical and scientific instruments as well as computer hardware. Several commercial partners were involved in the scheme such as Fina, which awarded vouchers with petrol purchases that could be exchanged for points, and the Midland Bank which would donate points to schools joining its Midbank school-based banking system. An Acorn-branded Visa credit card would also generate Advantage points for nominated schools.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The Archimedes was used by music composers and scorewriters to run the Sibelius scorewriting software.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: Between 1994 and 2004 the Archimedes and Risc PC models were used for teleprompters at television studios. The hardware was easy to adapt for TV broadcast use and cheaper than other hardware available at the time. Archimedes models saw use in other commercial broadcasting applications including scheduling and CD jukebox control for the Asda supermarket chain's in-store satellite broadcast radio channel.


title: Acorn Archimedes

text: The performance and adaptability of the Archimedes range led these machines to be used in various entertainment venue applications and solutions. Tecnation's Bitbopper utilised video digitisers, genlock and MIDI cards in Archimedes 440 computers, integrating audio and video inputs under the control of a "light jockey" and producing audiovisual output via venue entertainment system installations, utilising projectors, displays and other effects equipment. Laser Grafx's Prisma system employed Archimedes 440 and A5000 machines to control laser effects installations at music concerts and nightclubs. A range of Archimedes and Risc PC models were used to control various aspects of the Quasar laser tag gaming experience, being introduced in an upgrade to the systems known as Chromaburst, itself subsequently being replaced by a more conservative solution using PC compatibles.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) is a class of anticoagulant medications. They are used in the prevention of blood clots and treatment of venous thromboembolism (deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism) and in the treatment of myocardial infarction.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Heparin is a naturally occurring polysaccharide that inhibits coagulation, the process that leads to thrombosis. Natural heparin consists of molecular chains of varying lengths, or molecular weights. Chains of varying molecular weights, from 5000 to over 40,000 Daltons, make up polydisperse pharmaceutical-grade heparin. LMWHs, in contrast, consist of only short chains of polysaccharide. LMWHs are defined as heparin salts having an average molecular weight of less than 8000 Da and for which at least 60% of all chains have a molecular weight less than 8000 Da. These are obtained by various methods of fractionation or depolymerisation of polymeric heparin.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Heparin derived from natural sources, mainly porcine intestine or bovine lung, can be administered therapeutically to prevent thrombosis. However, the effects of natural, or unfractionated heparin are more unpredictable than LMWH.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Because it can be given subcutaneously and does not require APTT monitoring, LMWH permits outpatient treatment of conditions such as deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism that previously mandated inpatient hospitalization for unfractionated heparin administration.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Because LMWH has more predictable pharmacokinetics and anticoagulant effect, LMWH is recommended over unfractionated heparin for patients with massive pulmonary embolism, and for initial treatment of deep vein thrombosis. As compared to placebo or no intervention, prophylactic treatment of hospitalized medical patients using LMWH and similar anticoagulants reduces the risk of venous thromboembolism, notably pulmonary embolism.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: More recently these agents have been evaluated as anticoagulants in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) managed by percutaneous intervention (PCI).


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: The use of LMWH needs to be monitored closely in patients at extremes of weight or in patients with renal dysfunction. An anti-factor Xa activity may be useful for monitoring anticoagulation. Given its renal clearance, LMWH may not be feasible in patients that have end-stage renal disease. LMWH can also be used to maintain the patency of cannulae and shunts in dialysis patients.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Patients with cancer are at higher risk of venous thromboembolism and LMWHs are used to reduce this risk. The CLOT study, published in 2003, showed that, in patients with malignancy and acute venous thromboembolism, dalteparin was more effective than warfarin in reducing the risk of recurrent embolic events. Use of LMWH in cancer patients for at least the first 3 to 6 months of long-term treatment is recommended in numerous guidelines and is now regarded as a standard of care.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: The use of LMWHs should be avoided in patients with known allergies to LMWHs, heparin, sulfites or benzyl alcohol, in patients with active major bleeding, or patients with a history of heparin-induced low blood platelet count (also known as heparin-induced thrombocytopenia or HIT). High treatment doses are contraindicated in acute bleedings such as cerebral or gastrointestinal haemorrhage.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: LMWHs are more dependent on renal function for their excretion than unfractionated heparin so their biological half-life may be prolonged in patients with kidney failure and therefore their use in the setting of creatinine clearance rate (CrCl) <30 mL/min may need to be avoided. Apart from using unfractionated heparin instead, it may be possible to reduce the dose and/or monitor the anti-Xa activity to guide treatment.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: The most common side-effects include bleeding, which could be severe or even fatal, allergic reactions, injection site reactions, and increases in liver enzyme tests, usually without symptoms. The use of heparin and LMWHs can sometimes be complicated by a decrease in platelet count, a complication known as Heparin Induced Thrombocytopenia.13 Two forms have been described: a clinically benign, non-immune and reversible form (Type I) and a rare, more serious immune-mediated form or Type II. HIT Type II is caused by the formation of auto antibodies that recognize complexes between heparin and platelet factor 4 (PF4) and is therefore associated with a substantial risk of thrombotic complications. The incidence is difficult to estimate but may reach up to 5% of patients treated with UFH or about 1% with LMWH.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: In clinical situations in which the antithrombotic effect of LMWHs needs to be neutralized, protamine is used to neutralize heparin by binding to it. Studies in animals and in vitro studies have demonstrated that protamine neutralizes the antithrombin activity of LMWHs, normalizing the aPTT and thrombin time. However, protamine appears to only partially neutralize the anti-factor Xa activity of LMWH. Because the molecular weight of heparin impacts its interaction with protamine, it is likely that the lack of complete neutralization of anti-factor Xa is due to a reduced protamine binding to the LMWHs moieties in the preparation. Protamine is a medicine that requires a high level of caution when used.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: LMWH trials usually excluded individuals with unpredictable pharmacokinetics, and as a result patients with risks such as the severely obese or in advanced stages of kidney failure show decreased benefits due to fractionated heparin's increased half-life. LMWHs should be used with extreme caution in patients undergoing any procedure involving spinal anaesthesia/puncture, in conditions with increased risk of bleeding or in patients with a history of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Coagulation cascade is a normal physiological process which aims at preventing significant blood loss or hemorrhage following vascular injury. Unfortunately, there are times when a blood clot (thrombus) will form when it is not needed. For instance, some high risk conditions such as prolonged immobilization, surgery, or cancer can increase the risk of developing a blood clot which can potentially lead to significant consequences.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: The coagulation cascade consists of a series of steps in which a protease cleaves and subsequently activates the next protease in the sequence. Since each protease can activate several molecules of the next protease in the series, this biological cascade is amplified. The result of these reactions is to convert fibrinogen, a soluble protein, to insoluble threads of fibrin. Together with platelets, the fibrin threads form a stable blood clot.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Antithrombin (AT), a serine protease inhibitor, is the major plasma inhibitor of coagulation proteases. LMWHs inhibit the coagulation process through binding to AT via a pentasaccharide sequence. This binding leads to a conformational change of AT which increases the rate at which it inhibits activated factor X (factor Xa). Once dissociated, the LMWH is free to bind to another antithrombin molecule and subsequently inhibit more activated factor X. Unlike AT activated by heparin, AT activated by LMWH cannot inhibit thrombin (factor IIa), but can only inhibit clotting factor Xa.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: The effects of LMWHs cannot be acceptably measured using the partial thromboplastin time (PTT) or activated clotting time (ACT) tests. Rather, LMWH therapy is monitored by the "anti-factor Xa" assay, measuring "anti-factor Xa activity" rather than a clotting time. The methodology of an anti-factor Xa assay is that patient plasma is added to a known amount of excess recombinant factor X and excess antithrombin. If heparin or LMWH is present in the patient plasma, it will bind to antithrombin and form a complex with factor X, inhibiting it from becoming factor Xa. The amount of residual factor Xa is inversely proportional to the amount of


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: heparin/LMWH in the plasma. The amount of residual factor Xa is detected by adding a chromogenic substrate that mimics the natural substrate of factor Xa, making residual factor Xa cleave it, releasing a colored compound that can be detected by a spectrophotometer. Antithrombin deficiencies in the patient do not affect the assay, because excess amounts of antithrombin is provided in the reaction. Results are given in units/mL of antifactor Xa, such that high values indicate high levels of anticoagulation and low values indicate low levels of anticoagulation in the plasma sample.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: LMWHs have a potency of greater than 70 units/mg of anti-factor Xa activity and a ratio of anti-factor Xa activity to anti-thrombin activity of >1.5. (see table 1)


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Table 1 Molecular weight (MW) data and anticoagulant activities of currently available LMWH products. "Adapted from Gray E et al. 2008".


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Various methods of heparin depolymerisation are used in the manufacture of low-molecular-weight heparin. These are listed below:


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Deaminative cleavage with nitrous acid results in the formation of an unnatural anhydromannose residue at the reducing terminal of the oligosaccharides produced. This can subsequently be converted to anhydromannitol using a suitable reducing agent as shown in figure 1.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Likewise both chemical and enzymatic beta-elimination result in the formation of an unnatural unsaturated uronate residue(UA) at the non-reducing terminal, as shown in figure 2.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: In addition, low molecular weight heparins can also be chemoenzymatically synthesized from simple disaccharides.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Comparisons between LMWHs prepared by similar processes vary. For example, a comparison of Dalteparin and Nadroparin suggests they are more similar than products produced by different processes. However, comparison of enoxaparin and tinzaparin shows they are very different from each other with respect to chemical, physical, and biological properties.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: As might be expected, products prepared by distinctly different processes are dissimilar in physical, chemical, and biological properties. Hence a slight change in the depolymerisation process could result in substantial variation of the structure or composition of a given LMWH.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Therefore, for every LMWH, a strictly defined depolymerisation procedure is needed to guarantee the sameness of the final LMWH product and the predictability of clinical outcomes. LMWHs, as biological origin products, rely on stringent manufacturing procedures to guarantee the absence of biological or chemical contamination. It is therefore critical to adopt stringent manufacturing practices, through rigorous quality assurance steps, to ensure the highest quality of the produced LMWHs and to guarantee patient safety. These quality assurance steps, to be effective, need to be implemented from the raw material (crude heparin) collection to the final LMWH product.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: Due to these identified and potential differences, several organizations, including the United States Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, and the World Health Organization, regard LMWHs as individual products that should not be considered as clinically equivalent, as they differ in many crucial aspects such as molecular, structural, physiochemical, and biological properties. According to international guidelines, the choice of an individual LMWH should be based on its proven clinical safety and efficacy for each indication. Therefore, switching from LMWH to another LMWH during treatment is not recommended during clinical practice.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: When the commercial patent of a LMWH expires, a generic or biosimilar LMWH can then be marketed. The first 'generic' LMWH was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in July 2010. The FDA has used 5 analytical and pharmacological criteria to establish the authenticity of a generic LMWH, without requiring clinical studies in patients.


title: Low-molecular-weight heparin

text: From a regulatory viewpoint, the FDA considers LMWHs (as well as insulin, glucagon and somatropin) as "generic" drugs, even though they may be sourced from biological material. The European Medicines Agency considers LMWHs as biologicals so their regulatory approval - as biosimilars - is approached differently compared to the FDA.


title: Root locus

text: In control theory and stability theory, root locus analysis is a graphical method for examining how the roots of a system change with variation of a certain system parameter, commonly a gain within a feedback system. This is a technique used as a stability criterion in the field of classical control theory developed by Walter R. Evans which can determine stability of the system. The root locus plots the poles of the closed loop transfer function in the complex "s"-plane as a function of a gain parameter (see pole–zero plot).


title: Root locus

text: In addition to determining the stability of the system, the root locus can be used to design the damping ratio ("ζ") and natural frequency ("ω") of a feedback system. Lines of constant damping ratio can be drawn radially from the origin and lines of constant natural frequency can be drawn as arccosine whose center points coincide with the origin. By selecting a point along the root locus that coincides with a desired damping ratio and natural frequency, a gain "K" can be calculated and implemented in the controller. More elaborate techniques of controller design using the root locus are available in most control textbooks: for instance, lag, lead, PI, PD and PID controllers can be designed approximately with this technique.


title: Root locus

text: The definition of the damping ratio and natural frequency presumes that the overall feedback system is well approximated by a second order system; i.e. the system has a dominant pair of poles. This is often not the case, so it is good practice to simulate the final design to check if the project goals are satisfied.


title: Root locus

text: The root locus of a feedback system is the graphical representation in the complex "s"-plane of the possible locations of its closed-loop poles for varying values of a certain system parameter. The points that are part of the root locus satisfy the angle condition. The value of the parameter for a certain point of the root locus can be obtained using the magnitude condition.


title: Root locus

text: Suppose there is a feedback system with input signal formula_1 and output signal formula_2. The forward path transfer function is formula_3; the feedback path transfer function is formula_4.


title: Root locus

text: Thus, the closed-loop poles of the closed-loop transfer function are the roots of the characteristic equation formula_6. The roots of this equation may be found wherever formula_7.


title: Root locus

text: In systems without pure delay, the product formula_8 is a rational polynomial function and may be expressed as


title: Root locus

text: where formula_10 are the formula_11 zeros, formula_12 are the formula_13 poles, and formula_14 is a scalar gain. Typically, a root locus diagram will indicate the transfer function's pole locations for varying values of the parameter formula_14. A root locus plot will be all those points in the "s"-plane where formula_7 for any value of formula_14.


title: Root locus

text: The factoring of formula_14 and the use of simple monomials means the evaluation of the rational polynomial can be done with vector techniques that add or subtract angles and multiply or divide magnitudes. The vector formulation arises from the fact that each monomial term formula_19 in the factored formula_8 represents the vector from formula_21 to formula_22 in the s-plane. The polynomial can be evaluated by considering the magnitudes and angles of each of these vectors.


title: Root locus

text: According to vector mathematics, the angle of the result of the rational polynomial is the sum of all the angles in the numerator minus the sum of all the angles in the denominator. So to test whether a point in the "s"-plane is on the root locus, only the angles to all the open loop poles and zeros need be considered. This is known as the angle condition.


title: Root locus

text: Similarly, the magnitude of the result of the rational polynomial is the product of all the magnitudes in the numerator divided by the product of all the magnitudes in the denominator. It turns out that the calculation of the magnitude is not needed to determine if a point in the s-plane is part of the root locus because formula_14 varies and can take an arbitrary real value. For each point of the root locus a value of formula_14 can be calculated. This is known as the magnitude condition.


title: Root locus

text: The root locus only gives the location of closed loop poles as the gain formula_14 is varied. The value of formula_14 does not affect the location of the zeros. The open-loop zeros are the same as the closed-loop zeros.


title: Root locus

text: that is, the sum of the angles from the open-loop zeros to the point formula_22 (measured per zero w.r.t. a horizontal running through that zero) minus the angles from the open-loop poles to the point formula_22 (measured per pole w.r.t. a horizontal running through that pole) has to be equal to formula_32, or 180 degrees. Note that these interpretations should not be mistaken for the angle differences between the point formula_22 and the zeros/poles.


title: Root locus

text: A value of formula_14 satisfies the magnitude condition for a given formula_22 point of the root locus if


title: Root locus

text: Using a few basic rules, the root locus method can plot the overall shape of the path (locus) traversed by the roots as the value of formula_14 varies. The plot of the root locus then gives an idea of the stability and dynamics of this feedback system for different values of formula_14. The rules are the following:


title: Root locus

text: The asymptotes intersect the real axis at formula_41 (which is called the centroid) and depart at angle formula_42 given by:


title: Root locus

text: where formula_45 is the sum of all the locations of the poles, formula_46 is the sum of all the locations of the explicit zeros and formula_47 denotes that we are only interested in the real part.


title: Root locus

text: Once you solve for "z", the real roots give you the breakaway/reentry points. Complex roots correspond to a lack of breakaway/reentry.


title: Root locus

text: The following MATLAB code will plot the root locus of the closed-loop transfer function as formula_14 varies using the described manual method as well as the codice_1 built-in function:


title: Root locus

text: The root locus method can also be used for the analysis of sampled data systems by computing the root locus in the "z"-plane, the discrete counterpart of the "s"-plane. The equation maps continuous "s"-plane poles (not zeros) into the "z"-domain, where is the sampling period. The stable, left half "s"-plane maps into the interior of the unit circle of the "z"-plane, with the "s"-plane origin equating to "|z|" = 1 (because "e" = 1). A diagonal line of constant damping in the "s"-plane maps around a spiral from (1,0) in the "z" plane as it curves in toward the origin. The Nyquist aliasing criteria is expressed graphically in the "z"-plane by the "x"-axis, where . The line of constant damping just described spirals in indefinitely but in sampled data systems, frequency content is aliased down to lower frequencies by integral multiples of the Nyquist frequency. That is, the sampled response appears as a lower frequency and better damped as well since the root in the "z"-plane maps equally well to the first loop of a different, better damped spiral curve of constant damping. Many other interesting and relevant mapping properties can be described, not least that "z"-plane controllers, having the property that they may be directly implemented from the "z"-plane transfer function (zero/pole ratio of polynomials), can be imagined graphically on a "z"-plane plot of the open loop transfer function, and immediately analyzed utilizing root locus.


title: Root locus

text: The idea of a root locus can be applied to many systems where a single parameter is varied. For example, it is useful to sweep any system parameter for which the exact value is uncertain in order to determine its behavior.


title: Julio Cesar Cedillo

text: Julio César Cedillo is a Mexican-American actor, best known for the title role in the 2005 film "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada".


title: Julio Cesar Cedillo

text: Cedillo was born in Durango, Mexico in 1970, but grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1988, he graduated from Dunbar High School.


title: Julio Cesar Cedillo

text: Cedillo appeared in several television productions in the 1990s, including "Wishbone" as Travis Del Rio, Oakdale's Sports and Games store owner. He made his film debut in 2000 in "All the Pretty Horses". Other films include "The Rookie", "Serving Sara", "The Life of David Gale", "The Alamo", "Cowboys & Aliens" and "Sicario".


title: John Putch

text: John Putch (born July 27, 1961) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his recurring role as Bob Morton on the 1970s sitcom "One Day at a Time" and as Sean Brody in the film "Jaws 3-D".


title: John Putch

text: Putch was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He began his career as an actor at the age of five in summer theater company, The Totem Pole Playhouse, run by his father William H. Putch (1924–1983). He is the son of actress Jean Stapleton (1923–2013).


title: John Putch

text: After guest starring on his mother's series "All in the Family" (playing a Boy Scout in 1973 episode "Archie Is Branded"), he was remembered by producer Norman Lear who cast him in a recurring role as Bob Morton on the sitcom "One Day at a Time", appearing in 14 episodes from 1976–1983. Putch's next notable role was in the film "Jaws 3-D" (1983) co-starring as Sean Brody the son of Roy Scheider's character, Martin Brody, and his other film credits include appearances in "The Sure Thing" (1985), "Welcome to 18" (1986), "Men at Work" (1990), "Skeeter" (1993), and the horror film "Curfew" (1989), opposite Kyle Richards.


title: John Putch

text: For much of the 1980s into the 1990s he guest starred in a number of notable television series namely, "Family Ties", "The Fall Guy", "The Love Boat", "Hill Street Blues", "Newhart", "", "21 Jump Street", "Seinfeld", "Home Improvement", "Wings" as well as a starring role in the sitcom "Room for Two" and a major role in "The Wave" (1981).


title: John Putch

text: In 1985, Putch made his directorial debut with the short film "Waiting to Act" starring Ed Begley, Jr., Helen Hunt and Lance Guest. He began focusing more on directing in the mid-1990s, directing independent films and episodic television. His television directing credits include "Big Bad Beetleborgs", "Son of the Beach", "Grounded for Life", "Scrubs", "Ugly Betty", "My Name Is Earl", "Tycus", "Rush Hour", "APB", "Cougar Town", and "American Housewife". Some of Putch's film directing credits include "Bachelor Man" starring David DeLuise, "The Poseidon Adventure", "", "Murder 101: College Can Be Murder" starring Dick Van Dyke and "Mojave Phone Booth" starring Annabeth Gish and Steve Guttenberg, which won numerous independent film awards.


title: John Putch

text: In 2007 Putch began making a trilogy of comedies surrounding US Route 30 in his home state of Pennsylvania. "Route 30", "Route 30, Too!" and "Route 30, Three!" respectively take place in south central Pennsylvania in Franklin and Adams counties.


title: Emami

text: Emami Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Kolkata, India. This group trades with their tag name Himani. The company has seven manufacturing units across India and one overseas unit. The Company caters to a number of niche categories in the personal care and healthcare segments.


title: Emami

text: The company's products are sold across 60+ nations and are available in 4.5 million retail outlets across India. Their most famous product is an antiseptic cream named Boro Plus which is widely used worldwide. The skin care deperment of company generated an overall revenue of 2,655 crores in the financial year 2019–20 with an annual profit of 639 crores. The total group revenue of the company stands at ₹20,000 crores.


title: Emami

text: The inception of Emami Group took place way back in mid-seventies, in West Bengal, when two childhood friends, Mr. R.S. Agarwal and Mr. R.S. Goenka left their high-profile corporate jobs with the Birla Group to set up Kemco Chemicals, a cosmetic manufacturing unit in Kolkata, in 1974. Emami believes in the philosophy "Making people healthy and beautiful naturally". The company reported significant growth in modern trade and e-commerce revenues during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also re-launched Navratna Cool Talc and Zandu Pancharishta with improved formulation, packaging and communication. Emami Ltd. has also forayed into the hand sanitizer category as the demand for hand sanitizers has shot up in the last few weeks due to the coronavirus crisis.


title: Emami

text: The company's power Brands include Navratna, BoroPlus, Zandu, Mentho Plus, Kesh King, Fair and Handsome. The company is well known in India for its fairness cream products for men.


title: Emami

text: In 2008, Emami acquired Zandu Pharmaceutical for ₹730 crores. The company merged Zandu FMCG into Emami and raised 310 crores through QIP. The company became debt free within 2 years of the Zandu deal. The company's health products unit offers tonics for colds and coughs as well as nutraceuticals.


title: Emami

text: It forayed into men's deodorant market by launching HE brand of deodorants. Hrithik Roshan was appointed as brand ambassador for HE brand. The company acquired Splash Corporation for 200 crore. A German personal care brand Creme 21 has been acquired by Emami for 100 crores in Feb 2019. In March 2022, Emami acquired the "Dermicool" brand from the UK-headquartered company, Reckitt for Rs 4.32 billion (£43 million).


title: Emami

text: In 2007, the company attracted controversy with an advertisement for its skin whitening cream for men, Fair and Handsome. Emami and the star of the campaign, Shahrukh Khan, were accused of perpetuating racism.


title: Emami

text: In July 2013, WOW a Chennai-based NGO launched a campaign against Emami asking them to remove the Fair and Handsome advertisement starring Khan, saying that it is discriminating against people on the basis of skin color. The campaign has been supported by celebrities like Nandita Das Tannishta Chatterjee. More than 22,000 people have signed an online petition launched by them.


title: Emami

text: In the early morning of 9 December 2011, an AMRI Hospital in south Kolkata's Dhakuria district erupted in fire, leading to the deaths of 92 people – mostly critically ill patients, many of them suffocating in their sleep. The following day, the license for the hospital was canceled, and the Chief Minister of West Bengal ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident. Allegedly, the fire was triggered by flammable chemicals that were stored at the site. Rescue efforts were hampered by the narrowness and congestion of the road leading to the hospital, and the allegations that all of the windows and doors were locked and that the fire alarms and sprinklers installed at the hospital did not work during the fire.


title: Emami

text: Seven members of the hospital's board were arrested the same day, and were remanded to police custody until 20 December by the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Alipore. Among the seven arrested were Agarwal and Goenka, founders of Emami and directors of the hospital chain, who were charged with negligently causing the deaths. Ultimately a total of 16 people stood accused in the courts in July 2016, including the board members and several directors of the hospital. Amongst the charges were culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304 of the Indian Penal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment in cases where the criminal actions are undertaken knowingly but without the intention to cause death. Additional charges were laid under Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and Section 38 (effect caused partly by act and partly by omission).


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: The Alaskan Independence Party (AKIP) is an Alaskan nationalist political party that advocates an in-state referendum which would include the option of Alaska becoming an independent country. The party also advocates positions similar to those of the Constitution Party, Republican Party and Libertarian Party, supporting gun rights, privatization, home schooling, and limited government. Wally Hickel was elected Governor of Alaska in 1990 on the Independence Party ticket, making it one of the few third parties to have controlled a governor's seat; however, Hickel transferred to the Republican Party before the 1994 election.


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: The Alaskan Independence Party was founded with the goal of obtaining for Alaskans the right to vote on statehood. Referring to Alaska's 1959 admission to the union, the AKIP charter states: "The Alaskan Independence Party's goal is the vote we were entitled to in 1958, one choice from among the following four choices:


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: The call for this vote is in furtherance of the dream of the Alaskan Independence Party's founding father, Joe Vogler, which was for Alaskans to achieve independence under a minimal government, fully responsive to the people, promoting a peaceful and lawful means of resolving differences."


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: Since its founding, the AKIP has radically changed with respect to the issue of secession. At present, it does not support secession though, at its founding, it did. In 1973 Vogler began arguing about the validity of the Alaskan statehood vote. Early in that year, he began circulating a petition seeking support for secession of Alaska from the United States. "Alaska" magazine published a piece at that time in which Vogler claimed to have gathered 25,000 signatures in three weeks.


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: Vogler has been quoted as stating "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions."


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: In early 1973, Vogler founded Alaskans For Independence, originally to label the petition drive. The organization took on a life of its own in the following years, and actively pursued secession for Alaska from the United States. Vogler also founded the Alaskan Independence Party at around the same time. During its first decade of existence, the Party was used exclusively by Vogler for his first two campaigns for governor and campaign for lieutenant governor (with Don Wright as his running mate). Largely in response to the lawsuit "Vogler v. Miller", the State of Alaska enacted emergency regulations, effective June 14, 1984, which gave official recognition to the party in Alaska. The party has maintained its recognized status since, first by maintaining thresholds in gubernatorial elections, then through same with voter registration. The AKIP, while a home to many secession-minded people, has from the start sought to explore whether the 1958 vote by Alaskans authorizing statehood was legal, as outlined in the excerpt from the party's charter found above.


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: Vogler would serve as the AKIP's standard-bearer for most of the party's first two decades. He ran for governor in 1974, with Wayne Peppler as his running mate. Jay Hammond was elected over incumbent governor William Egan, with Vogler trailing far behind. Typical political discussion of the day included the contention that Vogler was a "spoiler," and that the result would have been different had he not been in the race, however Vogler ran on a conservative platform and perhaps if he hadn't run the margin of victory would have been larger for Republican Hammond.


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: Vogler's running mate in 1986 was Al Rowe, a Fairbanks resident and former Alaska State Trooper. Rowe took out a series of newspaper ads, fashioning himself in the image of Sheriff Buford Pusser. These ads were a major attention getter during the race. Between Rowe's ads and the turmoil existing in the Republican Party over the nomination of Arliss Sturgulewski, the AKIP gained 5.2 percent of the vote, becoming a recognized party in Alaska for the first time.


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: Since then, AKIP candidates have disapproved of initiating a statewide vote revisiting the status of Alaskan statehood. In 1990, former Republican governor Walter Joseph Hickel won the election for governor as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, with Jack Coghill as his running mate. This was the only time since Alaska joined the union that a third-party candidate has been elected governor, until the election of Jesse Ventura in Minnesota in 1998, and then Bill Walker in Alaska in 2014. Hickel refused a vote on secession called on by a fringe group within the AKIP loyal to Vogler's original vision. He rejoined the Republican Party in 1994, with eight months remaining in his term.


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: Carl E. Moses, a businessman from Unalaska who had served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1965–1973 as both a Republican and Democrat, was elected again to the House in 1992, running under the AKIP banner. He was elected to a district comprising mostly the area between the Aleutian Islands and Bristol Bay. He switched his party affiliation back to Democrat at around the same time that Hickel switched, and continued to serve in the House until 2007.


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: The party did not get involved in presidential elections until 1992, when it endorsed Howard Phillips, the candidate of the U.S. Taxpayers Party (now the Constitution Party).


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: The Alaskan Independence Party sued the state of Alaska in 2020, seeking to overturn the results from a referendum where ranked-choice voting was implemented in Alaska's general elections.


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: In May 2009 the party had 13,119 registered members. As of May 2021, a press release on the AKIP website indicates that the number of


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: registered members has grown to nearly 19,000, making it the state's third largest party and about a quarter the size of the state's Democratic party (Republicans had 124,892 members and the Democrats had 75,047).


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: On September 2, 2008, the Alaska Division of Elections had records that Todd Palin, husband of Governor Sarah Palin (a Republican and vice-presidential candidate), had registered in 1995 as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party. He remained registered with the party until 2002. David Niewert and Max Blumenthal wrote in "Salon" about the third party's influence in gaining election of Sarah Palin as mayor of Wasilla in her first political office.


title: Alaskan Independence Party

text: In 2006, members of the AKIP collected the one hundred signatures needed to place on the fall ballot an initiative calling for Alaska to secede from the union or, if that was found not to be legally possible, directing the state to work to make secession legal. However, in the case of "Kohlhaas v. State" the Alaska State Supreme Court ruled any attempt at secession to be unconstitutional and the initiative was not approved to appear on the fall ballot.


title: The Stranger (Coben novel)

text: The Stranger is the 14th stand-alone novel by American crime writer Harlan Coben. The novel was first published in March 2015.


title: The Stranger (Coben novel)

text: The novel was made into a British television limited series of the same title that was released on Netflix in January 2020.


title: The Stranger (Coben novel)

text: The Stranger can appear anywhere and speak to anyone. While his identity and motives are unknown, his information is undeniably accurate. Adam Price, living the American dream with a beautiful wife, two sons, and a well-paying job, encounters The Stranger, who tells him a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne. But that is only the beginning of Adam's problems. Corinne explains that there is more to her deception than appears on the surface, and wants to meet Adam alone to discuss it. However, she never shows up for the meeting and seems to have disappeared. More secrets are discovered to have been revealed or leveraged by The Stranger, threatening to not only ruin lives, but end them.