Claw of Archimedes Claw of Archimedes The Claw (, "harpágē", "snatcher") of Archimedes (also known as the "iron hand") was an ancient weapon devised by Archimedes to defend the seaward portion of Syracuse's city wall against amphibious assault. Although its exact nature is unclear, the accounts of ancient historians seem to describe it as a sort of crane equipped with a grappling hook that was able to lift an attacking ship partly out of the water, then either cause the ship to capsize or suddenly drop it. These machines featured prominently during the Second Punic War in 214 BC, when the Roman Republic
Acorn Archimedes family omitted either the Acorn or Archimedes part of the name; the first models were named "BBC Archimedes", yet the name "Acorn Archimedes" is commonly used to describe any of Acorn's contemporary designs based on the same architecture. Archimedes machines are no longer sold, but computers such as the Raspberry Pi can still run its operating system, RISC OS (at least later versions), as they use ARM chips that are (mostly) compatible. The Acorn Archimedes was the first RISC-based home computer. The first models were released in June 1987, as the 300 and 400 series. The 400 series included four