We have been asked to remove references to a memorandum of understanding concerning the revival of the Acorn PC that appeared for a few hours on Acorn Cybervillage. Apparently this was a draft proposal -- not a heads of agreement - and was inadvertently leaked and posted. Failure to remove references to this draft memorandum could imperil negotiations with Acorn, we are told. It's never easy to close the stable door after the horse has bolted. Especially as The Register also runs a IT news agency which has filed the story with other magazines and sites. We trust the deal will still go through. Acorn CEO Boland has nothing to lose and -- potentially -- a great deal to gain. But to show we can be humane, here is a new, slimmed down version of our original story. The cavalry may have come to the rescue of the Acorn hardware platform, in the form of Peter Bondar, he company's former technical director.

He has asked for exclusive negotiating rights to secure the "quick and professional transfer of the relevant assets of Acorn's "Product Business" to Applied Risc Technologies (ART). Financial backing for ART, a new company set up to "save Phoebe and the RISC OS market", is unclear. But Bondar has a considerable fan club in the Acorn dealer community. The company's pro tem non-executive directors are "four wise men representing the Acorn dealers and software house's interest". ART has asked Acorn to give it three weeks to get its act together. All in all good news for the Acorn community. More than 10,000 orders had been placed for Phoebe, the long awaited upgrade to the company's original Risc PC, which was supposed to be launched next month. But will this be enough to save the RiscOS platform from terminal decline? Tune in to The Register for more news as it happens.® Acorn shares "good value" Acorn scrubs Risc PC2 Acorn fans get nutted in general IT melee It'll cost you an ARM and a leg