NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Acorn Computers

Acorn Computers was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK. These included the Acorn Electron, the BBC Micro and the Acorn Archimedes. Acorn's BBC Micro computer dominated the UK educational computer market during the 1980s and early 1990s, drawing many comparisons with Apple in the U.S. Image File history File links LinkFA-star. ... An image that was present on the Acorn FTP site. ... A public company is a company owned by the public rather than by a relatively few individuals. ... The Source by Greyworld, in the new LSE building Paternoster Square. ... Map of the Cambridgeshire area (1904) The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area â€“ Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 kmÂ² Population â€“ Total (mid... Map of the Cambridgeshire area (1904) The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area â€“ Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 kmÂ² Population â€“ Total (mid... Christopher Curry was, along with Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper, one of the founders of Acorn. ... Stephen Byram Furber was born in Manchester, England, in 1953. ... Hermann Maria Hauser, CBE FREng FinstP CPhys (born 23 October 1948), is an entrepreneur born in Vienna, Austria. ... Andrew Hopper (b. ... Sophie Wilson, formerly Roger Wilson, is a British computer scientist. ... Computer hardware is the physical part of a computer, including the digital circuitry, as distinguished from the computer software that executes within the hardware. ... The Acorn System 1, initially called the Acorn Microcomputer (Micro-Computer), was an early 8_bit microcomputer for hobbyists, based on the MOS 6502 CPU, and produced by British company Acorn Computers from 1979. ... The Atom was Acorns first computer to be aimed squarely at the home market. ... The BBC Micro, affectionately known as the Beeb, was an early home computer. ... The Acorn Communicator was never released. ... The Acorn Electron Acorn Electron BASIC - the first thing displayed when an unexpanded Electron is switched on The Acorn Electron was a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. ... A BBC Master 128 with monitor and disk drives. ... The Acorn Business Computer 210, also known as the Cambridge Workstation. ... The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltds first general purpose home computer based on their own 24-bit ARM RISC CPU, and spawned a family of very capable machines with various options. ... The Risc PC (codenamed Medusa) was Acorn Computers Ltds next generation RISC OS/Acorn RISC Machine computer, launched in 1994, which superseded the Acorn Archimedes. ... The Acorn Online Media Set Top Box was produced by the Online Media division of Acorn Computers Ltd for the Cambridge Cable and Online Media Video on Demand trial and launched early 1996. ... The Acorn Network Computer was a network computer designed and manufactured by Acorn Computers Ltd. ... The distinctive yellow case of the Acorn Phoebe. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... This page as shown in the aol 9. ... A computer is a machine designed for manipulating data according to a list of instructions known as a program. ... Map of the Cambridgeshire area (1904) The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area â€“ Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 kmÂ² Population â€“ Total (mid... The Acorn Electron Acorn Electron BASIC - the first thing displayed when an unexpanded Electron is switched on The Acorn Electron was a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. ... The BBC Micro, affectionately known as the Beeb, was an early home computer. ... The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltds first general purpose home computer based on their own 24-bit ARM RISC CPU, and spawned a family of very capable machines with various options. ... The BBC Micro, affectionately known as the Beeb, was an early home computer. ... Apple Computer, Inc. ...

Though the company was broken up into several independent operations in 2000, it leaves an impressive legacy, particularly in the development of RISC personal computers. A number of Acorn's former subsidiaries, notably ARM Holdings, live on today. Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC), is a microprocessor CPU design philosophy that favors a smaller and simpler set of instructions that all take about the same amount of time to execute. ... The entrance to ARMs headquarters in Cherry Hinton, Cambridge ARM Holdings is a microprocessor company headquartered in England, founded in 1990 by Hermann Hauser. ...

A new company trading as Acorn Computers Ltd was incorporated in 2006. The new company is a notebook PC vendor and, other than the name, would appear to have no relationship with its historic namesake. Some members of the Acorn user community have accused the new venture of exploiting goodwill towards the Acorn brand while having no interest in real Acorn technologies such as RISC OS.^[1] RISC OS, which stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computing Operating System is a British Graphical user interface-based operating system for ARM-processor based computers or similar devices. ...

Prehistory

On 25 July 1961, Clive Sinclair founded Sinclair Radionics to develop and sell electronic devices such as calculators. The failure of the Black Watch wristwatch and the calculator market's move from LEDs to LCDs led to financial problems, and Sinclair approached the National Enterprise Board (NEB) for help. After losing control of the company to the NEB, Sinclair encouraged Chris Curry to leave Radionics and get Science of Cambridge (SoC) up and running. In June 1978, SoC launched a microcomputer kit that Curry wanted to develop further, but Sinclair could not be persuaded. During the development of the MK14, Hermann Hauser, a friend of Curry's, had been visiting SoC's offices and had grown interested in the product. July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 159 days remaining. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (born July 30, 1940), is a British entrepreneur and inventor of, among other things, the worlds first pocket calculator, in 1962 and the beloved ZX Spectrum computer in 1982. ... Sinclair Radionics Ltd was founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge, England on 25 July 1961. ... A modern basic arithmetic calculator For other uses, see Calculator (disambiguation). ... The Black Watch was a financial disaster for Sinclair Radionics. ... Blue, green and red LEDs. ... It has been suggested that Color LCD be merged into this article or section. ... The National Enterprise Board (NEB) was a government body set up in the United Kingdom in 1975 to implement the Wilson Labour governments objective of extending public ownership of industry. ... Christopher Curry was, along with Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper, one of the founders of Acorn. ... Sinclair Research Ltd was a home computer company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge, England. ... Hermann Maria Hauser, CBE FREng FinstP CPhys (born 23 October 1948), is an entrepreneur born in Vienna, Austria. ...

CPU Ltd (1978–83)

Curry and Hauser decided to pursue their joint interest in microcomputers and, on 5 December 1978, they set up Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd (CPU) as the vehicle with which to do this. CPU soon obtained a consultancy contract to develop a microprocessor-based controller for a fruit machine for Ace Coin Equipment (ACE) of Wales. The ACE project was started at office space obtained at 4a Market Hill in Cambridge. Initially, the ACE controller was based on a SC/MP microprocessor, but soon the switch to a 6502 was made. Image File history File links Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry of Acorn Computers. ... Image File history File links Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry of Acorn Computers. ... Hermann Maria Hauser, CBE FREng FinstP CPhys (born 23 October 1948), is an entrepreneur born in Vienna, Austria. ... Christopher Curry was, along with Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper, one of the founders of Acorn. ... December 5 is the 339th day (340th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Slot machines in the Trump Taj Mahal A slot machine (American English), poker machine (Australian English), or fruit machine (British English) is a certain type of casino game. ... For an explanation of often confusing terms such as Great Britain, Britain, United Kingdom, England and Wales and England, see British Isles (terminology). ... Map of the Cambridgeshire area (1904) The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ... The SC/MP from National Semiconductor was an early microprocessor, becoming available in early 1974. ... The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology in 1975. ...

The microcomputer systems

CPU had financed the development of a 6502-based microcomputer system using the income from its design-and-build consultancy. This system was launched in January 1979 as the first product of Acorn Computer Ltd, a trading name used by CPU to keep the risks of the two different lines of business separate. Acorn was chosen because the microcomputer system was to be expandable and growth-oriented. It also had the attraction of appearing before "Apple" in a telephone directory. Apple Computer, Inc. ...

Around this time, CPU and Andy Hopper set up Orbis Ltd to commercialise the Cambridge Ring networking system Hopper had worked on for his PhD, but it was soon decided to bring him into CPU as a director because he could promote CPU's interests at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. CPU purchased Orbis, and Hopper's Orbis shares were exchanged for shares in CPU Ltd. CPU's role gradually changed as its Acorn brand grew, and soon CPU was simply the holding company and Acorn was responsible for development work. At some point Curry had a disagreement with Sinclair and formally left Science of Cambridge, but did not join the other Acorn employees at Market Hill until a little while later. Andrew Hopper (b. ... The Cambridge Ring was an experimental token-passing local area network architecture developed at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory in the mid-late 1970s and early 1980s. ... Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph. ... The William Gates Building, which currently houses the Computer Laboratory The Computer Laboratory (CL) at Cambridge is the University of Cambridges computer science department. ...

The Acorn Microcomputer, later renamed the Acorn System 1, was designed by Sophie Wilson. It was a semi-professional system aimed at engineering and laboratory users, but its price was low enough, at around £80, to appeal to the more serious enthusiast as well. It was a very small machine built on two cards, one with an LED display, keypad, and cassette interface (the circuitry to the left of the keypad), and the other with the rest of the computer (including the CPU). Almost all CPU signals were accessible via a Eurocard connector. Upper board of the Acorn Microcomputer (Acorn System 1) Camera: Canon PowerShot G1 Timestamp: 30/12/2001 11:46:15 Shutter Speed: 1/50 Aperture: 2. ... Upper board of the Acorn Microcomputer (Acorn System 1) Camera: Canon PowerShot G1 Timestamp: 30/12/2001 11:46:15 Shutter Speed: 1/50 Aperture: 2. ... The Acorn System 1, initially called the Acorn Microcomputer (Micro-Computer), was an early 8_bit microcomputer for hobbyists, based on the MOS 6502 CPU, and produced by British company Acorn Computers from 1979. ... April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... The Acorn System 1, initially called the Acorn Microcomputer (Micro-Computer), was an early 8_bit microcomputer for hobbyists, based on the MOS 6502 CPU, and produced by British company Acorn Computers from 1979. ... Sophie Wilson, formerly Roger Wilson, is a British computer scientist. ... Blue, green and red LEDs. ... Typical 60-minute Compact Cassette. ... CPU redirects here. ... Eurocard is a European standard format for PCB cards, which can be plugged together into a standardized subrack. ...

The System 2 made it easier to expand the system by putting the CPU card from the System 1 in a 19-inch Eurocard rack that allowed a number of optional additions. The System 2 typically shipped with keyboard controller, external keyboard, a text display interface, and a cassette operating system with built-in BASIC interpreter. The System 2 was a home computer produced by Acorn Computers from 1980. ... BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of high-level programming languages. ... An interpreter is a computer program that executes other programs. ...

The System 3 moved on by adding floppy disk support and the System 4 by including a larger case with a second drive. The System 5 was largely similar to the System 4, but included a newer 2 MHz version of the 6502. The System 3 was a home computer produced by Acorn Computers from 1980. ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a ring of thin, flexible (i. ... The System 4 was a home computer produced by Acorn Computers. ... The System 5 was a home computer produced by Acorn Computers. ... MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ... The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology in 1975. ...

The Atom

Development of the ZX80 started at Science of Cambridge in May 1979. Learning of this probably prompted Curry to conceive the Atom project to target the consumer market. Curry and another designer, Nick Toop, worked from Curry's home in the Fens on the development of this machine. It was at this time that Acorn Computers Ltd was incorporated and Curry moved to Acorn full-time. Sinclair ZX80 The Sinclair ZX80 was a home computer brought to market in 1980 by Sinclair Research of Cambridge, England. ... The Atom was Acorns first computer to be aimed squarely at the home market. ... Redgrave and Lopham Fen. ...

It was Curry who wanted to target the consumer market – other factions within Acorn, including the engineers, were happy to be out of that market, considering a home computer to be a rather frivolous product for a company operating in the laboratory equipment market. To keep costs down and not give the doubters reason to object to the Atom, Curry asked industrial designer Allen Boothroyd to design a case that could also function as an external keyboard for the microcomputer systems. The internals of the System 3 were placed inside the keyboard, creating a quite typical set-up for an inexpensive home computer of the early '80s – the relatively successful Acorn Atom. TRS-80 Color Computer II The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ... Allen Boothroyd is an industrial designer. ... The Atom was Acorns first computer to be aimed squarely at the home market. ...

To facilitate software development, a proprietary local area network had been installed at Market Hill. It was decided to include this, the Econet, in the Atom, and at its launch at a computer show in March 1980, eight networked Atoms were demonstrated with functions that allowed files to be shared, screens to be remotely viewed and keyboards to be remotely slaved. Econet is an abbreviation of Economy Network. ...

BBC Micro and the Electron

With the Atom on the market, Acorn could begin to think about its replacement. There were new 16-bit processors coming onto the market – should they move in that direction? After a great deal of discussion, Hauser suggested a compromise – an improved 6502-based machine with far greater expansion capabilities: the Proton. Acorn's technical staff had not wanted to do the Atom and they now saw the Proton as their opportunity to "do it right".^[2] Famous BBC Micro advert This is a copyrighted promotional image. ... Famous BBC Micro advert This is a copyrighted promotional image. ... The BBC Micro, affectionately known as the Beeb, was an early home computer. ... In computer science, 16-bit is an adjective used to describe integers that are at most two bytes wide, or to describe CPU architectures based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. ...

One of the developments proposed for the Proton was the Tube, a proprietary interface allowing a second processor to be added. This compromise would make for an affordable 6502 machine for the mass market which could be expanded with more sophisticated and expensive processors. The Tube enabled processing to be farmed out to the second processor leaving the 6502 to perform data input/output (I/O). In later years the Tube would play an important role in the development of Acorn's own processor.^[3] In computing, Input/output, or I/O, is the collection of interfaces that different functional units (sub-systems) of an information processing system use to communicate with each other, or the signals (information) sent through those interfaces. ...

In early 1980, the BBC Further Education department conceived the idea of a computer literacy programme, mostly as a follow-up to a BBC documentary, The Mighty Micro, in which Dr. Christopher Evans from the UK National Physical Laboratory predicted the coming microcomputer revolution. It was a very influential documentary – so much so that questions were asked in parliament. As a result of these questions, the Department of Industry (DoI) became interested in the programme, as did BBC Enterprises, which saw an opportunity to sell a machine to go with the series. BBC Engineering was instructed to draw up an objective specification for a computer to accompany the series. This article is an overview article about the Crown chartered British Broadcasting Corporation formed in 1927. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Dr. Christopher Riche Evans (1931 - October 10, 1979) British psychologist and computer scientist. ... The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is the national measurement standards laboratory for the United Kingdom, based at Bushy Park in Teddington, near London. ... The Commodore 64 was one of the most popular microcomputers of its era, and is the best selling home computer of all time. ... The Houses of Parliament, seen over Westminster Bridge The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative institution in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories (it alone has parliamentary sovereignty). ... The Department of Trade and Industry is a United Kingdom government department. ... BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. ...

Eventually, under some pressure from the DoI to choose a British system, the BBC chose the NewBrain from Newbury Laboratories. This selection revealed the extent of the pressure brought to bear on the supposedly independent BBC's computer literacy project – Newbury was owned by the National Enterprise Board, a government agency operating in close collaboration with the DoI. The choice was also somewhat ironic given that the NewBrain started life as a Sinclair Radionics project, and it was Sinclair's preference for developing it over Science of Cambridge's MK14 that led to Curry leaving SoC to found CPU with Hauser. The NEB moved the NewBrain to Newbury after Sinclair left Radionics and went to SoC. The Grundy NewBrain was a microcomputer sold in the early-1980s by Grundy Business Systems Ltd of Teddington and Cambridge, England. ...

In 1980 - 1982 the UK Department of Education and Science (DES) had begun the Microelectronics Education Programme to introduce microprocessing concepts and educational materials. In 1982 through to 1986, the DoI allocated funding to assist UK local education authorities to supply their schools with a range of computers, the BBC Micro being one of the most popular. In parallel the DES continued to fund more materials for the computers, such as software and applied computing projects, plus teacher training. The UK Governments Microelectronics Education Programme ran from 1980 to 1986. ...

Although the NewBrain was under heavy development by Newbury, it soon became clear that they were not going to be able to produce it – certainly not in time for the literacy programme nor to the BBC's specification. The BBC's programmes, initially scheduled for autumn 1981, were moved back to spring 1982. After Curry and Sinclair found out about the BBC's plans, the BBC allowed other manufacturers to submit their proposals. The BBC visited Acorn and were given a demonstration of the Proton. Shortly afterwards, the literacy programme computer contract was awarded to Acorn, and the Proton was launched early in 1982 as the BBC Micro. In April 1984 Acorn won the Queen's Award for Technology for the BBC Micro. The award paid special tribute to the BBC Micro's advanced design, and it commended Acorn "for the development of a microcomputer system with many innovative features". Image File history File links Download high resolution version (635x873, 88 KB)Magazine advert for the Acorn Electron. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (635x873, 88 KB)Magazine advert for the Acorn Electron. ... The Acorn Electron Acorn Electron BASIC - the first thing displayed when an unexpanded Electron is switched on The Acorn Electron was a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. ... The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research. ... The BBC Micro, affectionately known as the Beeb, was an early home computer. ...

In April 1982 Sinclair launched the ZX Spectrum. Curry conceived of the Electron as Acorn's sub-200-pound competitor. In many ways a cut-down BBC Micro, it used one Acorn-designed ULA to reproduce most of the functionality. But problems in producing the ULAs led to short supply, and the Electron, although launched in August 1983, was not on the market in sufficient numbers to capitalise on the 1983 Christmas sales period. Acorn resolved to avoid this problem in 1984 and negotiated new production contracts. The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research. ... The Acorn Electron Acorn Electron BASIC - the first thing displayed when an unexpanded Electron is switched on The Acorn Electron was a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. ... GBP redirects here. ... A Gate array or Uncommitted Logic Array (ULA) is an approach to the design and manufacture of application_specific integrated circuits (ASICS). ...

Acorn Computer Group plc (1983–85)

The BBC Micro sold spectacularly well – so much so that Acorn's profits rose from a mere £3000 in 1979 to £8.6m in July 1983. In September 1983, CPU shares were liquidated and Acorn was floated on the Unlisted Securities Market as Acorn Computer Group plc, with Acorn Computers Ltd as the microcomputer division. With a minimum tender price of 120p, the group came into existence with a market capitalisation of about £135 million. CPU founders Herman Hauser and Chris Curry leapt instantly into the paper millionaire bracket: Hauser's 53.25 million shares made him worth £64m; Curry's 43 million shares translated into £51m. The Unlisted Securities Market (USM), which ran from 1980 to 1996, was a stock exchange set up by the London Stock Exchange. ...

New RISC architecture

Even from the time of the Atom, Acorn were considering how to move on from the 6502 processor: the 16-bit Acorn Communicator developed in 1982 using the 65816 being a key example. The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by MOS Technology in 1975. ... In computer science, 16-bit is an adjective used to describe integers that are at most two bytes wide, or to describe CPU architectures based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. ... The Acorn Communicator was never released. ... The 65816 Microprocessor (also: 65C816), a 16_bit CPU developed by the Western Design Center (WDC), is an expanded and compatible successor to the venerable MOS Technology 6502. ...

The IBM PC was launched on 12 August 1981. Although a version of that machine was aimed at the enthusiast market much like the BBC Micro, its real area of success was business. The successor to the PC, the XT (EXtended Technology) was introduced in early 1983. The success of these machines and the variety of Z80-based CP/M machines in the business sector demonstrated that it was a viable market, especially given that sector's ability to cope with premium prices. The development of a business machine looked like a good idea to Acorn. A development programme was started to create a business computer using Acorn's existing technology – the BBC Micro mainboard, the Tube and second processors to give CP/M, MS-DOS and Unix (Xenix) workstations. IBM PC (IBM 5150) with keyboard and green screen monochrome monitor (IBM 5151), running MS-DOS 5. ... August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... One of the first Z80 microprocessors manufactured; the date stamp says well before July 1976. ... CP/M is an operating system originally created for Intel 8080/85 and Zilog Z80 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. ... CP/M is an operating system originally created for Intel 8080/85 and Zilog Z80 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc. ... Microsofts disk operating system, MS-DOS, was Microsofts implementation of DOS, which was the first popular operating system for the IBM PC, and until recently, was widely used on the PC compatible platform. ... Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ... Xenix was a version of the Unix operating system, licensed by Microsoft from AT&T in the 1980s. ...

This Acorn Business Computer (ABC) plan required a number of second processors to be made to work with the BBC Micro platform. In developing these, Acorn had to implement the Tube protocols on each processor chosen, in the process finding out, during 1983, that there were no obvious candidates to replace the 6502. Because of many-cycle uninterruptible instructions, for example, the interrupt response times of the 68000 were too slow to handle the communication protocol that the host 6502-based BBC Micro coped with easily. Development of the National Semiconductor 32016-based model of the ABC range, later sold as the Cambridge Workstation, had shown Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber the value of memory bandwidth. It also showed that an 8 MHz 32016 was completely trounced in performance terms by a 4 MHz 6502. Furthermore, the Apple Lisa had shown the Acorn engineers that they needed to develop a windowing system – and this was not going to be easy with a 2–4 MHz 6502-based system doing the graphics. Acorn would need a new architecture. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (698x884, 116 KB)Acorn Business Computer. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (698x884, 116 KB)Acorn Business Computer. ... The Acorn Business Computer 210, also known as the Cambridge Workstation. ... The Acorn Business Computer 210, also known as the Cambridge Workstation. ... In computer science, an interrupt is an asynchronous signal from hardware or software indicating the need for attention. ... The Motorola 68000 is a 32 bit CISC microprocessor, the first member of a successful family of microprocessors from Motorola, which were all mostly software compatible. ... Stephen Byram Furber was born in Manchester, England, in 1953. ... Apple Lisa The Apple Lisa was a revolutionary personal computer designed at Apple Computer during the early 1980s. ...

Acorn had tested all of the available processors and found them wanting. Having ruled out existing CPUs, it was clear to the developers that Acorn should seriously consider designing its own processor. Acorn’s engineers came across papers on the Berkeley RISC project. They could now handle the truth: if a class of graduate students could create a competitive 32-bit processor, then Acorn would have no problem. A trip to the Western Design Center in Phoenix showed Furber and Wilson that they did not need massive resources and state-of-the-art R&D facilities. Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC), is a microprocessor CPU design philosophy that favors a smaller and simpler set of instructions that all take about the same amount of time to execute. ... If you were looking for the Western Digital Corporation, see Western Digital. ...

Sophie Wilson set about developing the instruction set, writing a simulation of the processor in BBC Basic that ran on a BBC Micro with a 6502 second processor. It convinced the Acorn engineers that they were on the right track. Before they could go any further, however, they would need more resources. It was time for Wilson to approach Hauser and explain what was afoot. Once the go-ahead had been given, a small team was put together to implement Wilson's model in hardware. BBC BASIC was developed in 1981 as a native programming language for the MOS Technology 6502 based Acorn BBC Micro home/personal computer, mainly by Roger Wilson. ...

The official Acorn RISC Machine project started in October 1983. VLSI Technology, Inc were chosen as silicon partner, since they already supplied Acorn with ROMs and some custom chips. VLSI produced the first ARM silicon on 26 April 1985 – it worked first time and came to be known as ARM1. Its first practical application was as a second processor to the BBC Micro, where it was used to develop the simulation software to finish work on the support chips (VIDC, IOC, MEMC) and to speed up the operation of the CAD software used in developing ARM2. Wilson subsequently coded BBC Basic in ARM assembly language, and the in-depth knowledge obtained from designing the instruction set allowed the code to be very dense, making ARM BBC Basic an extremely good test for any ARM emulator. VLSI Technology, Inc (Nasdaq: VLSI) was an American company that designed and manufactured custom chips. ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... This article is about the year. ...

Such was the secrecy surrounding the ARM CPU project that when Olivetti were negotiating to take a controlling share of Acorn in 1985, they were not told about the development team until after the negotiations had been finalised. In 1992 Acorn once more won the Queen's Award for Technology for the ARM. Olivetti Lettera 22, 1950 Ing. ...

Financial problems

Acorn's watershed year was 1984 – it had gone public just as the home computer market collapsed. It was the year when Atari was sold, Apple nearly went bust, and Acorn had solved the one problem it had had throughout its history: production volumes. For the concept Atari (å½“ãŸã‚Š) in the board game of Go, see Atari (go term). ... Apple Computer, Inc. ...

The Electron had been launched in 1983, but problems with the supply of its ULAs meant that Acorn was not able to capitalise on the 1983 Christmas selling period – a successful advertising campaign, including TV advertisements, had led to 300,000 orders, but the Malaysian suppliers were only able to supply 30,000 machines. The apparently strong demand for Electrons proved to be illusory: rather than wait, parents bought Commodore 64s or ZX Spectrums for their children's presents. Ferranti solved the production problem and in 1984 production reached its anticipated volumes, but the contracts Acorn had negotiated with its suppliers were not flexible enough to allow volumes to be reduced quickly in this unanticipated situation – supplies of the Electron built up. Acorn was in real trouble: by the end of the year it had 250,000 unsold Electrons on its hands, which had all been paid for and needed to be stored – at additional expense.^[4] A Gate array or Uncommitted Logic Array (ULA) is an approach to the design and manufacture of application_specific integrated circuits (ASICS). ... For the hip hop group, see Commodore 64 (band). ... The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research. ... Ferranti or Ferranti International Signal plc by the time of its collapse, was a major UK electrical engineering and equipment firm, known primarily for their defense electronics and power grid systems. ...

Acorn was also spending a large portion of its reserves on development: the BBC Master was being developed; the ARM project was underway; the Acorn Business Computer entailed a lot of development work but ultimately proved to be something of a flop, with only the 32016-based version ever being sold (as the Cambridge Workstation); and obtaining Federal approval for the BBC Micro in order to expand into the United States proved to a drawn-out and expensive process that proved futile – all of the expansion devices that were intended to be sold with the BBC Micro had to be tested and radiation emissions had to be reduced. Around $20m was sunk into the U.S. operation but the NTSC modified BBC Micros sold barely at all. They did, however, make an appearance in the school of Supergirl in the 1984 film Supergirl: The Movie. Various incarnations of Supergirl: Original Kara Zor-El, Matrix, Kara in the 70s, Modern Kara, Linda Danvers, Power Girl, and Kara from Crisis on Infinite Earths. ...

Olivetti subsidiary (1985–98)

The dire financial situation was brought to a head in February 1985, when one of Acorn's creditors issued a winding-up petition. After a short period of negotiations, Curry and Hauser signed an agreement with Olivetti on 20 February. The Italian computer company took a 49.3% stake in Acorn for £12 million, which went some way to covering Acorn's £11 million losses in the previous six months. This valuation fell some £165m below Acorn's peak valuation of £190m. In September 1985, Olivetti took a controlling share of Acorn with 79% of shares. Olivetti Lettera 22, 1950 Ing. ... February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

BBC Master and Archimedes

The BBC Master was launched in February 1986 and met with great success. From 1986 to 1989, about 200,000 systems were sold, each costing £499, mainly to UK schools and universities. A number of enhanced versions were launched – for example, the Master 512, which had 512 KB of RAM and an internal 80186 processor for MS-DOS compatibility, and the Master Turbo, which had a 65C02 second processor. A BBC Master 128 with monitor and disk drives. ... An Intel 80186 Microprocessor The 80186 architecture. ... Microsofts disk operating system, MS-DOS, was Microsofts implementation of DOS, which was the first popular operating system for the IBM PC, and until recently, was widely used on the PC compatible platform. ...

The first commercial use of the ARM architecture was in the ARM Development System, a Tube-linked second processor for the BBC Master which allowed one to write programs for the new system. It sold for around £4,000 and included the ARM processor and three support chips, 4MB of RAM and a set of development tools with an enhanced version of BBC BASIC. The ARM architecture (originally the Acorn RISC Machine) is a 32-bit RISC processor architecture that is widely used in a number embedded designs. ... The terms computer program, software program, applications program, system software, or just program are used to refer to either an executable program by both lay people and computer programmers or the collection of source code from which an executable program is created (eg, compiled). ... A megabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to approximately one million bytes. ...

The second ARM-based product was the Acorn Archimedes desktop-computer, released in mid-1987. The Archimedes was popular in the United Kingdom, Australasia and Ireland, and was considerably more powerful and advanced than most offerings of the day, but the market was already stratifying into the PC-dominated world. Acorn continued to produce updated models of the Archimedes including a laptop (the A4) and in 1994 launched the Risc PC, where the top specification included a 200 MHz+ StrongARM processor. These were sold mainly into education, specialist and enthusiast markets. The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltds first general purpose home computer based on their own 24-bit ARM RISC CPU, and spawned a family of very capable machines with various options. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Oceania. ... One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ... The Risc PC (codenamed Medusa) was Acorn Computers Ltds next generation RISC OS/Acorn RISC Machine computer, launched in 1994, which superseded the Acorn Archimedes. ... DEC StrongARM SA-110 Microprocessor The StrongARM microprocessor is a faster version of the Advanced RISC Machines ARM design. ...

ARM Ltd

Acorn's silicon partner, VLSI, had been tasked with finding new applications for the ARM CPU and support chips. Hauser's Active Book company had been developing a handheld device and for this the ARM CPU developers had created a static version of their processor, the ARM2aS. VLSI Technology, Inc (Nasdaq: VLSI) was an American company that designed and manufactured custom chips. ...

Apple was developing an entirely new computing platform, the Newton. Various requirements had been set for the processor in terms of power consumption, cost and performance, and there was also a need for fully static operation in which the clock could be stopped at any time. Only the Acorn RISC Machine came close to meeting all these demands, but there were still deficiencies. The ARM did not, for example, have an integral memory management unit as this function was being provided by the MEMC support chip and Acorn did not have the resources to develop one. Newton MessagePad 2000/2100. ... Newton MessagePad 2000/2100. ... The Apple Newton MessagePad 2100, the last model produced. ... Apple Computer, Inc. ... The Apple Newton MessagePad 2100, the last model produced. ...

Apple and Acorn began to collaborate on developing the ARM, and it was decided that this would be best achieved by a separate company. The bulk of the Advanced Research and Development section of Acorn that had developed the ARM CPU formed the basis of ARM Ltd when that company was spun off in November 1990. Acorn Group and Apple Computer Inc each had a 43% shareholding in ARM, while VLSI were an investor and first ARM licensee. The entrance to ARMs headquarters in Cherry Hinton, Cambridge ARM (Advanced RISC Machines) Ltd is a microprocessor design company headquartered in England, founded in 1990 by Hermann Hauser. ...

Set-Top boxes

In 1994, Acorn Online Media was founded to exploit the projected video-on-demand (VOD) boom, an interactive television system which would allow users to select and watch video content over a network. In September 1994 the Cambridge Trial of video-on-demand services was set up by Acorn Online Media, Anglia Television, Cambridge Cable and Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd (ATML) – the trial involved creating a wide area ATM network linking TV-company to subscribers' homes and delivering services such as home shopping, online education, software downloaded on-demand and the World Wide Web. The wide area network used a combination of fibre and coaxial cable, and the switches were housed in the roadside cabinets of Cambridge Cable's existing network. Olivetti Research Laboratory developed the technology used by the trial. An ICL video server provided the service via ATM switches manufactured by ATML, another company set up by Hauser and Hopper. The trial commenced at a speed of 2 Mbit/s to the home, subsequently increased to 25 Mbit/s. Video on demand (VOD) systems allow users to select and watch video content over a network as part of an interactive television system. ... Interactive television describes any number of efforts to allow viewers to interact with television content as they view. ... Look up Video in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Current ITV Anglia logo Anglia Television is the ITV station for East Anglia. ... Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd (ATML) was set up in 1993 by Dr Hermann Hauser and Professor Andy Hopper as a spin-off from the Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge. ... The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is a global information space which people can read-from and write-to via a large number of different Internet-connected devices (e. ... The Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) was founded in 1986 by Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper. ... International Computers Ltd, or ICL, was a large British computer hardware company that operated from 1968 until 2002, when it was renamed Fujitsu Services Limited after its parent company, Fujitsu. ...

Subscribers used Acorn Online Media set-top boxes. For the first six months the trial involved 10 VOD terminals; the second phase was expanded to cover 100 homes and 8 schools with a further 150 terminals in test labs. A number of other organisations gradually joined in, including NatWest Bank, the BBC, the Post Office, Tesco and the local education authority. The Acorn Online Media Set Top Box was produced by the Online Media division of Acorn Computers Ltd for the Cambridge Cable and Online Media Video on Demand trial and launched early 1996. ... The Classic NatWest logo NatWest (formerly the National Westminster Bank) is a commercial bank in the United Kingdom, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. ... The Post Office in Oxford. ... Tesco PLC (LSE: TSCO) is a United Kingdom-based international supermarket chain. ... A Local Education Authority (LEA) is the part of a council in England or Wales that is responsible for education within that councils jurisdiction. ...

BBC Education tested delivery of radio-on-demand programmes to primary schools, and a new educational service, Education Online, was established to deliver material such as Open University television programmes and educational software. Netherhall secondary school was provided with an inexpensive video server and operated as a provider of Trial services, with Anglia Polytechnic University taking up a similar role some time later. It was hoped that Online Media could be floated as a separate company, but the predicted video-on-demand boom never really materialised. The Open University (OU) is the UKs open learning university, established in 1969. ...

Network Computers

When BBC2's The Money Programme screened an interview with Larry Ellison in October 1995, Acorn Online Media Managing Director Malcolm Bird realised that Ellison's network computer was, basically, an Acorn set-top box. After initial discussions between Oracle Corporation and Olivetti, Hauser and Acorn a few weeks later, Bird was dispatched to San Francisco with Acorn's latest Set Top Box. Oracle had already talked seriously with computer manufacturers including Sun and Apple about the contract for putting together the NC blueprint machine; there were also rumours in the industry that said Oracle itself was working on the reference design. After Bird's visit to Oracle, Ellison visited Acorn and a deal was reached: Acorn would define the NC Reference Standard. BBC Two (or BBC2 as it was formerly styled) was the second UK television station to be aired by the BBC and Europes first television channel to broadcast regularly in colour (from 1967), envisaged as a home for less mainstream and more ambitious programming. ... This MONEY PROGRAMME is a scam trying to encourage young scots to pay as little as 300 pounds a fortnight and, they say it is for your pention but it is not. ... Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is the co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, a major database software firm. ... A network computer is a lightweight computer system that operates exclusively via a network connection. ... Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL), one of the major companies developing database management systems, tools for database development, enterprise resource planning software, customer relationship management software (CRM) and supply chain planning (SCM) software. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ...

Ellison was expecting to announce the NC in February 1996. Sophie Wilson was put in charge of the NC project, and by mid-November a draft NC specification was ready. By January 1996 the formal details of the contract between Acorn and Oracle had been worked out, and the PCB was designed and ready to be put into production. In February 1996 Acorn Network Computing was founded. In August 1996 it launched the Acorn Network Computer. The Acorn Network Computer was a network computer designed and manufactured by Acorn Computers Ltd. ...

It was hoped that the Network Computer would create a significant new sector in which Acorn Network Computing would be a major player, either selling its own products or earning money from licence fees paid by other manufacturers for the right to produce their own NCs. To that end, two of Acorn Network Computing's major projects were the creation of a new 'consumer device' operating system, Galileo and, in conjunction with Digital Semiconductor and ARM, a new StrongARM chipset, the SA1500 / SA1501. Galileo's main feature was a guarantee of a certain quality of service to each process in which the resources (CPU, memory, etc.) required to ensure reliable operation would be kept available regardless of the behaviour of other processes. The SA1500 sported higher clock rates than existing StrongARM CPUs and, more importantly, a media-focussed coprocessor (the Attached Media Processor or AMP). The SA1500 was to be the first release target for Galileo. In the fields of packet-switched networks and computer networking, the traffic engineering term Quality of Service (QoS, pronounced que-oh-ess) refers to the probability of the telecommunication network meeting a given traffic contract, or in many cases is used informally to refer to the probability of a packet...

Having incorporated its STB and NC business areas as separate companies, Acorn reorganised its PC manufacturing into a further wholly owned subsidiary, Acorn RISC Technologies (ART).

Final break up of Acorn (1998–2000)

Acorn's last real hopes of becoming a major player in the computer industry had fizzled out: set-top boxes were not taking off as expected, and the Network Computer, too, had been a bit of a flop – traditional PCs were reaching the types of prices thought to justify such a design, and increases in bandwidth to the home were slow to come about, making a web connection something of a luxury for the late '90s. Between 1996 and 1998 Olivetti disposed of its interest in Acorn Group through a series of structured transactions, raising £54m. Acorn restructured its operations, bringing its subsidiary companies back together as divisions within Acorn. Acorn Risc Technologies became the Workstation Division, which was closed in late 1998 when Acorn finally stopped producing desktop-computers in favour of set-top boxes. The last machine, code-named Phoebe or Risc PC 2, was nearly fully developed at the time of the project's abandonment, and therefore was never produced in volume nor sold to the public. Notably, numbers of its distinctive yellow case were produced and sold off cheaply. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (597x1217, 50 KB)Case for the Acorn Phoebe. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (597x1217, 50 KB)Case for the Acorn Phoebe. ... The distinctive yellow case of the Acorn Phoebe. ... Olivetti Lettera 22, 1950 Ing. ... The distinctive yellow case of the Acorn Phoebe. ...

ARM, however, had gone from strength to strength. In 1998, the Company underwent an initial public offering (IPO) and reregistered as a public company under the name ARM Holdings plc when it completed its IPO and listed its shares for trading on the London Stock Exchange and for quotation on the Nasdaq National Market. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter acted as global co-ordinator and book-runner for the Offering as well as sponsor and broker for the listing on the London exchange. An initial public offering (IPO) is the first sale of a corporations common shares to public investors. ... Morgan Stanley NYSE: MS is an investment bank, retail broker, and credit card provider with headquarters in New York Citys Times Square. ...

In January 1999, Acorn Group changed the name of Acorn Computers Ltd to Element 14 Ltd as it recast itself in the image of ARM – that is as a developer of intellectual property (IP), in this case in the digital signal processing (DSP) market. Around this time, ARM's share value had increased to a point where the capital value of Acorn Group plc was worth less than the value of its 24% holding in ARM. This situation led shareholders to press Acorn to sell its stake in ARM to provide a return on their investment. The situation also led ARM to consider taking action itself, since a financially weak shareholder such as Acorn was putting ARM in a vulnerable position. Acorn Computers Group plc was purchased on 1 June 1999 by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Investments Limited. The transaction involved the de-listing of Acorn Group plc, as a result of which its shareholding in ARM was distributed to Acorn's shareholders. In law, intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain types of information, ideas, or other intangibles in their expressed form. ... Digital signal processing (DSP) is the study of signals in a digital representation and the processing methods of these signals. ... June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

Morgan Stanley sold the set-top-box division to Pace for £200,000, and Pace thereby acquired control of RISC OS. On 26 July 1999, an Acorn management team led by Stan Boland bought the DSP business, Element 14, from MSDW for £1.5 million – its net asset value. Element 14 subsequently secured £8.25 ($13) million in first-round funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Atlas Ventures and Hauser's Amadeus Capital Partners. It had its headquarters in Cambridge and an engineering facility in Bristol, UK. It headhunted Alcatel's top digital subscriber line (DSL) engineers, including designers of analogue front-end and digital ICs, xDSL modem software and specialists in asymmetric DSL (ADSL) and very high rate DSL (VDSL) systems, and thereby acquired an engineering centre in Mechelen, Belgium. Element 14 continued to develop its DSP products until it was purchased by Broadcom in November 2000 for £366 million ($594 million). Pace Micro Technology is a British manufacture of set top boxes for digital and analogue satellite television, founded in 1982. ... RISC OS, which stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computing Operating System is a British Graphical user interface-based operating system for ARM-processor based computers or similar devices. ... July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Alcatel SA is a global company, headquartered in France that provides hardware, software and services to telecommunications service providers and enterprises. ... A typical DSL Modem Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL, is a family of technologies that provide digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network. ... Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional modem can provide. ... It has been suggested that VDSL2 be merged into this article or section. ... Mechelen: Grote Markt square, with St. ... Broadcom Corporation NASDAQ: BRCM is a leading supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for broadband communications. ...

The operating system developed for Phoebe, RISC OS 4 – codename Ursula, was made available to Risc PC users by RISCOS Ltd, which licensed the operating system, and continues to develop, support and sell RISC OS today. However, the market is still competitive with two strands of the OS currently being developed, the 26-bit RISC OS 4 which is currently sold for the Microdigital Omega, and the 32-bit RISC OS 5 for the Castle Iyonix. This competition recently caused a crisis in the community, one that threatened the platform's existence. An operating system (OS) is an essential software program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... RISCOS Ltd was a UK limited company created in 1999 to continue user-focused development of the RISC OS operating system after the collapse of Acorn. ... 32-bit is a term applied to processors, and computer architectures which manipulate the address and data in 32-bit chunks. ... The Iyonix PC is an Acorn-clone personal computer from Castle Technology Ltd. ...

Acorn relaunch controversy (2006)

In April 2006, some newsportals claimed that Acorn had relaunched; this is untrue.^{[citation needed]} The new company is a small PC box shifter selling rebadged OEM notebook computers running Windows XP, and also Intellinote branded portables. The company exhibited its new computers at the CTS 2006 show at the Birmingham NEC in early May where the company distributed leaflets inviting people to "be part of one of the most exciting brand re-launches in UK history by becoming a reseller of the Acorn range".^[5]^[6] Image File history File links Stop_hand. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Laptop with touchpad. ... Windows XP is the name of a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ... The city from above Centenary Square. ... The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is the seventh largest exhibition centre in Europe, located in Solihull, near Birmingham, England. ...

The company has no connection to the original Acorn Computers and are breaking Acorn's trademark (owned by Morgan Stanley).^{[citation needed]} They are not selling any RISC OS or BBC Micro related products. According to WHOIS queries for the company's domain name, acorncomputer.co.uk, the "The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their address omitted from the WHOIS service".^[7] The only active element of the site appears to be an application form to become an authorised Acorn reseller.^[8] Records held by Companies House show that this incarnation of Acorn is a Private Limited Company (company number 05690546) incorporated on 28 January 2006. Its head office is listed as 22 The Ropewalk, Nottingham. In contrast, the previous Acorn Computers Ltd. (company number 02926030) was registered in London and dissolved in September 2000.^[9] Records show that one Shahid Sultan, 32 is registered as a director and the company secretary Abid Sultan, 31, both living in Nottingham.^[10] Morgan Stanley NYSE: MS is an investment bank, retail broker, and credit card provider with headquarters in New York Citys Times Square. ... WHOIS is a TCP-based query/response protocol which is widely used for querying a database in order to determine the owner of a domain name, an IP address, or an autonomous system number on the Internet. ... Companies House is an Executive Agency of the United Kingdom Government Department of Trade and Industry. ... A Limited liability company (denoted by L.L.C. or LLC) is a type of legal entity which has only relatively recently been made possible to establish in the United States and many other, mainly anglophone, countries. ... Nottingham is a city (and county town of Nottinghamshire) in the East Midlands of England. ...

Trademark issues

Drobe.co.uk reports that "Acorn Computers Ltd have licensed the right to use the word 'Acorn' in trademark class 9 (which includes computers and similar work) and 41 (mainly training material) from Aristide & Co Antiquaire De Marques, 57 Rue D'Amsterdam, 75008 Paris, France."^[10] In the UK, the relevant name and logo are apparently still owned by Element 14.^[11]

Contents

Prehistory

CPU Ltd (1978–83)

The microcomputer systems

The Atom

BBC Micro and the Electron

Acorn Computer Group plc (1983–85)

New RISC architecture

Financial problems

Olivetti subsidiary (1985–98)

BBC Master and Archimedes

ARM Ltd

Set-Top boxes

Network Computers

Final break up of Acorn (1998–2000)

Acorn relaunch controversy (2006)

Trademark issues

See also

Footnotes

References

External links

Contents

Prehistory GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

CPU Ltd (1978–83)

The microcomputer systems

The Atom

BBC Micro and the Electron

Acorn Computer Group plc (1983–85)

New RISC architecture

Financial problems

Olivetti subsidiary (1985–98)

BBC Master and Archimedes

ARM Ltd

Set-Top boxes

Network Computers

Final break up of Acorn (1998–2000)

Acorn relaunch controversy (2006)

Trademark issues

See also

Footnotes

References

External links

Prehistory