
5th December 1978: Acorn Computers Ltd Formed in Cambridge, UK - rbanffy
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/936/Acorn-Computers-Ltd-formed-in-Cambridge-UK/
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sambeau
I highly recommend watching "Micro Men" which focuses on the rivalry between
Sir Clive Sinclair, who developed the ZX Spectrum, and Chris Curry of Acorn.

The original script was called "Syntax Era" which is still a much funnier name
:)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM)

~~~
timthorn
In which the proprietor of The Centre for Computing History (hosting this
thread's target webpage) had a cameo.

~~~
louthy
As did Sophie Wilson (barmaid at the end)

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jacquesm
In many ways Acorn was more important to computing than Apple. The hardware
was super elegant and each successive machine improved on the previous
generation tremendously and the software was absolutely world class. Just
studying the firmware of the BBC Micro made me a far better programmer.

~~~
webwielder2
You've described why Acorn may have had better technology than Apple but not
why they are more important.

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louthy
I guess Acorn inventing the ARM chip might give some credence to the GPs
point. Acorn were definitely more important in the UK because of the impact of
the BBC's Computer Literacy Project - I sit here as a CTO of a software
company because of that project. I suspect a large number of the UK's software
companies can trace their routes back to that. For the rest of the world I
guess the question is open

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whywhywhywhy
If you own a Raspberry Pi you can actually boot up RISC OS. Definitely
recommend you try it out.[1]

But one thing to keep in mind, the fast boot up, super responsiveness and
anti-aliased fonts are not because you're running a 90s operating system on
201X tech, it actually ran that nicely back in the day too.

I often wonder what computing today would look like if different operating
systems had gained dominance.

[1] [https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/raspberry-
pi](https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/raspberry-pi)

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codeulike
The people that designed and built the first ARM processor (in 1985), for
those that dont know. Among other things.

ARM originally meant Acorn RISC Machine.

~~~
rbanffy
The Acorn Atom, its successor, the BBC micro family, then the Archimedes, the
first 32-bit RISC personal computer (for which the ARM was designed)...

Their impact cannot be overstated.

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tinktank
But wasn't the Atom a copy of the MIPS? I was under the impression MIPS did it
first but ARM did it better?

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codeulike
You mean ARM not Atom? I dont think the ARM was a copy of anything, but ARM
and MIPS both use a RISC approach.

~~~
rbanffy
If anything, I remember hearing a presentation where they claimed the ARM was
influenced by the 6502 they used in the Atom an the BBC. The 6502 is an
absolutely delightful machine to program for.

The jump delay slots, I think, are something they share with MIPS, but I'm not
aware of anything else.

~~~
vidarh
It influenced their decision to do their own, first and foremost. Basically
Bill Mensch at Western Design Centre provided them evidence by example that a
tiny team could build their own CPU.

~~~
rbanffy
> a tiny team could build their own CPU

I almost did that in college. It was a beauty - a stack based CPU that could
run an almost decent FORTH on metal. I wonder if it would have worked if
actually built.

Of course, ARM is a much more complex thing than my toy.

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timthorn
A good excuse to break out the link to the BBC's Computer Literacy Project,
including the back catalogue of "Micro Live": [https://computer-literacy-
project.pilots.bbcconnectedstudio....](https://computer-literacy-
project.pilots.bbcconnectedstudio.co.uk/programmes)

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danellis
And a generation of British childhood programmers was born.

~~~
jacquesm
European. The BBC Micro was a smash hit all over Europe.

~~~
chx
Western Europe, at most. Behind the Iron Curtain, it didn't exist. Among the
Western machines, Commodore got a foothold, C16, C64, Plus 4, ZX Spectrum and
somewhat the Atari ST and by the end, there were some Amiga 500s.

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fredley
One of the first computers I ever used was an Acorn, the only thing I can
really remember about it was its odd mouse - it had three buttons (no scroll
wheel) and both the middle and right buttons provided different context menus!

~~~
Symbiote
Middle button provided a context menu, and right button an alternative form of
a left click. The kind of thing a shift-click would get now, like adding to a
selection of icons in a file dialogue.

RISC OS can run on any Raspberry Pi very easily, or emulators like Arcem.

