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Acorn Computers Dead

Acorn Computers
KindCompany
Founded1978
Defunct2000
StatusDead
FoundersHermann Hauser & Chris Curry
FieldHome computers
Sourcebitsavers.org ↗

The BBC Micro company — and the birthplace of ARM, designed for the Archimedes when no suitable chip existed. The processor outlived the company by orders of magnitude.

Created BBC Micro Acorn Archimedes RISC OS

Founded 1978 in Cambridge by Hauser and Curry; the BBC chose its machine for the 1981 Computer Literacy Project, and the Beeb went into most British schools. Elite and Exile were written on it.

Needing a successor CPU in 1983–85, Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber designed the Acorn RISC Machine in two years — elegant, small, fast. Olivetti took control in 1985; the company was broken up 1998–2000. ARM Holdings was spun off in 1990 and is now the most-shipped processor architecture in history.

Sources

  1. bitsavers.org/pdf/acorn/
  2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Computers