Acorn Computers Ltd.

Acorn Computers Ltd.

   <company> A UK computer manufacturer, part of the {Acorn
   Computer Group} plc.  Acorn was founded on 1978-12-05, on a
   kitchen table in a back room.  Their first creation was an
   electronic slot machine.  After the {Acorn System 1}, 2 and 3,
   Acorn launched the first commercial {microcomputer} - the
   {ATOM} in March 1980.  In April 1981, Acorn won a contract
   from the {BBC} to provide the {PROTON}.  In January 1982 Acorn
   launched the {BBC Microcomputer} System.  At one time, 70% of
   microcomputers bought for UK schools were BBC Micros.

   The Acorn Computer Group went public on the Unlisted
   Securities Market in September 1983.  In April 1984 Acorn won
   the Queen's Award for Technology for the BBC Micro and in
   September 1985 {Olivetti} took a controlling interest in
   Acorn.  The {Master} 128 Series computers were launched in
   January 1986 and the BBC {Domesday} System in November 1986.

   In 1983 Acorn began to design the Acorn RISC Machine (ARM),
   the first low-cost, high volume {RISC} processor chip (later
   renamed the {Advanced RISC Machine}).  In June 1987 they
   launched the {Archimedes} range - the first 32-bit {RISC}
   based {microcomputers} - which sold for under UKP 1000.  In
   February 1989 the R140 was launched.  This was the first
   {Unix} {workstation} under UKP 4000.  In May 1989 the A3000
   (the new {BBC Microcomputer}) was launched.

   In 1990 Acorn formed {Advanced RISC Machines} Ltd. (ARM) in
   partnership with {Apple Computer, Inc.} and {VLSI} to develop
   the ARM processor.  Acorn has continued to develop {RISC}
   based products.

   With 1992 revenues of 48.2 million pounds, Acorn Computers was
   the premier supplier of {Information Technology} products to
   UK education and had been the leading provider of 32-bit RISC
   based {personal computers} since 1987.

   Acorn finally folded in the late 1990s.  Their operating
   system, {RISC OS} was further developed by a consortium of
   suppliers.

   Usenet newsgroups: news:comp.sys.acorn,
   news:comp.sys.acorn.announce, news:comp.sys.acorn.tech,
   news:comp.binaries.acorn, news:comp.sources.acorn,
   news:comp.sys.acorn.advocacy, news:comp.sys.acorn.games.

   Acorn's FTP server (ftp://ftp.acorn.co.uk/).

   HENSA software archive
   (http://micros.hensa.ac.uk/micros/arch.html).  Richard
   Birkby's Acorn page (http://csv.warwick.ac.uk/~phudv/).
   RiscMan's Acorn page (http://geko.com.au/riscman/).
   Acorn On The Net (http://stir.ac.uk/~rhh01/Main.html).
   "The Jungle" by Simon Truss
   (http://csc.liv.ac.uk/users/u1smt/u1smt.html).

   [Recent history?]

   (2000-09-26)