Like many others, I own my technology life in computers to the BBC Micro, and it has a warm place in my heart forever. Without Sophie & Roger, the world of ARM wouldn't exist as it does now. Hooray for "MIPS for the masses."
I remember my first few encounters with these computers being terrifying. Only because the teacher would go berserk if you pressed the wrong key or dared to list the program that had been loaded. I wonder how many other teachers were like this and put so many of us off these things. 40 years? I must be having fun.
I worked in one of the earliest computer shops in the UK from 1979, to 1992. I owned an Acorn Atom. I remember getting into an argument with Chris Curry at the computer fair when the BBC micro was announced, because I wanted to know what would happen with the Atom. He said that they MIGHT do a BBC basic upgrade for the Atom, but that was about it. Needless to say, I was pissed off. I can tell you now, that if Acorn had tried to turn the Proton in to a working machine, without BBC and UK government investment, they would have gone bankrupt like all the others, far far sooner. When I worked at my computer shop, one of my job was to evaluate potential machines to sell. I chose Commodore, ACT Sirius, Apricot computers (Mostly forgotten these days), IBM and Compaq. We sold almost the entire Commodore range until Jack Tramiel left, as by that time, Commodore had completely lost the plot and was churning out white elephants like the b128, 500 series and 700 series. They did big slow, poor performing PC clones that were easily undercut. Stephen Walters G7VFY
Between 1977 and 1987 there were massive changes in computers every few months. The standardisation in the IBM PC architecture has brought things into some stability. Today's PCs can trace their design back 40 years through evolution rather than revolution. Your problem with your Atom is computers were in a revolutionary phase so they were forgotten rather than given backward compatibility and upgrades. I remember the CP/M machines of the time were deliberately designed so you could only read the disks designed for it.
The ARM processor is the absolute winner of the CPU race, and I do wonder if Sophie Wilson has been rewarded adequately for the innovation that took place back then. The next decade will be interesting as we watch Apple migrate to ARM on the desktop, and see what happens with Windows on ARM at the same time. I'm curious to know how long it'll take before ARM Windows can run on a Mac, and whether that ends up pushing ARM on desktops and laptops more than the Surface devices with ARM CPUs. Interesting times!
Computer history is littered with interesting products that died. There was in the Inmos Transputer CPU which should have done very well because it could be expanded by adding more Transputers. Acorn ARM has found huge success. At one time it looked like IBMs PowerPC was going to dominate, it took over gaming consoles and Apple used it but it got dropped late 2000's in favour of a return to x86. Apple forever changing their CPU has now dropped x86 and is using ARM. Will game consoles follow?
Like many others, I own my technology life in computers to the BBC Micro, and it has a warm place in my heart forever.
Without Sophie & Roger, the world of ARM wouldn't exist as it does now. Hooray for "MIPS for the masses."
Sophie and Steve
I remember my first few encounters with these computers being terrifying. Only because the teacher would go berserk if you pressed the wrong key or dared to list the program that had been loaded. I wonder how many other teachers were like this and put so many of us off these things. 40 years? I must be having fun.
I love a structured discussion :-). Thank you to all involved, you made a great machine.
Still got my BBC, did have a 2nd processor for for it, but sold it to a school. Have also still got my Archimedes
I worked in one of the earliest computer shops in the UK from 1979, to 1992. I owned an Acorn Atom. I remember getting into an argument with Chris Curry at the computer fair when the BBC micro was announced, because I wanted to know what would happen with the Atom. He said that they MIGHT do a BBC basic upgrade for the Atom, but that was about it. Needless to say, I was pissed off.
I can tell you now, that if Acorn had tried to turn the Proton in to a working machine, without BBC and UK government investment, they would have gone bankrupt like all the others, far far sooner.
When I worked at my computer shop, one of my job was to evaluate potential machines to sell. I chose Commodore, ACT Sirius, Apricot computers (Mostly forgotten these days), IBM and Compaq.
We sold almost the entire Commodore range until Jack Tramiel left, as by that time, Commodore had completely lost the plot and was churning out white elephants like the b128, 500 series and 700 series. They did big slow, poor performing PC clones that were easily undercut. Stephen Walters G7VFY
Between 1977 and 1987 there were massive changes in computers every few months. The standardisation in the IBM PC architecture has brought things into some stability. Today's PCs can trace their design back 40 years through evolution rather than revolution. Your problem with your Atom is computers were in a revolutionary phase so they were forgotten rather than given backward compatibility and upgrades. I remember the CP/M machines of the time were deliberately designed so you could only read the disks designed for it.
The ARM processor is the absolute winner of the CPU race, and I do wonder if Sophie Wilson has been rewarded adequately for the innovation that took place back then.
The next decade will be interesting as we watch Apple migrate to ARM on the desktop, and see what happens with Windows on ARM at the same time.
I'm curious to know how long it'll take before ARM Windows can run on a Mac, and whether that ends up pushing ARM on desktops and laptops more than the Surface devices with ARM CPUs.
Interesting times!
Computer history is littered with interesting products that died. There was in the Inmos Transputer CPU which should have done very well because it could be expanded by adding more Transputers. Acorn ARM has found huge success. At one time it looked like IBMs PowerPC was going to dominate, it took over gaming consoles and Apple used it but it got dropped late 2000's in favour of a return to x86. Apple forever changing their CPU has now dropped x86 and is using ARM. Will game consoles follow?
It’s a disaster the Conservatives allowed the ARM company to be sold outside the UK.