BBC Micro

The BBC Micro ( Acorn BBC Micro computer ) is a based on the 6502 processor ( 2 MHz) home computer the British company Acorn.

Its distribution he found from 1981, especially in British schools because a show with the BBC used the Acorn as a teaching model. Hence the commonly used name "BBC Micro" for the Acorn A Models (16 KB RAM), B ( 32 KB RAM ) and B ( 64 KB RAM).

Unique for its time was the open system of the Acorn - the so-called Tube. About the Tube can connect to the otherwise independent working computer, additional CPU modules. Were possible here processors of type 6502, Z80, and ARM1 that degraded the computer to the console, but also by the use of other operating systems ( CP / M, Unix) allowed.

Internally, the Acorn had in his ROM with BBC BASIC already a powerful BASIC. He offered a graphics resolution up to 640 × 256, 4 - channel sound, digital -to-analog converter and various external interfaces (parallel, serial, monitor, TV, User port).

Because of the relatively high price, the Micro could never prevail internationally, therefore appeared later with the Acorn Electron also a cheaper version of the Micro. The sequel to the BBC Micro was the master.

Background

In the early '80s, the British Remote Sense Santander BBC started the project BBC Computer Literacy Project. The project was mainly in response to the then very influential television documentary The Mighty Micro, in which Dr Christopher Evans from the National Physical Laboratory, the impending revolution of the microcomputer describes and the resulting effects on the economy, industry and society in England.

The BBC needed for the project, a microcomputer, which was able to perform certain tasks that you wanted to teach the audience in the TV series The computer programs in 1982. The list of requirements contained programming the computer, computer graphics, sounds and music, Teletext, controlling external hardware and artificial intelligence. To this end, a specification has been written and discussed with various computer manufacturers. This included Sinclair Research, Newbury Laboratories, Tangerine Computer Systems, Dragon Data and Acorn Computers.

The Acorn team worked at this time already on the successor of the Acorn Atom computer. However, the device was still in an early development phase, and the team ( They were joined by Steve Furber and Sophie Wilson) had only four days to make a working prototype according to the specifications of the BBC it. At the end of Acorn was successful with his computer: Not only was the Acorn computer the only one that met the specifications of the BBC, but he surpassed the requirements in nearly every field.

The BBC Micro in the music industry

• The British musician Vince Clarke, who played in the bands Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure used the BBC Micro ( and later the BBC Master) with his UMI Music Sequencer in order to compose some of his pieces. In some music videos with Vince Clarke of the BBC Micro is used to display text and graphics in the videos, so also in the hit Oh L' Amour of the band Erasure.
• The British rock band Queen used the UMI Music Sequencer on their record A Kind of Magic. The UMI is also called on the CD booklet of the plate. Other bands that used the BBC Micro for their music, were a-ha and Steel Pulse.

Others

On the Origin of the BBC Micro, a film was shot in 2009: " Micro Men", which describes the competition between the companies Acorn and Sinclair Research for the production of the computer for the BBC.