BBC Acorn Computers BBC Micro ARM Acorn Archimedes Acorn personal computer
The BBC became interested in running a series of educational computer literacy TV programmes in the early 1980s and issued an invitation to tender for a personal computer to accompany the project. After examining several entrants, what was then known as the Proton from Acorn Computers was selected. A number of minor changes were made resulting in the BBC Micro. The machine achieved widespread success in UK education sector and the system sold more than 1.5 million units. Acorn subsequently developed the ARM processor (which then stood for Acorn RISC Machine) to power future projects. The CPU was originally simulated and tested on a BBC Micro and saw first commercial use in the Acorn Archimedes. ARM CPUs are now widely deployed in the majority of smartphones and tablet computers amongst a vast collection of other devices.
