A history of ARM, part 1: Building the first chip
15 hours ago
- #BBC Micro
- #Computer History
- #Acorn Computers
- Acorn Computers was successful in 1983, especially with the BBC Micro, selling over 1.2 million units.
- The personal computer market was shifting towards more powerful machines like the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh, threatening Acorn's position.
- Sophie Wilson, a BBC Micro designer, anticipated market changes and added the 'Tube' slot for a more powerful CPU.
- Wilson and Steve Furber evaluated 16-bit processors (Intel 80286, National Semiconductor 32016, Motorola 68000) but found them lacking in memory efficiency and speed.
- They aimed for a processor that could match the efficiency of programming the 6502 in machine code while supporting higher-level languages.