Acorn Electron
The Acorn Electron is a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer introduced by Acorn Computers Ltd on 25 August 1983. It has 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM includes BBC BASIC v2 along with its operating system.
The Electron was able to save and load programs onto audio cassette via a supplied converter cable that connected it to any standard tape recorder that had the correct sockets. It was capable of basic graphics, and could display onto either a television set, a colour (RGB) monitor or a "green screen" monitor.
For a short period, the Electron was reportedly the best selling micro in the United Kingdom, with an estimated 200,000 to 250,000 machines sold over its entire commercial lifespan.
Model: Acorn
Adapter: External PSU, 19V AC
Year: 1983
Keyboard: 56-key cwitch keyboard
Cpu: Synertek SY6502A clocked at 2 MHz when accessing ROM and 1 MHz when accessing RAM Speed: 2 mhz CO-processor: x Ram: 432K RAM 32K ROM Sound: 1 channel of sound, 7 octaves; built-in speaker. Software emulation of noise channel supported
Display: RF modulator, composite video, RGB monitor output, 160×256 (4 or 16 colours), 320×256 (2 or 4 colours), 640×256 (2 colours), 320×200 (2 colours – spaced display with two blank horizontal lines following every 8 pixel lines), 640×200 (2 colours – spaced display)
Size - Weight: 58 mm x 343 mm x 160 mm
I/O ports: Expansion port, tape recorder connector (1200 baud CUTS variation on the Kansas City standard for data encoding, via a 7-pin circular DIN connector), aerial TV connector (RF modulator), composite video and RGB monitor output
Media: Cassetta, floppy disk (opzionale), cartuccia ROM (opzionale) OS: Acorn MOS V.1.0
Peripherals: x
Price: 133 £ (1983)
The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers designed and built by Acorn Computers Limited in the 1980s for the Computer Literacy Project of the BBC. The machine was the focus of a number of educational BBC TV programmes on computer literacy, starting with The Computer Programme in 1982, followed by Making the Most of the Micro, Computers in Control in 1983, and finally Micro Live in 1985.
Model: BBC micro
Adapter: Internal PSU, 220 VAC
Year: 1981-1994
Keyboard: Keyboard, twin analogue joysticks with fire buttons, lightpen
Cpu: Synertek SY6502A clocked at 2 MHz when accessing ROM and 1 MHz when accessing RAM Speed: 2 mhz CO-processor: x Ram: 16–32 KiB (Model A/B)64–128 KiB (Model B+) 128 KiB (Master) Plus 32–128 KB ROM, expandable to 272 KiB Sound: Texas Instruments SN76489, 4 channels, monoTMS5220 speech synthesiser with phrase ROM (optional) Display: PAL/NTSC, UHF/composite/TTL RGB
Size - Weight: x
I/O ports: Printer parallel, RS-423 serial, user parallel, Econet (optional), 1 MHz bus, Tube second processor interface
Media: cassette tape, floppy disk (optional) – 5+1⁄4-inch or (later) 3+1⁄2-inch, hard disk also known as 'Winchester' (rare), Laserdisc (BBC Domesday Project)OS: Acorn MOS V.1.0
Peripherals: x
Price: 235 £ (1981)