BBC Micro

(Work in Progress)

Designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Following the Literacy Project's call for bids for a computer to accompany the TV programmes and literature (maintaining a standard computer language that would allow all viewers and schools to follow along at home/school), Acorn won the contract with the Proton beating off stiff competition from former boss Clive Sinclair. Renamed the BBC Micro, the platform was chosen by most schools and became a cornerstone of computing in British education in the 1980s. It was also moderately successful as a home computer in the United Kingdom despite its high cost.

Depite unparalled exposure and market saturation, the BBC Micro never made serious in-roads into the home computing market where it was beaten into third place by the much more affordable ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 until the arrival of the CPC 464 pushed the ageing machine further down the pecking order.

While nine models were eventually produced with the BBC brand, the term BBC Micro is usually colloquially used to refer to the first six (Model A, B, B+64 and B+128, Master 128, Master Compact), with the subsequent models considered as part of the Archimedes series.