First available in early 1982, the BBC Microcomputer System, affectionately called "the beeb" for BBC, was very popular in the UK, partly because it was "home grown" -
designed and manufactured in the UK by a UK company - but also because there was a huge push by the government to introduce this specific computer into the school system -
the UK government paid half of the computers cost to the schools. By 1982, 80 percent of schools in the UK owned a BBC Micro.
It's humble beginnings started when the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation
- the world's oldest national broadcaster) commissioned a personal computer to star in their new educational TV show.
At the request of the Margaret Thatcher government, the BBC launched the
Computer Literacy Project - due to the explosion of personal computing and the spread of information
technology, to provide the opportunity for viewers to learn through direct experience how to use and program their own microcomputer. The BBC felt it was very
important to provide for "hands-on" experience - "We didn't want people to be controlled by it, but to control it".
There was no time to design and build a new microcomputer from scratch, since this would probably have taken at least two years, but they knew that a number
of companies were planning new machines. They approached several British manufacturers, including Acorn, Tangerine, Newbury, Research Machines, Sinclair, Transam,
and Nascom, who they thought were capable of producing a suitable micro, with a list of the hardware and software facilities they wanted - ease of use, robustness,
high-resolution graphics, colour, substantial memory, powerful and well-structured BASIC, expandability to interface with discs, printers, and teletext.
Of all the computers that were put forward during the tender process, the prototype of the Acorn "Proton" was chosen as it most closely met the requirements
that had been set out. The Acorn "Proton" was redesigned and became the "BBC Microcomputer System".
Regarded by the government as extremely important for the future, many agencies were willing to help and advise the BBC.
The Department of Industry decided it would subsidise half of the price for each Model that Britain's schools purchased.
Although the BBC only specified that 12,000 should be made (so viewers of its new Computer Programme would be able to share the experience of the new
microcomputing revolution), uptake was so rapid that, by 1982, 24,000 were sold, and schools were ordering them by the thousand.
Over the years, the BBC Micro eventually sold over 1.5 million systems. Hermann Hauser, co-founder of Acorn Computers, stated:
"The BBC Computer Literacy Project made Britain the most computer-literate nation on earth at the time."
It was described as "a unique moment in time when the public wanted to know how this stuff works and could be shown and taught how to program".
The UK TV viewing public first got a taste of microcomputers back in March of 1978, when a BBC documentary series "Horizon, episode "Now the Chips are Down", highlighted
the importance and influence of microprocessors within the British economy.
Then in 1979, UK's ITV (a British free-to-air television network) broadcast a six-part documentary series entitled "The Mighty Micro", which discussed the coming microcomputer
revolution and its effect on the economy, industry, and lifestyle of the United Kingdom.
The "The Mighty Micro" was hosted by Christopher Evans of the UK's
National Physical Laboratory, and was based on his book
of the same title
(review), which included many of his predictions for the future.
By the year 2000 (remember, he made these pedictions back in 1979):
the use of cash money will be quickly replaced by the use of credit cards, which will contain a computer chip.
substantial and dramatic advances would have taken place in the field of artificial intelligence.
ultra-intelligent machines with powers far greater than our own.
a wristwatch which monitors your heart and blood pressure.
computer-based education would supplant teachers.
an entire library stored in the space of just one book.
doors that open only to the voices of their owners.
the printed word would become virtually obsolete.
a flourishing computer-games industry.
self-driving collision-proof cars.
robotic lawn mowers.
But I digress-
The BBC Micro runs on BBC BASIC, a very powerful version of the BASIC prgramming language, which
still exists today. In the 1980s, most American computers ran versions of BASIC written and
sold by Microsoft, but BBC BASIC was developed specifically for the BBC Micro by
Sophie Wilson of Acorn Computers.
The BBC Micro computer has a large number of different video modes to choose from:
graphics resolution
text characters
colors available
memory useage
Mode 0
640x256
80x32
2
20kB RAM
Mode 1
320x256
40x32
4
20kB RAM
Mode 2
160x256
20x32
8
20kB RAM
Mode 3
text only
80x25
2
16kB RAM
Mode 4
320x256
40x32
2
10kB RAM
Mode 5
160x256
20x32
4
10kB RAM
Mode 6
text only
40x25
2
8kB RAM
Mode 7
"teletext"
40x25
8
1kB RAM
Mode 7 text is not bit-mapped like the other video modes - it uses the Mullard SAA5050
character generator chip for standard Teletext TV broadcasts, which is why it uses so little system memory.
The BBC Micro computer has an amazing assortment of expansion ports built-in:
BACK PANEL
BOTTOM PANEL
UHF TV video out
"Tube" CPU port
composite video out
1MHz bus
RGB video out
"user" port
RS-423 serial data
printer port
cassette interface
disk drive port
analog input
disk drive power
Econet network (optional)
One of the reasons that they could have so many ports, is that there were fewer rules about electronic emissions in the UK vs. the US. In the United States,
this computer would never pass the FCC regulations for electronic noise emissions. In fact, Acorn developed a special version just for the US market,
about 50,000 systems total, but they spent way too much money in the attempt - $20m was sunk into the operation, and in 1984 America, the BBC Micros barely sold at all.
The BBC Micro was the first to host one of the all time greats of 80's computer gaming -
the role-playing trading game "Elite" (YouTube video)
But due to the the failure of the US BBC Micro market and other expensive R&D projects, Acorn found itself in a dire financial
situation, and in early 1985 sold a 49.3% stake to Italian computer company
Olivetti for £12 million.
Subsequent systems released include the BBC Master and Acorn Archimede.
This particular BBC Micro has an ATPL SideWise ROM/RAM
memory expansion board installed, which allows the use all 16 Sideways ROMs that the OS is capable of. The board also comes with 16K of battery-backed (optional)
sideways RAM for you to soft load ROM images into.
To the left on the main motherboard are two Texas Instruments chips which comprise the
Acorn Speech Synthesiser Upgrade -
the BBC Micro can talk, although a little like a drunk sailor. It's actually based on the voice of famous BBC News anchor
Kenneth Kendall, but early computer speech synthesis wasn't very good.
BBC News anchor Kenneth Kendall was also in the ground-breaking movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
He's the one reading the news on the display, of course.
