Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Acorn Computers in 1981 convinced the BBC to use its then-unbuilt BBC Micro to drive the broadcaster’s national campaign for computer literacy.
The BBC Micro would go on to dominate schools, prove a smash hit with adults and change the lives of millions – in the UK and abroad. Not bad for a technology start up from Cambridge that had little experience of building commercial computers.
The National Museum of Computing re-united three of the key actors involved in this remarkable story on BBC Micro’s 40th birthday.
Watch our Q&A with Acorn co-founder Hermann Hauser and technology architects Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber, where they tackle:
- Acorn management’s decision to seize the initiative and chase the prestigious BBC computer contract.
- The challenges faced when building a convincing prototype in five days and shipping in less than a year!
- The fierce competitive pressures from rivals including Sir Clive Sinclair and Apple.
- The engineering chemistry that saw Team Acorn overcome technological difficulties, taking on the industry’s biggest names.
- The road to ARM, an architecture that would dominate mobile computing decades later.
Recorded 30th November 2021.
Teletext artwork (cake with candles): thanks to @horsenburger (Twitter).
Acorn Computers in 1981 convinced the BBC to use its then-unbuilt BBC Micro to drive the broadcaster’s national campaign for computer literacy.
The BBC Micro would go on to dominate schools, prove a smash hit with adults and change the lives of millions – in the UK and abroad. Not bad for a technology start up from Cambridge that had little experience of building commercial computers.
The National Museum of Computing re-united three of the key actors involved in this remarkable story on BBC Micro’s 40th birthday.
Watch our Q&A with Acorn co-founder Hermann Hauser and technology architects Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber, where they tackle:
- Acorn management’s decision to seize the initiative and chase the prestigious BBC computer contract.
- The challenges faced when building a convincing prototype in five days and shipping in less than a year!
- The fierce competitive pressures from rivals including Sir Clive Sinclair and Apple.
- The engineering chemistry that saw Team Acorn overcome technological difficulties, taking on the industry’s biggest names.
- The road to ARM, an architecture that would dominate mobile computing decades later.
Recorded 30th November 2021.
Teletext artwork (cake with candles): thanks to @horsenburger (Twitter).
