124-450: Christopher Curry (born 28 January 1946) is a British businessman and the co-founder of Acorn Computers , with Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper . He became a millionaire as a result of Acorn's success. In his early career days, Curry worked at Pye , Royal Radar Establishment and W.R. Grace Laboratories . Then, in April 1966 he joined Sinclair Radionics where he worked for 13 years. He
248-526: A $ 45 million contract to produce the BBC Micro for the US market. During the search for potential financing partners, an Olivetti director had approached Close Brothers, ostensibly as part of Olivetti's strategy of acquiring technologically advanced small companies. After a short period of negotiations, Curry and Hauser signed an agreement with Olivetti on 20 February. With the founders relinquishing control of
372-704: A BBC Micro with a 6502 second processor. It convinced the Acorn engineers that they were on the right track. Before they could go any further, however, they would need more resources. It was time for Wilson to approach Hauser and explain what was afoot. Once the go-ahead had been given, a small team was put together to implement Wilson's model in hardware. Acorn initiated its RISC research project in October 1983, and by 1987 had spent £5 million . VLSI Technology, Inc were chosen as silicon partner, since they already supplied Acorn with ROMs and some custom chips. VLSI produced
496-422: A CR2032 battery, had a fixed volume and was inserted in the ear. The X1 radio had three buttons, an on/off switch, a Scan button, and a Reset button to restart the scanning process. It came with a short length of aerial and a detachable ear hook. The following computer products were under development at Sinclair Research during the 1980s but never reached production: Standing for "Low Cost Colour Computer",
620-464: A Motorola 68008 processor. Production was delayed by several months, due to unfinished development of hardware and software at the time of the QL's launch. Hardware reliability problems and software bugs resulted in the QL acquiring a poor reputation from which it never recovered. The ZX Spectrum+ was a repackaged ZX Spectrum 48K, launched in October 1984. The ZX Spectrum 128, with RAM expanded to 128 kB,
744-599: A fruit machine for Ace Coin Equipment (ACE) of Wales . The ACE project was started at office space obtained at 4a Market Hill in Cambridge. Initially, the ACE controller was based on a National Semiconductor SC/MP microprocessor, but soon the switch to a MOS Technology 6502 was made. CPU had financed the development of a SC/MP based microcomputer system using the income from its design-and-build consultancy. This system
868-880: A sound chip and other enhancements, was launched in Spain in September 1985 and the UK in January 1986, priced at £179.95. Sinclair created various peripherals for its computers, including memory expansion modules, the ZX Printer , and the ZX Interface 1 and ZX Interface 2 add-ons for the ZX Spectrum. A number of QL peripherals were developed by other companies but marketed under the Sinclair brand. External storage for
992-458: A "Super QL" based on wafer-scale integration technology. This was rumoured to be a hypothetical portable version of the QL similar to Pandora . In November 2010 Sinclair told The Guardian newspaper that he was working on a new prototype electric vehicle, called the X-1 , to be launched within a year. "Technology has moved on quite a bit, there are new batteries available and I just rethought
1116-512: A 2–4 MHz 6502-based system doing the graphics. Acorn would need a new architecture. Acorn had investigated all of the readily available processors and found them wanting or unavailable to them. After testing all of the available processors and finding them lacking, Acorn decided that it needed a new architecture. Inspired by white papers on the Berkeley RISC project, Acorn seriously considered designing its own processor. A visit to
1240-497: A business machine looked like a good idea to Acorn. A development programme was started to create a business computer using Acorn's existing technology: the BBC Micro mainboard, the Tube and second processors to give CP/M , MS-DOS and Unix ( Xenix ) workstations. This Acorn Business Computer (ABC) plan required a number of second processors to be made to work with the BBC Micro platform. In developing these, Acorn had to implement
1364-476: A close relationship with Torch Computers in the early 1980s, Acorn sought to acquire Torch in 1984 with the intention of making Torch "effectively the business arm" of Acorn, despite a lack of clarity about competing product lines and uncertainty about the future of Acorn's still-unreleased business machine within any rationalised product range, although this acquisition was never completed, with Torch having pulled out as Acorn's situation deteriorated. At around
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#17327868587811488-605: A director. GIS specialises in Smart Card technologies for access control and electronic money . In 2012 he announced his latest project with GIS, Care with Canary, a wireless sensor system that allows family members to remotely monitor relatives living alone and triggers alerts. Acorn Computers Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge , England in 1978 by Hermann Hauser , Chris Curry and Andy Hopper . The company produced
1612-752: A disappointing summer season in 1984, Acorn had evidently focused on making up for lost sales over the Christmas season, with the Electron being a particular focus. However, a refusal to discount the BBC Micro also appeared to inhibit sales of that machine, with some dealers expressing dissatisfaction to the point of considering abandoning the range altogether. With rumours of another, potentially cheaper, machine coming from Acorn, dealers eventually started to discount heavily after Christmas. For instance, high street retailer Rumbelows sought to clear unsold Christmas stocks of around 1500 machines priced at £299, offering
1736-494: A discount of around £100, also bundling them with a cassette recorder and software. The rumoured machine turned out to be the BBC Model B+ which was a relatively conservative upgrade and more, not less, expensive than the machine it replaced. It was speculated that the perception of a more competitive machine soon to be launched might well have kept potential purchasers away from the products that Acorn needed to sell. Acorn
1860-424: A drawn-out and expensive process that proved futile: all of the expansion devices that were intended to be sold with the BBC Micro had to be tested and radiation emissions had to be reduced. It was claimed that Acorn spent £10 million on its US operation without this localised variant of the BBC Micro establishing a significant market share. The machine, however, did make an appearance in the school of Supergirl in
1984-484: A failure to consider local market conditions and preferences, with "complex technical efforts" having been made to make the machine compatible with US television standards when local market information would have indicated that "US home computer users expect to use a dedicated personal computer monitor". Consequently, obtaining Federal approval for the BBC Micro in order to expand into the United States proved to be
2108-662: A faster Z80 CPU , a built-in ZX Microdrive and a new 512×192-pixel monochrome video mode. Due to the limited size of flat CRT that could be manufactured, a series of folding lenses and mirrors were necessary to magnify the screen image to a usable size. The project was cancelled after the Amstrad take-over, but the Pandora concept eventually transformed into the Cambridge Computer Z88 . This project
2232-640: A follow-up to an ITV documentary , The Mighty Micro , in which Dr Christopher Evans from the UK National Physical Laboratory predicted the coming microcomputer revolution . It was a very influential documentary—so much so that questions were asked in Parliament . As a result of these questions, the Department of Industry (DoI) became interested in the programme, as did BBC Enterprises , which saw an opportunity to sell
2356-676: A larger case with a second drive. The System 5 was largely similar to the System 4, but included a newer 2 MHz version of the 6502 . Development of the Sinclair ZX80 started at Science of Cambridge in May 1979. Learning of this probably prompted Curry to conceive the Atom project to target the consumer market. Curry and another designer, Nick Toop, worked from Curry's home in the Fens on
2480-612: A license to manufacture and market Sinclair's computers in the USA under the name Timex Sinclair . In April the ZX Spectrum was launched. In July Timex launched the TS 1000 (a version of the ZX81) in the United States. In March 1982 Sinclair Research Ltd made an £8.55m profit on turnover of £27.17m, including a £383,000 government grant to develop a flat screen. In 1982 Clive Sinclair converted
2604-562: A machine to go with the series. BBC Engineering was instructed to draw up an objective specification for a computer to accompany the series. Eventually, under some pressure from the DoI to choose a British system, the BBC chose the NewBrain from Newbury Laboratories. This selection revealed the extent of the pressure brought to bear on the supposedly independent BBC's computer literacy project—Newbury
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#17327868587812728-442: A market capitalisation of about £135 million. CPU founders Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry's stakes in the new company were worth £64m and £51m, respectively. Ten per cent of the equity was placed on the market, with the money raised from the flotation "mainly" directed towards establishing US and German subsidiaries (the flotation raising around £13.4 million ), although some was directed towards research and product development. By
2852-705: A millionaire as a result of Acorn's success with the BBC Micro project, in 1983 Curry co-founded Redwood Publishing with Michael Potter (former publisher of advertising trade weekly Campaign) and Christopher Ward (former editor of the Daily Express newspaper). The company bought the Acorn User title. At the time of the Olivetti takeover of Acorn in 1985 Curry founded General Information Systems Ltd (GIS), based on Acorn's Communications Group, and he remains
2976-634: A new microcomputer based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor. Sinclair Instrument Ltd introduced the computer as the ZX80 in February 1980, as both a kit and ready-built. In November 1979, Science of Cambridge Ltd was renamed Sinclair Computers Ltd. In March 1981, Sinclair Computers was renamed Sinclair Research Ltd and the Sinclair ZX81 was launched. In February 1982, Timex Corporation obtained
3100-498: A new multi-tasking OS, four internal ROM sockets, and shipped with a software suite based on View and ViewSheet. It also had an attached telephone, communications software and auto-answer/auto-dial modem. However, with Acorn's finances having sustained the development cost of the Archimedes, and with the custom systems division having contributed substantially to the company's losses in 1987, a change in strategy took effect towards
3224-476: A number of computers during the 1980s with associated software that were highly popular in the domestic market, and they have been historically influential in the development of computer technology like processors . The company's Acorn Electron , released in 1983, and the later Acorn Archimedes , were highly popular in Britain, while Acorn's BBC Micro computer dominated the educational computer market during
3348-423: A one-man company, marketing Clive Sinclair's inventions. On 25 July 1961, Clive Sinclair founded his first company, Sinclair Radionics Ltd. in Cambridge . The company developed hi-fi products, radios, calculators and scientific instruments. When it became clear that Radionics was failing, Sinclair took steps to ensure that he would be able to continue to pursue his commercial goals. In February 1975, he changed
3472-541: A project that would turn into the C5 some years later. In 1972, Sinclair Radionics launched its first electronic calculator, the Executive , which was considerably smaller than its competitors since it used hearing-aid-sized batteries. Curry and Jim Westwood had discovered that it was possible to exploit persistence in the diode displays and memory and introduced a timer that removed the power from these components for most of
3596-606: A proprietary local area network had been installed at Market Hill. It was decided to include this, the Econet , in the Atom, and at its launch at a computer show in March 1980, eight networked Atoms were demonstrated with functions that allowed files to be shared, screens to be remotely viewed and keyboards to be remotely slaved. After the Atom had been released into the market, Acorn contemplated building modern 16-bit processors to replace
3720-420: A relatively low-cost Ethernet interface card utilising Intel's 82586 network controller chip. Torus later released a network management solution called Tapestry, based on Icon and marketed by IBM for its own networking technologies. Torus also released support for the use of Novell's Advanced Netware product on its own networking hardware. The company eventually entered receivership in 1990 with Acorn reporting
3844-659: A standard for an educational microcomputer system analogous to the MSX computing architecture and to the established IBM PC compatible architecture. Deliberations continued into 1986, with Acorn proposing its own ARM processor architecture as the basis for the initiative, whereas Thomson had proposed the Motorola 68000. Expectations that Olivetti would actively market Acorn's machines in Europe were, however, frustrated by Olivetti's own assessment of Acorn's products as "too expensive" and
Christopher Curry (businessman) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3968-724: A £242,000 loss associated with the investment. Such were the ambitions of Acorn's management that a joint venture company was established in Hong Kong under the name Optical Information Systems , apparently engaging in the development of "digital, optical technology for computer data storage". Involving a Hong Kong turntable manufacturer, Better Sound Reproduction Ltd., Acorn were to set up a research and development facility in Palo Alto, California, US to bring "compact laser disk drives designed as floppy disk drive replacements" to market within 18 months. In February 1985, speculation about
4092-517: Is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge in the 1970s. In 1980, the company entered the home computer market with the ZX80 at £99.95, at that time the cheapest personal computer for sale in the United Kingdom. A year later, the ZX81 became available through retailers, introducing home computing to a generation, with more that 1.5 million sold. In 1982
4216-496: Is sometimes referred to as the "British Apple " and has been compared to Fairchild Semiconductor for being a catalyst for start-ups. On 25 July 1961, Clive Sinclair founded Sinclair Radionics to develop and sell electronic devices such as calculators . The failure of the Black Watch wristwatch and the calculator market's move from LEDs to LCDs led to financial problems, and Sinclair approached government body
4340-701: The Acorn User title. In 1985, he founded General Information Systems Ltd (GIS) and remains the director. In 2012, he announced his latest project for GIS, Care with Canary. Curry went to school initially in St Neots in Cambridgeshire , then later went to the independent Kimbolton School , also in Cambridgeshire. He gained two A levels, in Maths and Physics. He thought about going to university at
4464-640: The ARM . Acorn's development of their RISC OS operating system required around 200 OS development staff at its peak. Acorn C/C++ was released commercially by Acorn, for developers to use to compile their own applications. Having become a publicly traded company in 1983 during the home computer boom, Acorn's commercial performance in 1984 proved to be consequential. Many home computer manufacturers struggled to maintain customer enthusiasm, some offering unconvincing follow-up products that failed to appeal to buyers. The more successful manufacturers, like Amstrad, emphasised
4588-601: The Cambridge Ring networking system Hopper had worked on for his PhD , but it was soon decided to bring him into CPU as a director because he could promote CPU's interests at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory . CPU purchased Orbis, and Hopper's Orbis shares were exchanged for shares in CPU Ltd. CPU's role gradually changed as its Acorn brand grew, and soon CPU was simply the holding company and Acorn
4712-490: The Computer Conservation Society organised an event at London's Science Museum to mark the legacy of the BBC Micro. A number of the BBC Micro's principal creators were present, and Sophie Wilson recounted to the BBC how Hermann Hauser tricked her and Steve Furber to agree to create the physical prototype in less than five days. Also in 2008 a number of former staff organised a reunion event to mark
4836-741: The LC3 was developed during 1983 by Martin Brennan and was intended to be a cheap Z80-based games console implemented in two chips, using ROM and (non-volatile) RAM cartridges for storage. A multi-tasking operating system for the LC3 , with a full windowing GUI , was designed by Steve Berry. It was cancelled in November 1983 in favour of the QL . Intended to be a 68008 -based home computer , equipped with built-in ZX Microdrive , joystick, RS-232 and ZX Net ports. Sinclair's SuperBASIC programming language
4960-576: The National Enterprise Board (NEB) for help. After losing control of the company to the NEB, Sinclair encouraged Chris Curry to leave Radionics and get Science of Cambridge (SoC—an early name for Sinclair Research ) up and running. In June 1978, SoC launched a microcomputer kit, the MK14 , that Curry wanted to develop further, but Sinclair could not be persuaded so Curry resigned. During
5084-474: The National Enterprise Board (NEB) provided £650,000 in return for 43 per cent stake in Sinclair Radionics. Sinclair did not like sharing control of his company. Thus, he converted a company he had purchased in 1973, Ablesdeal Ltd, into Westminster Mail Order Ltd, which was itself renamed to Sinclair Instrument Ltd. In this way, he maintained control of his most important projects. Shortly after
Christopher Curry (businessman) - Misplaced Pages Continue
5208-526: The TS 2048 and 2068 ; that company also developed and launched the FDD3000 , a floppy disk system, although it was not well received by the market. The Sinclair QL was announced on 12 January 1984, shortly before the Apple Macintosh went on sale. The QL was nowhere near as successful as Sinclair's earlier computers. It suffered from several design flaws, and Your Sinclair noted that it
5332-559: The University of Southampton , but was keener to be earning some money whilst learning. Curry joined Pye in Cambridge in 1964. He stayed for a few months, then left for the Royal Radar Establishment in Worcestershire . He worked on the radar for the proposed BAC TSR-2 . The RRE had been the site of many technological advances such as the integrated circuit in 1952. He stayed for nine months. He moved to
5456-527: The Western Design Center in the US, where the 6502 was being updated by what was effectively a single-person company, showed Acorn engineers Steve Furber and Sophie Wilson they did not need massive resources and state-of-the-art research and development facilities. Sophie Wilson set about developing the instruction set, writing a simulation of the processor in BBC BASIC that ran on
5580-515: The ZX Spectrum was released, becoming the UK's best selling computer, and competing aggressively against Commodore and Amstrad . A combination of the failures of the Sinclair QL computer and the TV80 pocket television led to financial difficulties in 1985, and a year later Sinclair sold the rights to its computer products and brand name to Amstrad. Sinclair Research Ltd continued to exist as
5704-760: The ZX Spectrum . Curry conceived of the Electron as Acorn's sub-£200 competitor. In many ways a cut-down BBC Micro, it used one Acorn-designed uncommitted logic array (ULA) to reproduce most of the functionality. But problems in producing the ULAs led to short supply, and the Electron, although launched in August 1983, was not on the market in sufficient numbers to capitalise on the 1983 Christmas sales period. Acorn resolved to avoid this problem in 1984 and negotiated new production contracts. Acorn became more known for its BBC Micro model B than for its other products. In 2008,
5828-543: The "Sinclair" brand name, to Amstrad for £5 million. The deal did not include the company itself, only its name and products. Sinclair Research was reduced to an R&D business and a holding company , with shareholdings in several new "spin-off" companies formed to exploit technologies developed by the main company. These included Anamartic Ltd ( wafer-scale integration ), Shaye Communications Ltd ( CT2 mobile telephony) and Cambridge Computer Ltd ( Z88 portable computer and satellite television receivers). Since 1986,
5952-483: The 1980s. Acorn also developed the reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture set in 1985 and an operating system , RISC OS , for the hardware. The company also designed the ARM architecture; this part of the business was spun-off as Advanced RISC Machines under a joint venture with Apple and VLSI in 1990, now known as Arm Holdings , which is dominant in the mobile phone and personal digital assistant (PDA) microprocessor market today. Acorn in
6076-458: The 1984 film Supergirl: The Movie . Acorn also made or attempted various acquisitions. The Computer Education in Schools division of ICL was acquired by Acorn in late 1983 "reportedly for less than £100,000", transferring a staff of six to Acorn's Maidenhead office to form Acorn's Educational Services division and to provide "the core of education support development within Acorn". Having had
6200-621: The 1990s released the Risc PC line and the Acorn Network Computer , and also had a stint in the set-top box and educational markets. However, financial troubles led to the company closing down its workstation division in September 1998, effectively halting its home computer business and cancelling development of RISC OS and the Phoebe computer. The company was acquired and largely dismantled in early 1999. In retrospect, Acorn
6324-480: The 1990s, identifying the market as the largest in Europe whose technically sophisticated computer retailers were looking for opportunities to sell higher-margin products than IBM PC compatibles, with a large enthusiast community amongst existing and potential customers. Efforts were made to establish a local marketing presence and to offer localised versions of Acorn's products. Despite optimistic projections of success, and with Acorn having initially invested £700,000 in
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#17327868587816448-428: The 30th anniversary of the company's formation. The BBC Micro sold well—so much so that Acorn's profits rose from £3000 in 1979 to £8.6 million in July 1983. In September 1983, CPU shares were liquidated and Acorn was floated on the Unlisted Securities Market as Acorn Computer Group plc , with Acorn Computers Ltd. as the microcomputer division. With a minimum tender price of 120p, the group came into existence with
6572-428: The 48 KB version. The TV80 was a pocket television . Launched in September 1983, it used a flattened CRT unlike Sinclair's previous portable televisions. The TV80 was a commercial failure selling only 15,000 units and not covering its development costs of £4m. The Sinclair QL was announced in January 1984, priced at £399. Marketed as a more sophisticated 32-bit microcomputer for professional users, it used
6696-406: The ABC range, was developed and later sold in 1985 as the Cambridge Workstation (using the Panos operating system). Advertising for this machine in 1986 included an illustration of an office worker using the workstation. The advert claimed mainframe power at a price of £3,480 (excluding VAT). The main text of the advertisement referred to available mainframe languages, communication capabilities and
6820-416: The Acorn founders with less than 15% ownership of the company. Meanwhile, the financial difficulties had reduced the number of employees at Acorn from a peak of 480 to around 270. With Brian Long appointed as managing director, Acorn were set to move forward with a new OEM-focused computer named the Communicator and the Cambridge Workstation , whose launch had been delayed until the end of July 1985 due to
6944-472: The Atom. After a great deal of discussion, Hauser suggested a compromise—an improved 6502-based machine with far greater expansion capabilities: the Proton. Acorn's technical staff had not wanted to do the Atom and they now saw the Proton as their opportunity to "do it right". One of the developments proposed for the Proton was the Tube , a proprietary interface allowing a second processor to be added. This compromise would make for an affordable 6502 machine for
7068-399: The BBC's plans, the BBC allowed other manufacturers to submit their proposals. Hauser quickly drafted in Steve Furber (who had been working for Acorn on a voluntary basis since the ACE fruit machine project) and Sophie Wilson to help complete a revised version of the Proton which met the BBC's specifications. BBC visited Acorn and were given a demonstration of the Proton. Shortly afterwards,
7192-411: The Barker & Wadsworth mineral water bottling factory at 25 Willis Road, Cambridge, into the company's new headquarters. (Following Sinclair's financial troubles, the premises were sold to Cambridgeshire County Council in December 1985.) In January 1983 the ZX Spectrum personal computer was presented at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show . In September the Sinclair TV80 pocket television
7316-525: The British Department of Education and Science (DES) had begun the Microelectronics Education Programme to introduce microprocessing concepts and educational materials. In 1981, through to 1986, the DoI allocated funding to assist UK local education authorities to supply their schools with a range of computers, the BBC Micro being one of the most popular. Schools were offered 50% of the cost of computers, providing they chose one of three models: BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum or Research Machines 380Z . In parallel,
7440-479: The DES continued to fund more materials for the computers, such as software and applied computing projects, plus teacher training. Although the NewBrain was under heavy development by Newbury, it soon became clear that they were not going to be able to produce it—certainly not in time for the literacy programme nor to the BBC's specification. The BBC's programmes, initially scheduled for autumn 1981, were moved back to spring 1982. After Curry and Sinclair found out about
7564-441: The NEB took control Sinclair encouraged Curry to leave Sinclair Radionics to get Sinclair Instruments off the ground. Curry borrowed some money and rented offices at 6 King's Parade , Cambridge . To raise cash, Sinclair Instruments released the Wrist Calculator, designed by John Pemberton, in February 1977. The product was successful, selling 15,000 units. In July 1977, the company was renamed to Science of Cambridge Ltd . Around
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#17327868587817688-424: The QL and the TV80 , caused investors to lose confidence in Sinclair's judgement. Sinclair Research had reportedly intended a public offering of shares on 12 March 1985, but this offering was postponed, ostensibly due to turmoil in the microcomputer industry, with Acorn Computers undergoing refinancing, and other companies such as Sinclair's competitor Oric and distributor Prism entering receivership. Although
7812-428: The Sinclair "ZA20 Wheelchair Drive Unit" was introduced, designed and manufactured in conjunction with Hong Kong's Daka Designs, a partnership which also led to the SeaDoo Sea Scooter underwater propulsion unit. July 2006 saw the release of the A-bike , a folding bicycle invented by Sinclair, which was on sale for £200. It had been originally announced two years previously. In November 2010, Sinclair Research announced
7936-495: The Spanish distributor Investronica. The UK launch of this was delayed until January 1986, because retailers had large unsold stocks of the previous model. At the January 1985 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, Sinclair re-entered the United States market, announcing the "FM Wristwatch Radio", an LCD wristwatch with a radio attached. However, the watch had several problems and never went into full production. Sinclair had long had an interest in electric vehicles, and during
8060-416: The Spectrum was usually on cassette tapes , as was common in that era. Rather than an optional floppy disk drive , Sinclair instead opted to offer its own mass storage system, the ZX Microdrive , a tape-loop cartridge system that proved unreliable. This was also the primary storage device for the QL. In June 1997 Sinclair Research released the X1 radio for £9.50. This miniature mono FM radio , powered by
8184-417: The Tube protocols on each processor chosen, in the process finding out, during 1983, that there were no obvious candidates to replace the 6502. Because of many-cycle uninterruptible instructions, for example, the interrupt response times of the Motorola 68000 were too slow to handle the communication protocol that the host 6502-based BBC Micro coped with easily. The National Semiconductor 32016-based model of
8308-463: The W.R. Grace Laboratories, run by ITT, and stayed for six months. In April 1966, Curry joined Sinclair Radionics , a company founded by Clive Sinclair in 1961. Curry was to play an important role in getting Sinclair interested in both calculators and computers in his thirteen years with the company. Curry was at first involved with Sinclair's hifi products, which included amplifiers and speakers, and he also worked on Sinclair's electric vehicle ,
8432-406: The X-1 two-wheel electric vehicle, which failed to reach production. The Wrist Calculator was released by Sinclair Instrument in 1977. A digital multimeter with an LED display, measuring voltage (DC and AC), current and resistance, released in 1975. The MK14 (Microcomputer Kit 14) was a computer kit sold by Science of Cambridge, introduced in 1977 for £39.95. The ZX80 home computer
8556-411: The alternative option of upgrading a BBC Micro using a coprocessor . The machine had shown Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber the value of memory bandwidth. It also showed that an 8 MHz 32016 was completely trounced in performance terms by a 4 MHz 6502. Furthermore, the Apple Lisa had shown the Acorn engineers that they needed to develop a windowing system; this was not going to be easy with
8680-407: The autumn Sinclair was still publicly predicting it would be a "million seller", and that 250,000 would be sold by the end of the year. QL production was suspended in February 1985, and the price was halved by the end of the year. The ZX Spectrum+, a repackaged ZX Spectrum with a QL-like keyboard, was launched in October 1984 and appeared in WHSmith 's shops the day after release. Retailers stocked
8804-496: The boards. Curry took Nat Semi up on its offer and in June 1978 Science of Cambridge launched a microcomputer kit (marketed as the MK14 ) based around the National SC/MP chip. Curry wanted to further develop the MK14 but Sinclair was working on the NewBrain . Sinclair's reluctance to develop the MK14 led Curry to consider his options. Throughout the MK14 project he had been discussing it with his friend, physics researcher Hermann Hauser , who had also helped by seeking out advice from
8928-404: The bundling of computers with essential peripherals such as monitors and cassette recorders along with value for money. The collapse of the market from the manufacturers' perspective, it was argued, was due to the "neglect of the market by the manufacturers". Market adversity had led to Atari being sold, and Apple nearly went bankrupt. The Electron had been launched in 1983, but problems with
9052-477: The collapse of the latter was not expected to have a significant effect on Sinclair's ability to reach customers, the observation was made that "Sir Clive would not be trying to go public unless he thought he could use the cash", indicating that the postponement of an offering whose timing would have been planned for optimal effect would be a setback for the company. On 28 May 1985, Sinclair Research had announced it wanted to raise an extra £10m to £15m to restructure
9176-488: The company and seeing their combined stake fall from 85.7% to 36.5%, the Italian computer company took a 49.3% stake in Acorn for £10.39 million, which went some way to covering Acorn's £10.9 million losses in the previous six months, effectively valuing Acorn at around a tenth of its valuation of £216 million the year before. Acorn's share price collapse and the suspension of its listing was attributed by some news outlets to
9300-421: The company has continued to exist, but in a completely different form. In 1993, 1994, and 1995 Sinclair made continuing losses on decreasing turnover. Investors became worried that Clive Sinclair himself was using his own personal wealth to fund his inventions. By 1990 the company's entire staff had been reduced to just Sinclair himself, a salesman/administrator, and an R&D employee. By 1997 only Sinclair himself
9424-443: The company's failure to establish itself in the US market, with one source citing costs of $ 5.5 million related to that endeavour. In July 1985, Olivetti acquired an additional £4 million of Acorn shares, raising its ownership stake in the company to 79.8%. Major creditors agreed to write off £7.9 million in debts, and the BBC agreed to waive 50% of outstanding royalty payments worth a reported £2 million. This second refinancing left
9548-471: The development of the MK14, Hermann Hauser , a friend of Curry's, had been visiting SoC's offices and had grown interested in the product. Curry and Hauser decided to pursue their joint interest in microcomputers and, on 5 December 1978, they set up Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd. (CPU) as the vehicle with which to do this. CPU soon obtained a consultancy contract to develop a microprocessor-based controller for
9672-437: The development of this machine. It was at this time that Acorn Computers Ltd. was incorporated and Curry moved to Acorn full-time. It was Curry who wanted to target the consumer market. Other factions within Acorn, including the engineers, were happy to be out of that market, considering a home computer to be a rather frivolous product for a company operating in the laboratory equipment market. To keep costs down and not give
9796-417: The doubters reason to object to the Atom, Curry asked industrial designer Allen Boothroyd to design a case that could also function as an external keyboard for the microcomputer systems. The internals of the System 3 were placed inside the keyboard, creating a quite typical set-up for an inexpensive home computer of the early 1980s: the relatively successful Acorn Atom . To facilitate software development,
9920-525: The early 1980s he worked on the design of a single-seater "personal vehicle", eventually starting a company called Sinclair Vehicles Ltd in March 1983. He launched the Sinclair C5 electric vehicle on 10 January 1985, but it was a commercial disaster, selling only 17,000 units and losing Sinclair £7,000,000. Sinclair Vehicles went into liquidation later the same year. The failure of the C5, combined with those of
10044-555: The end of 1984, Acorn Computer Group was organised into several subsidiary companies. Acorn Computers Limited was responsible for the management of the microcomputer business, research and development, and UK sales and marketing, whereas Acorn Computer Corporation and Acorn Computers International Limited dealt with sales to the US and to other international markets respectively. Acorn Computers (Far East) Limited focused on component procurement and manufacturing with some distribution responsibilities in local markets. Acornsoft Limited
10168-467: The end of 1987, moving away from "individual customers" and towards "volume products", resulting in 47 of Acorn's 300 staff being made redundant, the closure of the custom systems division, and the abandonment of the Communicator. In February 1986, Acorn announced that it was ceasing US sales operations, and sold its remaining US BBC Microcomputers for $ 1.25 million to a Texas company, Basic, which
10292-477: The endeavour, the loss-making operation was closed in 1995 as part of broader cost-cutting and restructuring in response to a decline in revenue and difficulties experienced by various Acorn divisions. Ostensibly facilitated or catalysed by Olivetti's acquisition of Acorn, reports in late 1985 indicated plans for possible collaboration between Acorn, Olivetti and Thomson in the European education sector to define
10416-470: The first ARM silicon on 26 April 1985; it worked first time and came to be known as ARM1. Its first practical application was as a second processor to the BBC Micro, where it was used to develop the simulation software to finish work on the support chips (VIDC, IOC, MEMC) and to speed up the operation of the CAD software used in developing ARM2. The ARM evaluation system was promoted as a means for developers to try
10540-527: The instruction set allowed the code to be very dense, making ARM BBC BASIC an extremely good test for any ARM emulator. Such was the secrecy surrounding the ARM CPU project that when Olivetti were negotiating to take a controlling share of Acorn in 1985, they were not told about the development team until after the negotiations had been finalised. In 1992, Acorn once more won the Queen's Award for Technology for
10664-436: The latter out of a total of 450 employees. Meanwhile, Acorn's chosen method of expansion into West Germany and the United States through the establishment of subsidiaries involved a "major commitment of resources", in contrast with a less costly strategy that might have emphasised collaboration with local distributors. Localisation of the BBC Micro for the US market also involved more expenditure than it otherwise might have due to
10788-570: The literacy programme computer contract was awarded to Acorn, and the Proton was launched in December 1981 as the BBC Micro . In April 1984, Acorn won the Queen's Award for Technology for the BBC Micro. The award paid special tribute to the BBC Micro's advanced design, and it commended Acorn "for the development of a microcomputer system with many innovative features". In April 1982, Sinclair launched
10912-415: The machine in large numbers in expectation of good Christmas sales. However, the machine did not sell as well as expected and, because retailers still had unsold stock, Sinclair's income from orders dipped alarmingly in January. The Spectrum+ had the same technical specifications as the original Spectrum. An enhanced model, the ZX Spectrum 128, was launched in Spain in September 1985, with development funded by
11036-550: The many computer experts on hand in Cambridge University . Curry and Hauser had become increasingly interested in the idea of selling their own computers and so, on 5 December 1978, they set up Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd (CPU). Their first customer was Ace Coin Equipment Ltd, who needed controllers for their fruit machines. Hauser and Curry recruited Steve Furber - at the time a Cambridge PhD student who
11160-489: The mass market which could be expanded with more sophisticated and expensive processors. The Tube enabled processing to be farmed out to the second processor leaving the 6502 to perform data input/output (I/O). The Tube would later be instrumental in the development of Acorn's ARM processor . In early 1980, the BBC Further Education department conceived the idea of a computer literacy programme, mostly as
11284-538: The name of Ablesdeal Ltd (a shelf company he had bought in September 1973 for just such an eventuality) to Westminster Mail Order Ltd. The name was changed to Sinclair Instrument Ltd in August 1975. Finding it inconvenient to share control after the National Enterprise Board became involved in Radionics in 1976, Sinclair encouraged Chris Curry to leave Radionics, which he had worked for since 1966, and get Sinclair Instrument operational. The company's first product
11408-431: The organisation. Given the loss of confidence in the company, the money proved hard to find. In June 1985, business magnate Robert Maxwell announced a takeover of Sinclair Research, through Hollis Brothers, a subsidiary of his Pergamon Press . However, the deal was aborted in August 1985. The future of Sinclair Research remained uncertain until 7 April 1986, when the company sold its entire computer product range, and
11532-492: The portfolio. Even from the time of Acorn's earliest systems, the company was considering how to move on from the 6502 processor, introducing a Motorola 6809 processor card for its System 3 and System 4 models. Several years later in 1985, the Acorn Communicator employed the 16-bit 65816 processor as a step up from the 6502. The IBM PC was launched on 12 August 1981. Although a version of that machine
11656-579: The position of seeking a financing partner for Acorn, but in a significantly more urgent timeframe, making "financial institutions or a large computer company" the most likely candidates, these having the necessary resources and decision-making agility for a timely intervention. The dire financial situation was brought to a head in February 1985, when one of Acorn's creditors issued a winding-up petition. It would eventually emerge that Acorn owed £31.1 million to various creditors including manufacturers AB Electronics and Wong's Electronics. Wong's had been awarded
11780-537: The production problem and in 1984, production reached its anticipated volumes, but the contracts Acorn had negotiated with its suppliers were not flexible enough to allow volumes to be reduced quickly in this unanticipated situation, and supplies of the Electron built up. At the time of the eventual financial rescue of Acorn in early 1985, it still had 100,000 unsold Electrons plus an inventory of components which had all been paid for and needed to be stored at additional expense. 40,000 BBC Micros also remained unsold. After
11904-496: The proprietary operating system offering "limited flexibility". Instead, Olivetti sought to promote its M19 personal computer for the European schools market, offering it to Acorn for sale in the UK (ultimately, as the rebadged Acorn M19 ). Olivetti would eventually offer both Acorn's Master Compact and the Thomson MO6 to the Italian market with its Prodest branding. Science of Cambridge Ltd Sinclair Research Ltd
12028-429: The result of disagreement between Acorn and Lazards over the measures needed to rescue the company, with Lazards favouring a sale or refinancing whereby the founders would lose control, Acorn and their replacement advisors, Close Brothers, were reported to be pursuing a "radical reorganisation of the company". Lazards had sought to attract financing from GEC but had failed to do so. Close Brothers also found themselves in
12152-441: The same time Ian Williamson showed Curry a prototype computer based around a National Semiconductor SC/MP and some parts scavenged from a Sinclair Cambridge calculator. Curry was impressed and encouraged Sinclair to adopt this as a product; an agreement was reached with Williamson but no contract was ever signed: Nat Semi had offered to redesign the project so that it used only their components and they also offered to manufacture
12276-525: The same time, Acorn also bought into Torus Systems - a company developing a "graphics-controlled local network called Icon" for the IBM PC platform - to broaden Acorn's networking expertise. Icon was a solution based on Ethernet, as opposed to the Acorn-related Econet and Cambridge Ring technologies, equipping appropriately specified IBM-compatible computers to participate on a network using
12400-420: The state of Acorn's finances intensified with the appointment of a temporary chief executive, Alexander Reid, to run the company, together with the announcement that Acorn had replaced its financial advisors, Lazards, and that the company's stockbrokers, Cazenove, had resigned, ultimately leading to the suspension of Acorn shares, these having fallen to a low of 23 pence per share. With these events reportedly being
12524-506: The supply of its ULA meant that Acorn was not able to capitalise on the 1983 Christmas selling period. A successful advertising campaign, including TV advertisements, had led to 300,000 orders, but the Malaysian suppliers were only able to supply 30,000 machines. The apparently strong demand for Electrons proved to be ephemeral: rather than wait, parents bought Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum for their children's presents. Ferranti solved
12648-413: The suspension of Acorn's shares. Of subsequent significance, Hermann Hauser was also expected to announce a "VLSI chip design using a reduced instruction set". Unveiled towards the end of 1985, the Communicator was Acorn's answer to ICL's One Per Desk initiative. This Acorn machine was based around a 16-bit 65SC816 CPU, 128 KB RAM, expandable to 512 KB, plus additional battery-backed RAM. It had
12772-554: The system by putting the CPU card from the System 1 in a 19-inch (480 mm) Eurocard rack that allowed a number of optional additions. The System 2 typically shipped with keyboard controller, external keyboard, a text display interface, and a cassette operating system with built-in BASIC interpreter . The System 3 moved on by adding floppy disk support, and the System 4 by including
12896-465: The system for themselves. This system was used with a BBC Micro and a PC compatible version was also planned. Advertising was aimed at those with technical expertise, rather than consumers and the education market, with a number of technical specifications listed in the main text of the adverts. Wilson subsequently coded BBC BASIC in ARM assembly language, and the in-depth knowledge obtained from designing
13020-506: The time. This discovery dramatically improved the lasting-power of the batteries. Until 1976 Sinclair Radionics had enjoyed 15 years of strong turnover and profit growth. However, the company sustained losses related to difficulties with chip supplies for the Black Watch. As a result, there were insufficient internal funds available for the final stages of the pocket TV project Sinclair had been working on for some 10 years. In August 1976
13144-526: Was "difficult to find a good word for Sinclair Research in the computer press". Fully working QLs were not available until late summer and complaints against Sinclair regarding delays were upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority in May of that year. (In 1982 it had upheld complaints about delays in shipping Spectrums.) Especially severe were allegations that Sinclair was cashing cheques months before machines were shipped. In
13268-516: Was a project to produce an add-on floppy disk drive for the ZX Spectrum . This codename was assigned to a QL follow-on project running from 1984 to 1986. Among the features associated with Tyche were increased RAM capacity, internal floppy disk drives, the Psion Xchange application suite on ROM, and possibly the GEM GUI . This name has been associated with a design concept for
13392-1087: Was a subsidiary of Datum, the Mexican manufacturer of the Spanish version of the BBC Microcomputer (with modified Spanish keyboards for the South American market). The sales office in Woburn, Massachusetts was closed at this time. Acorn was reported as having achieved "negligible U.S. sales". In 1990, in contrast, Acorn set up a sales and marketing operation in Australia and New Zealand by seeking to acquire long-time distributor Barson Computers Australasia, with Acorn managing director Sam Wauchope noting Acorn's presence in Australia since 1983 and being "the only computer manufacturer whose products are recommended by all Australian state education authorities". Acorn also sought once again to expand into Germany in
13516-551: Was a watch-like Wrist Calculator. The Sinclair Executive was introduced in 1972 as the first calculator which could easily be carried in a pocket. It was also significantly cheaper than similarly featured 4-function calculators available at the time. The Sinclair Cambridge was launched in 1973 as a basic calculator and later in several enhanced versions supporting memory, advanced mathematical functions, and programmability. The Sinclair Scientific featuring trigonometric and logarithmic functions and employing Reverse Polish Notation
13640-507: Was aimed at the enthusiast market much like the BBC Micro, its real area of success was business. The successor to the PC, the XT (eXtended Technology) was introduced in early 1983. The success of these machines and the variety of Z80 -based CP/M machines in the business sector demonstrated that it was a viable market, especially given that sector's ability to cope with premium prices. The development of
13764-612: Was also spending a large portion of its reserves on development: the BBC Master was being developed; the ARM project was underway; the Acorn Business Computer entailed a lot of development work but delivered few products, with only the 32016-based model ever being sold (as the Cambridge Workstation). The company's research and development staff had grown from around 100 in 1983 to around 150 in 1984,
13888-418: Was closely involved with local amateur computer groups - to design the device. Furber would go on to become a key figure at Acorn - leading the design of the BBC Micro (along with Sophie Wilson ), and later on the ARM microprocessor. The Acorn Microcomputer (later to be called the System 1) was launched as the first product of a new company, Acorn Computers Ltd , founded in March 1979. After becoming
14012-512: Was intended to create a greatly enhanced ZX Spectrum , possibly rivalling the Commodore Amiga . Loki was to have a 7 MHz Z80 H CPU , 128 KiB of RAM, and two custom chips providing much enhanced graphics and audio capabilities. After the Amstrad buy-out in 1986, two engineers who had worked on the project, John Mathieson and Martin Brennan , founded Flare Technology to continue their work. According to Rupert Goodwins , this
14136-503: Was introduced in 1974. In July 1977, Sinclair Instrument Ltd was renamed Science of Cambridge Ltd. Around the same time, Ian Williamson showed Chris Curry a prototype microcomputer based on a National Semiconductor SC/MP microprocessor and parts from a Sinclair calculator. Curry was impressed and encouraged Sinclair to adopt it as a product. In June 1978, Science of Cambridge launched its MK14 microcomputer in kit form. In May 1979, Jim Westwood , Sinclair's chief engineer, designed
14260-578: Was involved with their hifi products and their Sinclair C5 electric vehicle. In 1972, he helped Sinclair Radionics to launch its first electronic calculator , the Sinclair Executive . He set up Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd. (CPU) in December 1978. Their first product was the Acorn Microcomputer (later called the System 1). In 1983, Curry co-founded Redwood Publishing with Michael Potter and Christopher Ward, and they bought
14384-463: Was launched in February 1980 at £79.95 in kit form and £99.95 ready-built. In November of the same year Science of Cambridge was renamed Sinclair Computers Ltd. The ZX81 (known as the TS 1000 in the United States) was priced at £49.95 in kit form and £69.95 ready-built, by mail order. The ZX Spectrum was launched on 23 April 1982, priced at £125 for the 16 KB RAM version and £175 for
14508-488: Was launched in January 1979 as the first product of Acorn Computer Ltd. , a trading name used by CPU to keep the risks of the two different lines of business separate. The microcomputer kit was named as Acorn System 75. Acorn was chosen because the microcomputer system was to be expandable and growth-oriented. It also had the attraction of appearing before " Apple Computer " in a telephone directory. Around this time, CPU and Andy Hopper set up Orbis Ltd. to commercialise
14632-556: Was launched, but was a commercial failure. In 1983 the company bought Milton Hall in the village of Milton, Cambridgeshire , for £2m, establishing its MetaLab research and development facility there. In late 1983 Timex decided to pull out of the Timex Sinclair venture which, due to strong competition, had failed to break into the United States market. However, Timex computers continued to be produced for several years in other countries. Timex Portugal launched improved versions,
14756-489: Was low enough, at around £80 (equivalent to £420 in 2023), to appeal to the more serious enthusiast as well. It was a very small machine built on two cards, one with an LED display, keypad, and cassette interface (the circuitry to the left of the keypad), and the other with the rest of the computer (including the CPU ). Almost all CPU signals were accessible via a Eurocard connector. The System 2 made it easier to expand
14880-562: Was originally intended for this model but was later adopted for the QL. SuperSpectrum was cancelled in 1982 after the specification of the ZX83 (QL) had converged with it. This project is not to be confused with Loki , which was described as the "SuperSpectrum" in an article in the June 1986 issue of Sinclair User magazine. This was to be a portable computer with an integral flat-screen CRT display. Initially to be ZX Spectrum -compatible with
15004-516: Was owned by the National Enterprise Board , a government agency operating in close collaboration with the DoI. The choice was also somewhat ironic given that the NewBrain started life as a Sinclair Radionics project, and it was Sinclair's preference for developing it over Science of Cambridge's MK14 that led to Curry leaving SoC to found CPU with Hauser. The NEB moved the NewBrain to Newbury after Sinclair left Radionics and went to SoC. In 1980–1982,
15128-487: Was responsible for development work. At some point, Curry had a disagreement with Sinclair and formally left Science of Cambridge, but did not join the other Acorn employees at Market Hill until a little while later. The Acorn Microcomputer, later renamed the Acorn System 1 , was designed by Sophie Wilson (then Roger Wilson). It was a semi-professional system aimed at engineering and laboratory users, but its price
15252-447: Was responsible for development, production and marketing of software for Acorn's computer range. Vector Marketing Limited was established to handle distribution-related logistics and the increasing customer support burden. As part of Acorn's office automation aspirations, conducting "advanced software research and development", Acorn Research Center Incorporated was established in Palo Alto, California. Acorn Leasing Limited rounded out
15376-430: Was working at his company. In 1992, the " Zike " electric bicycle was released, Sinclair's second attempt at changing people's means of transport. It had a maximum speed of 10 mph (16 km/h), and was only available by mail order. Much like the C5 , the "Zike" was a commercial failure, and sold only 2,000 units. In 1999 Sinclair released the world's smallest radio, in the form of the "Z1 Micro AM Radio". In 2003,
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