The BBC Micro Processor

The designers BBC Micro computer have revealed that how it led to the development of one of the world’s two dominant processor architectures.

According to Personal Computer World “Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber were Cambridge graduates working for a local start-up called Acorn in the early 1980s when the BBC launched its Computer Literacy Project, one of the most successful mass-education exercises ever.”

Acorn was one of seven companies that submitted designs for a machine that would provide a standard platform for a series of TV teach-ins on computing. Wilson and Furber were very efficient designers and they happened to develop a prototype in just five days and the company won the contract. The project then got a sales of around 12,000, and eventually reached 1.5 million.