Technical history of Acorn (Version 0.6 Beta)

These pages contain a fairly brief technical history of Acorn Computers. I have decided to focus on the technology because that is where my interests lie. Only very major non-technical events in Acorn's history have been included. If anyone finds any inaccuracies in the following pages please contact me using the link at the bottom of the page, including a correction if possible.

Note that the information on these pages is not an offical history of Acorn's computers and has no official support from Acorn Computers.

These pages are under construction. I'm very busy at the moment, but I'm trying to sort these pages out as quickly as possible.

19th April 2004 - a few days late, but never mind... Happy Birthday, RiscPC! (10 years old on the 16th of April.)

Timeline

Year	Month	Event
1978	December	Acorn formed by Chris Curry and Herman Hauser.
1979	March	System One launched.
1979 to 1980		Systems Two, Three and Four launched.
1980		System Five launched.
1980		Acorn Atom launched.
1981	November	BBC Micro Models A and B launched.
1983	August	Acorn Electron launched.
1984		BBC Model B+ launched.
1984		Acorn Business Machine range launched, including Acorn Cambridge Workstation.
1986	January	BBC Master 128 launched.
1986	September	BBC Master Compact launched.
1986		ARM second processor launched.
1987		Acorn Archimedes A305, A310 and A440 launched.
1989	January	Acorn R140 UNIX workstation launched.
1989	April	Acorn RISC OS 2 launched.
1989	May to July	Revised Archimedes range launched, consisting of A3000, A410/1, A420/1 and A440/1.
1990	June	Acorn R260 and R225 UNIX workstations launched.
1990	October	Acorn A540 launched.
1991		ARM Ltd spun off as a separate company, to produce ARM processors.
1991	November	Acorn A5000 launched. First RISC OS 3 machine.
1992	June	Acorn A4 portable launched.
1992	August	Acorn A3010, A3020, A4000 and Pocket Book launched. A5000 enhanced.
1993	September	Acorn A5000 alpha variant released (enhanced A5000).
1994	April	Acorn RISC PC 600 launched. Includes updated RISC OS 3.5 OS.
1994	August	Formation of Acorn Online Media.
1995	March	First StrongARM RISC PC Processor Card powered up.
1995	July	Acorn RISC PC 700 and A7000 machines launched. Both includes RISC OS 3.6.
1996		Acorn and Apple launch Xemplar Education.
1996	August	Acorn Network Computer (NC) launched by Acorn Network Computing, Set Top box 2 launched by AOM, Stork and NewsPAD launched by ART.
1996	September	Acorn StrongARM RISC PC launched. Includes RISC OS 3.7.
1997	May	Acorn A7000+ launched (an enhanced A7000).
1997	September	Acorn StrongARM RISC PC alpha variant launched (enhanced StrongARM RISC PC). Acorn NetStation launched.
1998		ARM Ltd floated on stock market, worth £1 billion on paper.
1998	September	Phoebe (later Phoebe 2100) announced but never released. Acorn Workstations Division disbanded. Acorn rebranded as Element 14 and shifts corporate focus.
1999	July	RISC OS 4 released by RISCOS Ltd.
1999 to 2002		Hardware, software and systems using RISC OS continue to be developed. Life goes on in the Acorn world.

There are some gaps in this history. For example, I know that there was a PocketBook II released by October 1996, but I don't know how it fits in. Also, I don't know very much at all about the Acorn Network Computer, Set Top Box 2, Stork or NewsPad, and I can't remember when the StrongARM was transferred to Intel. I also don't know very much about the post-Acorn RISC OS machines, the R7500 and the Mico, among others. Any information on any of the reorganisations (in 1995/6 and 1997, I believe) would also be appreciated. If anyone can supply any information, or point me in the direction of some information, please e-mail me using the contact link at the bottom of the page.

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A technical history of Acorn Computers (Version 0.6 Beta)

Timeline