Differences between version 25 and predecessor to the previous major change of Acorn.
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| Newer page: | version 25 | Last edited on Friday, July 22, 2005 4:08:19 pm | by IanMcDonald | Revert |
| Older page: | version 24 | Last edited on Tuesday, June 21, 2005 11:37:52 pm | by DavidHallett | Revert |
@@ -5,15 +5,15 @@
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!!!Rising Action: Atom
-Acorn's first real computer product was the Atom. ''AddToMe - needs description.''
+Acorn's first real computer product was the Atom which was released in 1980 with 2 KB of [RAM] and [BASIC] in [ROM]
.
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!!!Mounting Tension: [BBC]
-The Acorn [BBC] Model B appeared in 1981. Because they were British, schools in the UK used the [BBC] computers. Some schools in NewZealand followed suit. The [BBC] Model B also had a 6502 processor. Its builtin [BASIC] dialect had some impressive language features; procedural programming with parameter passing and local variable scopes remained foreign to other microcomputers for a long time. The modularity of its operating system and its use of interrupts were far ahead of the curve as well. There was a MOS for all the basic functions like video graphics, buffered keyboard input, vectored interrupts, buffered sound. 16k ROMs were available to accomodate networking routines and many different programming languages ([BASIC], LOGO, [Pascal], [Forth], you name it).
+The Acorn [BBC] Model A and
B appeared in 1981. The main difference between them was that the Model A had 16 KB [RAM] and less video modes where the Model B had 32 KB [RAM] and more expansion capabilities. The [BBC] Model B vastly outsold the Model A
. Because they were British, schools in the UK used the [BBC] computers. Some schools in NewZealand followed suit. The [BBC] Model A and
B also had a 6502 processor. Its builtin [BASIC] dialect had some impressive language features; procedural programming with parameter passing and local variable scopes remained foreign to other microcomputers for a long time. The modularity of its operating system and its use of interrupts were far ahead of the curve as well. There was a MOS for all the basic functions like video graphics, buffered keyboard input, vectored interrupts, buffered sound. 16k ROMs were available to accomodate networking routines and many different programming languages ([BASIC], LOGO, [Pascal], [Forth], you name it).
!!Electron
The Electron was a later, smaller brother of the BBC built to attack the Sinclair Z80 and early Commodore microcomputers. This HomeComputer plugged into the television, had 16 KB of memory, and ran [BASIC] in [ROM]. You could load programs from cassette tape via a normal audio tape deck, or you could type them in. A floppy disk, even a harddrive, were available as insanely expensive expansion modules. The [CPU] was a 6502B, just slightly different from what powered the hugely successful [Commodore64] home computer. Unfortunately, neither graphics nor sound capabilities could hold a candle to those of the [Commodore64].
