Technology | Nostalgia | 1980s | Life Story
Remembering the BBC Micro: A Pioneering British Home Computer
Reflections on the BBC Microcomputer’s impact and its use in UK schools during the 1980s
This is an updated version of an article I wrote a few years ago for some of my now-defunct blogs.
The BBC Micro was designed and produced by Acorn for the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Computer Literacy Project. It was released in December 1981.
After starting out with the Apple II, my high school computer studies class ended up with several BBC Micros as well, making it the second computer I ever used.
Even after the addition of the BBC machines, the class still wasn’t especially well-equipped, with about three pupils for every computer.
Above Average Specification
The BBC had a good keyboard and was a fairly sophisticated and well-specified machine. With a 6502 microprocessor clocked at 2 MHz, it was also one of the fastest 8-bit machines.
(Back then, most other 6502-based systems were clocked at around 1 MHz.)
The BBC could store programs on tape, using an ordinary domestic audio cassette…
