How Acorn Ended Up With It’s ARM In Everything

Source: Ars Technica How Acorn Ended Up With It’s ARM In Everything

Behind Every Great Technology Is A Great Woman

It is currently estimated that there are about 100 billion ARM-based chips operating in the world right now, not quite enough to give every ant one, but ARM is certainly the most ubiquitous high tech device going.  It’s beginnings didn’t hint at the overwhelming success of the ARM architecture; a small company called Acorn was called up by the BBC in 1982 to produce a computer that would demonstrate what exactly these new fangled CPUs actually were, for a show called “The Computer Programme”.  The BBC turned out to have a small problem, the capabilities of the computer they wanted as a demonstration unit outstripped what current products from Sinclair and others were able to do.  

That didn’t stop Acorn from developing the Acorn RISC Machine for the program, nor from growing exponentially once they had started manufacturing products afterwards.  The release of new ARM processors never generates the same buzz as a new Intel or AMD architecture, but if anything it they are more important.  After all, you can be guaranteed there were ARM processors used to design and produce those CPUs.

Ars Technica is delving into the history of ARM, and some of the people, like Sophie Wilson, who were behind the design of the original ARM processor and it’s successors.  Their first article in the series is posted here; be smarter than Intel and don’t ignore them.

The small UK company was famous for winning a contract with the British Broadcasting Corporation to produce a computer for a national television show. Sales of its BBC Micro were skyrocketing and on pace to exceed 1.2 million units.

Video News

About The Author

Jeremy Hellstrom

Call it K7M.com, AMDMB.com, or PC Perspective, Jeremy has been hanging out and then working with the gang here for years. Apart from the front page you might find him on the BOINC Forums or possibly the Fraggin' Frogs if he has the time.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Latest Podcasts

Archive & Timeline

Previous 12 months
Explore: All The Years!