In the early 1980s, my friends and I became interested in home computers. Most got Commodore or Sinclair computers; I got an Acorn computer. These computers were all 8-bit, but programs could not be exchanged between these machines and we had to either type in the listings or use a cassette tape for storage.

Some time later there were radio and TV programmes focusing on computer literacy. They broadcast (via modem-like noise) source code written in “Basicode”. This was a specific dialect of BASIC, compatible with various brands of home computer.

We would record these broadcasts onto our cassette tape and load them into our computers. Those were the times ;-)

I still have my personal BBC Micro and wanted to bring it back to life. This (re-)kindled my interest in RetroComputing and Electronics.

During the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic (article in Dutch) we had to work from home, so I started collecting more Acorn computers and peripherals.

The 8-bit era

The MOS 6502 microprocessor was introduced in 1975, followed by the Zilog Z80 in 1976. These microprocessors powered the homecomputer boom in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Both were 8-bit processors with a 16-bit address bus, resulting in a 64 kByte address space for memory and memory-mapped I/O.

A brief history

Some of the 8-bit homecomputers from that era:

  • Tandy TRS-80 (Z80, 1977)
  • Acorn Atom (MOS 6502, 1980)
  • Commodore VIC-20 (MOS 6502, 1980)
  • Sinclair ZX-81 (Z80, 1981)
  • Acorn BBC Micro (MOS 6502, 1981)
  • Commodore 64 (MOS 6502, 1982)
  • Sinclair ZX Spectrum (Z80, 1982)
  • Acorn Electron (MOS 6502, 1983)
  • MSX, various brands (Z80, 1983)
  • Acorn BBC Master 128 (MOS 6502, 1986)

In 1987, Acorn introduced the first ARM-powered 32-bit homecomputer: Acorn Archimedes (ARM2, 1987). ‘ARM’ originally stood for Acorn RISC Machine, but that was later changed to ‘Advanced RISC Machine’ when Apple invested in ARM development.