IntroductionA little under thirty years ago saw the launch of a seemingly unassuming computer: the
Atom.
The company behind it -
Acorn Computers - went on to become a household name after the machine being developed as a successor to the Atom (which had the working title of The Proton) was adopted by the
British Broadcasting Corporation as the system that would be used to promote the joint BBC / Department of Industry-backed
Computer Literacy Project. Over the years that followed, Acorn drew some of the UK's most talented computer and software engineers to its Cambridge base.
Acorn World is an exhibition and gathering at the
Cedar Court Hotel - Huddersfield on
12th-13th September 2009 that will celebrate the importance and legacy of this uniquely British company.
Over the course of the weekend, the Emley Suite at Cedar Court will be packed to the rafters with numerous examples of Acorn computers, charting the company's rise from the less well-known
Acorn System series and
Acorn Atom; through the various iterations of the
BBC Microcomputer and the
Electron to the ground-breaking
Archimedes and
RISC PC range; both of which were developed to take full advantage of Acorn's now-ubiquitous and phenomenally successful
ARM technology.
On Sunday afternoon
Professor Stephen Furber - a principal designer of both the
BBC Microcomputer and
ARM microprocessor - will give a talk on
The Heritage of the BBC Micro. Topics covered will include construction of the prototype BBC machine and the design and manufacture of the ARM microchip.
Stephen will also give an insight into his current research interests, such as the
SpiNNaker project: a bold attempt to emulate the interactions of the human brain, utilising an estimated one million ARM processors. This will be preceded by a presentation and demonstration from
RISC OS Open Ltd - a group of volunteers who continue to make improvements to the RISC OS Operating System; originally written by Acorn for use with the Archimedes series.
This event forms part of the
Retro Reunited Classic Gaming & Computing convention and weekend tickets (priced £13.00 each inclusive) cover entry to both Acorn World (Emley Suite) and Retro Reunited (Presidential Suite). All proceeds less costs will be donated to the
Shelter charity and it is anticipated that tickets will sell out well in advance.
Tickets can be ordered from either
www.acornworld.co.uk or
www.retroreunited.info
PeripheralsThe installations on display will be augmented by many original peripherals, including the
Hybrid 5000 music development system, as well as several rare/prototype systems such as the
ARM Evaluation System and the
R260 in addition to [the casing for] the
Phoebe 2100: the proposed successor to the RISC PC which never saw a general release.
One such fully-working piece that will be on display and deserves a special mention is the
BBC Domesday System. This visionary project inspired by William the Conqueror's historic 1086 Domesday survey and devised by the BBC, was the culmination of several years' data collection from UK school and charity groups, and comprises of - what was then - cutting edge laserdisc technology accessed through an upgraded
BBC Micro Master Series computer. The final result was a system that could search a wealth of UK data which foreshadows many similar web applications popular today, such as
Google Maps.
Amongst the many features now available as standard in modern computers that Acorn were amongst the first to pioneer, were
Local Area Networks. Acorn's first home microcomputer, the Atom, was launched with a demonstration of Acorn's
Econet networking technology.
Acorn World will see the implementation of one of the most remarkable
Econet networks ever built. As well as networking the standard Acorn machines, recent custom work by hobbyists should allow the Econet network to link up modern computers, even ones running BBC Micro emulators! If that wasn't ambitious enough, a
Viewdata-based Bulletin Board System will be run from the event, with the intention that anyone with a remote BBC Micro and modem can dial-in and interact with visitors ... almost exactly how it would have been implemented a quarter of a century ago!
The
BBC Micro Model B was fitted with a number of expansion sockets as standard, and this gained the BBC B the reputation of being the most versatile home micro available at the time. The
User Port was one such expansion socket and this instantly opened up the world of Robotics to home users, schools and industry.
Neil Fazakerley of the
BeebControl website will demonstrate a number of
Robotic Arms (including the
Cyber 310, the
Atlas and the gargantuan, hydraulically-driven
Feedback HRA933) in what promises to be the most visually spectacular attraction at
Acorn World 2009. The infamous
BBC Buggy will also be given a runout at some point during the weekend.
As well as examples of original Acorn hardware, there will be several designers on-hand who have continued to create modern hardware upgrades for the machines, including larger capacity, physically smaller and faster storage devices, new second processor upgrades and many others, such as the USB interface for 8-bit machines provided by
DataCentre and the
8580 SID Audio add-on. Several computers with fitted upgrades will be on display and, in many cases, available for purchase at discounted rates.
Gaming & ProgrammingMost pupils at school in the 1980s will remember the classic games
Chuckie Egg,
Frak,
Granny's Garden and the legendary
Elite, many of which will be available to play at Acorn World with the benefit of lightningly fast loading times courtesy of the advances in modern memory card technology.
The event will also see a presence from
Retro Software; the Acorn-focused publishing label that recently launched
Zap! - the first commercially-released BBC Micro game in years.
Their second title -
The Krystal Connection - will be launched at
Acorn World and attendees will have the opportunity to purchase copies at discounted prices.
They will also provide Work-In-Progress demonstrations of upcoming titles such as
Arcade Adventure Design Kit,
White Light,
Mountain Panic and
Repton: The Lost Realms.
The venue will also stage the second meet-up of the
Homebrew Coding Association - a gathering of independent programmers from across the UK who share an interest in developing new software for commercially-obsolete computer systems such as the BBC Micro, Sinclair Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64/Amiga and Atari ST. Anybody with a ticket for
Acorn World/Retro Reunited is welcome to attend the coding workshop.
for a high res version.
