The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project, operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Designed with an emphasis on education it was notable for its ruggedness, expandability and the quality of its operating system.
The Acorn Proton was a pre-existing project at Acorn to succeed the Atom home computer. It was then submitted for, and won, the Literacy Project tender for a computer to accompany the TV programmes and literature. Renamed the BBC Micro, the platform was chosen by most schools and became a cornerstone of computing in British education in the 1980s, changing Acorn's fortunes. It was also moderately successful as a home computer in the United Kingdom despite its high cost. The machine was directly involved in the development of the ARM architecture which sees widespread use in embedded systems as of 2008.
While twelve models were eventually produced with the BBC brand, the term "BBC Micro" is usually colloquially used to refer to the first four (Model A, B, B+64 and B+128), with the later eight models referred to as the BBC Master and Archimedes series.
The machine was released as the BBC Microcomputer in late 1981 and became affectionately known as the Beeb. The machine was popular in the UK, especially in the educational market. As with Sinclair's ZX Spectrum and Commodore's Commodore 64, both released later in 1982, demand greatly exceeded supply. For some months, there were long delays before customers received the machines they had ordered. A brief attempt to market the machine in the United States failed. The success of the machine in the UK was largely due to its acceptance as an "educational" computer – the vast majority of UK schools used BBC Micros to teach computer literacy and information technology skills. Some Commonwealth countries, like India, started their own Computer Literacy programs and used the BBC Micro.
Research Machines had, until this time, been one of the leaders in UK educational computer market. One of the main advantages which helped the BBC Micro in the educational market was its durable construction. The machine's casing and keyboard was solidly built compared to that of the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64, being able to cope with all the abuse that schoolchildren could throw at it.
The Model A and the Model B were initially priced at £235 and £335 respectively, but rising almost immediately to £299 and £399 due to increased costs. Acorn anticipated the total sales to be around 12,000 units, but eventually more than 1.5 million BBC Micros were sold.
The cost of the BBC Models was high compared to competitors such as the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64 and in 1983, Acorn attempted to counter this by producing a largely compatible but cut down version intended for game playing, the 32K Acorn Electron. Games written specially for the Electron's more limited hardware could usually also be run on the Model B.