The article... well, it doesn't bury the lede, but it does completely omit it outside of the headline. For anyone who doesn't know the context: The BBC Micro was built by Acorn Computers, which proceeded to design the Acorn RISC Machine -- later renamed to Advanced RISC Machine and thence to simply "arm".
In many ways, the tuple (BBC Micro, Acorn Computers, arm) is analogous to (IBM PC, Intel, x86).
zabzonk · 1h ago
> In many ways, the tuple (BBC Micro, Acorn Computers, arm) is analogous to (IBM PC, Intel, x86)
Except the BBC micro didn't use an ARM processor - it used a 6502. Whereas the IBM PC did use the Intel processor.
afandian · 1h ago
Depends how nitpicky you want to be. There was an ARM “BBC Micro”.
Except, of course there was the Archimedes. Which was a BBC Micro on steroids.
Besides, it did say 'in many ways' so I think that this is really needless nitpicking.
cperciva · 1h ago
Sure, but modern x86 has very little in common with the 8088.
mojuba · 1h ago
Depends on how you define "common" but the entire lineage 8080 -> 8086 -> 8088 are backwards compatible and therefore are very much related.
linker3000 · 52m ago
Well, I still own the ancestor - a BBC B.
As a schoolboy I was one of a handful who were in the computer club. We had a CBM (PET) 3016, a few Acorn System Ones and a UK101 that was built by our physics teacher.
One day this big grey prototyping keyboard case turned up. There was a microcassette unit fitted for loading and saving programs, and the whole thing was connected to a colour TV via an umbilical cord that looked like a vacuum cleaner hose.
We were given task sheets with projects to complete on this unit, and we could control the TV from the keyboard, read Teletext pages AND download programs.
It was a fun piece of kit that stayed with us for a couple of months.
In hindsight, I realised that the unit was a pre-production BBC Micro and we'd been part of a pre-launch test programme thanks to that same physics teacher.
grahar64 · 50m ago
A BBC micro was my first computer. Americans had Amegas or something, but I had a BBC and a big book with example BASIC programs.
pavlov · 14m ago
The Amiga was much bigger in Europe/UK than the US, though.
In many ways, the tuple (BBC Micro, Acorn Computers, arm) is analogous to (IBM PC, Intel, x86).
Except the BBC micro didn't use an ARM processor - it used a 6502. Whereas the IBM PC did use the Intel processor.
https://www.retro-kit.co.uk/page.cfm/content/Acorn-BBC-Archi...
And the IBM PC used an 8088.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer
Besides, it did say 'in many ways' so I think that this is really needless nitpicking.
As a schoolboy I was one of a handful who were in the computer club. We had a CBM (PET) 3016, a few Acorn System Ones and a UK101 that was built by our physics teacher.
One day this big grey prototyping keyboard case turned up. There was a microcassette unit fitted for loading and saving programs, and the whole thing was connected to a colour TV via an umbilical cord that looked like a vacuum cleaner hose.
We were given task sheets with projects to complete on this unit, and we could control the TV from the keyboard, read Teletext pages AND download programs.
It was a fun piece of kit that stayed with us for a couple of months.
In hindsight, I realised that the unit was a pre-production BBC Micro and we'd been part of a pre-launch test programme thanks to that same physics teacher.
The Apple II would be an example of the opposite.