Acorn Electron

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The Acorn Electron was a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. It had 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM memory included BBC BASIC along with its operating system.

The Electron was able to save and load programs onto audio cassette via a supplied converter cable that plugged into the microphone socket of any tape recorder. It was capable of basic graphics, and could display onto either a television set or a "green screen" monitor.

At its peak, the Electron was the third best selling micro in the United Kingdom, and total lifetime game sales for the Electron exceeded those of the BBC Micro. There are at least 500 known games for the Electron and the true total is probably in the thousands.

The hardware of the BBC Micro was emulated by a single customized ULA chip designed by Acorn. It had feature limitations such as being unable to output more than one channel of sound where the BBC was capable of three-way polyphony and the inability to provide teletext mode. The machine architecture also imposed a substantial speed decrease on applications running from RAM, although ROM applications ran at the same speed.
 
Complete in its original brown box (Acorn never really did put much belief in flashy packaging!).

Serial Number : 02-ALA01-0020823

Manufacturer: Acorn
Date: July 1983



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Acorn Electron Manuals:

Item Manufacturer Date
VIEW Guide Acornsoft 1984
Into VIEW An introduction to word processing on the BBC Micro Acornsoft 1984

Magazines RELATED to Acorn Electron in our Library

Item Manufacturer Date
BBC Micro User - March 1983 - FIRST EDITION Database Publications Ltd Mar 1983
BBC Micro User - May 1983 - Vol 1 No 3 Database Publications Ltd May 1983
The Micro User - June 1983 - Vol 1 No 4 Database Publications Ltd Jun 1983
The Micro User - July 1983 - Vol 1 No 5 Database Publications Ltd Jul 1983
The Micro User - September 1983 - Vol 1 No 7 Database Publications Ltd Sep 1983
Personal Computer World - October 1983 Oct 1983
Electron User - October 1983 - Vol 1 No 1 - First Edition Oct 1983
Practical Computing - October 1983 Oct 1983
The Micro User - October 1983 - Vol 1 No 8 Database Publications Ltd Oct 1983
Beebug Newsletter - Volume 2, Number 5 - October 1983 Beebug Oct 1983
Electron User - November 1983 - Vol 1 No 2 Nov 1983
Electron User - December 1983 - Vol 1 No 3 Dec 1983
The Micro User - January 1984 - Vol 1 No 11 Database Publications Ltd Jan 1984
Personal Computer World - September 1984 Sep 1984
The Micro User - March 1988 - Vol 6 No 1 Database Publications Ltd Mar 1988
Electron User - June 1990 Jun 1990
Electron User - July 1990 Jul 1990

Other Systems Related To Acorn Electron:

Item Manufacturer Date
Acorn NetStation Proton Xavier Acorn Computers Unknown
Acorn 6502 Microcomputer Board Acorn Computers Ltd 1979
Acorn System 1 Acorn Computers March 1979
Acorn System 1 Acorn Computers Ltd March 1979
Acorn System 1 (Chris Turner) Acorn Computers Ltd March 1979
Acorn System 3 Acorn 1980
Acorn Atom (Blue Box) Acorn 1980
Acorn Atom (White Box) Acorn 1980
Black Acorn Atom Acorn January 1980
Acorn BBC Micro Model A (Issue 2 Board) Acorn Computers Ltd 1981
Acorn BBC Micro Model A - Issue 1 Acorn 1981
Acorn BBC Micro Model B Hong Kong Acorn 1981
Acorn BBC Micro Model A Acorn 1981
Acorn BBC Micro Model B Acorn 1981
Busicomputers Prophet 3 Acorn Computers Ltd 1982
Acorn System 4 Acorn Computers Ltd 1982
German BBC Micro (GNB09) Acorn 1982
Busicomputers Prophet 2 Acorn 1983
Acorn Cambridge Workstation Acorn 1983
Acorn Business Computer (ABC) (Prototype) Acorn Computers 1983
Acorn System 5 Acorn Computers Ltd 1983
Acorn Business Computer (ABC 110) Acorn 1983
Acorn Electron (Trial ROM From Astec) Acorn Computers Ltd May 1983
Acorn Electron with Turbo Board Acorn July 1983
Acorn Electron (Box with Tile Design) Acorn July 1983
Acorn Electron (Production Mock Up) Acorn Computers Ltd July 1983
Acorn Electron (Trial ROM) Acorn Computers Ltd July 1983
Acorn Electron Acorn July 1983
Acorn Electron (German) Acorn July 1983
BBC Micro B+ 128K + 48K ROM Acorn 1984
Acorn BBC Micro Model B+ 64K (Acorn R&D) Acorn 1984
US BBC Micro (UNB09) Acorn October 1984
Acorn BBC Micro Model B+ (128K) Acorn July 1985
Acorn BBC Micro Model B+ (64K) Acorn July 1985
Acorn Econet Terminal Acorn Computers Ltd 1986
BBC Master Used on Microlive Acorn Computers 1986
Acorn BBC Master 512 Acorn 1986
Acorn A500 Acorn 1986
Acorn BBC Domesday System Acorn Computers Ltd 1986
Acorn BBC Master 128 Acorn February 1986
Acorn - BT Merlin M2105 Acorn Computers / British Telecom 13th May 1986
Acorn BBC Master Compact Acorn September 1986
Acorn BBC Master Compact Prototype Acorn Computers September 1986
Acorn Archimedes A410/1 Acorn 1987
Acorn AEH02 Archimedes NSM Acorn Computers Ltd 1987
Acorn Archimedes 310 Acorn 1987
Acorn Archimedes 305 Acorn 1987
Acorn Archimedes 310 (Arthur 1.2 Installed) Acorn 1987
Acorn Archimedes 440 Acorn Computers July 1987
Acorn A680 Acorn 1988
Acorn Archimedes A500 Acorn 1988
Acorn A3000 Acorn 1989
Acorn Archimedes A440/1 Serial No. 1000001 Acorn Computers May 1989
Acorn Archimedes A440/1 Acorn Computers May 1989
Acorn A3000 (Learning Curve Box) Acorn May 1989
Acorn A3000 (Original Spec) Acorn Computers 1st May 1989
Acorn A3000 Laservision System Acorn 1st May 1989
Acorn R140 Acorn June 1989
Acorn R260 Acorn Computers 1990
Acorn A5000 ALB55 Acorn 1991
Acorn A5000 ALB35 Acorn 1991
Acorn A4000 Acorn January 1991
Acorn A4 Laptop (Prototype 1 of 7) Acorn Computers 1992
Acorn A4 Laptop Acorn 1992
Acorn A3020 Acorn January 1992
Acorn A4000 Acorn September 1992
Acorn A3010 Acorn September 1992
Semerc Acorn A4000S Acorn September 1992
Acorn Risc PC 600 Prototype Motherboard Acorn Computers 1994
Acorn Risc PC 600 Acorn April 1994
Acorn Risc PC 600 ACB25 Acorn April 1994
Acorn Risc PC 600 ACB45 Acorn April 1994
Acorn RISC PC 600 (Proto 6) Acorn 1995
Acorn RISC PC 600 - Prototype Acorn Computers 1995
Acorn A7000+ Acorn 1995
Acorn A7000 Acorn 1995
Acorn SchoolServer Acorn Ltd 1995
Acorn RISC PC700 System Acorn July 1995
Acorn Risc PC 600 ACB60 Acorn July 1995
Acorn StrongARM RiscPC Acorn 1996
Acorn Stork Notebook Acorn Computers Ltd 1996
Acorn Xemplar Matrix NC Acorn 1996
Acorn Fast NC - Serial Number 1 Acorn Computers Ltd 1996
Acorn NetStation NC Acorn November 1996
Acorn Phoebe Acorn Computers 1998
Acorn DeskLite Prototype Acorn Computers June 1998

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH7027. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

 

Acorn Electron

  Book Archive   [36]
  Games Archive   [263]
  Software Archive   [89]
  Peripherals   [21]
  Promotional Items   [3]

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