Black Acorn Atom

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This Atom, according to Chris Turner, is in a black pre-production case as they would use any colour plastic that happened to be in the Hoppers to test the quality of the moulds.

This Acorn Atom has found itself with an issue 5 mainboard installed at some point, probably put in this black case as it was spare at the time, and would have stood out if it was being used for any special project.

The Acorn Atom was introduced in 1980 as a low-cost modular and expandable system. It was based on the System Three. It was housed in a moulded plastic case with a full-sized keyboard and audio cassette interface. It was available as either a kit or ready-built. After its release in 1980 the 2K RAM, 8K ROM model was available as a kit for £120 +VAT or £150 +VAT ready-built.

The Atom is built around the 6502 microprocessor, which ran at 1MHz. The base system had 2K RAM and 8K ROM, but each could be expanded to 12K. A floating-point ROM extension was also available.

The successor to the Atom was known as the Proton during the development stage, which became the BBC Micro following the BBC's Computer Literacy Project.

Manufacturer: Acorn
Date: January 1980

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Black Acorn Atom Manuals:

Item Manufacturer Date
BBC-Type BASIC Manual Acorn Unknown
Acorn Atom Circuit Diagram Acorn 28 Feb 1980

Other Systems Related To Black Acorn Atom:

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
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
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Acorn Electron (Production Mock Up) Acorn Computers Ltd July 1983
Acorn Electron (Trial ROM) Acorn Computers Ltd July 1983
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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
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Acorn - BT Merlin M2105 Acorn Computers / British Telecom 13th May 1986
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Acorn Archimedes A410/1 Acorn 1987
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Acorn Archimedes 310 Acorn 1987
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Acorn Archimedes A500 Acorn 1988
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Acorn Archimedes A440/1 Serial No. 1000001 Acorn Computers May 1989
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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
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Acorn A5000 ALB55 Acorn 1991
Acorn A5000 ALB35 Acorn 1991
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Acorn A4 Laptop (Prototype 1 of 7) Acorn Computers 1992
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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
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Acorn StrongARM RiscPC Acorn 1996
Acorn Stork Notebook Acorn Computers Ltd 1996
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This exhibit has a reference ID of CH530. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.

 

Black Acorn Atom

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