1980 Acorn Atom
The Acorn Atom was the ancestor of the BBC computers series. It was sold in kit or ready-assembled versions.
The great advantage of the Atom compared to its competitors (TRS-80 & PET), was its high resolution capabilities (256 x 192) which were quite unusual in 1979 for the price.
The built-in BASIC was in some ways quite limited (it could only use integers for example) but an optional 4K ROM added the ability to use floating point numbers, trigonometric functions, to convert degrees/radians and to draw graphics in color. More add-ons were also available enabling autonumbering, a faster cassette interface (1200 bauds), and functions such as INKEY$, MID$, READ, DATA, FILL, etc… There was even a BBC BASIC board available.
A lot of applications were available on sideways ROMs that plugged into the “utility ROM socket” as Acorn called it, such as the “Atom Word Pack ROM” (word processing) or Atom-Calc (a 4K ROM spreadsheet).
A colour card was available, connected to the BUS connector, it provided 8 colors, 4 simultaneously at the 64 x 192 resolution or 2 at 128 x 192 for example. But it was known to overheat!
A lot of other peripherals were developed : – a 5.25″ floppy disk drive (100K) which held the DOS in a 3K ROM but cost about twice as much as a new Atom!,
– a digital-tape recorder,
– a printer interface,
– a network card called EcoNet which enabled linking of up to 250 Atoms (210 K/Bauds transfer rate),
– RAM expansions,
– etc…
| NAME | ATOM |
| MANUFACTURER | Acorn Computer |
| TYPE | Home Computer |
| ORIGIN | United Kingdom |
| YEAR | 1980 |
| END OF PRODUCTION | 1983 |
| BUILT IN LANGUAGE | Basic, machine-code |
| KEYBOARD | QWERTY, full-stroke keyboard, 60 keys ESC, BREAK, COPY, DELETE, CTRL, RETURN, LOCK, SHIFT (x2), REPT, arrow keys (x2) |
| CPU | 6502 |
| SPEED | 1 mHz |
| CO-PROCESSOR | 6847 Video Display Generator, PIA 8255 (keyboard & tape) |
| RAM | 2 KB (up to 12 KB, or 32 KB using external RAM expansion kit. ) |
| VRAM | 6 KB |
| ROM | 8 KB (Atom BASIC and COS), up to 16 KB |
| TEXT MODES | 32 x 24 / 16 x 12 |
| GRAPHIC MODES | 64 x 64 (4 colors), 64 x 96 (4 colors), 128 x 96 (monochrome), 64 x 192 (4 colors), 128 x 192 (2 colors), 256 x 192 (monochrome) |
| COLORS | 8 |
| SOUND | Built-in beeper |
| SIZE / WEIGHT | 15” long x 9.5” deep x 2.5” high |
| I/O PORTS | Tape interface, UHF Modulated TV output, Acorn Bus Extension |
| POWER SUPPLY | External PSU – 8v 2A |
| PRICE | kit: £120 Built : £170 50£ (UK, 1983) 381€(France, 82) |
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Filed under: 80s Computers - @ January 31, 2022 11:34 AM