Hardware & Technical BBC Micro Redux

[huwthomas]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31834927

The BBC will be giving away mini-computers to 11-year-olds across the country as part of its push to make the UK more digital.

One million Micro Bits - a stripped-down computer similar to a Raspberry Pi - will be given to all pupils starting secondary school in the autumn term.

These devices seem quite interesting, sadly they will only be making a million and it sounds like they will not be offered for sale officially. Nice for a old 'Beeb-er' like me to see a new initiative like this, though

 

[Surfinjo]

Soon after to be resold on Ebay for a load.

A rather obvious stunt.

 

[huwthomas]

The BBC is treading lightly because they don't want a re-run of the controversy that happened when they gave the BBC Micro contract to Acorn (despite the fact that there was no competing machine of similar capability and quality). So you're right: limiting the numbers to avoid a "commercial" appearance will see the devices on ebay at inflated prices.

Unless they open-source the design...

 

[Slo-Mo-Shun]

The BBC is treading lightly because they don't want a re-run of the controversy that happened when they gave the BBC Micro contract to Acorn (despite the fact that there was no competing machine of similar capability and quality). So you're right: limiting the numbers to avoid a "commercial" appearance will see the devices on ebay at inflated prices.

Unless they open-source the design...

I seem to remember during that debacle with Acorn, someone at the BBC saying that they would never again put their brand name on a computer. BTW I think there were a couple of machines around that equaled or exceeded the the beeb machines capabilities. Good post.

 

[huwthomas]

I seem to remember during that debacle with Acorn, someone at the BBC saying that they would never again put their brand name on a computer. BTW I think there were a couple of machines around that equaled or exceeded the the beeb machines capabilities. Good post.

Interesting, I wasn't really aware of any of that political/commercial rivalry stuff at the time.

As a CS student with a limited budget I jumped on the BBC B with both hands ... well, I ordered it and then waited for months while they made enough of the things Other popular machines on the campus back then were the Nascom II and the Acorn Atom, and of course the ubiquitous Sinclair ZX80s and 81s.

 

[Slo-Mo-Shun]

Interesting, I wasn't really aware of any of that political/commercial rivalry stuff at the time.

As a CS student with a limited budget I jumped on the BBC B with both hands ... well, I ordered it and then waited for months while they made enough of the things Other popular machines on the campus back then were the Nascom II and the Acorn Atom, and of course the ubiquitous Sinclair ZX80s and 81s.

If you think back there was a right old argument going on as schools sent crates of the devices back to Acorn for repair. Of course the beeb got the blame. I am pretty sure the machines were then upgraded and the problems disappeared, I think it was something heat related.

Myself I started off with a dev board, then in the very early 80's if not 79 I got an Atari 400 and traded that in as soon as the 800 was released, fabulous. I seem to remember that the 5 1/4 floppy drive was 760k capacity, it probably had the same memory capacity as me nowadays. Had many different brands and types since then.