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Acorn's BBC (b) Micro

T

tezza

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This newest purchase is an interesting machine. I've never seen so many ports on an 8-bit micro before!

Last night I had a play around with the BASIC. It's a superior version, with commands like REPEAT....UNTIL etc. You can do a lot of nifty things with graphics without resorting to the POKE command.

One interesting fobile is that when using BASIC the <BREAK> key doesn't do what it often does on other micros (at least the ones I'm used to). Pressing BREAK doesn't just stop your BASIC program, it also deletes it! It's like issuing the NEW command. The key that stops a program but doesn't delete it is <ESC>. <ESC> is more logical than <BREAK> when you think about it but it cost me 15 mins of program typing time to find this out :)
 
You can get heaps of info on the "The BBC Lives" website

http://bbc.nvg.org/

including scans of the user guides etc.

The basic & os are pretty advanced for the time, but not as fast as some other 6502 machines (like the apple II) because the machine works through a sort of ROM BIOS to maintain software compatability throughout the acorn range.

Good little machines, and of course an early step in the development of Acorn RISC Machines (or ARM) designers of the processor core used in millions of mobile phones....etc etc etc
 
As a side note, on the subsequent BBC Master and Master Compact series, there is a small knob that you can adjust with a screwdriver, to prevent the BREAK key from being pressed down. It was a feature request from the schools who still used them in their education and were bored of kids pressing BREAK to reset the computer all the time.
 
carlsson said:
As a side note, on the subsequent BBC Master and Master Compact series, there is a small knob that you can adjust with a screwdriver, to prevent the BREAK key from being pressed down. It was a feature request from the schools who still used them in their education and were bored of kids pressing BREAK to reset the computer all the time.
Click to expand...

*FX178 did the same thing on a non-Master BBC. One of the tricks I learnt from my school days :lol:
 
nige the hippy said:
Good little machines, and of course an early step in the development of Acorn RISC Machines (or ARM) designers of the processor core used in millions of mobile phones....etc etc etc
Click to expand...

Yes, I found this out about a month ago. Not from the web or books, but from talking to my boss over coffee. I mentioned I was starting to collect old computers, and this got us onto talking about technology in general, and how some people had become very rich. He told me about some relation of his who was tied up with the BBC computer. The relation (it was a cousin I think) ended up making millions by being one of the partners in a company which went on to make chips in many mobile phones.

Now my boss knows nothing about computer history but after prompting from me, he had a vauge recollection that his relative was involved with some company called Acorn, a computer line called Archimedies and chips with an unusual name called RISC .
 
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It was usually coupled with a rather annoying program that would be left running on the BBC's in the school library - when someone came up and pressed any key lots of annoying sounds would play and the user unable to stop them without powering the machine off :lol:

School days, eh? :)
 
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