A Website Dedicated to the Acorn System Computer

last updated 1st December 2025

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I bought my Acorn System 1 back in 1979 and later expanded this into a card frame based System 2 using homebrew boards as well as Acorn's.  I moved onto a BBC and eventually PC's, the Acorn computers being consigned to the back of a cupboard for many years.

My interest was rekindled in 2018 when I dug out my System 2 Computer and brought it back to life which led me on to expanding the collection to include a range of System Computers.  I still have a lot of original Acorn paperwork from the early 80's as well as disassembled software and was surprised how little seems to be on the web hence I created this website to ensure the information is not lost.

Back around 1979-1981 when at college there where a couple of other machines from that era that I would have loved to own.  The first was the Sinclair MK14 similar in many ways to the Acorn System 1 (for good reason !) but with an interestingly quite different processor the National Semiconductor INS8060 or SC/MP.  I now have a replica of the original (replica MK14) and have developed an enhanced model (MK14E) for those wishing to take the MK14 to the next level.  I also have original and replica SOFTY programmers that use the SC/MP processor.  See my SC/MP page for more info.

However the machine I would have given almost anything to own was the Rockwell AIM 65, a 6502 based machine with a proper QWERTY keyboard, printer and a rather nice LED display.  I now have three AIM 65's and also a number of the RM 65 Eurocards that can be used to expand the system, see my Rockwell page for more info.

Some of the info on the site has come from other sources in particular:

I have adopted a standard format for filenames as follows:

<part name><acorn part number><item><issue><date><view>[ref]

<part name> Acorn were not always consistent with their product names, I have used the most common

<acorn part number> these start with either 100 or 200 not sure why, perhaps 100 was draft/pre-production ?

<issue> the issue or version number when known

<item> e.g. Schematic, Technical Manual, PCB etc.

<view> e.g. top or bottom

[ref] is a reference to the source of the item (where I can remember), a reference to [0] refers to my own collection.

I am happy for any of my information on this site to be taken and used/reproduced as long as its not for commercial gain.

All text in "double quotes" is taken from Acorn literature.

Prices are from the Acorn 1979 Price List and do not include VAT which was then at 15%.

Please note that I have no connection with any of the companies mentioned on this site, just a happy customer/user.

This website was put together using Microsoft Expression and is hosted by Webhosting.uk.com.

Please drop me an email if you spot any errors or omissions (however trivial) or you have any information that can be added to the site.

Apologies if I haven't added a link to the source of any material, I usually just forget where I found it !, let me know and I'll add a reference.

Chris Oddy

 

acorn@oddys.plus.com

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