🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 19 Aug 2018 00:32:11 -0400
Michael Black <mbl...@pubnix.net> wrote:

> On Sat, 18 Aug 2018, Charles Richmond wrote:
> 
> > On 8/18/2018 12:58 PM, Peter Flass wrote:

> >> The only MK14 google is able to find is a rifle. Do you have some info
> >> or a link?
> >> 
> >
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MK14
> >
> I thought it was a Sinclair, just from a period when "Sinclair" wasn't in 
> the company name.

	Yes Science of Cambridge was one of Clive Sinclair's companies with
Chris Curry - they then fell out and Chris joined up with Herman Hauser to
form Acorn taking Nick Toop with him to design the Electron. Nick left in
disgust when he didn't see much reward from the success of the Electron.

	An odd thought crossed my mind, we owe the existence of the ARM
processor to the failure of Ferranti to deliver on their promises - in a
real James Burke connections sort of sense.

	After the Electron Acorn started on the Proton but it got shelved
and Acorn wasn't really going anywhere, meanwhile the ailing Newbury Labs
had the coveted BBC contract and was developing the Newbrain for it.
Unfortunately for them they depended on Ferranti ULAs to get the cost down
to where they could make a profit and Ferranti couldn't deliver ones that
didn't overheat. They were designed to spec, the spec was optimistic or
incomplete - it said how fast you could drive the gates and how many gates
you could have it failed to say that you couldn't drive too many of them
that fast.

	So the Newbrain got delayed again and again and the BBC withdrew
their contract and gave it to Acorn who dusted off the Proton, finished it
and called it the BBC Micro[1] and thus became big enough to design a custom
processor for their next series of machines and spin off a company to
design the Acorn Risc Machine.

[1] Also afflicted with overheating Ferranti ULA problems - aka pyjama
stripes.

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