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Acorn Computers
Acorn Computers Ltd. was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England in 1978 by Hermann Hauser, Christopher Curry (businessman), Chris Curry and Andy Hopper. The company produced a number of computers during the 1980s with associated software that were highly popular in the domestic market, and they have been historically influential in the development of computer technology like Central processing unit, processors. The company's Acorn Electron, released in 1983, and the later Acorn Archimedes, were highly popular in Britain, while Acorn's computer dominated the educational computer market during the 1980s. The company also designed the ARM architecture family, ARM architecture and the operating system for it. The architecture part of the business was spun-off as Advanced RISC Machines under a joint venture with Apple Inc., Apple and VLSI Technology, VLSI in 1990, now known as Arm Holdings, which is dominant in the mobile phone and personal digital assistant ...
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Hermann Hauser
Hermann Maria Hauser (born 1948) is an Austrian entrepreneur, venture capitalist and inventor who is primarily associated with the Cambridge technology community in England. Education and early life When Hauser was 16 he went to the United Kingdom to learn English at a language school in Cambridge. After a master's degree in physics from Vienna University, he returned to King's College, Cambridge to do a PhD in physics at the Cavendish Laboratory. Career Hauser is probably best known for his part in setting up Acorn Computers with Chris Curry in 1978. When Olivetti took control of Acorn in 1985 he became vice-president for research at Olivetti, in charge of laboratories in the US and Europe. In 1986, Hauser co-founded the Olivetti Research Laboratory (ORL) in Cambridge with Andy Hopper, who became the laboratory's director. Hauser's role in Acorn was portrayed by Edward Baker-Duly in the BBC drama '' Micro Men''. In 1988, Hauser left Olivetti to start the Active Book ...
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Phoebe (computer)
The Phoebe 2100 (or ) was to be Acorn Computers' successor to the RiscPC, slated for release in late 1998. However, in September 1998, Acorn cancelled the project as part of a restructuring of the company. Specification * 233 MHz Intel StrongARM SA110 Revision S CPU. ** Support for multiple CPUs on daughter cards is possible; however, multiple CPU support was not available in RISC OS. * 64 MHz front-side bus * Up to 512  MiB of SDRAM * IOMD2 I/O Controller ** PLX Technology PCI bridge PCI9080 *** Four PCI slots (33 MHz) ** PC Style Joystick/Game Port ** Three Acorn Podule expansion sockets ** SMC37672 SuperIO chip supporting: *** PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse *** Two EIDE channels supporting up to four devices (6.4 GB unit supplied) *** Two serial ports *** Parallel port *** Single Floppy drive * VIDC20 Revision R video controller supporting * 4  MiB of EDO VRAM running at 200 MHz * NLX form factor Tower case with a custom yellow front panel (by the d ...
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Set-top Box
A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable converter box, cable box, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a Tuner (radio)#Television, TV tuner input and displays output to a television set, turning the source signal into media (communications), content in a form that can then be displayed on the television screen or other display device. It is designed to be placed alongside or "on top" (hence the name) of a television set. Set-top boxes are used in cable television, satellite television, terrestrial television and Internet Protocol television systems, as well as other uses such as digital media players ("streaming boxes"). Alternatives to set-top boxes are the smaller dongles, and television sets with built-in TV tuners. TV signal sources The signal source might be an Ethernet cable, a satellite dish, a coaxial cable (see cable television), a telephone line (including Digital subs ...
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Microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor (computing), processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU). The IC is capable of interpreting and executing program instructions and performing arithmetic operations. The microprocessor is a multipurpose, Clock signal, clock-driven, Processor register, register-based, digital integrated circuit that accepts binary code, binary data as input, processes it according to instruction (computing), instructions stored in its computer memory, memory, and provides results (also in binary form) as output. Microprocessors contain both combinational logic and sequential logic, sequential digital logic, and operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary number system. The integration of a whole CPU on ...
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Personal Digital Assistant
A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a multi-purpose mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. Following a boom in the 1990s and 2000s, PDAs were mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of more highly capable smartphones, in particular those based on iOS and Android (operating system), Android in the late 2000s, and thus saw a rapid decline. A PDA has an electronic visual display. Most models also have audio capabilities, allowing usage as a portable media player, and also enabling many of them to be used as telephones. By the early 2000s, nearly all PDA models had the ability to access the Internet, intranets or extranets via Wi-Fi or wireless WANs, and since then generally included a web browser. Sometimes, instead of buttons, later PDAs employ touchscreen technology. History The first PDA, the Psion Organiser, Organiser, was released in 1984 by Psion (company), Psion, followed by Psion Series 3, Psion's Series 3, in 1991. The latter began to ...
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Mobile Phone
A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio frequency link connects to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator, providing access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephony relies on a cellular network architecture, which is why mobile phones are often referred to as 'cell phones' in North America. Beyond traditional voice communication, digital mobile phones have evolved to support a wide range of additional services. These include text messaging, multimedia messaging, email, and internet access (via LTE, 5G NR or Wi-Fi), as well as short-range wireless technologies like Bluetooth, infrared, and ultra-wideband (UWB). Mobile phones also support a variety of multimedia capabilities, such as digital photography, video recordin ...
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Arm Holdings
Arm Holdings plc (formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England, whose primary business is the design of central processing unit (CPU) cores that implement the ARM architecture family of instruction sets. It also designs other chips, provides software development tools under the DS-5, RealView and Keil brands, and provides systems and platforms, system-on-a-chip (SoC) infrastructure and software. As a "holding" company, it also holds shares of other companies. Since 2016, it has been majority owned by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group. While ARM CPUs first appeared in the Acorn Archimedes, a desktop computer, today's systems include mostly embedded systems, including ARM CPUs used in virtually all modern smartphones. Processors based on designs licensed from Arm, or designed by licensees of one of the ARM instruction set architectures, are used in all ...
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VLSI Technology
VLSI Technology, Inc., was an American company that designed and manufactured custom and semi-custom integrated circuits (ICs). The company was based in Silicon Valley, with headquarters at 1109 McKay Drive in San Jose. Along with LSI Logic, VLSI Technology defined the leading edge of the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) business, which accelerated the push of powerful embedded systems into affordable products. Initially the company often referred to itself as "VTI" (for VLSI Technology Inc.), and adopted a distinctive "VTI" logo. But it was forced to drop that designation in the mid-1980s because of a trademark conflict. VLSI was acquired in June 1999, for about $1 billion, by Philips Electronics and is today a part of the Philips spin-off NXP Semiconductors. History The company was founded in 1979, by a trio from Fairchild Semiconductor by way of Synertek – Jack Balletto, Dan Floyd, and Gunnar Wetlesen – and by Doug Fairbairn of Xerox PARC and Lam ...
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Apple Inc
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Company by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, the company was incorporated by Jobs and Wozniak as Apple Computer, Inc. the following year. It was renamed Apple Inc. in 2007 as the company had expanded its focus from computers to consumer electronics. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue, with  billion in the 2024 fiscal year. The company was founded to produce and market Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Its second computer, the Apple II, became a best seller as one of the first mass-produced microcomputers. Apple introduced the Lisa in 1983 and the Macintosh in 1984, as some of the first computers to use a graphical user interface and a mouse. By 1985, internal company problems led to Jobs leavin ...
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Operating System
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of Scheduling (computing), processor time, mass storage, peripherals, and other resources. For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation, the operating system acts as an intermediary between programs and the computer hardware, although the application code is usually executed directly by the hardware and frequently makes system calls to an OS function or is interrupted by it. Operating systems are found on many devices that contain a computerfrom cellular phones and video game consoles to web servers and supercomputers. , Android (operating system), Android is the most popular operating system with a 46% market share, followed ...
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RISC OS
RISC OS () is an operating system designed to run on ARM architecture, ARM computers. Originally designed in 1987 by Acorn Computers of England, it was made for use in its new line of ARM-based Acorn Archimedes, Archimedes personal computers and was then shipped with other computers produced by the company. Despite the demise of Acorn, RISC OS continues to be developed today by the RISC OS Open community on version 5.0 of the system that was open sourced in 2018. RISC OS is a Modular programming, modular operating system and takes its name from the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture it supports. It incorporates a graphical user interface and a windowing system. Between 1987 and 1998, RISC OS shipped with every ARM-based Acorn computer including the Archimedes line, Acorn's R line (with RISC iX as a dual-boot option), RiscPC, Acorn A7000, A7000, and prototype models such as the Acorn Acorn Computers#NewsPad, NewsPad and Phoebe (computer), Phoebe computer. A vers ...
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ARM Architecture Family
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of RISC instruction set architectures (ISAs) for computer processors. Arm Holdings develops the ISAs and licenses them to other companies, who build the physical devices that use the instruction set. It also designs and licenses cores that implement these ISAs. Due to their low costs, low power consumption, and low heat generation, ARM processors are useful for light, portable, battery-powered devices, including smartphones, laptops, and tablet computers, as well as embedded systems. However, ARM processors are also used for desktops and servers, including Fugaku, the world's fastest supercomputer from 2020 to 2022. With over 230 billion ARM chips produced, , ARM is the most widely used family of instruction set architectures. There have been several generations of the ARM design. The original ARM1 used a 32-bit internal structure but h ...
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