Computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

s designed or built in Britain include: *

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 asso ...

Acorn Eurocard systems The Acorn System was a series of modular microcomputer systems based on rack-mounted Eurocards developed by Acorn Computers from 1979 to 1982, aimed primarily at industrial and laboratory use, but also home enthusiasts. The experience gained in ...

Acorn System 1 The Acorn System 1, initially called the Acorn Microcomputer (Micro-Computer), was an early 8-bit microcomputer for hobbyists, based on the MOS 6502 CPU, and produced by British company Acorn Computers from 1979. The main parts of the system ...

Acorn Atom The Acorn Atom is a home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd from 1980 to 1982, when it was replaced by the BBC Micro. The BBC Micro began life as an upgrade to the Atom, originally known as the Proton. The Atom was a progression of the MOS T ...

BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was introduced as a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers, to provide many of the features of that more expensive mach ...

BBC Master The BBC Master is a home computer released by Acorn Computers in early 1986. It was designed and built for the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and was the successor to the BBC Micro, BBC Micro Model B. The Master 128 remained in prod ...

Acorn Archimedes The Acorn Archimedes is a family of personal computers designed by Acorn Computers of Cambridge, England. The systems in this family use Acorn's own ARM architecture processors and initially ran the Arthur operating system, with later models ...

RiscPC Risc PC was a range of personal computers launched in 1994 by Acorn, replacing the Archimedes series. The machines use the Acorn developed ARM CPU and were thereby not IBM PC-compatible. At launch, the original Risc PC 600 model was fitted a ...

Acorn Network Computer The Acorn Network Computer was a network computer (a type of thin client) designed and manufactured by Acorn Computers Ltd. It was the implementation of the Network Computer Reference Profile that Oracle Corporation commissioned Acorn to specify ...

Amstrad Amstrad plc was a British consumer electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar. During the 1980s, the company was known for its Home computer, home computers beginning with the Amstrad CPC and later also the ZX Spectrum range after the ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...

Amstrad PCW The Amstrad PCW series is a range of personal computers produced by United Kingdom, British company Amstrad from 1985 to 1998, and also sold under licence in Europe as the "Joyce" by the German electronics company Schneider Computer Division, Schn ...

** Amstrad NC100 **

PC1512 The Amstrad PC1512 was Amstrad's mostly IBM PC compatible, IBM PC-compatible computer system, launched in 1986, and advertised with prices from £399 plus VAT. The system was also marketed in the US by Texas-based Vidco Inc. from the start of 19 ...

** PPC 512 and 640 **

Amstrad PC2286 The Amstrad PC2286 was launched 1989. The 2000 series launched as a professional follow on to the PC1512/1640. The 2000 series consisted of three models: 2086 (8086), 2286 (80286) and 2386 ( 80386DX). The series used a plastic case similar to 1 ...

** Amstrad Mega PC *

Apricot Computers Apricot Computers Ltd., originally Applied Computer Techniques Ltd. (ACT), was a British electronic company active from 1965 to 2005. The company had its greatest success during the 1980s as a manufacturer of personal computers for businesses, ...

Apricot PC The Apricot PC (originally called the ''ACT Apricot'') is a personal computer produced by Apricot Computers, then still known as Applied Computer Techniques or ACT. Released in late 1983, it was ACT's first independently developed microcomputer, f ...

Apricot Portable The Apricot Portable was a personal computer manufactured by ACT Ltd., and was released to the public in November 1984. It was ACT's first attempt at manufacturing a portable computer, which were gaining popularity at the time. Compared to other ...

** Apricot Picobook Pro *Bear Microcomputer Systems ** Newbear 77-68 *Bywood Electronics **SCRUMPI 2 **SCRUMPI 3 * Cambridge Computer ** Cambridge Z88 * Camputers Lynx * CAP computer * Commodore Amiga 600 (A600) - Assembled in a former Timex factory in Scotland. * Commodore Amiga 1200 (

A1200 The Amiga 1200, or A1200 (code-named " Channel Z"), is a personal computer in the Amiga computer family released by Commodore International, aimed at the home computer market. It was launched on October 21, 1992, at a base price of £399 in the ...

) - Assembled in a former Timex factory in Scotland. *

Compukit UK101 The Compukit UK101 microcomputer (1979) is a kit clone of the Ohio Scientific Superboard II single-board computer, with a few enhancements for the UK market - notably replacing the 24×24 (add guardband kit to give 32×32) screen display with ...

Dragon 32/64 The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are 8-bit home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales, before mo ...

Elliott Brothers (computer company) Elliott Brothers (London) Ltd was an early computer company of the 1950s and 1960s in the United Kingdom. It traced its descent from a firm of instrument makers founded by William Elliott in London around 1804. The research laboratories were o ...

Enterprise (computer) The Enterprise is a Zilog Z80-based home computer announced in 1983, but due to a series of delays, was not commercially available until 1985. It was developed by British company Intelligent Software and marketed by Enterprise Computers. The s ...

Ferranti MRT The Ferranti Market Research Terminal (MRT) was, arguably, the world’s first application-specific handheld computer. It was designed specifically for the market research sector as a means to augment the regular clipboard schemes that, at the ti ...

Flex machine The Flex Computer System was developed by Michael Foster and Ian Currie of Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) in Malvern, England, during the late 1970s and 1980s. It used a tagged storage scheme to implement a capability architect ...

*Gemini Computers **Gemini Galaxy ** Gemini Challenger * GEC ** GEC 2050 **

GEC 4000 series The GEC 4000 was a series of 16-bit, 16/32-bit minicomputers produced by GEC Computers, GEC Computers Ltd in the United Kingdom during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. History GEC Computers was formed in 1968 as a business unit of the Gen ...

** GEC Series 63 *

Grundy NewBrain The Grundy NewBrain was a line of microcomputers launched in 1982 by Grundy Business Systems Ltd of Teddington and Cambridge, England. A contemporary of the ZX80 and BBC Micro, the NewBrain was mostly used in business settings. It is notable f ...

* ICL **

ICL 2900 Series The ICL 2900 Series was a range of mainframe computer systems announced by the British manufacturer International Computers Limited on 9 October 1974. The company had started development under the name "New Range" immediately on its formation ...

ICL Series 39 The ICL Series 39 was a range of mainframe computer, mainframe and minicomputer computer systems released by the UK manufacturer International Computers Limited, ICL in 1985. The original Series 39 introduced the "S3L" (whose corrupt pronunciation ...

** One Per Desk *

Jupiter Ace The Jupiter Ace by Jupiter Cantab was a British home computer released in 1982. The Ace differed from other microcomputers of the time in that its programming environment used Forth instead of the more popular BASIC. This difference, along w ...

Memotech MTX The Memotech MTX500 and MTX512 are a range of 8-bit Zilog Z80A based home computers released by the British company Memotech in 1983 and sold mainly in the UK, France, Germany and Scandinavia. Originally a manufacturer of memory add-ons for Sin ...

Nascom The Nascom 1 and 2 were single-board computer kits issued in the United Kingdom in 1977 and 1979, respectively, based on the Zilog Z80 and including a keyboard and video interface, a serial port that could be used to store data on a tape casset ...

**Nascom 1 **Nascom 2 * Plessey System 250 *

Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi ( ) is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in collaboration with Broadcom Inc., Broadcom. To commercialize the product and support its growing demand, the ...

Research Machines RM plc is a British company that specialises in providing information technology products and services to educational organisations and establishments. Its key market is UK education including schools, colleges, universities, government educati ...

Research Machines 380Z The Research Machines 380Z (often called the RML 380Z or RM 380Z) was an early 8-bit microcomputer produced by Research Machines in Oxford, England, from 1977 to 1985. Description The 380Z used a Z80 microprocessor (hence the name) with up to 5 ...

** LINK 480Z **

RM Nimbus RM Nimbus was a range of personal computers from British company Research Machines (now RM Education) sold from 1985 until the early 1990s, after which the designation ''Nimbus'' was discontinued. The first of these computers, the RM Nimbus PC- ...

SAM Coupé The SAM Coupé (pronounced /sæm ku:peɪ/ from its original British English branding) is an 8-bit British home computer manufactured by '' Miles Gordon Technology'' (''MGT''), based in Swansea in the United Kingdom and released in December 1989. ...

Sinclair Research Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge in the 1970s. In 1980, the company entered the home computer market with the ZX80 at £99.95, at that time the cheapest personal computer ...

MK14 The MK14 (Microcomputer Kit 14) was a computer kit sold by Science of Cambridge of the United Kingdom, first introduced in 1977 for £39.95. The price was very low for a complete computer system at the time, and Science of Cambridge eventually ...

(trading as Science of Cambridge) **

ZX80 The Sinclair ZX80 is a home computer launched on 29 January 1980 by Science of Cambridge Ltd. (later to be better known as Sinclair Research). It is notable for being one of the first computers available in the United Kingdom for less than a hu ...

ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-c ...

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

Sinclair QL The Sinclair QL (for ''Quantum Leap'') is a personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984, as an upper-end counterpart to the ZX Spectrum. The QL was the last desktop microcomputer from Sinclair Research aimed at the serious home use ...

* Systime Computers Ltd **Systime 1000, 3000, 5000, 8750, 8780 **Systime Series 2, Series 3 *

Tangerine Computer Systems Tangerine Computer Systems was a British microcomputer company founded in 1979 by Dr. Paul Johnson, Mark Rainer and Nigel Penton Tilbury in St. Ives, Cambridgeshire. The very first product was the successful TAN1648 VDU kit which received much ...

Tangerine Microtan 65 The Tangerine Microtan 65 (sometimes abbreviated M65) was a 6502-based single board microcomputer, first sold in 1979, that could be expanded into what was, for its day, a comprehensive and powerful system. The design became the basis for what la ...

Oric-1 Oric was a brand of home computers sold in the 1980s by Tangerine Computer Systems. Tangerine was based in the United Kingdom and sold their computers primarily in Europe. All computers in the Oric line were based on the MOS Technology 650 ...

Oric Atmos Oric was a brand of home computers sold in the 1980s by Tangerine Computer Systems. Tangerine was based in the United Kingdom and sold their computers primarily in Europe. All computers in the Oric line were based on the MOS Technology 650 ...

Tatung Einstein The Tatung Einstein is an eight-bit home/personal computer produced by Taiwanese corporation Tatung, designed in Bradford, England at Tatung's research laboratories and assembled in Bridgnorth and Telford, England. It was aimed primarily at sma ...

* Torch Computers ** Triple X workstation *Transam **

Triton Triton commonly refers to: * Triton (mythology), a Greek god * Triton (moon), a satellite of Neptune Triton may also refer to: Biology * Triton cockatoo, a parrot * Triton (gastropod), a group of sea snails * ''Triton'', a synonym of ''Triturus' ...

**Tuscan

Mechanical computers

Difference engine A difference engine is an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. It was designed in the 1820s, and was created by Charles Babbage. The name ''difference engine'' is derived from the method of finite differen ...

** Analytical Engine *

Bombe The bombe () was an Electromechanics, electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma machine, Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II. The United States Navy, US Navy and United Sta ...

Early British computers

*AEI 1010 *

APEXC The APE(X)C, or All Purpose Electronic (X) Computer series was designed by Andrew Donald Booth at Birkbeck, University of London, Birkbeck College, London in the early 1950s. His work on the APE(X)C series was sponsored by the British Rayon Rese ...

Atlas (computer) The Atlas was one of the world's first supercomputers, in use from 1962 (when it was claimed to be the most powerful computer in the world) to 1972. Atlas's capacity promoted the saying that when it went offline, half of the United Kingdom's c ...

Automatic Computing Engine The Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) was a British early Electronic storage, electronic Serial computer, serial stored-program computer design by Alan Turing. Turing completed the ambitious design in late 1945, having had experience in the yea ...

Colossus computer Colossus was a set of computers developed by British cryptanalysis, codebreakers in the years 1943–1945 to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. Colossus used vacuum tube, thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) to perform Boolean algebra ...

* CTL Modular One * Digico Micro 16 *

EDSAC The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. Inspired by John von Neumann's seminal ''First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC'', the machine was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the Universit ...

EDSAC 2 EDSAC 2 was an early vacuum tube computer (operational in 1958), the successor to the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC). It was the first computer to have a microprogrammed control unit and a bit-slice hardware architecture. ...

Elliott 152 The Elliot 152 was a vacuum tube fixed-program computer developed for naval gunnery control at the Elliott Brothers laboratory in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. It was an early example of a digital real-time computer system, and the first computer ...

Elliott 503 The Elliott 503 was a transistorized computer introduced by Elliott Brothers in 1963. It was software-compatible with the earlier Elliott 803 but was about 70 times faster and a more powerful machine. About 32 units were sold. The basic config ...

Elliott 803 The Elliott 803 is a small, medium-speed transistor digital computer which was manufactured by the British company Elliott Brothers in the 1960s. About 211 were built. History The 800 series began with the 801, a one-off test machine built i ...

**Elliott 4100 Series *

EMIDEC 1100 The EMIDEC 1100 computer (became the ICT 1101 in 1962) was produced by the Computing Services Division of EMI Laboratories in the UK under the leadership of Godfrey Hounsfield in 1958, (first delivered in 1959) after one year's development. It us ...

English Electric The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, made munitions, armaments and aeroplanes. It initially specialised in industrial el ...

English Electric DEUCE The DEUCE (''Digital Electronic Universal Computing Engine'') was one of the earliest British commercially available computers, built by English Electric from 1955. It was the production version of the Pilot ACE, itself a cut-down version of ...

** English Electric KDF8 **

English Electric KDF9 KDF9 was an early British 48-bit computer designed and built by English Electric (which in 1968 was merged into International Computers Limited (ICL)). The first machine came into service in 1964 and the last of 29 machines was decommissioned i ...

**English Electric KDP10 **

English Electric System 4 The English Electric (later ICL) System 4 was a mainframe computer announced in 1965. It was derived from the RCA Spectra 70 range, itself a variant of the IBM System 360 architecture. The models in the range included the System 4-10 (cancell ...

Ferranti Ferranti International PLC or simply Ferranti was a UK-based electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century, from 1885 until its bankruptcy in 1993. At its peak, Ferranti was a significant player in power grid system ...

Ferranti Argus Ferranti's Argus computers were a line of industrial control computers offered from the 1960s into the 1980s. Originally designed for a military role, a re-packaged Argus was the first digital computer to be used to directly control an entire fact ...

Ferranti Mark 1 The Ferranti Mark 1, also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer in its sales literature, and thus sometimes called the Manchester Ferranti, was produced by British electrical engineering firm Ferranti Ltd. It was the world's first commer ...

, or Manchester Electronic Computer **

Ferranti Mercury The Mercury was an early commercial computer from the mid-1950s built by Ferranti. It was the successor to the Ferranti Mark 1, adding a floating point unit for improved performance, and increased reliability by replacing the Williams tube memor ...

Ferranti Orion The Orion was a mid-range mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses ...

** Ferranti Pegasus **

Ferranti Perseus Perseus was a vacuum tube (valve) computer built by Ferranti Ltd of Great Britain. It was a development of the Ferranti Pegasus computer for large-scale data processing. Perseus, which was one of Ferranti's computer systems that included Ferranti ...

** Ferranti Sirius **

Nimrod (computer) The Nimrod, built in the United Kingdom by Ferranti for the 1951 Festival of Britain, was an early computer custom-built to play Nim, inspired by the earlier Nimatron. The twelve-by-nine-by-five-foot (3.7-by-2.7-by-1.5-meter) computer, designed ...

* Harwell computer **

Harwell CADET The Harwell CADET was the first fully transistorised computer in Europe, and may have been the first fully transistorised computer in the world. The electronics division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, UK built the H ...

Hollerith Electronic Computer The Hollerith Electronic Computer (HEC) was produced by the British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM) and was based on a design by Professor Andrew Booth of Birkbeck College, London. It was Britain's first mass-produced business computer. The pro ...

* ICS Multum * ICT **

ICT 1301 The ICT 1301 and its smaller derivative ICT 1300 were early business computers from International Computers and Tabulators. Typical of mid-sized machines of the era, they used core memory, drum storage and punched cards, but they were unusual in ...

ICT 1900 series ICT 1900 was a family of mainframe computers released by International Computers and Tabulators (ICT) and later International Computers Limited (ICL) during the 1960s and 1970s. The 1900 series was notable for being one of the few non-America ...

LEO (computer) The LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) was a series of early computer systems created by J. Lyons and Co. The first in the series, the LEO I, was the first computer used for commercial business applications. The prototype LEO I was modelled closely ...

Luton Analogue Computing Engine The Luton Analogue Computing Engine (LACE) was a code name for a military general purpose analogue computer, predominantly used for missile simulation. It was developed in 1953-1956 by English Electric's Guided Missile Division in Luton, UK. Upon ...

Manchester computers The Manchester computers were an innovative series of Von Neumann architecture, stored-program Computer, electronic computers developed during the 30-year period between 1947 and 1977 by a small team at the Victoria University of Manchester, Uni ...

Manchester Mark 1 The Manchester Mark 1 was one of the earliest stored-program computers, developed at the Victoria University of Manchester, England from the Manchester Baby (operational in June 1948). Work began in August 1948, and the first version was operat ...

Lavington, pp. 36-43 **

Manchester Baby The Manchester Baby, also called the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), was the first electronic stored-program computer. It was built at the University of Manchester by Frederic Calland Williams, Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Ge ...

* Marconi ** Marconi Transistorised Automatic Computer (T.A.C.) ** Marconi Myriad *

Metrovick 950 The Metrovick 950 was a transistorized computer, built from 1956 onwards by British company Metropolitan-Vickers, to the extent of sixDavid P. Anderson, ''Tom Kilburn: A Pioneer of Computer Design'', IEEE Annals of the History of Computing - V ...

MOSAIC A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

Pilot ACE The Pilot ACE (Automatic Computing Engine) was one of the first computers built in the United Kingdom. Built at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the early 1950s, it was also one of the earliest general-purpose, stored-program computer ...

* Royal Radar Establishment Automatic Computer * SOLIDAC

ICL mainframe computers

References

{{Reflist

Early British computers

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Computers designed in the United Kingdom