There's ARM less then.

[NigelJK]

Who owned it before? Do we know?

Originally the team that built the original Acorn Archimedes wanted a true RISC processor, so they designed one (not an inconsiderable feat as IBM had spent 12 years and $M's and got one with 128 instructions, the first prototype was 15, they added a MUL instruction to appease DEC who did the original speed tests).

They setup Acorn Risc Machines so that the patents and blueprints were 'safe' and then sold the rights to make the chips under licence (mainly to Samsung who put them in TV's, washing machines and VHS recorders etc). This soon became a major part of Acorns business so they span it off as ARM ltd trading the same way. Acorn then evolved into E14 who are the people behind the Raspberry PI.

Now a question, why are Acorn no more? They had the fastest Microcomputer, more reliable (and complete) 32 bit GUI OS, with software going back years. The competition was 286 based non-gui (plagerised) OS or Unix or Apple (who were still 8 bit and flakier than a Cadburys factory).

[DodgyAgent]

The thing is, ARM don't actually make very much. They invent really rather excellent tulip and then just license it for a lot of money, good for them...The interesting thing that hasn't been reported on is how many employees does ARM have in the UK? They currently have 4,064 employees on their books worldwide and Softbank have said they will double the amount in the UK, but if there are only 200 employees in the UK, that's not really a lot of jobs (*). With luck there are a lot more than 200...


(' and they'll have to be British unless they earn more than GBP35,000)

I know you loathe Britain but Japan has a bigger shortage of skills than the UK so they are unlikely to move ARM to japan

[darmstadt]

I know you loathe Britain but Japan has a bigger shortage of skills than the UK so they are unlikely to move ARM to japan

False, just some of the people in it...

[NotAllThere]

...Now a question, why are Acorn no more? They had the fastest Microcomputer, more reliable (and complete) 32 bit GUI OS, with software going back years. The competition was 286 based non-gui (plagerised) OS or Unix or Apple (who were still 8 bit and flakier than a Cadburys factory).

What about the Amiga or Atari ST?

[VectraMan]

Originally the team that built the original Acorn Archimedes wanted a true RISC processor, so they designed one (not an inconsiderable feat as IBM had spent 12 years and $M's and got one with 128 instructions, the first prototype was 15, they added a MUL instruction to appease DEC who did the original speed tests).

I remember being taught the ARM instruction set at university and they were adamant it was the next big thing. Of course they were also adamant the Transputer was the next big thing.

Now a question, why are Acorn no more? They had the fastest Microcomputer, more reliable (and complete) 32 bit GUI OS, with software going back years. The competition was 286 based non-gui (plagerised) OS or Unix or Apple (who were still 8 bit and flakier than a Cadburys factory).

Perhaps the world didn't want to buy something British?

[NigelJK]

The original Archimedes was a 3 box desktop solution. The A3000 was cut down to be a 'home/games' machine. Both the other 2 were 16bit IIRC and the Amiga had a fancy GPU again IIRC, both better than the DOS kit and again ignored by the mainstream. I always said to the IT buyers that their actions would determine the kind of kit that would be used in the future, and now we have a sea of AT clones.
There was also the Sun sparc station which although very expensive was nearly as good as the A3000

[VectraMan]

A non-story like when the mini brand was sold to BMW?

Mini was dead, along with the rest of British Leyland. BMW has made a huge success out of the Mini and employs thousands of people in Britain to make them. That's a great success story in a way, though it's a shame it took Ze Germans to make a success out of a British brand it's hard to see how it could ever have happened without them.

The reason I asked "who owned [ARM] before?" was as it was a PLC (I assume) then as far as we know it might have mostly be owned by foreign investors anyway.

[scooterscot]

Mini was dead, along with the rest of British Leyland. BMW has made a huge success out of the Mini and employs thousands of people in Britain to make them. That's a great success story in a way, though it's a shame it took Ze Germans to make a success out of a British brand it's hard to see how it could ever have happened without them.

Them Germans are doing the same thing with Rolls Royce in aerospace, Derby is almost in cardiac arrest.

Employing is one thing, had we kept the brand we'd also keep the profits. Don't like when our industry is in the hands of others.

[sirja]

I know you loathe Britain but Japan has a bigger shortage of skills than the UK so they are unlikely to move ARM to japan

Hmm, I wonder if that's because they have such low levels of immigration?

[sirja]

Them Germans are doing the same thing with Rolls Royce in aerospace, Derby is almost in cardiac arrest.

Employing is one thing, had we kept the brand we'd also keep the profits. Don't like when our industry is in the hands of others.

Would never happen if it was a French or German firm. Funny how those who shouted 'We want control, we want our country back yada yada yada' are the first to accept a foreign company picking up a major UK firm.