✓ VERIFIED

Acorn Atom

1980–1982 · desktop

Specifications

Cpu: MOS Technology 6502, 1 MHz
Ram: max: 12 KB (fully expanded, factory option) · base: 2 KB
Ports: Composite video · UHF/RF TV output · Cassette port · 64-way expansion bus edge connector · Secondary Eurocard expansion slot
Display: Motorola MC6847 Video Display Generator, up to 256x192 monochrome or 64x64 in 4 colors, composite/RF TV output
Storage: base: Cassette tape via built-in cassette port (Kansas City Standard, 300 baud), no internal storage · options: Acorn Eurocards (via the expansion bus) could add a floppy disc controller
Os Support: latest: Acorn Atom BASIC, unchanged across the production run · shipped: Acorn Atom BASIC, in ROM
Release Price: £120 (kit form); £170 (assembled); over £200 fully expanded with 12 KB RAM and floating-point ROM

Upgrade paths

RAM

12 KB via factory RAM expansion · Acorn's first mass-market micro and the direct ancestor of the BBC Micro, sold both as a kit and pre-assembled. Any of the Acorn Eurocards designed for this bus, including an Econet networking card, plug into the expansion connector.

~£30-£50 at the time for the RAM upgrade

MODERATE

storage

Third-party or Eurocard-based floppy disc controller · No official Acorn floppy interface was ever released for the Atom; most units stayed on cassette for their whole working life.

varies, period floppy add-ons were expensive relative to the base machine

HARD