Microcomputers Interview Question:

Explain Hermann Hauser (from Kings College, Cambridge University) had recently founded Acorn Computers Limited in Cambridge, with Chris Curry, correct?

Submitted by: Administrator

Actually, that came later. The initial work was done for Hermann?s own company ?Cambridge Processor Unit? (that?s an Austrian?s idea of a joke). Hermann went for the System One and came up somehow with the Acorn name, then Clive and Chris had an argument and Chris left Science of Cambridge and joined Hermann at Acorn: the first thing that we worked on with Chris was the Atom.

At the start, CPU had consultancy contracts for fruit machines. Initially these had been SC/MP based, but they got moved to 6502s. I was first approached by Hermann at a CUPG meeting ? he wanted someone who knew about low power technology, since he had this idea for a ?electronic notebook?. I designed an anti-theft device for the fruit machines (piezo lighters [were] being used to knock out electronic devices, so I put in a wideband radio receiver to stop the fruit machine paying out mistakenly: later on the acceptance test for the machine involved it being plugged into the same power line as an arc welder and sparks being struck ? it passed!). After that Hermann wanted to see my designs that might work for the electronic notebook and asked ?will it work?? ?Of course? ?so build it?.
Submitted by: Administrator