Acorn Electron

The Acorn Electron was created as a low cost version of the BBC micro, with the home market in mind. Acorn retained a high quality keyboard and case, but to reduce costs the BBC's numerous expansion ports were deleted. In addition, the number of chips in the machine was reduced very dramatically to only a handful, by integrating most functions into one large chip. This was at the cutting edge of what was possible at the time, and proved to be difficult to produce. As a result, not enough Electrons were available for its launch just before Christmas 1983, resulting in limited sales. By Christmas 1984, large stockpiles had been built up but unfortunately the home computer market crashed and they were difficult to sell.

During the rest of the 80s the machines were offered at big discounts, and this contributing the machine becoming enduringly popular even though it was outclassed by newer machines (and even by the older BBC micro). Despite the machine's technical limitations, lots of games were released for it.

The museum has several Electrons, all of which are working reliably.