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Talk:Christopher Curry (businessman)

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Splitting to make the Atom?

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There are a number of versions of the story of Curry's departure from Science of Cambridge:

The MK14 was "quite a successful computer. The next step was obviously a version that ran Basic instead of just machine code. That was where our ways separated, because Clive didn’t want to do it and I did. So I set up Acorn Computer with Hermann Hauser."
Curry "wanted to expand the MK14 to have a BASIC interpreter and TV connection but Clive didn't since he was already pursuing the design of the Newbrain, so they parted company and Chris set up Acorn with a Cambridge University friend, Hermann Hauser."
Rodney Dale, in The Sinclair Story, suggests that Sinclair and Curry parted over Sinclair's determination to stick to his principles as an innovator. According to Dale, 'It was on the question of quality that Sinclair and Curry diverged.'
  • A Radionics Employee's version:
(Richard Torrens (v 0.9))
Chris first started Science of Cambridge Ltd with Clive's backing. When Sinclair went bust (for the first time) he moved in on Chris, took over Science of Cambridge and the Sinclair line of computers resulted. Chris moved out (over a bar-room brawl, now part of Cambridge's history) and started Acorn.
(Richard Torrens (v 1))
I am certain that Chris initially went to Clive with the intention of leaving [Radionics] to start Science of Cambridge. Don't know the exact details - but Clive always liked many irons in the fire and felt flattered by the number of companies he had helped start/spawned so helped Chris with cash on apparently undefined terms. Chris got pushed out when the terms were defined later and that started the animosity!
Hermann Hauser (from Kings College, Cambridge University) had recently founded Acorn Computers Limited in Cambridge, with Chris Curry, correct?
Actually, that came later. The initial work [to produce the System 1] 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.
Summer 1977 Demo of Williamson’s SC/MP prototype (Summer 77)
June 1978 Science of Cambridge launch MK14
Early summer 1978 Hauser challenges Wilson to build her design during the summer holidays
July 1978 NewBrain project got underway at Radionics
5 December 1978 CPU founded
March 1979 CPU renamed to Acorn
Acorn launch System 1
April 1979 First System 1 kit shipped by Acorn
Science of Cambridge commission ZX80 Basic
May 1979 Jim Westwood gets ZX80 project underway
December 1979 Sinclair’s vehicle project is born again…
February 1980 Sinclair ZX80 launched
March 1980 Acorn Atom launched
Timeline of Radionics - Acorn

The sequence seems to be (and some of this is quite speculative):

  • Curry leaves Sinclair Radionics to get Science of Cambridge up and running; he rents offices at 6 King's Parade, Cambridge. Was this money borrowed from Sinclair?
  • Between summer 1977 and summer 1978 Curry runs the MK14 development program; consults Hauser who uses his contacts at the University. Possibly Hauser and Curry start to realise the potential of the fledgling microcomputer market at this time.
  • Science of Cambridge get National Semiconductor to make 2000 MK14 kits. This is likely to have been one of the things Curry discussed with Hauser.
  • When the MK14 is launched in July 1978 the response is greater than expected; the 2000 kits manufactured sell quickly and many other customers have to wait while their kits are manufactured. Curry and Hauser must now see the possibilities that the new market segment offers. Possibly at this time Curry begins to resent the fact that most of the revenue from the MK14 project goes to Sinclair despite Sinclair having minimal involvement.
  • In early summer 1978 Hauser challenges Sophie Wilson to construct the prototype she had discussed with him, perhaps in the hope that this might provide competition for the MK14.
  • Radionics starts work on the NewBrain project in July 1978. With the MK14 on the market, Curry probably discusses some of his ideas for improvements to it. Sinclair is not convinced. Sinclair viewed many of his companies' products only as a source of revenue to finance his dream projects - such as the electric vehicle and the mini-TV; perhaps Sinclair thinks it unnecessary to (spend money to) develop this MK14 (i.e. by adding BASIC) while they are already selling more than they could really cope with.
  • Wilson constructs the prototype over the summer; the operating software is blown to PROM using Nick Toop's PROM blower in August 1978 (Toop was presumably still working for Science of Cambridge at this point). Curry and Hauser know that they can produce their own MK14. It possibly occurs to Curry that if he is a Director of the company set up to produce this computer, he will be in a position to include exactly the types of developments Sinclair refused for the MK14 (BASIC, for example); it is also probably obvious to him that a far greater propfortion of revenue raised will come to him in such event.
  • Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd set up on 5 December 1978, possibly on the strength of the Ace Coin Equipment (ACE) contract. Possibly some ACE work has already been undertaken - is the ACE electronic controller using SC/MP processor because it was started using MK14 boards as a Science of Cambridge job?
  • Wilson writes the BASIC for the System 1 over Christmas 1978. There was to be no BASIC on a Sinclair computer until the ZX80.
  • Presumably CPU is working on the ACE contract at 4a Market Hill. Wilson designs the anti-theft device for it. At some point the ACE controller is redesigned to use a 6502 rather than a SC/MP. Is this because the people at CPU/Acorn knew that they would soon cease to have "free" access to SC/MPs and that their own 6502-based product will be available?
  • The Acorn Microcomputer kit was launched as the first product of a new company, Acorn Computers Ltd, founded in March 1979.
  • First Acorn Microcomputer kit ships in April 1979.
  • Possibly by this point Curry, knowing the actual performance of the Acorn Microcomputer kit on the market, simply leaves Science of Cambridge. However, Wilson recalls that Curry went to Acorn after an argument with Sinclair. Was this argument to do with the ACE contract perhaps? Or simply with Curry helping to get to market a rival computer to the MK14?
  • Curry goes to Acorn (sometime between March and mid-April 1979?)
  • Sinclair at this time knew his product must compete with a similarly priced (MK14 + VDU module = £39.95 + £33.75 = £73.70) product from Acorn (£75). But the Acorn can be programmed in BASIC...
  • In May 1979 the Financial Times predicts that "Personal computers will become steadily cheaper and their price could drop to around £100 within five years." While the MK14 and the Acorn Microcomputer kit are already on the market at under £100, the FT probably means computers more like the Apple and Nascom. Since Science of Cambridge probably has little MK14 knowledge now that Curry & Toop have left, Sinclair probably decides to start a completely new project - the ZX80 - rather than have his designers learn the workings of the MK14. Furthermore, his team already has experienced of Z80 development from the NewBrain project.
  • Science of Cambridge commissions ZX80 BASIC in April 1979. Curry probably learns of this through contacts at Science of Cambridge; probably conceives the Atom as a response to the ZX80. Curry said that he "had to push hard for the Atom. I did the development separately with one chap [Nick Toop]. To save money, the case for the Atom was designed not as a computer but as a keyboard for the Systems. We asked the industrial designer [Allen Boothroyd??] to make something which was low-key, not too flashy. He produced the Atom."
  • Clive Sinclair resigns from Sinclair Radionics In July 1979.
  • Sinclair ZX80 launched in February 1980
  • Acorn Atom launched in March 1980

Who planted the seed?

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While Sophie Wilson's interview (in which she says Curry joined Acorn after the System 1 was out) casts doubt on it, the commonly held view is that Acorn was founded by Chris Curry and Hermann Hauser:

The opportunities were too good to miss and in 1978 Hauser and Curry formed Cambridge Processor Unit. CPU worked in a room 'borrowed' from Science of Cambridge, Sinclair's company that Curry helped run, and it provided computer consultancy services to finance its hardware development.
In 1977, the year in which he received his PhD from Cambridge University, Hermann Hauser founded Acorn Computers with Chris Curry who had been working as Sir Clive Sinclair's marketing manager.
Hermann co-founded Acorn Computers a few years after leaving King’s where he came as a PhD student in Physics, working at the Cavendish Laboratory.

But the site celebrating the 125th anniversary of the University of Cambridge's Engineering Department introduces something new:

[Andy] Hopper's PhD was on a local area communications network, and he developed a system known as the Cambridge Ring, which was a serious contender to the Ethernet. Technology developed as a result of this research led to the development of the BBC microcomputers by Acorn, a company founded jointly with Herman Hauser in the 1970s.

Furthermore, Hopper's profile for the Cambridge-MIT Institute's Third National Competitiveness Summit 2003, where he was a speaker, says that im 1978 he co-founded "Acorn Computer Ltd (formerly CPU Ltd)". Also note Curry's use of the name "Acorn Computer" in the Practical Computing interview.

So, we have 3 people, all of whom are said to have been involved (to some extent) in the foundation of Acorn. Furthermore, each makes the claim on the internet in places where they have control of the content.

A co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners Limited, Hermann has a long history of success as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur. Companies he founded [...] include Acorn Computers
Co-Founder and Director: Acorn
  • Chris Curry founded General Information Systems Ltd. The company's website includes a history of the company that says:
GIS was founded in 1985 by Christopher Curry who was the founder of Acorn Computers in 1978

And what did that seed sprout?

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There is some confusion concerning Acorn's registered name at the early stages. Was it Acorn Computer Ltd or Acorn Computers Ltd?

As can be seen above, Hopper states that he was a co-founder of Acorn Computer Ltd. In the Practical Computing interview Curry uses the same name. But on Hauser's profile at Amadeus the company is called Acorn Computers.

Issue 1 of the schematic for the System 1's Keyboard, display & cassette interface PCB names the company as Acorn Computers Ltd. It is dated 26 February 1979. Issue 1 of the Technical Manual shows a company logo incorporating the wording "Acorn Computer" but in the address the company is named as "Acorn Computers Limited". The manual is dated March 1979.

By 7 February 1980 the company was marking its schematics as © Acorn Computers Ltd, as can be see from this schematic of the Acorn 6809 SBC.

It is possile that the founders of the company intended that it be named in the style of Apple Computer, Inc and called Acorn Computer Ltd. But it appears that other factions within the company were using the Acorn Computers Ltd format and possibly it was one of these people who was given the job of filling in the name on the official forms...

From little fruits a mighty Acorn does grow

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Cambridge Processor Unit financed their hardware development by providing consultancy services. Their first customer was Ace Coin Equipment, who wanted to replace the mechanical controls of their fruit machines with microprocessor-based controllers. In a series of articles on the history of Acorn in Acorn User in 1988 it was stated that "CPU worked in a room 'borrowed' from Science of Cambridge, Sinclair's company that Curry helped run". As has been suggested above, if Curry started working for Sinclair in 1966 and worked for him for 13 years, then he stopped working for Science of Cambridge in 1979. CPU was founded in December 1978...

In a number of sources it is claimed that Acorn developed a machine based on the MK14 after Curry left Science of Cambridge. Was this the SC/MP based controller for the fruit machines?

Initially CPU set about the ACE project using SC/MP processors but they later moved to 6502s. The MK14 used the SC/MP. Wilson worked on the fruit machines, designing an anti-theft device to stop them paying out if a piezo lighter was used in an attempt to knock out electronic devices.

When it was released, the Acorn System 1 used a National Semiconductor INS8154 RAM & I/O chip. Sophie Wilson recalls that they used this because "Hermann had them around: Science of Cambridge used 8154s on its MK14 kit".

As has already been mentioned, when Sophie Wilson was interviewed about the germination of the System 1 she was absolutely definite that Curry did not join Acorn until after the System 1 came out (which was in March 1979). However, other sources reveal that Curry, Hauser and Hopper founded Cambridge Processor Unit in December 1978. Wilson remembers working in the upstairs room of 4a Market Hill rather than in a room Science of Cambridge's office at 6 King's Parade. This is compatible with Curry moonlighting at Science of Cambridge and running the CPU consultancy business from there. CPU initially used SC/MP processors on the ACE contract - suggesting that they were diverted from the MK14s they were bought for.

Might Cambridge Processor Unit have been so called because they were using (Science of) Cambridge's Processor Units?

Sources

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Sinclair Radionic's Black Watch:

Science of Cambridge, Ian Williamson, MK14

Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd, launch date of System 1 and Acorn incorporation

Redwood Publishing

An Acorn based on a MK14???

Chris Curry was fed up with Clive and his lack of enthusiasm for the Mk14, so he left Science of Cambridge, and started up Acorn Computers to develop the Mk14 concept further.
Curry left Science of Cambridge in 1978 to set up his own company, Acorn Computers, and in 1979 launched the Acorn System 75 [sic]. In contrast to the pioneering design concepts behind the ZX80, Dale feels safe dismissing the Acorn machine as 'little more than an MK14 with a proper keyboard

Miscellaneous

Preferred name

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The man himself told me last week he prefers to be known as Christopher not Chris. So should the article not use the name he prefers? 86.173.180.26 (talk) 14:01, 17 January 2011 (UTC)wmheath[reply]

 Done I don't propose to update all the links myself because:
  1. There are a significant number
  2. AIUI Christopher Curry has been commonly referred to as Chris Curry in interviews/commentary etc. so the name may stick.
Feel free to update these links yourself, in which case it'd be a good idea to include meaningful edit summaries. Also you may be required to justify such changes on talk pages. In any case, readers will now arrive at the correctly named article when they follow links to Chris Curry. --Trevj (talk) 14:40, 1 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Promotional photo for Acorn Atom at 4a Market Hill

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You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Micro Men#Promotional photo. Trevj (talk) 12:21, 17 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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