BBC Microcomputer Model A/B Issue 1 PCB
Only small number of BBC Micros with Issue 1 boards were produced. A handful were sold to the public but it’s likely that the majority would have been used internally at Acorn, supplied to the BBC or sent to the press for review. Some may have found their way into schools and been used for early trials in classrooms.
The April 1982 issue of Acorn’s BBC Microcomputer service manual states that 1,000 Issue 1 circuit boards were produced. However I can’t find any evidence to show that all of these boards were populated with components and built into finished computers.
The very first Issue 1 boards were numbered 100000 to 100010 (or possibly a little higher) and populated by hand in Acorn’s own labs. Rob Napier got in touch to say that he helped to assemble some of this first batch, including number 100002 which he took back to Australia in support of his company’s bid to supply the education sector.
When that batch of boards was built, some major components of the computer — including the case — weren’t yet available so they wouldn’t have resulted in fully built machines.
When all components were available for mass production, assembly was handed over to Cleartone, who brought Issue 1 production up to no more than 295, based on the lowest known Cleartone Issue 2 serial number: 100296. The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge has an Issue 1 machine with serial number 100058, which is likely to have been built buy Cleartone. 100155 is anothe Issue 1 machine which is still known to be in existence.
ICL is the only other manufacturer that built Issue 1-based computers. Evidence suggests that ICL focused on Issue 2 from at least serial number 000078. There are no known ICL Issue 1s with serial numbers lower than this. The only known range of ICL Issue 1 machines is a small batch with numbers just below 000500. Number 000491 is in my collection and number 000492 is shown below.
