Acorn Computers Limited was set up in 1978 and, like Sinclair Research Limited, was set up by a former Sinclair employee, Chris Curry (together with Hermann Hauser) and was based in Cambridge, which led to a great deal of rivalry between the two companies.

Acorn were probably best known for designing the BBC-Micro computer and beating Sinclair to win the competition to launch a computer, which, promoted by the BBC, was rolled out across schools as part of a massive Government program to encourage the use of computers as an educational tool.

Acorn also designed various other computers, including the Atom, the Electron and the Archimedes.  

The legacy of Acorn lives on through its development of RISC based computers and the continuation of ARM Holdings (one of its former subsidiaries) as an influential computer chip manufacturer.