Research Machines (RM)
More info
- Creator
- Mike Fischer, Mike O'Regan
- Released
- 1973
- Type
- School computers, IT services
The Oxford firm that filled British classrooms with computers — the duller rival to the BBC Micro, for anyone at school in the 1980s.
Research Machines was founded in 1973 and started out selling electronic components by mail order. In 1977 it released the RM 380Z, a Z80 machine running CP/M that became a fixture in British schools and universities, helped along by government grants for computer purchases.
The RM Nimbus followed in 1985, built around the Intel 80186 and MS-DOS but not fully IBM compatible, so plenty of off-the-shelf software refused to run. It was, however, routinely networked across entire computer rooms, which the BBC Micro rarely managed as gracefully. RM later left hardware behind and carries on as RM plc, selling IT services and exam systems to schools.