Christopher Curry (businessman)

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Christopher Curry (born 28 January 1946) is the co-founder of Acorn Computers, with Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper. He became a millionaire as a result of Acorn's success.

In his early career days, he worked at

In 1983, he co-founded Redwood Publishing with Michael Potter and Christopher Ward and they bought the Acorn User title. In 1985, he founded General Information Systems Ltd (GIS) and remains the director. In 2012, he announced his latest project for GIS, Care with Canary.

Early life

Curry went to school initially in St Neots in Cambridgeshire, then later went to the independent Kimbolton School, also in Cambridgeshire. He gained two A levels, in Maths and Physics. He thought about going to university at the University of Southampton, but was keener to be earning some money whilst learning.

Early career

He joined

In April 1966, Curry joined Sinclair Radionics, a company founded by Clive Sinclair in 1961. Curry was to play an important role in getting Sinclair interested in both calculators and computers in his thirteen years with the company.

Curry was at first involved with Sinclair's

In 1972, Sinclair Radionics launched its first electronic calculator, the Executive, which was considerably smaller than its competitors since it used hearing-aid-sized batteries. Curry and Jim Westwood had discovered that it was possible to exploit persistence in the diode displays and memory and introduced a timer that removed the power from these components for most of the time. This discovery dramatically improved the lasting-power of the batteries.

Until 1976 Sinclair Radionics had enjoyed 15 years of strong turnover and profit growth. However, the company sustained losses related to difficulties with chip supplies for the Black Watch. As a result, there were insufficient internal funds available for the final stages of the pocket TV project Sinclair had been working on for some 10 years. In August 1976 the

Science of Cambridge

Shortly after the NEB took control Sinclair encouraged Curry to leave Sinclair Radionics to get Sinclair Instruments off the ground. Curry borrowed some money and rented offices at 6 King's Parade, Cambridge. To raise cash, Sinclair Instruments released the Wrist Calculator, designed by John Pemberton, in February 1977. The product was successful, selling 15,000 units.

In July 1977, the company was renamed to

and some parts scavenged from a Sinclair Cambridge calculator. Curry was impressed and encouraged Sinclair to adopt this as a product; an agreement was reached with Williamson but no contract was ever signed: Nat Semi had offered to redesign the project so that it used only their components and they also offered to manufacture the boards.

Curry took Nat Semi up on its offer and in June 1978 Science of Cambridge launched a microcomputer kit (marketed as the

Cambridge University

.

Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd

Curry and Hauser had become increasingly interested in the idea of selling their own computers and so, on 5 December 1978, they set up Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd (CPU). Their first customer was Ace Coin Equipment Ltd, who needed controllers for their fruit machines. Hauser and Curry recruited Steve Furber - at the time a Cambridge PhD student who was closely involved with local amateur computer groups - to design the device. Furber would go on to become a key figure at Acorn - leading the design of the BBC Micro (along with Sophie Wilson), and later on the ARM microprocessor.

Acorn Computer

The

Acorn Microcomputer (later to be called the System 1) was launched as the first product of a new company, Acorn Computers Ltd, founded in March 1979. Curry said that they "chose the word Acorn because it was going to be an expanding and growth-oriented system".^{[citation needed}

]

After becoming a millionaire as a result of Acorn's success with the BBC Micro project, in 1983 Curry co-founded Redwood Publishing with Michael Potter (former publisher of advertising trade weekly Campaign) and Christopher Ward (former editor of Daily Express newspaper). The company bought the Acorn User title.

GIS

Parts of this article (those related to GIS) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2023)

At the time of the Olivetti takeover of Acorn in 1985 Curry founded General Information Systems Ltd (GIS),^[1] based on Acorn's Communications Group, and he remains a director.

GIS specialises in

electronic money

. In 2012 he announced his latest project with GIS, Care with Canary, a wireless sensor system that allows family members to remotely monitor relatives living alone and triggers alerts.

See also

• Micro Men

References

1. ^ General Information Systems Ltd.

Bibliography

• Lloyd, Tom (1984). Dinosaur & Co.: Studies in Corporate Evolution. London: Routledge and Keegan Paul.
• Penny, R. K. (1986). Developing a Philosophy for Engineering. Cape Town: University of Cape Town.
• Perry, James (1985). "Britain's Sir Clive Sinclair Keeps Bouncing Back With New Inventions." The Wall Street Journal. 6 June.
• Pesola, Maija (2005). "The Fertile Soil of Silicon Fen." Financial Times. 9 February.