The Curious Case of Jupiter Ace

On September 22, 1982, another small home computer was launched in the UK. Named Jupiter Ace, it was created by Jupiter Cantab Limited, a tiny startup founded by two engineers who had previously designed Sinclair ZX Spectrum: Steven Vickers and Richard Altwasser. From Jupiter Ace Manual What distinguished Jupiter Ace from many similar computers of its era was that its ROM contained Forth instead of a BASIC interpreter. It was not enough to make it commercial success and the production ceased after a year. While the story of this computer and its creators is fascinating, this article focuses on one aspect of it: why was having BASIC embedded in ROM so important back then, and was replacing it with Forth a mistake? BASIC as the Operating System It is often said that early home computers did not have an operating system and booted directly into BASIC. This is only partially true: these devices did not rely on disk drives; the system software that controlled them was stored in read-onl ... Read full article.