Faraday Medal goes to architect of the home PC

Professor Steve Furber helped to design the BBC Microcomputer and the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has awarded its prestigious Faraday Medal to one of the principal architects of the home computer revolution.

Professor Steve Furber is best known for his work at Acorn Computers, where he helped to design the BBC Microcomputer and the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor, both of which earned what was then the Queen's Award for Technology.

The BBC Microcomputer was developed by Professor Furber and his colleagues in 1981, and became particularly successful as an educational tool.

The machine was for many the first experience of a computer, allowing them to learn computer literacy and information technology skills.

"Professor Furber is a great example of someone in the UK who bridges the gap between academic excellence and commercial success," said Sir Robin Saxby, president of the IET and chairman emeritus at ARM Holdings.

"The technology has dramatically changed the way we live and work, and has opened up many new possibilities."

Professor Furber also played a leading role in the 1983 development project at Acorn which developed the ARM processor.

The initial benefits of high performance with power efficiency and cost effectiveness made ARM's the most widely used processors in mobile and consumer electronics devices across the globe.

As a result, ARM is now the world's most successful system-on-chip processor licensing company. Almost 2.5 billion ARM processors were shipped around the world by its semiconductor partners in 2006.

Professor Furber declared it a "great honour" to receive the Faraday Medal from the IET.

"I have been very fortunate to work with many outstanding colleagues at Acorn and at Manchester [University] and to find myself in the right place at the right time to work on projects that turned out to have an impact," he said.

"The first half-century of computing has been extraordinarily exciting, but watch out because the next half-century promises even bigger changes and more rapid development."

Professor Furber is currently ICL Professor of Computer Engineering at Manchester's School of Computer Science, and is involved in several other projects and government initiatives.