Torch Computers Ltd was a computer hardware company with origins in a 1982 joint venture between Acorn Computers and Climar Group that led to the development of the Communicator or C-series computer, a system based on the BBC Micro with a Z80 second processor and integral modem, intended as a viewdata terminal.
Establishing itself in Great Shelford, near Cambridge, UK, the company became well known for its computer peripherals for the VIC-20 and BBC Micro. Torch produced an expansion unit originally developed by Arfon Microelectronics for the VIC-20, having acquired Arfon, and several second processor units for the BBC Micro, many with integrated floppy disk or hard disk drives.
History
Arfon acquisition and financing
Arfon Microelectronics was a producer of a cartridge expansion system for the VIC-20 and a speech generator expansion for the VIC-20 and other microcomputers. Arfon had been founded by Kerr Borland, former North American Semi managing director, in Caernarfon, North Wales, around the end of 1980 with assistance from the Welsh Development Agency.
Towards the end of 1982, Torch acquired the assets of Arfon, taking on some of the "defunct" company's staff. This deal secured a reported quarter of a million pound investment from the Welsh Development Agency. Other shareholders included Newmarket (Venture Capital) and Bell Nominees.
GEC acquisition plans and refinancing
During 1983, Torch had been set to be acquired by GEC in a deal that would have initially involved a payment covering the acquisition of 76 percent of the company from its existing shareholders as well as providing additional product development and manufacturing finance. GEC had sought to own Torch entirely and to incorporate it within its own operations as a subsidiary, but such plans met opposition from Torch and its employees who had prized the "young, independent and innovative" nature of the company. With the abandonment of this acquisition, the company was refinanced by its shareholders for £1 million and two of its directors resigned, one of them being founder Martin Vlieland-Boddy who later established a company called Data Technologies, developing the product that would eventually be sold by Torch as the Graduate.
Acorn Computers acquisition plans
In 1984, Acorn Computers announced an initial agreement to acquire Torch, apparently initiated by discussions from August 1983 on Torch's plans to sell Unix-based products and the potential for cooperation in selling into the US market. The takeover was supposed to have been finalised by June 1984, with Torch effectively becoming "effectively the business arm" of Acorn. Acorn and Torch had previously had "close ties" with plans for Torch to be "the business arm" of Acorn, but policy disagreements had led to the relationship being limited to Acorn supplying BBC Micro boards to Torch under contract for products such as the C-series.
Commentators noted the duplication between Acorn and Torch product lines post-acquisition in areas such as second processors (with 6000 of Torch's Z80 disc packs having been sold before Acorn's Z80 second processor had launched and with Torch already offering the HDP68K second processor product in competition to the then-unreleased Acorn 32016 second processor), hard disk systems and networking (with Torchnet being "an expansion of Acorn's Econet"). Nevertheless, Torch chairman Bob Gilkes noted "an exceptionally high degree of compatibility in products, in strategic thinking and in management style", whereas Acorn director Alex Reid indicated that "a rationalisation of the two companies' development efforts" would give a "substantial boost" to both companies' prospects. Torch was to retain its name and operate as a separate entity within Acorn. Subsequently, Gilkes was reported to have been replaced with Acorn's sales director, Peter O'Keefe, as chairman and managing director of Torch after complaints were made by Acorn to Torch's then-owners, Newmarket Venture Capital, about Gilkes' decision to manufacture and market the Graduate product from Data Technologies, this decision having been seen to be in conflict with Acorn's own strategy.
Evidently, the takeover was never completed, with Torch reported to have pulled out of the merger as Acorn's financial situation appeared to deteriorate, the reported £5 million deal being abandoned due to a "divergence of their future plans". By the time of the introduction of the BBC Model B+ in 1985, reportedly being "actively evaluated" by Torch for future products, Torch was described in one review as being "the largest third-party supplier of peripherals for the BBC Micro". Torch would later offer new firmware for its BBC Micro expansions, making them compatible with the BBC Master series, and also feature the Master 128 in its advertising. Despite Acorn's situation, Torch continued to promote the Graduate as "the ultimate upgrade" for the BBC Micro, signing a deal with computer retailer Lasky's to make the product available in its stores.
Unix workstation vendor
In 1986, Torch introduced the Triple X workstation, based on the Motorola 68010 processor running Uniplus+ Unix System V with 1 MB RAM, 20 MB (or 40 MB) hard disk, 720 KB floppy drive, supporting Ethernet and X25 networking. Unlike previous products, it was not based on the BBC Micro but did provide a 1 MHz bus connector. Launched in January 1986 and aimed at the same market as the AT&T UNIX PC, a number of these were sold but never reached critical mass, and the Triple X was overshadowed in the market by other vendors such as Sun Microsystems, leaving an "installed base" of around 1,200 machines, including its successor, by 1990.
Having 50 employees and a turnover of £ in 1987, but with an estimated £, two-year contract with British Telecom having "dried up" after only one year, Torch sought refinancing to bring its Quad X workstation to market. This refinancing came in the form of Torch's Australian distributor and customer, Catsco, taking a majority shareholding in the company, augmented with additional funds from Newmarket Venture Capital. In 1988, Torch introduced the Quad X, based on the Motorola 68020.
Some of the software technology used in Torch's workstations was licensed to NeXT, although apparently not used in any of NeXT's own products. IXI Limited, founded by Torch's Ray Anderson, developed the general approach further with its X.desktop product that was ultimately licensed by workstation vendors. Acorn, having entered the Unix workstation market with the RISC iX-based R140 workstation (and having partnered with Torch and other companies in a general UK-based collaboration around the X Window System), apparently recruited industry marketing manager Warwick Hirst from Torch, where in his role as marketing manager he had "specialised in selling Unix systems based on Torch Triple X and Quad X machines to both government and industry".
Sale of assets
Torch's ownership arrangement continued until 1990 when Catsco declined to provide additional funding to the somewhat diminished, 30-employee company, with Torch's turnover having dropped to £, largely reliant on its workstation and other hardware products. The company sought to complete development of a 68030-based QY product for use in products including a low-end £ workstation known as the Torchstation.
In 1990, parts of the company were sold to various buyers. Unipalm acquired the graphical user interface and X Window System products of Torch, with the latter being of particular commercial interest. Two companies of the Cube Group in Cambridge obtained Torch's workstation and VME board products: Cube i.t. took on 15 former Torch employees and hardware development, also continuing to supply the workstation range; Control Universal were to market the VME boards.
In 1991, Control Universal also went into receivership, and its Torch assets were bought by Worldmark Computers Ltd, which then started to trade under the name Torch Computers, changing its name to Torch Computers Ltd. in 1999. Some Quad X boards obtained by Worldmark were sold but the company concentrated on PC technology and began to specialise in small form-factor computers. The main emphasis is now on enclosure products and large LCD displays for digital signage and art installations.
Products
The company provided a range of expansions for the BBC Micro under the Unicorn brand, although this name was also applied to a particular variant of the HDP68K product. The Z80-based products including the HDP68K were bundled with the Perfect suite of applications to run under Torch's CPN operating system (a clone of CP/M). The UCSD p-System was also offered as an option for the Unicorn range. The Torch Graduate was a separate development aimed at the MS-DOS market. Later, various Unix workstation products were released or planned, most notably the Torch Triple X.
Although Torch acquired Arfon, a producer of expansions for the VIC-20, the company reportedly ceased support for this range in 1983.
C-Series (Communicator)
Initially referred to by reviewers (and perhaps even by its manufacturer) simply as the Torch, the Communicator or C-series was a combination of BBC Micro with Z80 second processor running the CP/M-compatible CPN, modem and disk storage, also providing many of the ports familiar from the BBC Micro including RGB and UHF video outputs, RS-423 serial and Centronics parallel ports, analogue port, a cassette port, and an Econet/Torchnet port.
In a 1983 review of the BBC Micro and Torch Communicator by a US publication, the Communicator was described as "an assembly of all the desirable options connected to a BBC Computer" and "the best illustration of the BBC Computer’s potential". The $6,500 price was regarded as competitive given the features provided, with the dual processor architecture, the additional memory available to the CP/M-compatible environment, and particularly the connectivity features (Prestel and Torchmail) attracting enthusiastic commentary.
To augment the existing capabilities of the Communicator and 700 series models running CPN, Torch released a program called Torch Mail Plus, this offering electronic mail facilities along with file transfer, short message sending and remote login support between Torch machines via the telephone network. A variety of automation features were provided including the ability to schedule operations at certain times, with a scripting language called Tobey used to describe operations to be executed on local or remote machines, this potentially making it possible to coordinate activities performed across a number of different systems. The package was priced at £690 and described by one reviewer as potentially having the same impact for sales of Torch systems as VisiCalc had achieved for Apple systems. A typesetting solution called Torchset was marketed by a company known as Torchset Systems, based on "a single Torch CF500 computer with a customised keyboard", supporting the Cora 5 language devised for Linotron typesetters. Pricing for this solution started at £5500, with multiple computer systems based on Torchnet also available.
The C-500 models provided the base 6502-based BBC system augmented with a Z80A second processor having its own 64 KB RAM, whereas the C-68000 models upgraded the Z80 CPU to a Z80B device and added a Motorola 68000 CPU plus 256 KB RAM, supporting the UCSD p-System and Unix System III (as with the Torch HDP68K/Unicorn). Pricing (in 1986) ranged from around £3000 for the entry-level C-500 to around £6000 for the top-level C-68000.
The mainboard for the C-68000 is apparently distinct from the Atlas board used in the HDP68K/Unicorn.