What was the Microbee computer?
The Microbee was an Australian-designed personal computer released in 1982 by Applied Technology, a company in Gosford, New South Wales. It was popular in Australian schools and homes in the 1980s.
The Microbee was first sold as a kit that buyers assembled themselves, through electronics magazines and stores. It used a Z80 microprocessor and stored programs on cassette tapes and later floppy disks.
In the early 1980s, the New South Wales Department of Education chose the Microbee for schools, and thousands of students learned to program on it using BASIC.
Legacy
The company produced several models, including the Microbee 128k and Microbee Gamma. Imported computers such as the Apple II, Commodore 64 and later IBM PC compatibles eventually took over the market.
Microbee Systems stopped making its own computers in the 1990s as the market shifted to standardised PCs, though the brand was later revived briefly by enthusiasts.
Microbees are now popular with collectors and retro computing fans, and examples are held by museums such as the Powerhouse in Sydney. Many Australians who became programmers and engineers first learned coding on a Microbee at school.
Did You Know?
Owen Hill and Matthew Starr were among the founders of Applied Technology.