Acorn and Econet - Laurence Hardwick | TNMOC Talks

Laurence was instrumental in the development of Acorn’s Econet networking system and played a key role in the software and hardware design of the BBC Micro. He engineered the production-ready Econet interface and contributed to the BASIC interpreter and cassette filing system, supporting the BBC Computer Literacy Project at its peak. Later, Laurence led Acorn’s Customer Services, managed key network product lines including the Econet FileStore, and oversaw the introduction of Ethernet networking for the Archimedes. With deep insight into Acorn’s 8-bit era and the growth of educational computing, Laurence brings a unique technical and historical perspective. In this presentation, Laurence talks about his work with networking at Acorn and beyond. Recorded at the Econet LAN Party 2025, TNMoC.