A new company that brings together some of the leading UK players in microcomputer hardware and software design has won a research and development pact from Atari Corp that could lead to a design contract to create an Inmos Transputer-based personal computer that would also include the Motorola 68000 from the Atari ST line. The company – actually two sister firms, Perihelion Hardware Ltd in Cambridge and Perihelion Software Ltd in Shepton Mallet, Somerset – was formed by Jack Lang, who did substantial development work for Acorn Computers Plc. The seven-strong hardware side includes Richard Miller, who designed the Z88 for Sir Clive Sinclair’s Cambridge Computers, and Hugo Davenport, also from Sinclair. The 20-strong software team is led by Tim King, who designed AmigaDOS for Commodore when he worked for Metacomco Ltd in Bristol. King is conceiving the operating system.
