She Invented That A digital museum of women in science

Scientist Exhibit

Sophie Wilson

Computer Science • Engineering

1957 – Present United Kingdom

Co-designed the BBC Micro and the ARM processor architecture

Overview Institutions
Sophie Wilson

Overview

About Sophie Wilson

Sophie Wilson is a British computer scientist and engineer whose designs helped shape modern computing. At Acorn Computers she contributed to the BBC Micro, including its operating system and BBC BASIC, and later worked with Steve Furber on the first ARM processor. ARM’s efficient reduced-instruction-set architecture became one of the world’s most widely used processor designs, particularly in mobile and embedded devices.

Scientific Contribution

Key Discovery

ARM processor architecture

Co-design of the original ARM processor architecture, which became one of the world's most widely used instruction-set architectures.

BBC Micro

Co-design of the BBC Micro computer, influential in British computing education.

Life Timeline

Important Moments

1979

invention

Designs the Acorn System 1 microcomputer

Wilson designed an early 8-bit microcomputer that Acorn Computers produced commercially beginning in 1979.

1981

invention

Designs the BBC Micro with Steve Furber

Wilson and Steve Furber rapidly developed the prototype that became the BBC Micro; Wilson also designed its operating system and wrote BBC BASIC.

1985

invention

Co-designs the ARM processor architecture

Wilson and Furber co-designed the 32-bit RISC Machine processor that became the foundation of the ARM architecture.

2012

award

Named a Computer History Museum Fellow

The Computer History Museum recognised Wilson for her work on the BBC Micro and ARM processor architecture.

Places & Networks

Institutions