The 1980s started with high hopes and a multitude of UK-owned IT companies. It finished with most of the industry in foreign hands. We will be telling the full story of some of the UK's champions in the coming months, but we start with a snapshot of that roller coaster time.

18 July 1985

'Systime prepares for battle with DEC' is a headline that could have been written almost any time. The Leeds-based minicomputer maker always seemed to be battling against Digital.

Systime, and others, made systems that were closely allied to Digital's PDP-11 units. At first the US firm didn't mind, but in the 1980s it ruthlessly, and mostly successfully, sued many of these suppliers in defence of its patents. Intel should bear Digital's track record in mind as it heads for the courts in 1997.

9 April 1981

'NewBrain order freeze as project is reviewed' was Computing's headline about the delayed birth of a system that summed up an era. The NewBrain was one of the first handheld computers. It got off the ground eventually, but had limited success. Small scale computing was a UK strength - Adam Osborne produced the first portable microcomputer. If it had been PC-compatible instead of a CP/M machine, Osborne Computing might have become what Compaq is today.

8 November 1982

'UK micro makers to rap PM'. It's hard to imagine anyone daring to rap the knuckles of Margaret Thatcher, but in 1982 the British Microcomputers Manufacturers Group (BMMG) tried to do just that when it found that UK suppliers were not included on Whitehall's approved lists for Government contracts.

Any equivalent of the BMMG now would be made up of Americans, Japanese, Koreans and Italians. It would carry more weight.

25 July 1985

Auntie left the manufacturing to Acorn, but a whole generation grew up believing the BBC was the biggest micro company in the world. The BBC had overstretched itself in developing applications. 'They showed a totally unrealistic grasp of the size of the task,' was one perceptive comment.