The main parts of the system were designed by then-Cambridge-undergraduate student Sophie Wilson,[3] with a cassette interface designed by Steve Furber.

[4] It was Acorn's first product, and was based on an automated cow feeder.

[3][disputed – discuss] It was a small machine built on two Eurocard-standard circuit boards and it could be purchased ready-built or in kit form.

Main Components (left to right) Almost all CPU signals were accessible via the standard Eurocard connector on the right-hand side of the board.

The System 1 front board was used as the control panel for the fictional computer Slave in the 1981 series of the BBC science-fiction series Blake's 7.