This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the British Micro Mimi 802 / 803 / 804 computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

I have a Mimi 801/802 which is currently undergoing restoration. I am wondering if anyone has or knows of the existence of a schematic layout for the motherboard. Thanks

Hi, I have a Mimi 802 which has not been used for years but i have a desire to see if it is still operable, Unfortunately I do not have any old vdu to test with, Does anyone know if it is possible to connect the Mimi to a modern vga monitor, and if so how? Thanks

Hi All. I’m proud to say that I built a lot of the Mimi computers for British Micro. I worked there in the early 80’s and remember having to tune the CRT monitors while they were turned on, with the covers off... the guy that owned the company was a fella from Armenia called Manus Hegoyan (probably wrong). This is what got me into a career in computing.

Does anyone have a copy of the Trojan Software development system for the MIMI they can send me ? I developed a lot of stuff using it and thought it was the bee''s knees!

I was a designer/engineer at British Micro from 1982. I think I worked on the ''803'' onwards. That one had text and graphics mono display modes as has been mentioned. The next ''804'' was text only but with a higher quality display than was common at the time. There was also an ''805'' machine with colour graphics, but that never got into production.

The machines shipped with ''OS/M'', a clone of the CP/M operating system, and had an optional hard drive. Compared with some 8-bit Z80 machines of the time (eg. the hobbyist ZX81) it was far superior, though at a cost as it was aimed at business. I believe it even outperfomed the original 8/16-bit IBM PC.

I can confirm that ''Mimi'' was the name of the owner''s daughter (born ''78).

I''ve actually got one but no discs, manuals or other bits. As far as I am aware the last time I connected it to a monitor it was working, about 3 years ago.

we just got a mimi 803 - lots of manuals, software etc.

I was once a designer at the company British Micro of Watford at end of 1981. The Mimi derived from their previous computer which had a user programmable resolution feature for the monitor display though its PLL proved visually unstable and my claim to fame is I reverted it back to a fixed resolution format which was nice $ steady - at the usual 80 cols x 25 rows. Yes the machine attracted great interest at the various PC exhibitions of the time. Not sure how the Mimi fared afterwards in terms of new features. Also the name ''Mimi'' was taken from the owner''s little daughter, not after the wife, unless they shared the same name (?).

I was once a designer at the company British Micro of Watford at end of 1981. The Mimi derived from their previous computer which had a user programmable resolution feature for the monitor display though its PLL proved visually unstable and my claim to fame is I reverted it back to a fixed resolution format which was nice $ steady - at the usual 80 cols x 25 rows. Yes the machine attracted great interest at the various PC exhibitions of the time. Not sure how the Mimi fared afterwards in terms of new features. Also the name ''Mimi'' was taken from the owner''s little daughter, not after the wife, unless they shared the same name (?).

According to my 1983 Micro-Computer catalogue, it has 4k ROM, 80x25 Text and 512x256 Graphics and it''s monochrome so 2 colours

I did some work for British Micro in the eighties and was rewarded with an 803, I then got them to put in a 20mb hard drive for an extra £200. Was a lovely CPM machine and I used it to produce several games for the Spectrum and Amstrad (Batman, Match Day II $ Head over Heels.
I even had them running on the 803 itself using it''s hi-res mode (16k of dedicated extra ram).

BTW Mimi was the owner''s wife''s name

The Atlanta PC-800 is indeed a Mimi 805 private labeled by Atlanta Data (then a subsidiary of Atlanta Hoogezand, The netherlands).
So not a clone but just relabeled.

I have just aquired a Atlanta PC800. When opening it up the motherboard states BM805-01 Which could be British Micro 805 as its incredibly similar to the 803. I have got pics if anyone''s interested!

I worked with a Mimi 802 in 1982 at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex. It was bought by (now Prof.) Jonathan Gershuny for word processing and spreadsheet work, and I think it was the first microcomputer in SPRU. I remember comparing it with some micros that the Sussex Computer Centre had and thinking that the Mimi was a decent machine. It was replaced by an Apricot, which was also pretty good in its time.

A possible clone of this computer appeared on a hungarian auction site recently. It has the name "Atlanta PC800". Anyone know something about this clone? Google knows absolutely nothing. It has a label on it indicating that the machine was a property of a book shop somewhere in the Netherlands.

I purchased a secondhand mimi 803 in 1984 which with a screen and manesmann tally bi directional dotmatrix printer came to £2,500 it ran on c/pm with my main use being invoicing and job control.
I was involved in writing the software apps, which ran eceptionally well on this unit.
we adapted the job control programme to become a transport manager.
this was nothjing more than basic databasing.
about once a month i had to take the case appart and dust off all the chips on the main board as my dusty office used to make the keyboard have a mind of its own.
I also had wordstar to word process on it.

this machine ran alongside a £15000 system for job costing, that machine was a zerox, I also had a sony data terminal logged into a mainframe in london, a true forrunner of todays internet.

my mimi was used up to 1989 when i sold the business. the machine was still working fine in 1995 when i gave it away, together with 2 original apples the first production models. one didnt even have the apple logo stamped on it

eventually it was replaced by a 386 sx-25 which i upgraded to dx-40 this unit ran well untill i sold it in 1996, it was still working ok last year.

My parents had one of these while I was growing up, it got replaced by a 386. The extra only details I can remember was that it had BASIC (on a ROM I think), and we had a word processor and a game called Ladder on floppy discs. The first videogame we had!
http://ostermiller.org/ladder/ - now available in java.