The Acorn Archimedes and the ARM chip the computer utilized were designed by Acorn Computers, replacing the BBC Micro. When it was released, it was the most powerful home computer on the market. However, it only had a niche market outside of the educational market, resulting in not too much software being released. It was ultimately discontinued in favor of the Risc PC. The ARM processor architecture the Archimedes used went on to become used for many portable devices.