Econet was Acorn Computers's low-cost local area network system, intended for use by schools and small businesses. It was widely used in those areas, and was supported by a large number of different computer and server systems produced both by Acorn and by other companies. Econet software was later mostly superseded by Acorn Universal Networking (AUN), though some suppliers were still offering bridging kits to interconnect old and new networks. AUN was in turn superseded by the Acorn Access+ software. Implementation history Econet was specified in 1980, and first developed for the Acorn Atom and Acorn System 2/3/4 computers in 1981. Also in that year the BBC Microcomputer was released, initially with provision for floppy disc and Econet interface ports, but without the necessary supporting ICs fitted, optionally to be added in a post sale upgrade. In 1982, the Tasmania Department of Education requested a tender for the supply of personal computers to their schools. Earlier that year Barson Computers, Acorn's Australian computer distributor, had released the BBC Microcomputer with floppy disc storage as part of a bundle. Acorn's Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry agreed to allow it to be also offered with Econet fitted, as they had previously done with the disc interface. As previously with the Disc Filing System, they stipulated that Barson would need to adapt the network filing system from the System 2 without assistance from Acorn. Barson's engineers applied a few modifications to fix bugs on the early BBC Micro motherboards, which were adopted by Acorn in later releases. With both floppy disc and networking available, the BBC Micro was approved for use in schools by all state and territory education authorities in Australia and New Zealand, and quickly overtook the Apple II as the computer of choice in private schools. With no other supporting documentation available, the head of Barson's Acorn division, Rob Napier, published Networking with the BBC Microcomputer, the first reference documentation for Econet. Econet was officially released for the BBC Micro in the UK in 1984, and it later became popular as a networking system for the Acorn Archimedes. Econet was eventually officially supported on all post-Atom Acorn machines, apart from the Electron (except in Australia and New Zealand where Barson Computers built their own Econet daughter board), along with 3rd party ISA cards for the IBM PC. The "Ecolink" ISA interface card for IBM-compatible PCs was available. It used Microsoft's