Archive for Sinclair
Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K
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The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Home Computer was an 8-bit machine that was released to us in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research.
Sinclair Research was a company founded by Clive Sinclair from cambridge in 1980 when he released the first of his computers the ZX80. It was later in life that due to clives great achievements for inventing computers and machines like the sinclair C5 that Clive Sinclair earned himself a Knighthood for “Services to British Industry” it was then that he became Sir Clive Sinclair.
Over a period of time the ZX Spectrum was released in eight different models, ranging from the entry level model that had 16 KB RAM to the ZX Spectrum +3 with 128 KB RAM and built in floppy disk drive that was released in 1987.
During development, the sinclair spectrum was referred to as the ZX81 colour and also the ZX82 but i remember it i think like most users as a ‘Speccy‘. The word Spectrum was used to highlight the range of colour’s it could display as shown with a band of colours like that of a rainbow displayed on the bottom right hand side of the spectrums case.
Sinclair ZX81
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The Sinclair Zx81 is another of Clive Sinclairs well known achievements. The distinctive appearance was the work of industrial designer Rick Dickinson, the ZX81 was Manufactured by Sinclair Reasearch Ltd and released on the 1st of June 1981.
The Zx81 was a cheap Home Computer that anyone could afford and was initially sold via mail order in kit form. The Sinclair ZX81 was priced at £49.95 for an un-assembled unit or £69.95 assembled. Later a deal was made with W. H. Smiths to help with sales and make the ZX81 easier to purchase along with other accessories such as a Thermal Printer and a 16K Ram Pack although 32k and 64k ram packs became available later. Companies such as D’Ktronics and Memoteck also supplied a full size keyboard to replace the original membaine keyboard.
The Sinclair ZX81 used a ZX80a processor and was supplied with a 1KB of RAM and 4k ROM. This was to hold the computers system variables, the screen image and any programs and data. The graphics were primarily generated by software in the zx81 ROM, it was possible to override the interrupt service routine and generate the display yourself.
