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Member's Forum Sir Clive Sinclair - a genius
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  • zx80
  • sir_clive_sinclair
  • zx_spectrum
  • zx81
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Sir Clive Sinclair - a genius

14rhb
14rhb over 4 years ago

Sad news to hear today that Sir Clive Sinclair has died. The man created the ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum(s) personal computers which were very popular in the UK and which a great deal of people learned to code with. A huge loss to the world but what a great legacy he has left !

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58587521

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  • Fred27
    Fred27 over 4 years ago +7
    For those who haven't seen it, Micro Men is a great dramatization of that era - covering Sinclair and also the beginnings of ARM. I had a BBC Micro, but my first glimpse of computing was my cousin's ZX81…
  • jc2048
    jc2048 over 4 years ago +7
    Sad news. He could be very creative and inventive on the design side. This is the only product of his that I ever owned, a PDM 35. It still works, though it's a little temperamental.
  • rsc
    rsc over 4 years ago +5
    In 1981 I purchased the MicroAce kit, then a ZX-81 and I was hooked on micros for the rest of my life....so far... I may still have the original ZX-81 ROM around in a box somewhere .
  • fmilburn
    fmilburn over 4 years ago

    I was living in the UK when the ZX80 came out and remember the WH Smith where I hung out waiting for my train being full of magazines about it.  It seemed incredible that a computer could be bought for under 100 pounds. 

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  • kmikemoo
    kmikemoo over 4 years ago

    image 14rhb So sad to lose a pioneer that was so instrumental in changing our lives.

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  • javagoza
    javagoza over 4 years ago

    Sad news. Sir Clive Sinclair and Carl Sagan were my references when I went to school.

    My first computer was a ZX81 (1 KB RAM image) that I bought on my holidays in the United Kingdom, in Spain we had not heard of that marvel yet.

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  • Fred27
    Fred27 over 4 years ago

    For those who haven't seen it, Micro Men is a great dramatization of that era - covering Sinclair and also the beginnings of ARM. I had a BBC Micro, but my first glimpse of computing was my cousin's ZX81. 40+ years later, I'm still coding!

     

    As Micro Men is quite old. I'm sure it can be found on YouTube, etc. too.

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  • rsc
    rsc over 4 years ago

    In 1981 I purchased the MicroAce kit, then a ZX-81 and I was hooked on micros for the rest of my life....so far...

    I may still have the original ZX-81 ROM around in a box somewhere .

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  • dougw
    dougw over 4 years ago in reply to fmilburn

    I'm trying to think of an all-in-one system that has beaten this price point. You would think that the incredible gains in performance/price of electronics components it would be common, but I'm not sure you could say it has ever been surpassed, certainly not often. I suppose some cheap phones might qualify.

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  • fmilburn
    fmilburn over 4 years ago in reply to dougw

    Yes, there was no comparison to the cost of other home or especially business computers at the time. 

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  • michaelkellett
    michaelkellett over 4 years ago

    Clive SInclair did a lot more than the ZX81 - not all of it very good but often very innovative if not very reliable:

     

    I remember:

    The X10 - a switching audio amplifier round about 1965 - never owned one: sinclairX10

    The Z30 and Z50 amplifiers https://oldwww.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/audio/z30.htm

    The IC10 -  a horrible IC power amplifier that mostly didn't work (mine never made any sound at all image)

    The calculators: https://oldwww.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/calculators/cambridge.htm

    The Black Watch (did you never wonder where Apple got the idea ) https://oldwww.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/calculators/cambridge.htm

    The C5 - not that much less practical than current electric cars https://oldwww.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/vehicles/c5.htm

     

    There's a nice website for all things Sinclair https://oldwww.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/contents.htm

     

     

    MK

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  • Jan Cumps
    Jan Cumps over 4 years ago in reply to michaelkellett

    ... The X10 - a switching audio amplifier round about 1965 - never owned one: sinclairX10...

    "add your own choice of tone control circuit." image

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  • gpolder
    gpolder over 4 years ago

    My first computer was a ZX81, bought it in 1983 here in the Netherlands.

    Memories of typing over code from computermagazines, including long BASIC REM lines with random characters which represented binary code.

    I still have him lying around somewhere. Would be a challenge to find a display for it (NTSC/PAL television).

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