Sinclair Research

company A British microelectronics developer and

manufacturer. Evolving from Sinclair Radionics in 1979,

Sinclair Research was owned by Sir Clive Sinclair. Sinclair

Radionics produced electronic components and devices (such as

calculators and pocket radios and televisions), but Sinclair

Research began by producing some of the first 8-bit home

microcomputers.

Sinclair produced five microcomputers from 1980 to 1987, all

based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor (except for the

QL, which used the Motorola 68008 - a variant on the

68000). The 1K kit-build ZX80, introduced in 1980, was

followed by the 1K ZX81 (expandable to 16K) in 1981, the 16K

(expandable to 48K) ZX Spectrum in 1982 (then superseded by

two distinct 48K models and a 128K model in 1986) and the QL

(Quantum Leap) in 1984. A portable laptop computer, the

Z88, was released in 1987 under the Cambridge Computers

banner.

Of them all, the ZX Spectrum was the best known, and it went

on to become the most popular microcomputer of its time in the

United Kingdom and in many other territories. This was partly

due to its ease of use, and also due to its enormous

software catalogue, covering games, word processing,

music, programming and graphics. Glorious

"mine's-better-than-yours" battles were fought (and still are

today) between owners of Spectrums and Commodore 64s over

who had the best machine.

Sir Clive's financial problems in the mid-80s led him to sell

the rights to the Sinclair brand to Amstrad in April 1986.

This led to further models of the Spectrum being released from

1986 to 1988 and also an IBM PC-compatible based

internally on Amstrad's own PC range. Sir Clive was not

involved with the production of these computers, and no

computer with the Sinclair name has been produced since.

Home .

Planet Sinclair .

comp.sys.sinclair FAQ.

(1998-12-09)