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RIP Clive Sinclair

Nye Samuel said:
It gave the right answers if you knew how to input the information correctly etc. ;)
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QFT!
I remember buying his Scientific Calculator off of the Sunday Times in probably 1976 to use in my state examinations. Before that it was a standard tables book or slide rule. As said before he made the future available to lowlys like myself. A true entrepreneur who made a difference, RIP Clive.
 
Linds said:
Yes. He struck lucky then because instead of selling a few thousand toys he sold several million, these toys were programmable, people could learn from the manual, books, friends, magazines dedicated to the subject.
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Agreed. He made computing accessible. The differences in construction are obvious:

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Here’s a Spectrum. Cheap as it can be. As few chips as possible, Sinclair bought a whole pile of known faulty RAM as it worked fine at half capacity (only one half of the chip was faulty), so saved some money on one of the most expensive components. He also managed to integrate much of the computer’s functionality onto the Ferranti ULA chip which was very radical at the time. It has an external PSU transformer though a naff hot-running regulator with a heatsink warming up the CPU and ULA was not a great idea! It is a really clever little computer. Good enough to spark the flame that ignited the UK games industry which is to this day world-leading. So many great software houses can trace their origin back to this tiny little mainboard.

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For comparison here is a BBC B. It is a vastly more complex and versatile machine, multiple I/O ports barely visible in my at the bottom allow for huge amounts of expansion, even additional processors. The mainboard can take multiple program ROMs, it can even be upgraded for networking and even voice synthesis (not populated in my example). It was a truly amazing computer, unquestionably better, but it cost at least 4 times the price of the ZX81 or Spectrum, was very seldom discounted, and as such only ended up in schools and very rich kids bedrooms.

They both changed UK computer history for the better, and actually complimented each other perfectly. The yin and yang of 1980s UK computing. There were other players, but these were the two that mattered.

PS FWIW this is what my Spectrum looks like now:

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Fully recapped (Sinclair used truly awful caps, they are always way off by now), modified for composite output, a modern cold-running regulator fitted along with a new keyboard membrane (obviously not pictured). I’ve fitted some heatsinks on the CPU and ULA since the pic was taken too. I’ve got two of these and I wanted this one to be bomb-proof and long-term reliable so I have taken some liberties with authenticity!
 
Seeker_UK said:
That came in an external box, didn't it? Looked like half a BBC w/out a keyboard.
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No, that was the external CPU (several different types were available) or Teletext functionality. The networking, Econet, was on the mainboard. If you look at my pic you’ll see an area unpopulated at the top left of the board, that’s where it goes and it went out to a connector on the back panel (again not present on mine).

PS The CPU expansion really was a radical forward-looking feature (Wikipedia). You can actually run CP/M on the thing apparently!
 
mercalia said:
no it really did - the trig functions I was studying A level maths at the time
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No it really did? Is a n and an apostrophe missing? As I assume you disagree with my comment.

It worked for me doing A level chemistry and my friends who used them for A level physics without any problems.
 
Tony L said:
No, that was the external CPU (several different types were available) or Teletext functionality. The networking, Econet, was on the mainboard. If you look at my pic you’ll see an area unpopulated at the top left of the board, that’s where it goes and it went out to a connector on the back panel (again not present on mine).

PS The CPU expansion really was a radical forward-looking feature (Wikipedia). You can actually run CP/M on the thing apparently!
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yes for the BBC there was a teletext adapter and various 2nd processors incl the one that ran CP/M and also a 3mhz 6502 ( wow) & a Intel 32106 that ran over the "Tube". and coould control a laser disc drive for the BBC Dooms Day project. The Master was a better machine mine had an internal 512kb 2nd processor Intel 80186 board for running Digital Research DOS Plus with GEM and things like dBase II, Wordstar 3.3, Supercalc and Turbo Pascal. By comparison the Spectrum was a toy
 
I had forgotten the Black Watch from 1975.

‘It runs for up to a year on cheap batteries which are easy to replace’ - contemporary Sinclair ad
‘the batteries lasted just 10 days... and were very difficult to replace’ - Planet Sinclair

Oops.
 
Marchbanks said:
I had forgotten the Black Watch from 1975.

‘It runs for up to a year on cheap batteries which are easy to replace’ - contemporary Sinclair ad
‘the batteries lasted just 10 days... and were very difficult to replace’ - Planet Sinclair

Oops.
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I had a TI LED watch back in those days and the battery was not much better.
Having to press the button to see the time was "interesting" while cycling
 
I have a Sinclair Cambridge calculator that I bought around 1975, I put batteries in it a couple of years ago and it still worked. I will look for it and give it a try see if it's still working in memory of Sir Clive.
 
Looking through threads here and on the Guardian it is clear what "Uncle Clive's" main legacy was. Post after post recounts how the Spectrum got people into low level and assembler programming and from this they had a successful career in the computer industry.

At the time the Spectrum hit the market I was running the Byteshop Computerland shop in Nottingham. We sold add on memory packs and bits for the Spectrum. (the main business at the time was CP/M S100 machines form North Star, Cromemco and Comart)

One day a couple of entrepreneurial lads came in with a Frogger type game on cassette they had written. So we retailed these to many happy customers. Couple of months later a nerdy type came in waving the cassette. It was like the dead parrot sketch.

I've got a complaint, the cassette card has got a picture of purple crocodiles on it. I've played this to level 37 and there are no purple crocodiles!
We gave him another cassette game free and after he left fell about laughing.

Not long after this we stopped selling all home computers as we were showing them to people who would then go down to Dixons and buy them cheaper. Plus it was ruining our image as a business system supplier. Then we became a launch authorised IBM dealer presenting at the Which Computer Show and the rest is history.
 
Marchbanks said:
I had forgotten the Black Watch from 1975.

‘It runs for up to a year on cheap batteries which are easy to replace’ - contemporary Sinclair ad
‘the batteries lasted just 10 days... and were very difficult to replace’ - Planet Sinclair

Oops.
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Well, mine lost the display cover after 10 days or so, the batteries lasted a little longer. It WAS crap quality, but the design is still stellar. Allen Boothroyd, I think?
 
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