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Planet Sinclair Archive
Sinclair Information Archive
Sinclair Hardware List by Bob Johnson

ZX80 (1979) 


"Uncle" Clive Sinclair, inventor of the handheld pocket calculator, digital watch and small screen TV pioneer, founded Sinclair Research and developed the ZX80 microcomputer in March of 1979. Within a year, he had the ZX80 in the British market, selling for about 100 British pounds. ZX80 had a white plastic case and was also available as a kit. (by Bob Johnson)

ZX81 (1981) 


ZX81 had a small black plastic case and was also available as a kit. It was of such simple low-cost design that it drove prices of competing computers way down, thus putting computers into the hands of millions of hobbyists and home users. American version of the ZX81 is known as T/S1000 (Timex/Sinclair). It is 100% compatible. In fact, early models had a ZX81 circuit board. Two 4x1kB RAM chips were replaced by a single 8x2kB RAM. T/S1000 looks the same as a ZX81 except it has a Timex/Sinclair logo where the Sinclair logo of the ZX81 appears. Timex also produced the T/S1500, 16kB RAM version of the T/S1000 with a new case design and raised rubber chiclet keys. It is also 100% compatible with the ZX81. (by Bob Johnson)

ZX81 WWW page

ZX Spectrum (1982) 


An American version of ZX Spectrum is known as T/S2068. It had an AY-3-8912 sound chip, cartridge port, two joystick ports, and an additional 8kB extension ROM with extra Sinclair BASIC commands to support these devices (STICK, SOUND) packaged in a hard plastic silver case with nonstandard plastic keys. It was released in Fall 1983, just before Timex Computer Corp folded in Spring 1984. A rogue arm of Timex in Portugal continued to sell TC2068s (same as T/S2068) and TC2048s until 1989. They, of course,were only allowed to sell in non-Sinclair controlled marketplaces. (by Bob Johnson)

Z88 


Z88 was made by Sir Clive's new company called Cambridge Computers. It was certainly not the first laptop, but it's design was new for that time. It was a very simple and relatively cheap machine; it had a good battery life due to the lack of disk drives, and a decently sized keyboard and a full width screen. Z88 runs for about 20 hours on four AA-size alkaline batteries. The rubber keyboard is soundless, though not as comfortable as a real keyboard. (by Robert Klein)

A Book on Z88

QL (1984) 


The Quantum Leap computer was launched by Sir Clive Sinclair in 1984 and aimed mainly at the business market rather than the games market dominated by Spectrum sales. The QL was (and still is) supplied complete with a suite put together by PSION and including a fully functional wordprocessor, spreadsheet, database and a business graphics programs (bar charts, pie charts etc).
The concept of the QL is to plug in and go. The only extra equipment required to get started is a standard TV and over 10-15 minutes time you are able to start typing. (by Robert Klein)

Sam Coupe (1989) 


Sam Coupe was launched in 1989 amongst much hype in the Sinclair computer mags of the day, and was seem by most to be the ideal upgrade from the ZX Spectrum. (by Graham Goring)

Sam Coupe WWW page