pengipete
Rising Star
...the Sinclair ZX81 - 30 years old this month.
Back in the day, the ZX81 cost £69.95 from WH Smith - adusted for inflation, that's almost exactly the same price as an iPhone. What you got for your money was 64X44 pixels which you watched on you TV screen - in black and white - 1K of memory and no keyboard - just a plastic mebrane over a metal contact sheet. You could load and save programs from cassette tape - if you were lucky. It basically consisted of four chips and a modulator for the TV output
Exact figures are unknown because Sinclair licenced the design out to Texas Instruments who sold it in the US but it sold at least 1,000,000 units within a few months.
What's not so well known is that Clive Sinclair was never that interested in producing computers. He really only made them to fund his pet projects like the C5. Even he had no idea that the ZX81 would become such a massive - if somewhat short-lived - success.
The ZX81 may seem laughably weak compared with today's PC's but anyone who was around at the time and had the slightest interest in technology will remember just how exciting it was - a home computer the size of a hardback that only cost a fortnight's wages. Even more exciting for some of us was the option to buy the ZX81 in kit form and "build" it yourself.
What's really incredible though - looking back and trying to place events into chronological order - is that ZX81 was released four years after Star Wars appeared in the cinema. It really messes with your head to realise that the Death Star is older than this rather tacky little toy that created the mass-market for home PC's.
Without the ZX81, the World may have been a much less exciting place and don't forget - even in these days of hex-core, multiple gigabyte processors, terrabyte storage and 3D real-time graphics - the ZX81 can still come in handy...
Back in the day, the ZX81 cost £69.95 from WH Smith - adusted for inflation, that's almost exactly the same price as an iPhone. What you got for your money was 64X44 pixels which you watched on you TV screen - in black and white - 1K of memory and no keyboard - just a plastic mebrane over a metal contact sheet. You could load and save programs from cassette tape - if you were lucky. It basically consisted of four chips and a modulator for the TV output
Exact figures are unknown because Sinclair licenced the design out to Texas Instruments who sold it in the US but it sold at least 1,000,000 units within a few months.
What's not so well known is that Clive Sinclair was never that interested in producing computers. He really only made them to fund his pet projects like the C5. Even he had no idea that the ZX81 would become such a massive - if somewhat short-lived - success.
The ZX81 may seem laughably weak compared with today's PC's but anyone who was around at the time and had the slightest interest in technology will remember just how exciting it was - a home computer the size of a hardback that only cost a fortnight's wages. Even more exciting for some of us was the option to buy the ZX81 in kit form and "build" it yourself.
What's really incredible though - looking back and trying to place events into chronological order - is that ZX81 was released four years after Star Wars appeared in the cinema. It really messes with your head to realise that the Death Star is older than this rather tacky little toy that created the mass-market for home PC's.
Without the ZX81, the World may have been a much less exciting place and don't forget - even in these days of hex-core, multiple gigabyte processors, terrabyte storage and 3D real-time graphics - the ZX81 can still come in handy...
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