Clive Sinclair
Sir Clive Marles Sinclair ( born July 30, 1940 near Richmond ) is a British inventor and entrepreneur. He became internationally known in the 1980s for which he developed home computer ZX 81 and ZX Spectrum. In the UK he had previously made a name for calculators. He is also known as a designer of the electric vehicle C5.
Career
Sinclair, whose father and grandfather were already engineers worked meticulously, early radios and built or repaired amplifier. When he developed a powered punch card computing machine, he initially believed that he was the inventor. Sinclair never went to university; shortly before his graduation in 1958, he developed a miniature radio that he wanted to sell by mail order. First, however, he worked as a writer for the technical publishing house Bernard Babani and published between January 1959 and May 1962 a total of 13 books for hobby electronics. Its stereo Practical Handbook: The complete guide to stereo (June 1959) learned to 1973 seven editions.
In 1961, Sinclair his first company, Sinclair Radionics, the first Hi -Fi equipment produced ( until 1974 ). In addition, Sinclair worked 1962-1969 as an author.
In 1972, Sinclair Radionics calculator Executive on the market, which was thanks to power -saving technology that enabled the use of hearing aid batteries are much smaller than its competitors. The calculator was a clear evidence of Clive Sinclair's interest in miniaturization, which should be reflected in later products again and again. In 1974, the digital multimeter DM1; Instruments of this type formed in the following years, a stable source of revenue for the company and financed more spectacular, but commercially successful looser projects. Such was about the Black Watch in 1975 presented one of the first digital watches. Like other Sinclair products it was also available as a kit at a lower price. The futuristic -designed clock has had numerous technical problems and proved to be a flop, which would almost mean the ruin of Sinclair Radionics. To save the company, the state's National Enterprise Board (NEB ) in 1976 initially buys 43 % stake. This allowed Sinclair to complete a project on which he had worked for ten years - the " Pocket TV " device Microvision TV1A, which came on the market in 1977.
The first computer was the Sinclair constructed in 1977, the MK 14 ( kit). This was followed by the Grundy NewBrain, ZX80, ZX81. The ZX Spectrum he developed in 1982, after he. In the tender for the school television of the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC the much more expensive but also more universal competitor of Acorn, the BBC Micro was defeated, However, the ZX Spectrum developed into a commercially successful product. In 1984, the Sinclair QL, which was unable to build on the success of its predecessor. In 1986 he sold his company to Amstrad. Sinclair's last computer was the Cambridge Z88, which was designed and built from 1987 in which he had founded successor company " Cambridge Computers Ltd ".. His developments in other fields also include the C5 electric car, which does not, however, found enough interested parties. The latest product from Sinclair Research is the A-bike, a folding bicycle.
1983 was elevated to knighthood Clive Marles Sinclair of Queen Elizabeth II.
Others
On the Origin of the BBC Micro, a TV movie was filmed by the BBC in 2009: " Micro Men", which describes the competition between the companies Acorn and Sinclair Research for the production of the computer for the BBC.