
It’s probably a stretch to call it a precursor to the Tesla, but Sinclair was on to something, perhaps just a few decades ahead of the general public. Sir Clive had grand hopes that his new baby would become an integral part of the modern household, and. Oh, and there was no passenger seat: the C5 was a one-person vehicle. at the best Sinclair ZX Spectrum BASIC Programming (2 ed. The Sinclair C5 electric vehicle, which launched in 1985 with a starting price of around £399 (roughly $550) wasn’t a hit with consumers either you had to pedal it when the battery died, and when seated the operator was below the line of sight of most cars on the road. And Elon Musk tweeted his condolences on Thursday, saying he “loved” the ZX Spectrum. Sinclair’s TV80 pocket television wasn’t popular back in the day, but now we all carry little screens around with us wherever we go. A Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Imagesīut even many of Sinclair’s less successful inventions were later validated Sinclair’s Black Watch, which used “integrated circuit technology” according to a 1970s print ad, didn’t really catch on, but looks it could have inspired some of the fitness trackers everyone wears on their wrists now. The ZX Spectrum sold some 5 million units worldwide, before it was discontinued in 1992. The first model had 16KB of RAM and sold for £125 (roughly $170). Sinclair BASIC pozwala jednak na konstrukcje programistyczne, które s bardzo trudne lub wrcz niemoliwe do kompilacji (np.: GO TO do numeru linii bdcego wyraeniem obliczanym w trakcie wykonywania programu). The ZX Spectrum (nicknamed “Speccy”) had a rubber keyboard and a color display, and eventually a library of thousands of games. Sinclair’s ZX personal computers were priced lower than the then-popular Commodore 64, and well-liked by consumers in the UK.

The Sinclair Executive “slimline” pocket calculator, released in 1972, sold well (likely in large part due to its low price ), and at one point was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art.

Sinclair was an inventor with an impressive list of electronic products to his name, some, like his pocket calculator, were quite successful, while others, like his Sinclair C5 “electric trike” vehicle, were decidedly not.īorn in England in 1940, Sinclair had a knack for creating gadgets. Books from British publishers and magazines were available to some Americans, either on the newsstand or through mail order. Sinclair BASIC is a popular version of the BASIC (Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language.

Initial support from magazines and publishers was poor because the ZX80 and ZX81 computers were not taken seriously. Clive Sinclair, who invented the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, an early personal computer, died of cancer Thursday at age 81, his family confirmed. American Sinclair users were in a unique position not shared with their British counterparts.
