Sinclair Research
More info
- Creator
- Clive Sinclair
- Released
- 1973
- Type
- Computer manufacturer
Clive Sinclair's company, which made computers cheap enough for British bedrooms and then bet the farm on an electric tricycle.
It began life as Science of Cambridge and became Sinclair Research in 1981. The ZX80 (1980) cost under £100, the ZX81 a year later sold over a million units, and the Z80-based ZX Spectrum of 1982 laid the foundations of an entire British games industry. Clive Sinclair was knighted in 1983.
Then it went downhill. The QL business computer (1984) shipped before it was finished, with part of its firmware hanging off the back in an external module, and the C5 electric vehicle (1985) became a national punchline. In 1986 Sinclair sold the computer brand and rights to Amstrad for five million pounds, leaving a small outfit for oddball inventions.