Posted By
MMS
on 2021-09-17
02:07:59
 |  Re: Sir Clive Sinclair has died, father of the ZX Spectrum!
R.I.P. Sir Clive Sinclair!
He was a pure genius, though some of his creations had issues, those were brilliant, unfortunately most of them were rushed into production at a prototype stage.
Sinclair QL for Sinclair was what the 264 for Commodore. While 264's destiny was the software and connector incompatibility, the internally 32 bit QL had initial design issues (bugs) and the microdrives that made it an almost useless computer for a year. Later on numerouos companies used this very potential computer, and the first version of Linux also developed to this computer. Built in Superbasic was also a great thing, after bugs were removed. With a little more RAM (or easier expandability) and better peripheries the Plus/4 could have been what the QL planned to be 
Microdrives could be the next great fast and cheap backup devices, if the capacity would be bigger (eg 350-400KB) and the tape media could be tougher and more reliable (certainly the media should have been bigger too then). It had the loading speed of 15KB/s! Just iumagine, this speed is comparable to an 1551 floppy drive used with a turbo loader.
C5 was a colossal failure, but was clearly ahead of it's time as an EV. Too bad Sir Sinclair did not think about a car style like the Smart ForTwo or Toyota i-Road, the more protective (safer) and water/rain-free C5 could have been a much bigger success.
I own a ZX Spectrum 48k, and it is a cute little machine in it's simplicity and easy expandability. Like VIC-20 and C64 it was a starting point for several (now legendary) programmers. I was crazym how complex programs were written for it, and how complex hardwares designed for it.
|
