ZX Time #07 31 января 2002

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Spectrum - 20: The sad story of an engineer named Clive Sinclair.

Spectrum is dedicated to the twentieth ...


  (C) Andrew Zubinsky

  (C) Computer Review "(N5/2001)

  (R) has given for publication in ZXT

      Sergey Loboda (RGB/P7S)


                  "... Managed to convey this

                  simple truth to set
                  elastic people, because

                  in his times of their sensitivity
                  properties are simple and

                  strong, while their inside
                  nny world - is clear and not
                  cloudy.

                             V. Pelevin


    This article is dedicated to our
SPECCY, or more precisely - its creator, the genius
his time - Sir Clive Sinclair! ..


    This will be a sad story. Author
would like to see it did not sound
so many memories as a reminder. On the perception of the world 
that we seem to have lost. The normal value the notion of 
"dynasty", distorted cheap serials and poor speakers Chronicle. 
AND Finally a real sense of the word "engineer", unseen in the 
shadow of the giant figures of the "historical role of 
management." 


    However, rather seditious thoughts - you will find a 
wonderful story Hereditary engineer (that's right -

Engineer with the capital), Sir
Clive Sinclair. And even if you're unlucky and you do not 
inhale the smell of his first computer (and it was the smell - 
stable mixture of flux, solder and hot mountains of cigarette 
butts in a glass jar) with the proud name of ZX-SPECTRUM, a 
short biography of Clive SINCLAIR opens one side of the great 
secrets of success. What it - you decide for yourself.



                DYNASTY


    In 1913, in Kronstadt to organize re-cruiser "Rurik"
One of the best warships of the Russian Navy, has arrived from 
the UK with family engineer GEORGE SINCLAIR. The representative 
of the "Queen of the Seas" had become famous (and go down in 
history) development otter-trawl towed Mineclearing device - 
and a number of innovations in ship design. Also represented 
the famous to this day the company "Vickers" (VICKERS) and was 
one of the few Western experts who knew Russian language. In 
1913, the second representative of the dynasty - son of GEORGE, 
Bill was only three years. After 15 years, before

it was a question of choosing a future profession, and not 
without the participation of Sinclair first Bill, who dreamed 
of something of a spiritual career, journalism, the dynasty 
continued learning is an engineer-mechanic. SINCLAIR-first 
reasonable well explained the inevitability of violence against

son: "When you will be 21 years and you
finally determine his future is not too late to become a 
journalist. But if you do not work, profession

engineers will always find a job. "
Agree, countries have been times ...


    BILL SINCLAIR became an engineer - and,
like his father - a good engineer. Before
World War II has long become the most powerful empire in the
Island, Britain badly needed in the development of the defense 
industry - and Sinclair is the second engaged in the production 
of technological equipment for the Ministry of supply. He had 
his own family and his son, Clive, a potential successor 
dynasty SINCLAIR Third. 


    The family lived in a relatively safe
Breknil town in Berkshire, were engaged in raising Clive 
Sinclair first and ... Jules Verne (thank God TV

in those days had not yet gained today
"Stopping power").


    In addition to the family, was also a school where ten 
Clive had to move into older age groups because of the mismatch 
is too high the level of mathematical training opportunity for 
education. Unexpectedly became starsheklasnikom, Clive seriously

became interested in mathematics and another step closer to 
further successes and disappointments - he independently 
invented the binary number system, was immensely proud of the 
opening and also immensely disappointed with his late ... Like 
many his peers not only in the postwar

Britain, but virtually the whole of Europe, Clive 'sick' 
electronics. Hobby, largely predetermined fate, did not make an 
exception for Sinclair third, but suddenly it became too 
expensive. Head of the family - Bill - found himself in so 
typical for an engineer in times of crisis situation that this 
part of the story deserves the title parable. 


    Post-war Britain, to reorganize
their industry on the defensive
way, experienced severe disruption of
return to civilian life. "Break - no
build "- Proverb, unknown to the English, but fair. At the turn 
of the history of high-tech engineering was in deep crisis - 
has shifted priorities, the State had to rebuild the destroyed, 
recover lost and get rid of unnecessary things. A

people had to make a living ...
And Sinclair is the second attempt to go into business - trade. 
Surviving after the recent "big break" domestic Engineers 
continuation of this story should cause a bitter smile, because 
they know it. And they are not wrong in the worst forebodings - 
SINCLAIR-second, of course, immediately went bankrupt, despite 
the novelty and quality vostrebavonnost goods. It would seem 
that cheap tractors were needed at that time, more than ever. 
Here are just saved from the war overseas "partners" - 
suppliers of goods acted in the spirit of their followers from 
the more familiar times. Credited the "business" Bill, they 
have the foresight to defeat newly "Businessman" from earning a

This loan money. As they say today, "scheme" was a simple
and cleared up enough (to ruin
Sinclair second) fast - all prisoners BILL contracts serviced 
by "partners", passing his company, and debts credit grew ...



    Almost "cheap popular" history of bankruptcy
migrating from engineers to businessmen
SINCLAIR Second, in contrast to the current
local reality which ended quite
safely ("loser" started "from scratch"
in Engineering, and the crisis quickly
ended), was an important lesson for
Sinclair third. First, the hard
financial situation forced him to combine study with work. 
Secondly, Clive too early to see and too hard remember the true 
face of "business" to a later caught on a hook beautiful

promises.


       FIRST PERIOD OF DIVERSITY


    Clive SINCLAIR began storming the future in June 1958. His 
first "firm" received a long and complicated name -

CMSINCLAIR MICRO KIT CO and worked
production of kits for assembly of miniature radios. 
Eighteen-SINCLAIR-third opted for the then quite numerous 
categories of people like him interested, curious, obrazovahnyh 
and are happy to replace the four-hour sitting in a pub, a more 
useful pastime with a soldering iron and a book. In the late 
fifties, he made no mistake in choosing. 


    But, despite the correct estimation
target audience, the young company needed the money: the 
purchase of components and the organization of production of 
semifinished products. Source of funding has been found 
unexpectedly - he was a journalist and writing. Little,

but a popular amateur radio magazine
"PRACTICAL WIRELESS" (PW) has attracted the authors of articles 
favorable terms of free advertising, and SINKLERtrety 
necessity, but to no avail was technical journalist. And in a 
short period of time - the actual editor PW. In August 1958, 
Clive PW has represented magazine at the stand

SILVER JUBILEE RADIO SHOW - Exhibition
devoted to the silver jubilee of the radio.
History has preserved even the memory of
booth number PW - 108. Stand on the contrary,
with the number 126, then took a well-known publishing company 
BERNARD'S (PUBLISHERS), formed settled in 30-x's in England 
BERNARDO Babanov. Compared with the PW in 1958

BERNARD'S was already a solid publisher with editorial 
portfolio of more than 150 books. What is said in 
SINKLEREtretem the experienced similar (according to the 
recollections of the Clive), a gangster Babanov is unknown. We 
only know that On the first day he offered 18letnemu guy 700 
pounds per year .. control of his publishing company. Clive, 
who was looking for a reliable source of financing their own 
development and do not want to repeat the sad mistakes his 
father, plunged into editorial work, and he became a technical 
writer - for 4 years he has created several books, which became 
a bestseller: so its "Practical Guide to

Stereo "(PRACTICAL STEREO HANDBOOK) reprinted 7 times within 14 
years! Quite a good result for the 20-year-old author.



    In 1961, the funds earned
writing activities, Clive has
enough to start a "real case" and
Frozen "SINCLAIR MICRO KIT" was
re-registered as a company with a new
name - SINCLAIR RADIONICS.


    And there was a real race -
RADIONICS released one after another - the various models of 
electronic products. Set to build a miniature radio MICRO 
MIDGET RADIO, wide-range pocket receiver SLIMLINE RADIO, the 
first production transistor power amplifier based on an 
entirely new principle, then the pulse width modulation (PWM) 
with a very high Efficiency and output power of 10 watts, 
improved model mikroradiopriemnika MICROMATIC RADIO, modular 
set for a high quality (Hi-Fi)

sound-reproducing complex PROJECT
60 (three types of amplifiers, three types of blocks
power, EQ and stereo
FM-Tuner) - this is not a complete list of products of their 
own (and the other at SINCLAIR never was) to develop,

SINCLAIR RADIONICS produced before the end of
60-x's.


    "Radioperiod in life SINKLERAtretego accurately determine 
its engineering priorities - miniaturization

large-scale production, non-trivial solutions, the low price
products, making it accessible to
main categories of consumers - the people
enthusiastic and keen on. Sam SINCLAIR
characterized the policy of his company: "Stack it high and 
sell it cheap" (Warehoused a lot, and sell cheap).

In 60-x it was too new and risky policy, according to 
colleagues, even Clive, permit or be a millionaire or broke. 
SINCLAIR-third found another way - reducing costs sales 
organization of sets by Acceptance send orders by mail.

And let RADIONICS not become a powerful corporation, but she 
did not "go on bottom. "



    In the early 70-x SINCLAIR keen
becoming only the feet of digital
electronics. Ignore such a promising area he could not
decided to create a compact computer
device with limited functions, helps facilitate the fulfillment 
of everyday, but difficult for the human brain arithmetic 
problems. 


    Today, this device is known to all
called "calculator", and the first
samples of it were released on the British
market in 1973. Engineering talent
Sinclair found a worthy third application - calculators family
CAMBRIDGE were really comfortable, compact, and the device. And 
because - and extremely popular. K honor of Sir Clive SINCLAIR 
he did not leave We inherited a heavy burden of patent rights 
to "handheld computing device, that in our

time of patenting, even drawing style
UI
seems somewhat strange. However,
Clive SINCLAIR just liked to do
what he did ... But also invented
calculators, his company is one of the
first in the early 70-x produced digital
multimeters (multifunction devices
for electro), oscilloscopes,
frequency counters.


    By 1975, SINCLAIR ELECTRONICS
(The former SINCLAIR RADIONICS) produced
very wide range of products - several dozen types of 
calculators, including scientific programmable models

and more than fifteen titles of digital
instrumentation. To the company came to a well-deserved fame - 
SINCLAIR performed design work for GILLETTE (family of 
calculators, OXFORD). But for the main products - calculators - 
already formed a very large market, which rushed to the 
aggressive producers in Asia, flooding it with cheap models. 
SINCLAIR-third felt the change in time "weather", and racked 
his imagination ... Caused a second, postkalkulyatorny digital 
boom! Company SINCLAIR released the world's first digital watch

with digital display. BLACK WATCH -
just a "black watch", comes in the form of DIY kits. Their
criticized for its awkward appearance, the complexity of the 
assembly, but buy, buy, buy ... Instantly a wrist model 
followed by a new bright idea - and familiar today, luminescent 
numerals found themselves ... In a car! It SINCLAIR shall be 
entitled to the discoverer of the ordinary (which was not at 
all evident in the 70-x) device. Model MICROQUARTZ at the time 
supported the success and Clive Sinclair continued his dreams, 
and ... In 1977 SINCLAIR released to the market

world's first pocket TV - not
just portable, but truly pocket.


    "That does not fit in your pocket, not
a pocket "- the motto of Sinclair in
time.


          COMPUTER PERIOD


    In 1979, a period of recession
radio-electronic hobbies Clive Sinclair. But one line in the 
article of May release "FINANCIAL TIMES" about the prospects

already formed, but still
very expensive personal computer market was featured in the 
fate of Clive pistol shot: 

    "Personal computers will become significantly cheaper, and 
their price drops to $ 100 within five years "- used to 
disagree Sinclair decided to speed this process up to several 
months. And he, As always, it came out - in early 1980

SINCLAIR year released the smallest
and cheapest in the PC world. ZX80 for 79 pounds
fly like hot cakes - in the first five minutes of the 
presentation was received 10 orders! On September 80 th was

sold 20,000 sets of "DIY"
ZX80, and a stream of orders grew. The culprit is
such hype was more than modest -
CPU Z80A production NIPPON ELECTRIC, a minimum of components, 
with 4KB ROM "Sewn" Basic interpreter and control program 
monitor. Since September 1980 ZX80 was a very important plug-in 
- big enough to standards of the time memory

capacity of 16Kb. But ZX80 ostavalsya by
According to Sinclair himself, too complex,
and all the engineering strength of the company focused on 
simplifying the structure. Already the beginning of the 1981 
SINCLAIR made what was actually available to all

competitors - have created a specialized
configurable chip replacement
18 chips in the construction of ZX80. Production of the new 
crystal placed in the company FERRANTI. Programmers SINCLAIR 
nicely worked hard over the software your computer by adding 
the computation floating-point and two-tone pseudographics 
(color TVs grew commonplace) - and saw the ZX81

light.


    It was a real bomb - the much-loved Sinclair 
miniaturization allowed reduce the price of a set from 79 to 50 
pounds. A special program of sales to schools

gave them the opportunity to acquire ZX81
Included Parts with 16KB of RAM for just £ 60 and 2300 British 
schools is almost instantly "kompyuterezirovalis. Almost

simultaneously with the ZX81 was launched into production and 
the first printer SINCLAIR - printing on narrow rolls of 
special metallization of paper. The success of the ZX81 noticed 
in the Land of the Rising Sun, and the largest importer of 
British products in Japan - Concern MITSUI hastened obtain 
exclusive rights to distribute computers SINCLAIR. Scheme ZX81 
distribution in the UK itself is very reminiscent of a modern 
scheme Sales of free software - instead of creating

Specialized retail chains used bookstores (which
ideally suited to today's term "sales targets"). By early 1982
SINCLAIR, the independently released and
sold more than 300,000 sets ZX81,
and just a month this figure had increased by 200 thousand!


    The effect of mass distribution
ZX81 has affected virtually instantly - in
February 1982 is small (as expected by the organizers), show a 
third-party products for the ZX81 unexpectedly gathered

More than 10 thousand people in the hall, calculated for a few 
hundred, prompting the need to attract the police force! 


    Small companies that develop
Software and additional hardware
for the ZX81, grew up like mushrooms after rain.


    Healthy capitalism triumphed and
gaining strength - toy 8-bit machine created for one year a 
huge number of jobs and produced the developers and users (then 
between them was difficult to draw a clear line) to a new 
masterpiece SINCLAIR. Above this PC codenamed ZX82

the company's engineers did their best,
and obtain market name ZX-SPECTRUM not
forced himself to wait. As with all products
SINCLAIR, it cost much less than all
competing computers and was in his
kind of unique - high-color graphics
(By then standards) resolution, built-in synthesizer sounds, 
powerful interpreter Basic, allows you to use programs in 
virtually all hardware possible machine.



    Interestingly, the computer press
that period met the ZX-SPECTRUM more
than cool - from the reviews written by
contemporaries of the first presentations of the computer blows 
ehidtsey: "After trying it use, I found that the declared

SINCLAIR quality untrue. Compared to more powerful computers 
SPECTRUM too slow, it Graphics disappointing version of Basic 
is limited, and the keyboard just puts in dead-end "... the 
author of these lines will undoubtedly lucky - in those days, 
few drew attention to the computer press, and later

his name is simply forgotten ... Hard to say what would have 
made him a crowd today Aficionados SPECTRUM ...



    SPECTRUM was a true miracle -
from the viewpoint of an engineer, its hardware
Part (a talented circuitry designed by Richard Altvasserom) 
based on custom chips, almost flawless. High-level design 
features exceptionally successful and balanced - screen 
resolution (49 152 pixel format 256x192), color depth (3-bit or 
8 colors) - is exactly what is ideally suited

speed chetyrehmegagertsevogo
Z80A ... And, most important - price. She was
accessible to virtually everyone, and SPECTRUM
became an instant best gift for children and
adolescents. Accordingly, the shift in
target audience and caused a shift in
the nature of the party.


    Today we can safely say
that it formed a concept SPECTRUM
"Gaming industry" - so as to count
circulation of the production of these computers and
the number of users is simply impossible. Known only order - it
talking about tens of millions. SPECTRUM produced in virtually 
all countries world - legally of thirty, and the number of

The "national" illegal modifications
it is probably equal to the number of nations,
having at least a dozen qualified electronics engineers. Number
programs for SPECTRUM and incalculable, and, most 
interestingly, their "Variety" is growing and today, because

utterly in love with this car for
present day mass ...


    After the ZX-SPECTRUM been improved
Model - SPECTRUM, SPECTRUM +128, and finally a 32-bit, built on 
the famous M68008 processor SINCLAIR QL (whose heirs still 
available, for example in Germany, all in the same traditional 
SINCLAIR-style do- myself "). But they could not" win "the 
popularity of the canonical SPECTRUM. 


        POSTKOMPYUTERNY PERIOD


    Conversion after the fact
computer "in the tool business and the incipient transformation 
of people into the console to the tool, Sir Clive is likely to 
have lost interest in computers ever. He created a wonderful 
things such as miniature and affordable electric cars, they 
bought, but with each year worse and worse. SINCLAIR RESEARCH

long ago ceased to issue sets of "do-
himself "- seems due to the fact that more
ovni no one needs. However, it is not
importantly - Sinclair did not become a billionaire, nor ruined 
merchant. He remained himself - the talented engineers working 
at the fact that he likes. 


                  "You can pretty much

                   obtained from communication with

                   people disagreeing

                                with them. "

                       SIR Clive SINCLAIR


    P.S. Tremendous gratitude for their assistance in preparing 
this material I wish to express litredaktoru newspaper Optron 
"Bozhenkov Igor Borisovich! Will be very sorry if this is good 
and desired newspaper will cease to exist. Let's hope that this 
will not happen! 



    P.P.S. For lovers of fiction
namely, the aficionados of Star
War - s'emki finished the second episode, alas, can not 
remember the name, but spetsefektov there is not worse than the 
first (Phantom Menace), even if not better. The yield on the 
screens is not known, but around May-June of this month

year (in principle, as promised
after the first part). The third episode is scheduled to make 
2004-2005, ... Enjoy all the viewing. And I you say goodbye. 
Have a nice day! 


                   Sergey Loboda aka RGB


                 *


    From the Editor. I express my deep gratitude to Sergey for 
that which has caused some kind of nostalgia (at least from my 
parties), article. Once again, I was convinced how much talent 
was (and is) Sir Clive Sinclair Marlz. However, sadly,

that now his name is rarely remembered.
It's a great man who created not
less grandiose and revolutionary than
other Great.


    All his life he was a pioneer. Yes, it is with a capital 
letter. He is always searching for the application of his 
boundless talent, tread path - approaches towards the vertices, 
and as soon get to a certain point, coming down and again began 
to look for ... The most important thing - to find approaches 
to nedostezhimoy top, much to the very top will get more ... 
Probably, it worked great engineer ... 


                 *