Clive Sinclair , the renowned British inventor, died at the age of 81 , according to The Guardian reports. According to information provided by family members, Sinclair died at his London home after battling a long illness. “He was an amazing person. Of course, he was very smart and always interested in everything,” said Belinda Sinclair, his daughter.
Clive Sinclair was born on June 30, 1940 in the English capital. From a young age he showed interest in the technology of the time and, when he was 17 years old, he dropped out of school to found Sinclair Radionics in 1961. Just at the beginning of his career as an inventor, he made evident his love for portable devices and for bringing technology to the masses.
However, the product that consolidated its importance in the history of technology was the first pocket calculator , which saw the light during 1967. Clive Sinclair was really interested in reducing the dimensions of devices that Nowadays, it is common to carry it in the palm of the hand. “He wanted to make things small and cheap so that people could access them,” said his daughter.
With experience gained with various calculator models, Clive Sinclair entered the world of computers. In 1980 he introduced the ZX80 , considered at that time as the smallest and most affordable computer in the world. Its specifications, as you surely intuit, are far from what we can obtain today: 1 KB of RAM memory and operating system based on BASIC (Beginners All -purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). It certainly lacked a graphical interface.
The ZX80 was a total success thanks to its low price, costing about a fifth of other home computers. In subsequent years it launched new versions of the computer, the ZX Spectrum (1982) being the most successful in sales. It was distributed in two different versions depending on its RAM memory: 16 or 48 KB. It featured the Zilog Z80A 3.5MHz microprocessor and could even output sounds.
Unfortunately, the company took a nosedive after the 1985 launch of the Sinclair C5 , an electric car totally ahead of its time. It was a total business failure and affected the finances of Sinclair Instrument Ltd. – it changed its name in 1975 – significantly. A year later, the company was acquired by Amstrad, one of its main competitors.
Without a doubt, humanity loses a great inventor who helped bring technology to the widest possible audience. “It was the ideas, the challenge, what seemed exciting to him. He came up with an idea and said: 'It makes no sense to ask if someone wants it, because they can't imagine it' , he concluded Belinda Sinclair.
