Sinclair ZX Spectrum microcomputer 30 years of domestic

Spectrum, the pioneer of 8-bit home microcomputer turns 30

Exactly 30 years ago today one of the myths born of microcomputers eighties, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The ZX Spectrum came as an evolution of the models ZX80 and ZX81, but this particular combination of domestic microcomputer with power to run games and small applications programmed in BASIC with color pictures ... peculiar rubber keyboard was an immediate success. Indeed, the rainbow symbolized the housing technological advance meant the introduction of color graphics.

The ZX Spectrum had a Zilog Z80 processor 8 bits at 3.58 MHz with 16 KB of memory (expandable to 48 KB). Offered a resolution of 256 × 192 pixels and 8 amazing (for the moment) colors. The sound section used a single mono speaker and finally the data storage was done on cassette tapes (1200-1500 baud).

With so few resources, the Spectrum became smaller and cheaper computer market (its largest rival the Commodore 64 cost four times more). As a result it is estimated that in 1986 amounted to 1,000,000 Spectrum in Spain when it was bought by Amstrad. Your purchase price ranged between 39,000 and 52,000 pesetas the (125-175 pounds) and developed approximately 20,000 games and applications. Programs that are loaded with the famous LOAD "" and took tens of minutes to load into memory with screeching sounds and hypnotic modem lines red / green and yellow / blue.

Spectrum hardware was designed by Richard Altwasser and software by Steve Vickers, but the credit took him Sir Clive Sinclair, CEO of Sinclair Research on par with other eccentric inventor of gadgets that went unnoticed by the world. So great was his popularity that in 1983, Margaret Thatcher (then British prime minister) offered a ZX Spectrum to the Japanese prime minister as a "symbol of British technological prowess." But a series of unfortunate marketing decisions and strong competition, egged on by the arrival of the first PCs of 16 and 32 bits, signed his death warrant. Anyway Happy Birthday Spectrum!

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