Jubilee ZX Spectrum: 30 years

Despite the fact that one of the largest players in the computer market, IBM, released the IBM PC in 1981, the British company Sinclair Research, led by Clive Sinclair , on April 23, 1982, released the cheap computer model Sinclair ZX Spectrum, whose number of sales in 17 months exceeded one million pieces.

The computer was released in two versions - with 16 KB and 48 KB of memory, the cost of both devices was respectively 125 and 175 pounds sterling. It is interesting to note that in the Soviet Union the cost of a clone (almost all the details could be replaced by domestic ones; there is a curious interview with former employees of Lviv Polytechnic, who in 1985 managed to “copy” the ZX Spectrum by taking a computer for 2 hours). foreign students) ZX Spectrum was about 100 rubles and in the future only decreased. With such an attractive price, the device also had an important feature contributing to its popularity: the Spectrum could be connected to a regular TV set, and a domestic tape recorder could be used as an external memory.

The history of computer technology could go a completely different way if the head of Sinclair did not set himself too ambitious goals. Due to the success of Spectrum sales, the company sponsored a number of projects that were unusual for that time, such as an electric car and a flat-panel TV, but already in 1985 Sinclair had to make a lot of effort to avoid bankruptcy - projects had no success. In 1986, the head of the company sold his brainchild, received £ 5 million in cash, and left the computer industry.
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Then there was the IBM PC.