Oric was a brand of home computers sold in the 1980s by Tangerine Computer Systems . Tangerine was based in the United Kingdom and sold their computers primarily in Europe . All computers in the Oric line were based on the MOS Technology 6502A microprocessor.
117-678: With the success of the ZX Spectrum from Sinclair Research , Tangerine's backers suggested a home computer and Tangerine formed Oric Products International Ltd to develop the Oric-1 . The computer was introduced in 1982. During 1983, approximately 160,000 Oric-1 computers were sold in the UK, plus another 50,000 in France (where it was the year's top-selling machine). This resulted in Oric being acquired and given funding for
234-712: A PAL UHF colour or black and white television receiver on approximately Channel 36. RGB output is also provided on a 5 pin DIN 41524 socket. In character mode the Oric displays 28 lines of 40 characters, producing a display very similar to Teletext . The character set is standard ASCII which is enhanced by the addition of 80 user-definable characters. ASCII characters may also be re-defined as these are down loaded into RAM on power-up. Serial attributes are used to control display features, as in Teletext, and take up one character position. All remaining characters on that line are affected by
351-511: A Western European and Cyrillic alphabet – the upper case character set produces Western European characters, while lower case gives Cyrillic letters. In order to ease the use of the two alphabets, the Pravetz 8D is fitted with a Caps Lock key. A Disk II compatible interface and a custom DOS, called DOS-8D, were created in 1987–88 by Borislav Zahariev. ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum ( UK : / z ɛ d ɛ k s / )
468-454: A bug within the error-checking of recorded programs, often causing user-created programs to fail when loaded back in, this bug persist in the updated ROMs for the Oric Atmos. Available basic commands are CLOAD, CSAVE (for programs and memory dumps ), STORE, RECALL (for arrays of string, integer or real, added with Oric Atmos roms). Filenames up to 16 characters can be specified. Options on
585-474: A sound chip , the programmable General Instrument AY-3-8910 . Two graphics modes are handled by a semi-custom ASIC (HSC 10017 ULA ) which also manages the interface between the processor and memory. The two modes are a "LORES" (low resolution) text mode (though the character set can be redefined to produce graphics) with 28 rows of 40 characters and a "HIRES" (high resolution) mode with 200 rows of 240 pixels above three lines of text. Like
702-507: A "ZX81 with colour". According to Sinclair, the team also wanted to combine the ZX81's separate random-access memory sections for audio and video into a single bank. Chief engineer Richard Altwasser was responsible for the ZX Spectrum's hardware design. His main contribution was the design of the semi-custom uncommitted logic array (ULA) integrated circuit, which integrated, on a single chip,
819-687: A "blaze of publicity" at the Earl's Court Computer Show in London, and the ZX Microfair in Manchester . The ZX Spectrum was launched with two models: a 16KB 'basic' version, and an enhanced 48KB variant. The former model had an undercutting price of £125, significantly lower than its main competitor the BBC Micro , whilst the latter model's price of £175 was comparable to a third of an Apple II computer. Upon release,
936-424: A Briton taking on the world, Sinclair has become the best-known name in micros." The media latched onto Sinclair's image; his "Uncle Clive" persona is said to have been created by the gossip columnist for Personal Computer World . The press praised Sinclair as a visionary genius, with The Sun lauding him as "the most prodigious inventor since Leonardo da Vinci ". Adamson and Kennedy wrote that Sinclair outgrew
1053-508: A command in BASIC, many keywords require a single keyboard stroke. Other keywords require a change of keyboard mode by a few keystrokes. The BASIC interpreter is derived from the one used on the ZX81 . A BASIC program for ZX81 can be entered into a ZX Spectrum with minimal modifications. However, Spectrum BASIC introduced numerous additional features, enhancing its usability. The ZX Spectrum character set
1170-511: A computer". After its release, computing in Britain became an activity for the general public rather than the preserve of office workers and hobbyists. The ZX81's commercial success made Sinclair Research one of Britain's leading computer manufacturers, with Sinclair himself reportedly "amused and gratified" by the attention the machine received. Development of the ZX Spectrum began in September 1981,
1287-534: A critical strategic moment in brand awareness and loyalty. Fail pets are of interest to marketers because they can result in brand recognition (especially through earned media ). "However, that same recognition carries the danger of highlighting service failure." The most famous fail pet is Twitter's Fail Whale (see Twitter service outages). Other fail pets include: The form that error messages take varies between operating systems and programs. Error messages on hardware devices, like computer peripherals, may take
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#17328582636171404-455: A custom interpreter made it possible to fit all of its functionality into a very small amount of read-only memory (ROM). The development process of the software was marked by disagreements between Nine Tiles and Sinclair Research. Sinclair placed an emphasis on expediting the release of the Spectrum, primarily by minimising alterations in the software from the ZX81, which had in turn been based on
1521-458: A few months after the release of the ZX81. Sinclair resolved to make his own products obsolete before his rivals developed the products that would do so. Parts of designs from the ZX80 and ZX81 were reused to ensure a speedy and cost-effective manufacturing process. The team consisted of 20 engineers housed in a small office at 6 King's Parade , Cambridge. During early production, the machine was known as
1638-422: A following mode error in the user interaction. In many cases the original error can be avoided by error prevention techniques. Instead of raising an error message the system design should have avoided the conditions that caused the error. While various graphical user interfaces have different conventions for displaying error messages, several techniques have become common: The three main factors that influence
1755-457: A full range of colour and sound for a price under $ 200. Although it was more enhanced than its British counterpart, sales proved poor and Timex Sinclair collapsed the following year. A crucial part of the company's marketing strategy was to implement regular price-cutting at strategic intervals to maintain market share . Ian Adamson and Richard Kennedy noted that Sinclair's method was driven by securing his leading position through "panicking"
1872-455: A fully hardware-based television raster generator with colour support. This enhancement indirectly provided the new machine with roughly four times the processing power of the ZX81, as the Z80 was relieved of video generation tasks. An initial ULA design flaw occasionally led to incorrect keyboard scanning, which was resolved by adding a small circuit board mounted upside down ("dead cockroach") next to
1989-585: A high of 40 per cent. Sales in the 1984 Christmas season were described as "extremely good". In early 1985 the British press reported the home computer boom to have ended, leaving many companies slashing prices of their hardware to anticipate lower sales. Despite this, celebration of Sinclair's success in the computing market continued at the Which Computer? show in Birmingham , where the five-millionth ZX Spectrum
2106-678: A lacking distribution. Nigel Searle , the newly-appointed chief of Sinclair's computer division, said in June 1982 the company had no plans to stock the new machine in WHSmith , which was at the time Sinclair's only retailer. Searle explained that the mail-order system was in place due to there being no "obvious" retail outlets in the United Kingdom which could sell personal computers, and it made "better sense" financially to continue selling through mail-order. The company's conservative approach to distributing
2223-672: A non-textured surface were at risk of causing shock, and were asked to be sent back to a warehouse in Cambridgeshire which would supply a replacement within 48 hours. Development of the ZX Spectrum+ began in June 1984, and was released on 15 October that year at £179. It was assembled by AB Electronics in South Wales and Samsung in South Korea. This 48 KB Spectrum introduced a new QL -style case with an injection-moulded keyboard and
2340-418: A project feasible and went ahead with ordering 100,000 sets of parts so that he could launch at high volume. On 5 March 1981, the ZX81 was launched worldwide to immense success with more than 1.5 million units sold, 60% of which was outside Britain. According to Ben Rosen , by pricing the ZX81 so low, the company had "opened up a completely new market among people who had never previously considered owning
2457-508: A reset button that functions as a switch shorting across the CPU reset capacitor. Electronically, it was identical to the previous 48 KB model. The machine outsold the rubber-key model two to one, however, some retailers reported a failure rate of up to 30%, compared with a more typical 5–6% for the older model. In early 1985, the original Spectrum was officially discontinued, and the ZX Spectrum+
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#17328582636172574-574: A sale to Edenspring Investments PLC. The Edenspring money enabled Oric International to release the Oric Atmos , which added an improved keyboard and an updated V1.1 ROM to the Oric-1. The faulty tape error checking routine was still there (See "Cassette Interface" under Technical specification , below). Soon after the Atmos was released, the modem , printer and 3-inch floppy disk drive originally promised for
2691-654: A significant commercial failure, selling only 17,000 units and losing Sinclair £7 million. It has since been described as "one of the great marketing bombs of postwar British industry". The ASA ordered Sinclair to withdraw advertisements for the C5 after finding that the company's claims about its safety could not be proved or justified. The combined failures of the C5 and QL caused investors to lose confidence in Sinclair's judgement. In May 1985, Sinclair Research announced their intention to raise an additional £10 to £15 million to restructure
2808-556: A significant drop in Sinclair's income from orders in January, as retailers were left with surplus stock. Subsequently, an upgraded model, the ZX Spectrum 128, was released in Spain in September 1985, with development financed by the Spanish distributor Investrónica. The launch of this model in the UK was postponed until January 1986 due to the substantial leftover inventory of the prior model. While
2925-474: A successor model, the 1984 Oric Atmos . Oric was bought by Eureka, which produced the less successful Oric Telestrat (1986). Oric was dissolved the year the Telestrat was released. Eastern European legal clones of Oric machines were produced into the 1990s. Based on a 1 MHz MOS Technology 6502 CPU , the Oric-1 came in 16 KB or 48 KB RAM variants for £ 129 and £169 respectively, matching
3042-459: A television speaker. The ZX Spectrum +2 marked Amstrad's entry into the Spectrum market shortly after their acquisition of the Spectrum range and "Sinclair" brand in 1986. This machine featured a brand-new grey case with a spring-loaded keyboard, dual joystick ports, and an integrated cassette recorder known as the "Datacorder," akin to the Amstrad CPC 464 . However, it was largely identical to
3159-639: A time, was governed by the BASIC command 'BEEP', where programmers could manipulate parameters for pitch and duration. Furthermore, the processor remained occupied exclusively with the BASIC BEEPs until their completion, limiting concurrent operations. Despite these constraints, it marked a significant step forward from the ZX81 , which lacked any sound capabilities. Resourceful programmers swiftly devised workarounds; its rudimentary audio functionality compelled developers to explore unconventional methods such as programming
3276-409: Is a Zilog Z80 , an 8-bit microprocessor , with a clock rate of 3.5 MHz . The original model Spectrum has 16 KB of ROM and either 16 kB or 48 kB of RAM. Video output is channelled through an RF modulator , intended for use with contemporary television sets, to provide a simple colour graphic display. Text is displayed using a grid of 32 columns × 24 rows of characters from
3393-523: Is an 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research . Considered one of the most influential computers ever made, it is also one of the best-selling British computers ever, with over five million units sold. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and around the world in the following years, most notably in Europe, the United States, and Eastern Bloc countries. The machine
3510-506: Is required, to indicate that a desired operation has failed, or to relay important warnings (such as warning a computer user that they are almost out of hard disk space). Error messages are seen widely throughout computing, and are part of every operating system or computer hardware device. The proper design of error messages is an important topic in usability and other fields of human–computer interaction . The following error messages are commonly seen by modern computer users: With
3627-535: Is significantly more advanced than the ZX81, with approximately four times faster average speeds. The original ZX Spectrum is remembered for its rubber chiclet keyboard , diminutive size and distinctive rainbow motif. It was originally released on 23 April 1982 with 16 KB of RAM for £125 (equivalent to £557 in 2023) or with 48 KB for £175 (equivalent to £780 in 2023); these prices were reduced to £99 (equivalent to £422 in 2023) and £129 (equivalent to £550 in 2023) respectively in 1983. Owners of
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3744-454: Is therefore very flexible by having 8 foreground and 8 background colours and flashing patterns. The video invert parallel attribute is also usable in this mode. ASCII characters may be painted over the graphics area, thus enabling the free mixing of graphics and text. The Oric has an internal loudspeaker and amplifier and can also be connected to external amplifiers via the 7 Pin DIN 45329 shared with
3861-442: The MIC port is intended for attachment to other audio devices as a line-in source. The ZX Spectrum integrated various design elements from the ZX81. The keyboard decoding and cassette interfaces were nearly identical, although the latter was programmed for higher-speed loading and saving. The central ULA integrated circuit shares some resemblance with that of the ZX81, but it features
3978-569: The AY-3-8912 chip, MIDI compatibility, an RS-232 serial port, an RGB monitor port, 32 KB of ROM including an improved BASIC editor, and an external keypad. The machine was simultaneously unveiled for the first time and launched in September 1985 at the SIMO '85 trade show in Spain, with a price of 44,250 pesetas . Sinclair later presented the ZX Spectrum 128 at The May Fair Hotel 's Crystal Rooms in London, where he acknowledged that entertainment
4095-571: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in May of that year. Particularly serious were allegations that Sinclair was cashing cheques months before machines were shipped. By autumn 1984, Sinclair was still publicly forecasting that it would be a "million seller" and that 250,000 units would be sold by the end of the year. QL production was suspended in February 1985, and the price was halved by
4212-517: The Commodore ;64 , BBC Micro , Dragon 32 , and the Amstrad ;CPC range. Over 24,000 different software products were released for the ZX Spectrum. The Spectrum played a pivotal role in the early history of personal computing and video gaming , leaving an enduring legacy that influenced generations. Its introduction led to a boom in companies producing software and hardware ,
4329-624: The University of Cambridge . By this time inexpensive microprocessors had started appearing on the market, which prompted Sinclair to start producing the MK14 , a computer teaching kit which sold well at a very low price. Encouraged by this success, Sinclair renamed his company to Sinclair Research , and started looking to manufacture personal computers. Keeping the cost low was essential for Sinclair to avoid his products from becoming outpriced by American or Japanese equivalents as had happened to several of
4446-412: The ZX Spectrum character set , or from a custom set. The machine features a colour palette of 15 colours, consisting of seven saturated colours at two levels of brightness, along with black. The image resolution is 256×192 pixels, subject to the same colour limitations. To optimise memory usage, colour is stored separately from the pixel bitmap in a low resolution, 32×24 grid overlay, corresponding to
4563-413: The ZX81 . Rick Dickinson designed its distinctive case, rainbow motif, and rubber keyboard . Video output is transmitted to a television set rather than a dedicated monitor , while application software is loaded and saved onto compact audio cassettes . The ZX Spectrum was initially distributed by mail order, but after severe backlogs it was sold through High Street chains in the United Kingdom. It
4680-469: The 16 KB model could purchase an internal 32 KB RAM upgrade, which for early "Issue 1" machines consisted of a daughterboard . Later issue machines required the fitting of 8 dynamic RAM chips and a few TTL chips. Users could mail their 16K Spectrums to Sinclair to be upgraded to 48 KB versions. Later revisions contained 64 KB of memory but were configured such that only 48 KB were usable. External 32 KB RAM packs that mounted in
4797-524: The CPU in Issue 1 ZX Spectrums. The machine's Sinclair BASIC interpreter is stored in 16 KiB ROM, along with essential system routines. The ROM code, responsible for tasks such as floating point calculations and expression parsing , exhibited significant similarities to ZX81, although a few outdated routines remained in the Spectrum ROM. The Spectrum's keyboard is imprinted with BASIC keywords. To input
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4914-457: The Commodore 64 also employed colour attributes, it utilised a special multicolour mode and hardware sprites to circumvent attribute clash. Sound output is produced through a built-in beeper capable of generating a single channel with ten octaves. It is controlled by a single EAR bit. By toggling it on and off, simple sounds are generated. This speaker, capable of producing just one note at
5031-587: The NEB had worsened, however, and by 1979 it opted to break up Sinclair Radionics entirely, selling off its television division to Binatone and its calculator division to ESL Bristol. After incurring a £7 million investment loss, Sinclair was given a golden handshake and an estimated £10,000 severance package. He had a former employee, Christopher Curry , establish a "corporate lifeboat" company named Science of Cambridge Ltd, in July 1977, called such as they were located near
5148-457: The Oric range. Most contemporary computer printers could produce text output without requiring specific drivers , and often followed de facto standards for simple graphics. More advanced use of the printer would have required a specific driver which, given the proliferation of different home computers and standards of the time, may or may not have been available. Tangerine's MCP-40 is a plotter with mechanics by Alps Electric . The same mechanism
5265-603: The Oric were unlikely to be updated. Although the Oric Atmos had not turned around Oric International's fortunes, in February 1985, they announced several models including the Oric Stratos/IQ164. Despite their backers putting them into receivership the following day, Oric was bought by French company Eureka, which continued to produce the Stratos, followed by the Oric Telestrat in late 1986. The Stratos and Telestrat increased
5382-470: The Oric-1 and Oric Atmos computers. However this adaptor was only furnished with very limited software. The Atmos was licensed in Yugoslavia and sold as Nova 64 . The clones were Atmos-based, the only difference being the logo indicating ORIC NOVA 64 instead of Oric Atmos 48K . This is to indicate the installed 64 KB of RAM – which was also true of the Atmos –, 16 KB of which is masked in both by
5499-407: The Oric-1 were announced and released by the end of 1984. A short time after the release of the Atmos machine, a modification for the Oric-1 was issued and advertised in magazines and bulletin boards. This modification enabled the Oric-1 user to add a second ROM (containing the Oric Atmos system) to a spare ROM-socket on the Oric-1 circuit board. Then, using a switch, the users could then switch between
5616-647: The RAM to 64 KB and added more ports, but kept the same processor and graphics and sound hardware as the Oric-1 and Atmos. The Telestrat is a telecommunications-oriented machine. It comes with a disk drive as standard, and only connects to an RGB monitor / TV. The machine is backward compatible with the Oric-1 and Oric Atmos by using a cartridge. Most of the software is in French, including Hyper-BASIC's error messages . Up to 6000 units were sold in France. In December 1987, after announcing
5733-475: The ROM at startup, leaving 48 KB to work with the BASIC language. In Bulgaria, the Atmos clone was named Pravetz 8D and produced between 1985 and 1991. The Pravetz is entirely hardware and software compatible with the Oric Atmos. The biggest change on the hardware side is the larger white case that hosts a comfortable mechanical keyboard and an integrated power supply. The BASIC ROM has been patched to host both
5850-554: The ROM were also eliminated, rendering some older 48K and 128K games incompatible with the machine. The ZX Interface 1 was also rendered incompatible due to disparities in ROM and expansion connectors, making it impossible to connect and use the Microdrive units. Production of the +3 was discontinued in December 1990, reportedly in response to Amstrad's relaunch of their CPC range, with an estimated 15% of ZX Spectrums sold being +3 models at
5967-514: The Sinclair QL was in development, Sinclair also hoped to repeat his success with the Spectrum in the fledgling electric vehicle market, which he saw as ripe for a new approach. On 10 January 1985, Sinclair unveiled the Sinclair C5 , a small one-person battery electric recumbent tricycle . It marked the culmination of Sir Clive's long-running interest in electric vehicles. The C5 turned out to be
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#17328582636176084-472: The Spanish alphabet and show messages in Spanish. The appearance of the ZX Spectrum 128 is similar to the ZX Spectrum+, with the exception of a large external heatsink for the internal 7805 voltage regulator added to the right hand end of the case, replacing the internal heatsink in previous versions. This external heatsink led to the system's nickname, "The Toast Rack ". New features included 128 KB RAM with RAM disc commands, three-channel audio via
6201-422: The Spectrum's rubber keyboard was simplified from several hundred components to a conventional moving keyboard down to "four to five" moving parts using a new technology. The keyboard was still undergoing changes as late as February 1982; some sketches included a roundel-on-square key design which was later featured on the later Spectrum+ model. Dickinson recalled in 2007 that "everything was cost driven" and that
6318-550: The Spectrum, the Oric-1 suffers from attribute clash –albeit to a much lesser degree in HIRES mode, since 2 different colours can be defined for each 6x1 block of 6 pixels, The system has a built-in television RF modulator as well as RGB output. A standard audio tape recorder can be used for external storage. There is a Centronics compatible printer interface. In late 1983 the funding cost for continued development of Oric caused external funding to be sought, and eventually led to
6435-429: The Telestrat 2, Oric International went into receivership for the second and final time. The keyboard has 57 moving keys with tactile feedback. It is capable of full upper and lower case with a correctly positioned space bar . It has a full typewriter pitch . The key layout is a standard QWERTY with ESC , CTRL , RETURN and additional cursor control keys. All keys have auto repeat. The display adapter will drive
6552-471: The ZX Spectrum +3 power supply utilised a DIN connector and featured "Sinclair +3" branding on the case. Significant alterations caused a series of incompatibilities, such as the removal of several lines on the expansion bus edge connector. This resulted in complications for various peripheries. Additionally, changes in memory timing led to certain RAM banks being contended, causing failures in high-speed colour-changing effects. The keypad scanning routines from
6669-625: The ZX Spectrum 128 in most technical aspects. The machine retailed for £149. The new keyboard did not feature the BASIC keyword markings seen on earlier Spectrums, except for the keywords LOAD , CODE , and RUN , which were useful for loading software. Instead, the +2 introduced a menu system, almost identical to that of the ZX Spectrum 128, allowing users to switch between 48K BASIC programming with keywords and 128K BASIC programming, where all words, both keywords and others, needed to be typed out in full (though keywords were still stored internally as one character each). Despite these changes,
6786-523: The ZX80's software. The software architecture of the ZX80, however, had been tailored for a severely constrained memory system, and in Nine Tiles' opinion was unsuitable for the enhanced processing demands of the ZX Spectrum. Sinclair favoured solving this with expansion modules on the existing framework like with the ZX81, which Nine Tiles disagreed with. Ultimately, both designs were developed, but Vickers and Nine Tiles were unable to finish their version before
6903-500: The ZX81 Colour or the ZX82 to highlight the machine's colour display, which differed from the black and white of its predecessors. The addendum "Spectrum" was added later on, to emphasise its 15-colour palette. Aside from a new crystal oscillator and extra chips to add additional kilobytes of memory, the ZX Spectrum was intended to be, as quoted by Sinclair's marketing manager, essentially
7020-399: The beeper to emit multiple pitches. Later software became available that allowed for two-channel sound playback. The machine includes an expansion bus edge connector and 3.5 mm audio in/out ports, facilitating the connection of a cassette recorder for loading and saving programs and data. The EAR port has a higher output than the MIC and is recommended for headphones, while
7137-437: The bottom of the screen to display system information and to act as a window on the user program while still viewing the graphics display. It can also be used to input direct commands for graphics and see the effect instantly without having to switch modes. The graphics display operates with serial attributes in the same way as characters, except that the display is now considered as 200 lines by 40 graphics cells. Each graphic cell
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#17328582636177254-414: The case was to be more angular and wedge-like, in similar vein to an upgraded ZX81 model. Dickinson later settled on a flatter design with a raised rear section and rounded sides in order to depict the machine as "more advanced" as opposed to a mere upgrade. In drawing up potential logos, Dickinson proposed a series of different logotypes which all featured rainbow slashes across the keyboard. The design of
7371-579: The cassette interface. A General Instruments AY-3-8912 provides 3 channel sound. For BASIC programs, four keywords generate pre-made sounds: PING , SHOOT , EXPLODE , and ZAP . The commands SOUND , MUSIC , and PLAY produce a broader range of sounds. The cassette recorder connects via a 7 Pin DIN 45329 socket shared with the external sound output. The interface includes support for tape motor control. Recording speeds offered as standard are 300 baud or 2400 baud. A tone leader allows tape recorders' automatic level control to stabilise before
7488-422: The character cells. In practical terms, this means that all pixels within an 8x8 character block share one foreground colour and one background colour. Altwasser received a patent for this design. An "attribute" consists of a foreground and a background colour, a brightness level (normal or bright) and a flashing "flag" which, when set, causes the two colours to swap at regular intervals. This scheme leads to what
7605-476: The commands exist for slow speed, verification, autorunning of programs or specification of start and ending addresses for dumping memory. The expansion port allows full access to the CPU's data address and control lines. This allows connection of add-ons specifically designed for the Oric, including user designed hardware. The range of lines exposed allows external ROM and RAM expansion, thus allowing for ROM cartridges or for expansion devices to internally include
7722-538: The company sold their entire computer product range, along with the "Sinclair" brand name, to Alan Sugar 's Amstrad for £5 million. The takeover sent ripples through the London Stock Exchange , but Amstrad's shares soon recovered, with one stock broker affirming that " the City appears to have taken the news in its stride". Amstrad's acquisition of the brand name saw the release of three ZX Spectrum models throughout
7839-408: The company's Dryburgh factory. Prior to the manufacture of the ZX81, however, Timex had little experience in assembling electronics and had not originally been an obvious choice of manufacturing subcontractor. It was a well-established manufacturer of mechanical watches but was facing a crisis at the beginning of the 1980s; profits had dwindled to virtually zero as the market for watches stagnated in
7956-411: The company. Clive Sinclair became a focal point during the ZX Spectrum's marketing campaign by putting a human face onto the business. Sinclair Research was portrayed in the media as a "plucky" British challenger taking on the technical and marketing might of giant American and Japanese corporations. As David O'Reilly noted in 1986, "by astute use of public relations, particularly playing up his image of
8073-468: The competition. While most companies at the time reduced prices of their products while their market share was dwindling, Sinclair Research discounted theirs shortly after sales had peaked, throwing the competition into "utter disarray". Sinclair Research made a profit of £14 million in 1983, compared to £8.5 million the previous year. Turnover doubled from £27.2 million to £54.5 million, which equated to roughly £1 million for each person employed directly by
8190-450: The data transfer speed, the team significantly decreased the length of tones that represent binary data. To increase the reliability, a leading period of constant tone was introduced, which allowed the cassette recorder's automatic gain control to settle itself down, eliminating hisses on the tape. A Schmitt trigger was added inside the ULA to reduce noise of the received signal. Originally,
8307-469: The design of error messages are technical limitations, the amount of information to be presented, and what kind of user input is required. Some systems have technical limitations that may constrain the amount of information an error message can contain. For example, a printer with a sixteen-character alphanumeric display can only show a very limited amount of information at once, so it may need to display very terse error messages. Even with computer monitors,
8424-482: The effects of which are still seen. It was among the first home computers aimed at a mainstream audience, with some crediting it as responsible for launching the British information technology industry. The Spectrum is one of the best-selling British computers of all time, retaining the title of Britain's top-selling computer until the Amstrad PCW surpassed it in the 1990s. It was discontinued in 1992. The ZX Spectrum
8541-428: The end of that month. Supply did not return to normal until the 1982 Christmas season, however. Production of the machine rapidly increased with the arrival of the more inexpensive Issue 2 motherboard , a redesign of the main circuit board which addressed hardware manufacturing defects that affected production of the first model. Sales of the ZX Spectrum reached 200,000 in its first nine months, rising to 300,000 for
8658-608: The end of the year. It ultimately flopped, with 139,454 units being manufactured. The ZX Spectrum+, a rebranded ZX Spectrum with identical technical specifications except for the QL-like keyboard, was introduced in October 1984 and made available in WHSmith's stores the day after its launch. Retailers stocked the device in high quantities, anticipating robust Christmas sales. Nevertheless, the product did not perform as well as projected, leading to
8775-439: The essential hardware functions. Altwasser designed a graphics mode that required less than 7 kilobytes of memory and implemented it on the ULA. Vickers wrote most of the ROM code. Lengthy discussions between Altwasser and Sinclair engineers resulted in a broad agreement that the ZX Spectrum must have high-resolution graphics, 16 kilobytes of memory, an improved cassette interface , and an impressive colour palette. To achieve this,
8892-527: The face of competition from the digital and quartz watches . Recognising the trend, Timex's director, Fred Olsen , determined that the company would diversify into other areas and signed a contract with Sinclair. The ZX Spectrum was officially revealed before journalists by Sinclair at the Churchill Hotel in Marylebone , London, on 23 April 1982. Later that week, the machine was officially presented in
9009-402: The filename, followed by the actual data with parity ; finally, checksums are recorded to allow overall verification of the recording. The circuit was designed using a Schmitt trigger to remove noise and make input more reliable. The system allows for verification of stored information against the tape copy, to ensure integrity before the information is flushed from memory. There was however
9126-404: The form of dedicated lights indicating an error condition, a brief code that needs to be interpreted using a look-up sheet or a manual, or via a more detailed message on a display. On computers, error messages may take the form of text printed to a console, or they may be presented as part of a graphical user interface . Error messages are often presented as a dialog box , which makes them cause
9243-428: The keyboard surprised many users due to its use of rubber keys, described as offering the feel of "dead flesh". Sinclair himself remarked that the keyboard's rubber mould was "unusual", but consumers were undeterred. Despite very high demand, Sinclair Research was "notoriously late" in delivering the ZX Spectrum. Their practice of offering mail-order sales before units were ready ensured a constant cash flow, but meant
9360-433: The late 1980s, each with varying improvements. By 1990, Sinclair Research consisted of Sinclair and two other employees down from 130 employees at its peak in 1985. The ZX Spectrum was officially discontinued in 1992, after ten years on the market. Sinclair Research thereafter continued to exist as a one-man company, marketing Sir Clive Sinclair's inventions until his death in September 2021. The central processing unit
9477-443: The launch of the Spectrum and it was not used. The distinctive case and colourful design of the ZX Spectrum was the creation of Rick Dickinson , a young British industrial designer who had been hired by Sinclair to design the ZX81. Dickinson was tasked to design a sleeker and more "marketable" appearance to the new machine, whilst ensuring all 192 BASIC functions could fit onto 40 physical keys. Early sketches from August 1981 showed
9594-458: The layout remained identical to that of the 128. The ZX Spectrum +3 , which was launched in 1987, bore a resemblance to its predecessor but introduced a built-in 3-inch floppy disk drive instead of the cassette drive. Initially priced at £249, it later retailed for £199. It was the only Spectrum model capable of running the CP/M operating system without additional hardware. Unlike its predecessors,
9711-500: The machine into 48K mode, keeping the current BASIC program intact (although there is no command to switch back to 128K mode). To enable BASIC programmers to access the additional memory, a RAM disk was created where files could be stored in the additional 80 KB of RAM. The new commands took the place of two existing user-defined-character spaces causing compatibility problems with certain BASIC programs. Unlike its predecessors, it has no internal speaker, and can only produce sound from
9828-465: The machine was criticised, with disillusioned customers telephoning and writing letters. Demand sky-rocketed beyond Sinclair's planned 20,000 monthly unit output to a backlog of 30,000 orders by July 1982. Due to a scheduled holiday at the Timex factory that summer, the backlog had risen to 40,000 units. Sinclair issued a public apology in September that year, and promised that the backlog would be cleared by
9945-467: The minimalist, Bauhaus approach to the Spectrum gave it an elegant yet "[non] revolutionary" form. The drawing board on which Dickinson designed the ZX Spectrum is now on display in the Science Museum in London. The need for an improved cassette interface was apparent from the number of complaints received from ZX81 users, who encountered problems when trying to save and load programs. To increase
10062-400: The models available for the popular ZX Spectrum and undercutting the price of the 48 KB version of the Spectrum by a few pounds. The circuit design requires 8 memory chips, one chip per data line of the CPU. Due to the sizing of readily available memory chips the 48 KB model has 8 * 8 KB (64 KBit) chips, making a total of 64 KB. As released only 48 KB is available to
10179-472: The new Oric Atmos ROM and the original Oric-1 ROM. This was desirable since the updated ROM of the Atmos contained breaking changes for some games which relied on certain behaviours or memory addresses within the ROM. This led to tape based software often containing a 1.1 ROM/Atmos version of the software on one side of the cassette, with a 1.0 ROM/Oric-1 version on the other. Earlier titles from publishers that no longer existed or had stopped producing software for
10296-414: The new memory would be available as eight pages of 16 KB at the top of the address space. The same technique was used to page between the new 16 KB editor ROM and the original 16 KB BASIC ROM at the bottom of the address space. The new sound chip and MIDI out abilities were exposed to the BASIC programming language with the command PLAY and a new command SPECTRUM was added to switch
10413-448: The organisation. Given the loss of confidence in the company, securing the funds proved to be a challenging task. In June 1985, business magnate Robert Maxwell disclosed a takeover bid for Sinclair Research through Hollis Brothers, a subsidiary of his Pergamon Press . However, the deal was terminated in August 1985. The future of Sinclair Research remained uncertain until 7 April 1986, when
10530-459: The previous Sinclair Radionics products. On 29 January 1980, the ZX80 home computer was launched to immediate popularity; notable for being one of the first computers available in the United Kingdom for less than £100. The company conducted no market research whatsoever prior to the launch of the ZX80; according to Sinclair, he "simply had a hunch" that the public was sufficiently interested to make such
10647-507: The programmer must consider the smallest monitor that a user might reasonably use, and ensure that any error messages will fit on that screen. The nature of the error determines the amount of information required to effectively convey the error message. A complex issue may require a more detailed error message in order to adequately inform the user of the problem. When designing error messages, software designers should take care to avoid creating security vulnerabilities. The designer should give
10764-475: The rear expansion slot were available from third parties. Both machines had 16 KB of onboard ROM. An "Issue 1" ZX Spectrum can be distinguished from Issue 2 or 3 models by the colour of the keys – light grey for Issue 1, blue-grey for later machines. Although the official service manual states that approximately 26,000 of these original boards were manufactured, subsequent serial number analysis shows that only 16,000 were produced, almost all of which fell in
10881-426: The required operating software on ROM. The printer port is compatible with the then standard Centronics parallel interface allows for connection of many different types of printers from low quality (e.g. low-resolution thermal printers ) to high quality printers, such as fixed font daisy wheel printers or laser printers , though the latter were uncommon and expensive during the period of commercial availability of
10998-440: The rise of Web 2.0 services such as Twitter , end-user facing error messages such as HTTP 404 and HTTP 500 started to be displayed with whimsical characters, termed Fail Pets or Error Mascots. The term "Fail Pet" was coined, or at least first used in print, by Mozilla Engineer Fred Wenzel in a post on his blog entitled "Why Misplaced Pages might need a fail-pet — and why Mozilla does not." Dr. Sean Rintel argues that error messages are
11115-459: The role of microcomputer manufacturer and "accepted the mantle of pioneering boffin leading Britain into a technological utopia". Sinclair's contribution to the technology sector resulted in him being knighted upon the recommendation of Margaret Thatcher in the Queen's 1983 Birthday Honours List . The United Kingdom was largely immunised from the effects of the video game crash of 1983 , due to
11232-514: The saturation of home computers such as the ZX Spectrum. The microcomputer market continued to grow and game development was unhindered despite the turbulence in the American markets. Indeed, computer games remained the dominant sector of the British home video game market up until they were surpassed by Sega and Nintendo consoles in 1991. By the end of 1983 there were more than 450 companies in Britain selling video games on cassette, compared to 95
11349-508: The serial attribute until either the line ends or another serial attribute. Display features are: Available colours are black, blue, red, magenta, green, cyan, yellow, and white. Each character position also has a parallel attribute, which may be operated on a character by character basis, to produce video inversion . The display has a fixed black border. The graphics mode consists of 200 pixels vertically by 240 pixels horizontally plus 3 lines of 40 characters (the same as character mode) at
11466-540: The serial number range 001-000001 to 001-016000. An online tool now exists to allow users to ascertain the likely issue number of their ZX Spectrum by inputting the serial number. These models experienced numerous changes to its motherboard design throughout its life; mainly to improve manufacturing efficiencies, but also to correct bugs from previous boards. Another issue was with the Spectrum's power supply. In March 1983, Sinclair issued an urgent recall warning for all owners of models bought after 1 January 1983. Plugs with
11583-455: The system took up slightly less than 7 kilobytes of memory, leaving an additional 9 kilobytes to write programs — a figure that pleased the team. Much of the firmware was written by computer scientist Steve Vickers from Nine Tiles, who compiled all control routines to produce the Sinclair BASIC interpreter, a custom variant of the general purpose BASIC programming language. Making
11700-488: The team aimed for data transfer speed of 1000 baud , but succeeded in getting it to work at a considerably faster 1500 baud. Unlike the ZX81, the Spectrum was able to maintain its display during loading and saving operations, and programmers took advantage of this to show a splash screen whilst loading took place in the background. As with the ZX81, the ZX Spectrum was manufactured in Dundee , Scotland, by Timex Corporation at
11817-409: The team had to divorce the central processing unit (CPU) away from the main display to enable it to work at full efficiency – a method which contrasted with the ZX81's integrated CPU. The inclusion of colour to the display proved a major obstacle to the engineers. A Teletext -like approach was briefly considered, in which each line of text would have colour-change codes inserted into it. However, this
11934-566: The time. The +2B model, the only other model still in production at this point, continued to be manufactured, as it was believed not to be in direct competition with other computers in Amstrad's product range. Error message An error message is the information displayed when an unforeseen problem occurs, usually on a computer or other device. Modern operating systems with graphical user interfaces , often display error messages using dialog boxes. Error messages are used when user intervention
12051-455: The user enough information to make an intelligent decision, but not so much information that the user is overwhelmed or confused. Extraneous information may be hidden by default or placed in a separate location. Error message should not expose information that can be exploited by a cracker to obtain information that is otherwise difficult to obtain. Examples are systems which may show either "invalid user" or "invalid password" depending on which
12168-546: The user, with the top 16 KB of memory overlaid by the BASIC ROM ; The optional disc drive unit contains some additional hardware that allows it to enable or disable the ROM, effectively adding 16 KB of RAM to the machine. This additional memory is used by the system to store the Oric DOS software. Both Oric-1 versions have a 16 KB ROM containing the operating system and a modified BASIC interpreter . The Oric-1 has
12285-419: The whole of the first year. By August 1983 total sales in Britain and Europe had exceeded 500,000, with the millionth Spectrum manufactured on 9 December 1983. By this point, an average of 50,000 units were being purchased each month. In July 1983, the ZX Spectrum was launched in the United States as the more enhanced Timex Sinclair 2068 . Advertisements described it as offering 72 kilobytes of memory, having
12402-555: The world's first pocket calculator , the Sinclair Executive . By the mid 1970s, Sinclair Radionics was producing handheld electronic calculators, miniature televisions, and the ill-fated digital Black Watch wristwatch. Due to financial losses, Sinclair sought investors from the National Enterprise Board (NEB), who had bought a 43% interest in the company and streamlined his product line. Sinclair's relationship with
12519-402: The year before. An estimated 10,000 to 50,000 people, mostly young men, were developing games out of their homes based on advertisements in popular magazines. The growth of video games during this period has been compared to the punk subculture , fuelled by young people making money from their games. By the mid 1980s, Sinclair Research's share of the British home computer market had climbed to
12636-766: Was also used as the basis for similar low-cost plotters produced by various home computer manufacturers around that time. These included the Atari 1020 , the Commodore 1520 , the Tandy/Radio Shack CGP-115, the Texas Instruments HX-1000, the Mattel Aquarius 4615, and probably also the Sharp MZ-1P16 (for MZ-800 series). The Prestel adaptor produced by Eureka (Informatika) was the first adaptor produced for
12753-411: Was conceived and designed by engineers at Sinclair Research, founded by English entrepreneur and inventor Clive Sinclair , who was well known for his eccentricity and pioneering ethic. On 25 July 1961, three years after passing his A-levels , he founded Sinclair Radionics Ltd as a vehicle to advertise his inventions and buy components. In 1972, Sinclair had competed with Texas Instruments to produce
12870-473: Was designed by English entrepreneur and inventor Sir Clive Sinclair and his small team in Cambridge , and was manufactured in Dundee , Scotland by Timex Corporation . It was made to be small, simple, and most importantly inexpensive, with as few components as possible. The addendum "Spectrum" was chosen to highlight the machine's colour display, which differed from the black-and-white display of its predecessor,
12987-443: Was dubbed "colour clash" or attribute clash , where a desired colour of a specific pixel could not be selected, but only the colour attributes of an 8x8 block. This became a distinctive feature of the Spectrum, requiring programs, especially games, to be designed with this limitation in mind. In contrast, other machines available at the same time, such as the Amstrad CPC or the Commodore 64 , did not suffer from this limitation. While
13104-428: Was expanded compared to that of the ZX81, which lacked lowercase letters. Spectrum BASIC incorporated extra keywords for better graphics and sound functionality, and support for multi-statement lines was added. The built-in ROM tape modulation software routines for cassette data storage enable data transfers at an average speed of 171 bits per second (bit/s), with a theoretical peak speed of 256 bit/s. The tape modulation
13221-588: Was issued as a prize. The ZX Spectrum's successor, the Sinclair QL , was officially announced on 12 January 1984, shortly before the Apple Macintosh went on sale. Contrasting with its predecessors, the QL was aimed at more serious, professional home users. It suffered from several design flaws; fully operational QLs were not available until the late summer, and complaints against Sinclair concerning delays were upheld by
13338-449: Was reduced in price to £129. In 1985, Sinclair developed the ZX Spectrum 128 (codenamed Derby ) in conjunction with their Spanish distributor Investrónica (a subsidiary of El Corte Inglés department store group). Investrónica had helped adapt the ZX Spectrum+ to the Spanish market after their government introduced a special tax on all computers with 64 KB RAM or less, and a law which obliged all computers sold in Spain to support
13455-609: Was released in the US as the Timex Sinclair 2068 in 1983, and in some parts of Europe as the Timex Computer 2048 . Ultimately the Spectrum was released as seven different models, ranging from the entry level with 16 KB RAM released in 1982 to the ZX ;Spectrum +3 with 128 KB RAM and built-in floppy disk drive in 1987. Throughout its life, the machine primarily competed with
13572-470: Was ruled out, as it was deemed unsuitable for high-resolution graphs or diagrams that involved multiple colour changes. Altwasser devised the idea of allocating a colour attribute to each character position on the screen. This ultimately used eight bits of memory for each character position; three bits to provide any one of eight foreground colours and three bits for the eight background colours , one bit for extra brightness and one bit for flashing. Overall,
13689-421: Was the most common use of home computers. Due to the large number of unsold Spectrum+ models, Sinclair decided not to start it selling in the United Kingdom until January 1986 at a price of £179. The Zilog Z80 processor used in the Spectrum has a 16-bit address bus, which means only 64 KB of memory can be directly addressed. To facilitate the extra 80 KB of RAM the designers used bank switching so
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