Sir Clive Sinclair (b. 1940), British entrepreneur and inventor.
Clive Marles Sinclair was born on 30 July 1940 near Richmond upon Thames. Fascinated with electronics from his teenage years, he started his own company, Sinclair Radionics, Ltd. in 1961 after spending several years as assistant editor for Practical Wireless and Instrument Practice. Sinclair Radionics moved to Cambridge in 1967. Their most successful products were Sinclair Microvision, a miniature TV set launched in 1966, and a series of electronic calculators launched during the 1970's. The far-East competition in this market segment was too strong, though, and Sinclair Radionics was dissolved in 1979. By then, Sinclair already founded a new company, Sinclair Research. With it, he came to public attention in the early 1980s, first with the ZX80, world's smallest and cheapest computer at the time it was launched (January 1980). Successful design, based on Zilog Z80 microprocessor, was followed in March 1981 by ZX81, and in April 1982 with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, a cheap home computer which seemed for a time ubiquitous. Less than two years later, Sinclair unveiled a new computer, Sinclair QL, based on 32-bit Motorola 68000 microprocessor. Sinclair QL was aiming at business market, where it was received coldly. A year later, Sinclair surprised the world with Sinclair C5, a three-wheel electric vehicle selling for 399 GBP. A financial failure, it forced Sinclair Research to sell its microcomputer division to Amstrad. In 1988, Sinclair launched a portable Cambridge Z88, an A4-sized microcompuer based on the Acorn Risc Machine, featuring a full-sized rubber-key keyboard and a large adjustable LCD display. It was marketed by Sinclair's new company, Cambridge Computers.
See also
- Rodney Dale, The Life of Clive: http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/sinclair/life_of_clive.htm