The Sinclair ZX Spectrum
The Sinclair ZX Spectrum, released on April 23, 1982, was one of the most successful home computers of all time. By 1985, it had led to the UK having the highest percentage of computer-owning households in the world. It was my second computer after the ZX81, and, as with a whole generation of kids, it got me started on a career in computing.
40th Birthday Celebrations, April 2022
We celebrated its 40th birthday at the online Aachen Maker Meetup on April 20, 2022. There, I gave a talk, The History of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum in 10 Minutes. The slides and chat log are online.
The National Museum of Computing in the UK had an event on April 23, 2022. Here are my notes from the interviews the museum conducted with Sir Clive Sinclair's son, Crispin Sinclair, and with Steven Vickers and Richard Altwasser, who were key in designing the ZX Spectrum at Sinclair Research. The museum has also uploaded video recordings of both interviews to YouTube: Crispin Sinclair / Steven Vickers & Richard Altwasser.
Latency Studies
I studied the input latency on computing systems a bit, and found some surprising results comparing the ZX Spectrum with modern emulation, and the FPGA-based ZX Spectrum Next. More on my latency page.