In 1981, I purchased a little computer. These days, that's not such a big deal. In 1981, however, I already possessed one computer. No, it was not an IBM PC, also released in 1981. My first machine was an 8080-based beast, with a whopping 8K of memory, and no hard drive. I built it from plans that appeared in Kilobaud magazine, a few years earlier. The gist of the article was, "you can build your own computer".
The machine was based on a 100 pin bus system (the S100 bus). I used S100 prototyping boards and wire wrap to build the CPU and front panel board. Front panel? What's that!? Oh, you spoiled people. A few years earlier, a company called MITS came out with a pair of computer kits, notably the Altair 8800. They had a front panel that was covered with switches and lights. The reason was simple. You had to key in the program, byte by byte, before you could start up the computer, and run it. One great innovation was the use of a boot EPROM, which contained the programs to allow a computer to start up. This was the great-grandfather of modern BIOS chips in today's computers.
My machine also had a graphics board sporting 6K of memory.
But when the Sinclair ZX-81 came along, I saw how I could put a real CPU in my system. I tied the bus system of the ZX-81 into my S-100 system, and began programming graphics, using my graphics board. The ZX-81 had 2K of memory. You could get a whopping 16K expansion for it, too. So, I tied my 16K ZX-81 into my S-100 bus, and began programming graphics. It was a hoot! Later, I replaced the ZX-81 with the mainboard from a Times Sinclair 2048. This was even better!
Several years later, I bought another Sinclair computer. It was a Sinclair QL, or Quantum Leap. And it was! It was based on a 68008 8/32 bit processor, it came with 64K of memory, a serial network interface, and two tape drives, for about 200K of storage each. It sported an actual multitasking operating system, decent graphics, and easy expand-ability. If only Clive had put floppy drives into the QL, instead. He was trying to keep the price down, but I fear the tape drives are what held the QL back. I built a floppy interface for mine (you could buy them, but what fun is that?), and an expansion board with 256K of memory, and a speech chip. My QL could talk!
Sir Clive, you brought a lot of fun to a lot of us hobbyists. You made computing affordable for those of us who didn't have too much money. You were a true innovator, and a pioneer in the computing world.
Rest in peace, Sir Clive.
