The Sinclair ZX80 was a home computer released in 1980 by the Cambridge-based company, Sinclair Research. It was the first computer available in the UK for less than £100, and an even cheaper version was sold in kit form, which purchasers could assemble and solder together.
The unit used a Z80 processor running at 3.25 MHz, and featured 1 KB of static RAM and 4 KB ROM. There was also a number of RAM expansion packs available for the ZX80 built around dynamic RAM chips (DRAM). The packs held 1, 2, 3 or 16 KB.
The computer was connected via a RF connection to a household television and gave a monochrome display. The video display generator of the ZX80 used very minimalist hardware to generate a video signal, and could only generate a picture when it was idle. This meant that when pressing a key for any input, the display would black out momentarily to support the function.
The ZX80 was mounted in a small white plastic case, with a one-piece blue membrane keyboard mounted on the front. Although relatively simple, the ZX80 kick-started the 1980s home computer craze in the UK, selling around 50,000 units.
Specification
Processor
- NEC 780C-1 (copy of Z80) 3.25 MHz
RAM
- 1 KB static RAM, expandable to 16 KB
ROM
- 4 KB, containing BASIC, Editor and Operating System
Video
- Pixel graphics, 24 lines x 32 chars
Favourites (IE)
Print This
Email This
