The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-cost introduction to home computing for the general public. It was hugely successful; more than 1.5 million units were sold. In the United States it was initially sold as the ZX-81 under licence by Timex. Timex later produced its own versions of the ZX81: the Timex Sinclair 1000 and Timex Sinclair 1500. Unauthorized ZX81 clones were produced in several countries.
The ZX81 was designed to be small, simple, and above all, inexpensive, with as few components as possible. Video output is to a television set rather than a dedicated monitor. Programs and data are loaded and saved onto compact audio cassettes. It uses only four silicon chips and 1 KB of memory. It has no power switch or moving parts, with the exception of a VHF TV channel selector switch present in some models. It has a pressure-sensitive membrane keyboard. The ZX81's limitations prompted a market in third-party peripherals to improve its capabilities. Its distinctive case and keyboard brought designer Rick Dickinson a Design Council award.
The ZX81 could be bought by mail order preassembled or, for a lower price, in kit form. It was the first inexpensive mass-market home computer to be sold by high street stores, led by W. H. Smith and soon many other retailers. The ZX81 marked the point when computing in Britain became an activity for the general public rather than the preserve of businessmen and electronics hobbyists. It produced a huge community of enthusiasts, some of whom founded their own businesses producing software and hardware for the ZX81. Many went on to have roles in the British computer industry. The ZX81's commercial success made Sinclair Research one of Britain's leading computer manufacturers and earned a fortune and an eventual knighthood for the company's founder, Sir Clive Sinclair.
^Crisp (6 March 1981)
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^"Sinclair ZX81". Sinclair Research. Archived from the original on 14 December 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
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^"Machine Specifications". ZX Computing (3). October 1982 – via Internet Archive.
The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United...
which differed from the black-and-white display of its predecessor, the ZX81. Its distinctive case, rainbow motif and rubber keyboard were designed by...
The following is a list of clones of Sinclair Research's ZX80 and ZX81 home computers: MicroAce (1980, US) Microdigital TK80 (1981, Brazil) Nova Electrônica/Prológica...
(DRAM). Following the ZX81's release, a ZX81 8 KB ROM was available to upgrade the ZX80 at a cost of around 20% of a real ZX81. It came with a thin keyboard...
19 September 2019. "ZX81: Small black box of computing desire". BBC News. 11 March 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2021. "Sinclair ZX81 | Platform | VideoGameGeek"...
video monitor. The T/S 1000 was a slightly modified version of the Sinclair ZX81 with an NTSC RF modulator, for use with North American TVs, instead of PAL...
The ZX81 character set is the character encoding used by the Sinclair Research ZX81 family of microcomputers including the Timex Sinclair 1000 and Timex...
Greye and programmed by Malcolm Evans and released in 1981 for the Sinclair ZX81 platform with the 16 KB memory expansion. The game was initially released...
cartridge slot easily accessible at the rear of the machine (e.g. the Sinclair ZX81 or the VTech Laser 200[circular reference]), or via a user-accessible hatch...
the permission of Hipster Whale, Bob Smith re-wrote Crossy Road for the ZX81, an 8-bit computer from the 1980s. In Smith's words, one of the motivations...
mass-market home computer for less than £100) and in the early 1980s, the ZX81, ZX Spectrum and the Sinclair QL. Sinclair Research is widely recognised...
cheapest personal computer for sale in the United Kingdom. A year later, the ZX81 became available on the high street, introducing home computing to a generation...
z/OS (OS/390) and IBM i (OS/400) EBCDIC NL 15 21 \025 ZX80 and ZX81 (home computers from Sinclair Research Ltd) ZX80/ZX81 proprietary encoding 76 118...
system which dated from 1976 encoded the £ as x23. The Sinclair ZX80 and ZX81 characters sets used x0C (ASCII: form feed). The ZX Spectrum and the BBC...
Compared to the cheap Sinclair ZX81, the ABC 80 was actually 15 times as fast on the simple loop of BM1 (with the ZX81 running in fast mode, i.e. without...
Instruments TI-99/4A, TRS-80, Minitel, Teletext, ATASCII, PETSCII, ZX80, and ZX81 character sets, as well as semigraphics characters. A supplement block was...
it is related though not identical to the character set of the successor ZX81. The character set has 64 unique glyphs present at code points 0–63. With...
inserted is too long, it is truncated. The concept is mentioned in the Sinclair ZX81 and ZX Spectrum user manuals, where a portion of a string is replaced by...
had developed for the Sinclair ZX81. They converted the game to the ZX Spectrum, but due to the low sales of the ZX81 version they licensed the game to...
former video game programmer who wrote over 20 commercial games for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum home computers between 1982 and 1989. Despite successful...
Years...100 Thrills – Nominated The 1982 video game Maze Death Race for ZX81 computers (and 1983 for ZX Spectrum) resembles the film by its cover artwork...
Walkman ZX Series, a series of digital audio players made by Sony ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum, home computers produced by Sinclair ZX Auto, also known...
Black Crystal is an action-adventure game released in 1982 for the ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and TI-99/4A computers by Carnell Software Ltd. It was...
with CPU comprising gate arrays,; they were used in a consumer product, the ZX81; and new entrants to the market increased visibility and credibility. In...
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