Home computing pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair dies aged 81

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Home computing pioneer Sir Clive Sinclair dies aged 81

 

Creator of the landmark ZX Spectrum and the less commercially successful C5 died after a long illness

 

 

Sir Clive Sinclair, the inventor and entrepreneur who was instrumental in bringing home computers to the masses, has died at the age of 81.

 

His daughter, Belinda, said he died at home in London on Thursday morning after a long illness. Sinclair invented the pocket calculator but was best known for popularising the home computer, bringing it to British high-street stores at relatively affordable prices.

 

Many modern-day titans of the games industry got their start on one of his ZX models. For a certain generation of gamer, the computer of choice was either the ZX Spectrum 48K or its rival, the Commodore 64.

 

Belinda Sinclair, 57, told the Guardian: “He was a rather amazing person. Of course, he was so clever and he was always interested in everything. My daughter and her husband are engineers so he’d be chatting engineering with them.”

 

He left school at 17 and worked for four years as a technical journalist to raise funds to found Sinclair Radionics.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/16/home-computing-pioneer-sir-clive-sinclair-dies-aged-81

 

Not sure how well he was known in the US, but Sir Clive was essentially the British version of Steve Jobs AND Bill Gates rolled into one.  A genius, a visionary, and the pioneer of home computing for the masses.  He bought the first sub £100 computer to the market at the very dawn of microcomputing technology and the world would not be where it is now without him.

 

Rest in peace, Sir Clive. 😢