1980
Sinclair
Producing everything from electric cars to home computers, Clive Sinclair was the 1980s embodiment of English eccentric genius. While Americas kids wiled away t
1980
Sinclair
Producing everything from electric cars to home computers, Clive Sinclair was the 1980s embodiment of English eccentric genius. While Americas kids wiled away their time on Atari and Commodore boxes, a whole generation of future programmers proudly turned to Englands alternative - the Sinclair.
It all kicked off with the ZX80, designed for hobbyists in kit form, or ready-built for just 99 - a groundbreaking price point for the time. This bought you a paltry 1KB of RAM, a 3.25MHz NEC processor and a 24 x 32 line mono character display - thats right, no graphics. This was followed up a year later with the similar ZX81, which was expandable up to 64KB of RAM, but the best was yet to come.
The year 1982 the arrival of the UKs most influential computer, the ZX Spectrum. It had 48KB of RAM, a sleek black shell with grey rubber keys and up to eight glorious colours at a resolution of 256 x 192. A whole generation of home gamers and programmers was born.
1983
LCD and laptops
The development of the LCD can be tracked back to 1888, when Austrian botanist Friedrich Reinitzer discovered the liquid crystal, but it wasnt until 1968 that scientists at the RCA group developed the first display using the technology. A huge investment over the next 30 years aided advances in brightness, contrast, colour, viewing angle, response time and cost. However, after years of use in watches and calculators, one implementation in particular captured the minds of computing enthusiasts.
In 1983 Tandy launched the TRS-80 (nicknamed the Trash-80) Model 100, a portable computer which featured an eight-row by 40-column reflective LCD screen and is regarded by many as the first mainstream notebook.
1985
NEC JC-1401P3A monitor
The cathode ray tube (CRT) was invented way back in 1897 and provided the obvious - and probably the only - display technology to accommodate the computer revolution. Early tubes were monochrome and low resolution, with slow but sure improvements in colour, brightness and focus allowing the CRT to become the visual tool it is today.
However, it was a breakthrough in the mechanics of the monitor that can be viewed as the landmark that enabled computer displays to contribute to modern-day computing.
In 1985, NEC released the JC-1401P3A, a 14in monitor that was aesthetically unremarkable but remembered as the first computer display to support multiple frequencies from the computer. Until then monitors only accepted one frequency, therefore operating at a single resolution and refresh rate. It also meant that displays had to be matched with a graphics card that provided the correct frequency.
Most monitor makers followed NECs lead, producing displays that support the selection of resolutions and refresh rates offered by modern graphics cards.
1986
Amstrad PC1512
Amstrad PC1512
Amstrad may only be remembered for misfired innovations like the Em@iler and home computers like the CPC464, but if it wasnt for Amstrad we might not have the widespread PC industry weve got now. The PC roost was previously ruled by IBMs XT, and definitions of IBM or PC compatible fluctuated to say the least. You bought an IBM for business, and a home computer like the Spectrum for leisure.
But by 1986, Amstrad saw the gap for an affordable PC that was IBM compatible and could be used at home - the PC1512 was born. It may be basic by todays specifications, but it was way ahead of IBM machines at the time. The PC1512 had an 8MHz 8086 processor, compared to IBMs 4.77MHz 8088, and with most of the ports integrated as standard, you were left with three 8-bit ISA slots for upgrading. There was 512KB of RAM, which you could upgrade to 640KB using chips on the motherboard, and you got a joystick port and even a games bundle on some machines. Up to four colours at 320 x 200 could be displayed with the CGA (Color Graphics Adapter) graphics adaptor, which usually consisted of cyan, magenta, black and white. This made games look primitive next to the Amiga, but it was a start.
1987
VGA
It may not seem like much now, but the ability to display 256 colours at up to 640 x 480 was big news back in the late 1980s. VGA (Video Graphics Array) meant you could realistically look at photos onscreen, have the latest games with the right colours and it also made Windows look pretty.
The PC had been lagging behind on the graphics front for quite a while, mainly because it was seen as a business machine. Many early PCs were monochrome and text only, and CGA was a disappointment.
By 1985, EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter) had addressed the colour and resolution issues and, with up to 16 colours at 640 x 350 and 64 colours at 320 x 200, it was a big step forward, but you only had to take one look at the Amiga, with its maximum of 4,096 colours, to see that the PC still had a long way to go.
It wasnt until 1987 that IBM introduced us to VGA with its PS/2 range of PCs. Amstrad was soon to follow with the 2086. The PC suddenly looked serious to business and home users alike.
Anyone who had a CGA PC at home in the Amiga and Atari ST heyday will remember the frustration of all their games coming out in purple and black, while their friends computers had luxuries like blue sky and green grass. VGA was the final bridge needed to make PC graphics respectable, and is still a standard today. All new versions of Windows will still run at 640 x 480, and you could even run it on a ten-year-old VGA monitor if you wanted.
1987
PC audio
PC users had to endure the frustrating noise of the PC speaker bleep for years before it was addressed. Even the Spectrum had a more sophisticated sound system, and, with often no way to disable it or turn it down, the PC speaker ruined the atmosphere of games (unless you liked your gun sounding like a telephone). And you could forget music packages.
The first step forward was the original Adlib card, introduced by the Canadian company of the same name in 1987. It was a basic FM MIDI synthesiser that, unless programmed properly, sounded like a cheap keyboard, but it was leagues ahead of the PC speaker. The drum sounds were awful and a lot of the voices sounded remarkably similar, but PC sequencing was now possible.
The first SoundBlaster was released in 1989 and offered Adlib compatibility, putting a stop to the Adlib monopoly, and by 1991 the SoundBlaster Pro was out. This was a major leap forward, offering simultaneous FM MIDI and audio wave playback. Digitised speech and effects were possible in games at the same time as music - fantastic for X-Wing - and you could even do your own 8-bit sampling if your hard disk was up to it.
Despite coming on a 16-bit ISA card, the SoundBlaster Pro could only sample at up to 8 bits, so another advance was needed to bring the PC up to 16-bit CD quality. Enter the SoundBlaster 16 in June 1992, which is still available in PCI format.