====== Sinclair ZX 81 / Timex Sinclair 1000 (1981) ======
===== Features =====
* CPU: Zilog Z80A 3.5 MHz
* RAM: 1 KB (901 bytes available, up to 64 KB)
* ROM: 8 KB
* Text Modes: 32 x 24 (but 2 lines are reserved for system messages and commands)
* Graphic Modes: 64 x 44
* Colors: Black and white
* Sound: None
* I/O Ports: Z80 Bus, tape, video
* Keyboard: Touch-sensitive keyboard, 40 keys
* Built In Language: Sinclair Basic
===== Known Issues =====
MESS supports three revisions of the ZX81 bios. You can switch between them, changing the -bios parameter. At command line,
"-bios 0" or "-bios 3rd" = 3rd rev.
"-bios 1" or "-bios 1st" = 1st rev.
"-bios 2" or "-bios 2nd" = 2nd rev.
===== History and Trivia =====
A home computer built in the United Kingdom.
The Sinclair ZX 81 was the successor of the ZX 80, and can be regarded as an evolution of it.
The ZX80 could not handle floating point numbers or cassette data files, but the ZX-81 could. The ZX-80 had 4k ROM : the ZX-81 had 8K ROM with 30 additional functions and some instructions to drive the printer. Thanks to a higher level of integrations (the total number of chips in the basic system was 4, against the ZX80's 21), the ZX-81 cost £30 less than the ZX-80. The plastic case was also different. Whereas the ZX-80 looked cheap in it lightweight white case, the ZX-81 was beautifully designed in its black ABS plastic case.
The keyboard was still formed by an underprinted plastic, but this one was made of non-reflective material. Even with this slight improvement it was quite horrible to use, that's why a lot of additional keyboards appeared quickly on the market. Some of the keys sported up to 5 functions, right in the Sinclair tradition, accessible through the "GRAPHICS", "SHIFT" and "FUNCTION" keys.
Here are the functions added over the ZX-80 : ASN, ACS, ATN COS, EXP, INKEY$, PI, SGN, SIN SQR, INT, LEN, LN, TAN, VAL, <=, >=, < >, COPY, DIM A$, FAST, FOR ... TO ... STEP, LLIST, LLIST n, LPRINT, PAUSE, PLOT, PRINT AT, PRINT TAB, SCROLL, SLOW, UNPLOT. Some are quite useful and make you wonder how it was possible to make anything on the ZX-80 !? However, one function disappeared: TL$ which was used to return a string minus its first character.
The ZX-81 could be operated in two modes, SLOW and FAST. The FAST mode which was the only mode available on the ZX-80, only refreshed the display when the system had completed computing, resulting in a painful screen flicker! It was a useful mode when you had to do a lot of calculation without the need to see what's going on all the time on the screen. The SLOW mode, which was indeed quite slooooowwww, behaved like all other computers did, refreshing the screen all the time.
The ZX81 contained only four main chips : the ROM, Z80A CPU, 1K RAM and the Ferranti custom-made chip! It is as simple as that. The machine was assembled by Timex Corporation in their Scottish plant.
This computer was a very great success in Europe in the beginning of the 80's. It was very cheap and a lot of people who now are working on modern PCs or Macs, made their first move on a ZX 81 even though its performance was actually poor!
A very great range of peripherals were developed for this computer, among them : 3.5" floppy disk units, keyboards, high resolution graphic cards, RS232 or Centronics interfaces, RAM expansions, etc... In fact, it was possible to make a pretty good computer from the ZX 81!
It was followed by the ZX-Spectrum and was also sold as the Timex Sinclair 1000 in the USA. The main difference was that the TS 1000 has 2 KB RAM instead of the 1 KB RAM of the original ZX-81.
//(info from old-computers.com)//
===== Links =====
* Achromic's ZX81 Page -- http://zx81.achromic.co.uk/
* Jame's Sinclair ZX-81 Page -- http://james.istop.com/zx81/
* Planet Sinclair -- http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/zx81/zx81.htm
* TS1000.US -- http://www.ts1000.us/
* ZX81 Stuff -- http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/
* ZX81 Home Page -- http://www.honneamise.u-net.com/zx81/
* ZX Team -- http://www.zx81.de/
* ZX81 at old-computers.com -- http://old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=263
===== Other Emulators =====
* VB81 -- http://freestuff.grok.co.uk/vb81/
* XTender -- http://www.delhez.demon.nl/
* No$ZX81 -- http://www.work.de/nocash/zx8.htm
* EightyOne -- http://www.chuntey.com/eightyone/
Generated on Sun Jul 19 10:17:28 2009