Hello and welcome to a new series I'll be calling tech-u-mentaries. That is to say, documentaries about technology...
Awwww, will I fuck. It's just a documentary
To begin this story we have to go way back to the 25th July 1961, when Acorn didn't exist
and Clive Sinclair had just formed his first company, Sinclair Radionics after borrowing
£50 and raising finance through article writing at Practical Wireless magazine.
Radionics began by developing hi-fi equipment such as the Micro-amplifier and selling by
mail order. All of Sinclair's products would have the ethos of miniaturisation at their
core, alongside elegance and style. This very ethos would often take the place of reliability
and stability, with the company facing large numbers of faulty equipment returns. None
the less, Sinclair's innovation would lead the company on, with Chris Curry - who would
later go on to form Acorn - joining Radionics in 1966.
Curry quickly became integral to Radionics operation and would help launch their first
electronic calculator in 1972 and "Black Watch" in 1975. But further technical issues and
poor sales led to the National Enterprise Board buying a 43% stake in Radionics in 1976,
which would quickly increase. Under the NEB, Sinclair would launch the world's first pocket
TV and begin development on the NewBrain computer, designed by Mike Wakefield in 1978. The Newbrain
was intended to be a rival for the recently released Apple II, but it didn't really fit
into Sinclair's vision of an inexpensive home micro, and so under the NEB's guidance was
sold off to Newbury Laboratories, who the NEB also had ownership over. Shortly after
this, the NEB renamed Sinclair Radionics to Sinclair Electronics Ltd, and later Thandar
Electronics Ltd... which continues in form to this day. Clive was subsequently sent packing,
along with a nice golden handshake and various in-development technologies, including the
C5 electric car. Handily, Clive had saw most of this coming,
and in 1975 had sent Chris Curry off to run another company, called Sinclair Instrument
Ltd, which under his guidance produced a calculator watch and in 1977, the MK14, a Microcomputer
kit, sold through mail order after the business re-branded to Science of Cambridge Ltd.
Clive hopped across in 1978 but Curry, frustrated by Clive's unwillingness to further develop
the MK14, resigned and with his friend Hermann Hauser, who was just finishing up a doctorate
at Cambridge University founded Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd (Abbreviated to CPU - you
can see what they did there). In reality, they had founded the business whilst Curry
was still working for Sinclair and they actually started out by rather cheekily "borrowing"
a room at Clive's Science of Cambridge premises to provide consultancy.
Their first customer was Ace Coin Equipment Ltd who required fruit machine controller
hardware and they would carry on serving various other businesses in this way until 1979 when
they founded Acorn Computers Ltd. With the name intended to depict a Growing company,
whilst also appearing above Apple in the phone book (remember, this was the 70s, shit like
this was an important marketing strategy back then). Under this brand they would launch
the Acorn System 1, based on an automated cow feeder, designed by undergraduate recruit
Rodger Wilson (now known as Sophie Wilson). It was in many respects like the MK-14, featuring
a small keypad and LED display. Acorn would go on to launch the System 2 and 3 in quick
succession, but these were really rack based Eurocard systems designed mainly for laboratory
and industrial use. Whilst this was going on, Clive, on realising
the success of Curry's MK14, had dreamt up the idea of the ZX80. A low cost, personal
computer, that would break the £100 price point and demonstrate to the world that computer's
were for everybody, not just professionals and businesses. The ZX80 was released in early
1980 and true to it's word, became the first affordable home micro. Featuring 1kb of RAM
and a Z80 CPU, which also generated the display output, causing the screen to blank out whilst
registering key presses. The machine also had a rather limited Sinclair BASIC, but lacked
a floating point, so was arguably not even a true computer.
The ZX80 had beaten Acorn in launching a low cost home micro, but they were hot on the
heels, recruiting Steve Furber, again from Cambridge, to work on hardware. Only a few
months later, they released the Acorn Atom, based on their System 3 hardware. It boasted
a full stroke keyboard - obtained on the cheap - double the memory of the ZX80 and made use
of a new NTSC video chip obtained from the States, which was tweaked to allow black & white
output on PAL televisions. The Atom was clearly a superior machine, but
priced at £120 in kit form and £170 assembled was respectively, £40 and £70 more expensive
than Sinclair's machine. This led to the ZX80 selling approximately 100,000 units compared
to the Atom's 10,000. But still, this was above Acorn's anticipated numbers, and was
therefore a commercial success. With both companies boosted by their success,
plans for further machines quickly went into production. This was alongside a rather heated
rivalry between the companies. This was in part due to the fractious final working years
between Curry and Sinclair, with both parties wanting to show the other, they were taking
the best path. Sinclair quickly followed up their success,
with the even cheaper ZX81, released in 1981. Priced at just £69.95, fully assembled and
offering a number of improvements over the 80, including a larger ROM, a slow mode which
cut out the display flicker and even floating point ability, it sold over 1.5 million units,
and really was the first machine to become dominant in the home. It wasn't without it's
problems though, still retaining the dead feeling membrane keyboard and this time shipping
with a ROM bug in it's square root calculations. Curry and Hauser had been trumped yet again,
but they had an ace up their sleeve. Remember the Newbrain machine I mentioned
earlier? Well, in 1980 the BBC began the initial roots of the BBC Computer Literacy Project,
partly encouraged itself by a rivalry where ITV showed a documentary about "The Mighty
Micro" and the impending revolution it would bring. They therefore wanted a branded machine
to feature in their new TV show. Newbury were the first ones to pick up the tab, despite
Clive trying to rally objection, even from Curry himself at the lack of a fair selection
process, but in any case were unable to develop the Newbrain enough to meet production targets.
The BBC again put out the tender to other UK computer brands, for a fairer competition.
Sinclair put out a proposal, as did Tangerine and Dragon Data, but it was Acorn who clinched
the deal, re-working their already in development Proton machine at late notice to fit the BBC
specifications. And when I say late notice, I mean it. Curry
headed down to the BBC's offices in London and confidently told the Beeb board that they
had an ideal machine, ready and waiting. Desperate for a machine ASAP, the BBC arranged a visit
the following week. Of course, the only problem was, the machine wasn't ready, waiting, or
indeed, even remotely built to the required specs. What followed was a famous telephone
exchange where Hauser convinced both Furber and Wilson that each other had agreed to the
short time frame; and so it began, 5 days to produce a working prototype. The team worked day and night, with the machine
only coming to life the very morning the BBC were due to visit. However, the BBC were suitably
impressed for Acorn to get the contract almost immediately, in February 1981, and by June,
the BBC Micro was conceived and priced up. By December 1981, the "Beeb" was fully unveiled,
and was an immediate commercial success, mainly in schools, but also in homes that could afford
the £299, or £399 price tag for the model A and B respectively, with parents willing
to cash in on both the entertainment and educational value. The A was essentially a cut down version
of the B, with less expansion ports and 16kb compared to 32kb. But to Acorn's surprise,
almost all sales were for the model B. The BBC Micro was a powerful machine, hosting
the 6502 processor and an array of expandability, including an additional Z80 processor to meet
the BBC's requirements of a CP/M compatible machine. Acorn expected sales in the region
of 10-20,000, but the Beeb would eventually sell a whopping 1.5 million units, allowing
Acorn to expand considerably over the next few years.
You can imagine Clive's face at this point. Oohhhh, the rage.. the bitter, insurmountable
rage. But really, the rage was misplaced, because by April 1982, Sinclair would launch
a machine not only designed to smash Acorn's home market success, but to completely dominate
the home market in glorious rainbow colouring. The Sinclair Spectrum!
Now, it's hard to over-estimate the impact which this machine made on not on the UK computer
market, but the global market as well. With another low cost entry point, essentially
half that of the Beeb, at £179 for the 48kb model and £129 for the 16kb model, this rubber
keyed beauty would sell over 5 million units, with almost every household with an average
occupant age of under 40 owning one. The Commodore 64 wasn't due on the scene for a number of
months, and in any case, it was a lot more expensive. So in the majority of cases, the
Speccy was the personal computer of choice. Packing another Z80 processor, but this time
with a lot more memory than the ZX models, an internal speaker, 15 colours and a keybord
which at least had some tactile feel, it would herald the peak of Sinclair's fame and fortune.
At this point, I'd say that Sinclair had a slight edge over Acorn. Both had established
markets, one in the educational sector, and one in the home gaming markets. Both were
lucrative enough for the businesses to succeed if they made the right next steps. Steps which
weren't driven by rivalry, ego, or narrow mindedness. But you can guess where this is
going.. right? A number of business decisions followed. The
first was by Acorn to expand their company, and involved going public and offering shares
on the stock exchange. This was ultimately a success and provided finance for Acorn to
expand and continue their operation. However, Acorn would also attempt to break into the
American market under Acorn Computer Corporation, but would ultimately fail, spending much of
the money raised. Sinclair also sought expansion and unwilling
to relinquish control of his business, like he had suffered under the NEB, tried to expand
into foreign markets, including Spain and America. Sinclair's affiliation with Timex
in the States was designed to cash in on the people who were currently importing Spectrum's
to the States in their current UK form, however, the Timex Sinclair machines were mostly incompatible
with the existing library of Spectrum software and so failed to make a significant impact.
Penetration into Spain was more convincing, but the main bulk of sales would remain in
the UK. With continued rivalry in mind, Sinclair was
also keen to break into a more professional marketplace, and Acorn wanted a slice of that
huge juicy gaming market. So rather than pushing onwards and upwards, some double stepping
and divergence would follow. From Acorn's perspective, it's market increasing
solution was to develop a lower cost, cut down version of the BBC Micro, marketed at
the home and games markets, and designed to go head to head with the Speccy. This decision
contradicted a number of voices within Acorn, such as Furber and Wilson who were looking
into improving the Beeb and 32bit processor design. But after a provisional order from
WH Smiths of 120,000 units, Acorn would go ahead with it's cut down plans and produce
the Electron for August 1983, utilising ULA circuitry which would pack the Beeb's 102
chips into 12, cut down versions. Most of the BBC requested specs would also be omitted.
The plan was to ship 100,000 of the £175 machines by Christmas, but production problems
meant the machines didn't hit the stores until Feburary 1984. Despite the positive reviews
of the hardware, this crucial miss of the Christmas period, coupled with a slow down
in the home computer markets, meant that orders were cancelled and Acorn was left with a warehouse
of unwanted machines. At around the exact same time, Sinclair would
launch the QL machine. A hastily put together design which was intended to break into the
professional and business markets, although Clive, or Sir Clive by this point, had created
some confusion with the head of Sinclair Computers, Nigel Searle over whether this machine would
be more suited as an upgraded Spectrum for the home or was really intended to break into
business use. In any case, even thought the hardware was fairly advanced, with a Motorola
68010 CPU, the advertising campaign failed, along with poor reviews on the keyboard and
compatibility of it's new micro drive units. Coupled with this, the machine wasn't compatible
with the Spectrum's library of software, meaning it would also fail in the home market.
The Electron sold adequate numbers to ensure software houses would support it into the
early 90s, and the existing backlog of stock would be cleared in due course, thanks in
part by Dixons agreeing to ship them out at less than cost price, but in the immediate
term, it was no where near enough to make up for Acorn's debts. The QL would sell 150,000
units, but was still deemed a commercial failure, unable to make a dent in any markets which
were quickly becoming saturated with ever powerful machines.
Further marketing campaigns would lead to the infamous showdown in the Barron of Beef
Cambridge pub, where Clive, filled with rage from Acorn's campaign slating Sinclair's reliability,
would stride in, advert in hand and proceed to clonk Curry in the face. Both were booted out, with their
professional lives soon to follow a similar path.
Sinclair would go back to the Spectrum line and in 1986 launch the marvellous Spectrum
128+ machine... the firs t Sinclair computer to sport a dedicated sound chip and be backwards
compatible with the rest of the Spectrum range. Meanwhile Acorn would also launch an upgraded
Micro in the shape of the BBC Master, also featuring 128k of RAM.
Both these machines would be successful in their respective markets, but ultimately the
financial damage had been done. Sinclair's computer brand was bought out by
Alan Sugar in 1986, who swiftly halted the QLs production and re-launched the Spectrum
range in a more fitting tribute to his recently released, "easy to use" and cheap, Amstrad
CPC line, which itself would sell 3million units.
Acorn's debts meant it would be bought out by Italian computer company Olivetti, in late
1985. The Acorn brand would continue successfully,
and go on to launch the Archimedes range of machines AND the associated RISC ARM processor,
which would form the basis for the most popular range of processors in today's world. Whilst
Amstrad's Sinclair machines would also sell reasonably well into the 90s. But as for the
rivalry. Well from that point it pretty much done. The exciting era of the early 80s, heralding
a new wave of micro computers was over, and consigned to a beautiful part of history,
which is worth re-visiting at every opportunity you get. Like this one. Both Sinclair and Acorn would leave lasting legacies
With Acorn introducing the RISC chips and introducing computers into the schools in the UK.
and Sinclair introducing a whole wealth of children to the home computer market
in the early '80s which heralded a new wave of development and creativity.
so there's no real winner here.... well, there is.... and it's us.