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Richard Altwasser
Richard Francis Altwasser is a British engineer and inventor, responsible for the hardware design of the ZX Spectrum. Biography Altwasser graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, with a degree in engineering in June 1978. He was hired by Sinclair Research in September 1980. His first assigned job was to write some programs to demonstrate the capabilities of the new 8 kB ROM and 16 kB RAM expansion for the ZX80. After that, he worked on the printed circuit board of the ZX81. After the launch of the ZX81, Altwasser was promoted to the computers development team and worked on the development of the ZX Spectrum, from the early technical discussions at the end of July 1981. His main contribution was the design of the graphics mode using less than 7 kilobytes of memory. He also participated in the preliminary stages of the development of the ZX Microdrive. Altwasser left Sinclair at the beginning of May 1982 to establish his own company, along with Steve Vickers, author of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or University of Oxford, Oxford. Trinity has some of the most distinctive architecture in Cambridge with its Trinity Great Court, Great Court said to be the largest enclosed courtyard in Europe. Academically, Trinity performs exceptionally as measured by the Tompkins Table (the annual unofficial league table of Cambridge colleges), coming top from 2011 to 2017. Trinity was the top-performing college for the 2020-21 undergraduate exams, obtaining the highest percentage of good honours. Members of Trinity have been awarded 34 Nobel Prizes out of the 121 received by members of Cambridge University (the highest of any college at either Oxford or Cambridge). Members of the college have received four Fields Medals, one Turing Award and one Abel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ZX Microdrive
ZX Microdrive unit The ZX Microdrive is a magnetic-tape data storage system launched in July 1983 by Sinclair Research for its ZX Spectrum home computer. It was proposed as a faster-loading alternative to the cassette and cheaper than a floppy disk, but it suffered from poor reliability and lower speed. Microdrives used tiny cartridges containing a endless loop of magnetic tape, which held a minimum of 85 kB and performed a complete circuit in approximately eight seconds. The Microdrive technology was later also used in the Sinclair QL and ICL One Per Desk personal computers. Development Microdrive cartridge with case It is claimed the Microdrive concept was originally suggested by Andrew Grillet at an interview with Sinclair Research in 1974. Grillet proposed "a version of the Learjet Stereo 8 system, modified to allow two 64k core images per track for roll-out roll-in swapping using the KUTS protocol". Grillet was offered a better-paying job at Xerox, and neve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Engineers
English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national identity, an identity and common culture ** English language in England, a variant of the English language spoken in England * English languages (other) * English studies, the study of English language and literature * ''English'', an Amish term for non-Amish, regardless of ethnicity Individuals * English (surname), a list of notable people with the surname ''English'' * People with the given name ** English McConnell (1882–1928), Irish footballer ** English Fisher (1928–2011), American boxing coach ** English Gardner (b. 1992), American track and field sprinter Places United States * English, Indiana, a town * English, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * English, Brazoria County, Texas, an unincorporated community * Engl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or more curates, and who operates from a parish church. Historically, a parish often covered the same geographical area as a manor. Its association with the parish church remains paramount. By extension the term ''parish'' refers not only to the territorial entity but to the people of its community or congregation as well as to church property within it. In England this church property was technically in ownership of the parish priest ''ex-officio'', vested in him on his institution to that parish. Etymology and use First attested in English in the late, 13th century, the word ''parish'' comes from the Old French ''paroisse'', in turn from la, paroecia, the latinisation of the grc, παροικία, paroikia, "sojourning in a foreign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portishead, Somerset
Portishead () is a coastal village on the Severn Estuary, 8 miles (12 km) to the west of Bristol, but within the unitary authority, unitary district of North Somerset, which falls within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It has a population of around 25,000, with a growth rate considerably in excess of surrounding towns. Portishead has a long history as a fishing port. As a Royal Manor it expanded rapidly during the early 19th century around the docks, with supporting transport infrastructure. A Portishead power station, power station and chemical works were added in the 20th century, but the dock and industrial facilities have since closed and been redeveloped into a marina and residential areas. Portishead was also the telephone control centre used by British Telecom (BT) for non-direct dialled calls to maritime vessels, a service known as Portishead Radio. The town's population is expanding, and Portishead is now primarily a dormi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amstrad
Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstrad had a substantial share of the PC market in the UK. Amstrad was once a FTSE 100 Index constituent, but since 2007 has been wholly owned by Sky UK. , Amstrad's main business was manufacturing Sky UK interactive boxes. In 2010, Sky integrated Amstrad's satellite division as part of Sky so they could make their own set-top boxes in-house. The company had offices in Kings Road, Brentwood, Essex. History 1960s and 1970s Amstrad (also known as AMSTrad) was founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21, the name of the original company being AMS Trading (Amstrad) Limited, derived from its founder's initials (Alan Michael Sugar). Amstrad entered the market in the field of consumer electronics. During the 1970s they were at the forefront ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jupiter Ace
The Jupiter Ace by Jupiter Cantab was a British home computer of the early 1980s. The Ace differed from other microcomputers of the time in that its programming environment used Forth instead of the more popular BASIC. After Jupiter Cantab ceased trading, the brand was acquired by Boldfield Computing Ltd in 1984, before eventually being sold to Paul Andrews's company Andrews UK Limited in 2015. History Jupiter Cantab was formed by Richard Altwasser and Steven Vickers. Both had been on the design team for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum: Altwasser did some work on the development of the ZX-81 and in the design of the hardware of the Spectrum. Vickers adapted and expanded the 4K ZX-80 ROM to the 8K ZX-81 ROM and wrote most of the ROM for the Spectrum. The Jupiter Ace was named after an early British computer, the Pilot ACE. Sales to the general public were slow. Initially the computer was only available by mail order, and Jupiter Cantab reported that there were production diff ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Popular Computing Weekly
''Popular Computing Weekly'' was a computer magazine in the UK published from 1982 to 1990. It was sometimes referred to as ''PCW'' (although that abbreviation is more commonly associated with ''Personal Computer World'' magazine). Overview The magazine was first published on 23 April 1982. Its subject range was general, covering gaming, business, and productivity software. The founding company was Sunshine Publications based in London and the launch editor was Duncan Scot. During 1989 it incorporated '' Computer Gamesweek''. It was noteworthy for being the UK's only national weekly computer magazine of the time, and for its back page being dominated by an advertisement in the form of a comic strip, ''Piman'', by the firm Automata UK between the years 1983 and 1986. A further noteworthy feature of the early editions was the high-quality artwork on the magazine covers. These had disappeared by 1983. One other noteworthy and regular column was about adventure games, notably te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jupiter Cantab
Jupiter Cantab Limited was a Cambridge based home computer company. Its main product was the 1983 Forth-based Jupiter Ace. The company was founded in 1982 by two ex-Sinclair Research staffers, Richard Altwasser and Steven Vickers. Their machine was, externally, remarkably similar to the ZX Spectrum, with a copycat rubber keyboard. It also used the same Z80 processor. The Ace's video output was limited to monochrome like the ZX-81 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-cos .... The £90 Ace was a flop in both the UK and US markets. In the US it was intended to be sold as the ''Ace 4000'', although only 800 were ever made. The Forth language, although considered powerful, was not as popular or accessible as the already well-established BASIC language featured in competing mic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinclair User
''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was published in the UK between 1982 and 1993, and was the longest running Sinclair-based magazine. The magazine contained news, game reviews, previews, tips, help guides, columns, readers' letters, and cover-mounted game demos. History In earlier years, the magazine built up personality cults around some of its "hilariously" monikered staff, including Bill "Incorruptible" Scolding, John "Disgusting" Gilbert, Chris "Lunchbreaks" Bourne, Claire "Ligger" Edgely, Richard Price (writer of the "Gordo Greatbelly" adventure tips section), and columnist Andrew Hewson (founder of Hewson Consultants software). Under David Kelly's editorial tenure, the magazine began to focus more on the gaming scene, and featured more colour graphics under designer Garet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
