Sir Clive Sinclair, English pioneer of home computing, died at 81 after a long illness. His most famous invention was the ZX Spectrum home computer, sold in large numbers in the 80s, but it was always his mind behind other personal computers such as the Sinclair ZX80 and Z81, and later the personal QL (Quantum Leap), evolution significant of the Spectrum. Before computers, Clive Sinclair had also created a line of pocket calculators, in the early 1970s. Sir Clive Sinclair also designed and built the C5, a sort of electric tricycle far ahead of its time and perhaps for this reason remained far from the commercial success.
Sinclair left school at 17, and then worked for four years as a journalist to raise money to found his own Sinclair Radionics. The commercial boom of the ZX Spectrum dates back to 1982, a machine that went down in the history of personal computing also because it was the only real opponent of the Commodore 64, and the basis for historical titles in the video game market such as those made by Ultimate. The title of knight was awarded to him in 1983, on the wave of technological and market successes. Curiously, Sir Sinclair did not like to use technological objects and devices and not even email. His name remains among the greatest in personal computing, and among the absolute protagonists of the 8-bit era.
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