Steve Vickers (computer scientist)
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| Steve Vickers | |
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 Steve Vickers with a Jupiter ACE |
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| Residence | Birmingham |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Fields | Computer Science Mathematics |
| Institutions | Imperial College London The Open University University of Birmingham |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge University of Leeds |
| Doctoral advisor | Alfred Goldie |
| Known for | ZX Spectrum ROM firmware |
Steve Vickers is the author of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum home computer ROM firmware.[1][2] He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham, UK.
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[edit] Education
Vickers graduated from King's College, Cambridge with a degree in mathematics, he then read a PhD at Leeds University also in mathematics.[citation needed]
[edit] Sinclair Research
In 1980 he started working for Nine Tiles which had previously written the Sinclair BASIC for the ZX80. He was responsible for the adaptation of the 4K ZX80 ROM into the 8K ROM used in the ZX81 and also wrote the ZX81 manual. He then wrote most of the ZX Spectrum ROM, and assisted with the user documentation.
Vickers left in 1982 to form "Rainbow Computing Co." with Richard Altwasser. The company became Jupiter Cantab and they were together responsible for the development of the commercially unsuccessful Jupiter ACE, a competitor to the similar Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
[edit] Academia
Originally at the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, Steve Vickers later joined the Department of Pure Mathematics at the Open University before finally moving to the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. He is currently a Senior Lecturer and the Research Student Tutor of the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham.
[edit] Research
Vickers' main interest lies within geometric logic. He has written over 30 papers in scholarly journals on mathematical aspects of computer science, and a book, Topology via Logic (Cambridge University Press, 1996, ISBN 0521576512).
[edit] References
- ^ Laing, Gordon (2004-09-07). Digital retro. Sybex. http://books.google.com/books?id=fZ5QAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 9 June 2011. "The ROM size was doubled again...with Steve Vickers writing the lion's share"
- ^ "(article title missing)". Byte, Volume 8, Number 8: p. 43. 1983. http://books.google.com/books?id=NgUTAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Steve+Vickers%22+ROM&dq=%22Steve+Vickers%22+ROM&hl=en&ei=dwHxTcPBO4-isAPk6YWaDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAg. Retrieved 9 June 2011. "Steve Vickers and Richard Altwasser, who designed the Ace, were the codesigners of the Spectrum and are now ..."
[edit] External links
- Steve Vickers' homepage at the University of Birmingham
- An interview with Richard Altwasser and Steven Vickers
