Talk:ZX80

Number of units

Does anyone have any information as to how many of these were made? That would be good extra information for this page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sirfurboy (talk • contribs) 13:21, 19 January 2006

TK85 = ZX80?

That's the impression the article gives to me, but the TK85 was really a clone of the ZX81. --CronoT 21:01, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

I moved it into the ZX81 article. -- Blorg 18:03, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

I want one

so stylish --Midnighttonight 07:47, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

£99.95 = ??? today

How much would the £99.95 price be today adjusted for inflation? -- anon —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.187.51.219 (talk) 22:46, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Depends what data you use for comparisons. If you use RPI then GBP 99.95 in 1980 is worth approximately GBP 310 in 2008. If you use average (UK) earnings, then it is worth about GBP 480 in 2008. Simon 4/9/08 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.198.33.252 (talk) 12:25, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

This is Money website has a historic inflation calculator. From this £99.95 in 1980 is worth £457.06 today. Derekjc (talk) 12:38, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

References

Power station

I'd always thought that this (in)famous claim originated with the ZX81, but no: the ZX80 ad reproduced at the bottom of this page mentions in its first column that you can use a ZX80 "to do quite literally anything from playing chess to running a power station". 86.136.250.66 (talk) 16:17, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Its a very basic bit of marketing - people don't take things at face value, they interpret what they want to hear. The phrase "with a ZX80 you can run a power station" is no different to saying "with a Blackberry I can run my business" - that doesn't mean that all I need to do to run my business is switch my Blackberry on, and then go and take a nap! You can run a power station without any computers at all - in the days before computers were invented thats how power stations worked! So you could certainly run one with a rudimentary computer like the ZX80. Would you need to use other things too? Of course, but then the claim never said you wouldn't.......... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.198.33.252 (talk) 12:21, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

The day a ZX80 is used to run a power station is the day I evacuate the planet. It's a nifty little computer, and certainly quite advanced for the time, given its price, but I think even an early 1980s power station would have taxed the computer well beyond its limits. Still, thanks for the humor. :) --Ericdn (talk) 21:55, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

TV typewriter ref

We really need a reference which includes the term "ZX80". The fact needed is that the TV typewriter had something to do with the history of the ZX80, not that the TV typewriter existed. Otherwise, this is original synthesis. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 16:17, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

I think I've found one in the extracts from the "Sunrise" book on Planet Sinclair. Letdorf (talk) 16:33, 26 November 2008 (UTC).

dimensions

The entire system was about the size of two paperback books placed beside each other.

Is this a new scientific standard I'm not aware of? The distance to the moon is 2.3million Penguin Classics? Dimensions should be moved to the statistic/facts box in the top right and should be in Wiki/SI recommended format.Moozaad (talk) 17:00, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Ha! Indeed. Actually, Penguin Classics would be a better standard, considering I've got paperbacks which would be better used for measuring XBoxes. Chris Cunningham (not at work) - talk 11:12, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

ZX80 8K BASIC

The 8K BASIC ROM was announced on September 11th 1980, and demonstrated at the 4th Personal Computer World show where two ZX80s were displayed with the upgrade fitted. [1] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.3.238.98 (talk) 06:40, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

Better reference for price?

Can anyone find a British advert for the ZX80 showing the prices for the kit and built versions? I have added a citation to a ZX81 advert that gives the prices of the ZX80 as well as ZX81. There is also already a citation for a US advert showing the dollar price. It would be better if we had a UK ZX80 advert though.

MK14 reference in intro

"(unless one counts the MK14)"

Why are we not counting it? Because it was kit-only? I know the ZX80 was marketed at the first < £100, but it's confusing to me why we would phrase it like this.

The ZX80 is a packaged product with a TV screen output and alphanumeric keyboard and it can run application software, notably its built-in BASIC. They won't be big impressive applications because there's little RAM but they are supported. The BASIC ROM provides a library of subroutines that applications can invoke to reduce their RAM requirements. The MK14 can't do any of this. The ZX80 ticks far more boxes from the definition of a minimal computer, so the distinction in the article is very sound to me.ToaneeM (talk) 16:44, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

Makes sense!

Minimum memory for programs

There is a statement that "with 1 KB RAM, running a 990 byte program would result in only one row of characters being visible on the screen; a full screen (32×24) would leave only 384 bytes to the programmer". I think the number 384 is not correct. 1 KB RAM is 1024 bytes. 32x24 symbols on the screen is 768 bytes. For programs no more than 1024-768 = 256 bytes remains. Not including the 25 end-of-line characters that the display file requires to work correctly and 40 bytes of the BASIC interpreter system variables. So actual number of bytes is probably less than 200. -- Avivanov76 (talk) 18:58, 2 August 2019 (UTC)

"INTEGRAL FUNCTIONS" sticker

Is there a reason the lead picture doesn't have one of these? The size constraints of the 4KiB ROM meant that users had to type eight mathematical functions in, character by character, and the case had those on a sticker just above the right hand side of the keyboard (see the other picture). It's in Sinclair's ads, so why not the main picture for the article? Lovingboth (talk) 14:54, 2 October 2021 (UTC)