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GEEKDEX #0221

Timex Sinclair 1000

Computers · Timex Corporation

The ZX81, rebadged and sold by Timex for the US market at a famous $99.95 — briefly the best-selling computer in America.

SinclairTimexZ808-bit

Timex licensed the ZX81 design from Sinclair to build a US-market machine, and undercut the competition hard: the Timex Sinclair 1000 launched at $99.95, the cheapest computer on the American market at the time, with 2 KB of RAM standard instead of the ZX81’s 1 KB. It sold enormously well for a short stretch in 1982–83 — briefly the best-selling home computer in the US — before the price war it helped start caught up with it.

Reference photo: Wikimedia Commons (“Timex Sinclair 1000 FL.jpg” by MarcoTangerino), Public Domain.

Identity
CategoryComputers
ManufacturerTimex Corporation
FamilyZX81
Architecture8-bit
Released1982
RegionUnited States
Launch price$99.95
Hardware
CPUZilog Z80A @ 3.25 MHz
RAM2 KB (expandable via RAM pack)
Storage8 KB ROM
Display32×24 text, monochrome, NTSC output
OSSinclair BASIC
Keyboard40-key touch-sensitive membrane
  • discovered
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  • owned