Sinclair Research

Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. Originally incorporated in 1973 as Ablesdeal Ltd. and renamed to Westminster Mail Order Ltd and then Sinclair Instrument Ltd. in 1975, it remained dormant until 1976, when it was activated with the intention of continuing Sinclair's commercial work from his earlier company Sinclair Radionics; it adopted the name Sinclair Research in 1981.

In 1980, Clive Sinclair entered the home computer market with the ZX80 at £99.95, at the time the cheapest personal computer for sale in the UK. In 1982 the ZX Spectrum was released, later becoming the United Kingdom's best selling computer, competing aggressively against Commodore and Amstrad.

At the height of its success, and largely inspired by the Japanese Fifth Generation Computer program, the company established the "MetaLab" research center at Milton Hall (near Cambridge), in order to pursue artificial intelligence, wafer-scale integration, formal verification and other advanced projects. The combination of the failures of the Sinclair QL computer and the TV80 led to financial difficulties in 1985, and a year later Sinclair sold the rights to their computer products and brand name to Amstrad. Sinclair Research Ltd still exists as a one-man company, continuing to market Clive Sinclair's newest inventions.