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CONFIDENCE is growing at Sinclair Research that the worst of its delivery problems are over. A spokesman said at the time of going to press that production is running ahead of new orders and the backlog is being reduced daily.
Timex factory in Dundee where Spectrums are built |
It was admitted that the previous hopes of everything being back to normal by the end of September were not achieved but it was expected that orders would be on 28 days' delivery during October.
During the last month Sinclair User continued to receive many complaints. One reader telephoned the office following Mrs Thatcher's visit to Japan, during which she presented a Spectrum to the Japanese premier. He said it seemed the only way to obtain one was to be Japanese.
The company spokesman said that delivery of the 16K was less than 10 weeks and improving quickly, and the 48K situation, which had worsened at the beginning of September, was also improving rapidly.
"We have additional output from the Timex factory at Dundee and that is having an impact on the backlog," he said.
He added that the recent revival in sales of the ZX-81 had not been affecting production of Spectrums.
A SPECIAL version of the Spectrum has been developed for use by disabled people. The basic machine has been adapted so that it can be used by people who cannot cope with the normal keyboard.
The machine is the result of collaboration between Sinclair Research and Possum Controls of Slough, Berkshire which sells a wide range of electronics systems for the severely disabled.
There are three methods available for using the Spectrum - an expanded keyboard, a joystick or footskate, and a scanning system in which the operator stops a scanning light when it reaches the required instruction.
SINCLAIR said that it could not be done but someone has managed to discover a way of loading ZX-81 programs recorded on cassette into the Spectrum.
The device is made by East London Robotics, which says that it will deal with most of the incompatibilities between the two machines.
To load a ZX-81 cassette, the Robotics program must first be loaded into the Spectrum. The ZX-81 program can then be loaded and read into the Spectrum by following the prompts from the Robotics loader program.
There are several incompatibilities between the two computers. They include the SCROLL command and several graphics characters from the ZX-81 and the INVERSE command on the Spectrum. For some of those incompatibilities there are machine code routines which can be called to deal with them but the INVERSE command cannot be dealt with, as there is no similar command on the ZX-81.
A character set similar to that of the ZX-81 is designed by the loader for programs which might require it.
The soft loader is available from East London Robotics, East Ham E6 and costs £10.
SINCLAIR RESEARCH has announced a £15 million scheme to increase the use of the Spectrum in schools. The machine has already been chosen as one of three computers in the Department of Industry Micros in Primaries scheme and Sinclair has now said that it will increase the benefits available.
Schools which order a Spectrum under the Government scheme will receive a free ZX printer, a free copy of the Logo computer language and 10 special discount vouchers. The offer is open until the end of 1984.
One voucher can be returned with each additional order for a 48K Spectrum to have the price reduced by £45 or to receive another free printer.
Announcing the scheme, Clive Sinclair said: "Believing that one micro per school is inadequate, our school scheme seeks to make computers available at low cost to provide sufficient numbers for all pupils to have practical hands-on experience."
When asked about the possibility of delivery delays, Nigel Searle, head of the computer division, said that by the time orders begin arriving there should be no difficulties.
Logo is a language developed in the U.S. for use in education. A new version has been written for the Spectrum.
