Amstrad bought the rights to use the Sinclair name on computer products. However, while Sir Clive Sinclair (the creator of the ZX 80, ZX 81, ZX Spectrum and QL) retained ownership of Sinclair Research, he couldn't use the Sinclair name. Sir Sinclair therefore created a new company called Cambridge Research, with the intention of realizing an old project, the Pandora Project. The result of this work was the Z88 (it was achieved in 1988). Sir Sinclair at the time thought it was a revolution and said that this computer would be one of the best commercial successes. Actually it was Clive Sinclair's last contribution to the computer world!
This small machine was quite powerful; its operating system could exceed the 64 KB limitation of the Z80 with a good memory manager. It could also divide the memory into 16 KB pages, so the RAM could be expanded up to 3 MB thanks to 2 expansion ports. RAM cartridges of 32 KB and 128 KB were available. It had a built-in EPROM programmer available on the 3rd expansion port, so data could be saved directly on 128 KB EPROMs.
The ROM contained a lot of software: Pipedream (spreadsheet, word processor and database), the Z80 version of the BBC Basic (the Basic of the BBC or Electron), a diary, a calendar, a clock, a conversion tool, a VT 52 terminal emulator, Filer (the file manager of the Operating System) and a utility to transfer data to a PC compatible via a RS232 link. This transfer utility exported text and spreadsheet files into Wordstar or Lotus 1-2-3 formats.
It's probably worth pointing out that BBC basic built into the Z88 also contains a machine code editor, which allows you to embed Z80 assembly language into your Z88 BBC Basic programs! This feature was used quite often for the 'extra speed' portions of programs. Of course, having the assembly language embedded inside your source code meant that the code was very portable, and all loaded in one go - no messy 'support files' for your application.
Jan M.L. Bosmans reported to us that the BBC Basic in the Z88, although very powerful, lacks an essential feature: there is neither an editor nor debugger! This means that mistakes in a line can only be corrected by typing the whole line again. While it's true that the BBC basic had no editor built in, but one of the first 'type in programs' in the BASIC section of the manual was a program you could enter (and save to battery backed memory) that provided a line editor feature! It was just a few lines of BBC Basic, and worked very well.
_________
Contributors: John J. Diamond, Mark Wills
Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).
Z-88 was a ''killer'' laptop in the day...it was sold in the US as a "macintosh" compatible portable. I was able to use the port to connect to my MacSE and the text was imported into MacWord and came out fine. Address book was ported as well...it was a life saver on business trips as it fit exactly on to the old airline trays - great to be able to swap batteries...if you were fairly quick...I still have it and plan on keeping it a keep sake
Just rediscovered my Z88 - S/No. 006253 - purchased in around 1988. Includes 128K RAM and PC Link II eprom (but software and cable sadly mislaid). Still seems to work fine - apart from the 2-digit dates - but any thoughts of re-using it usefully were dashed when I found that Pipedream (now downloadable free) won''t work on 64-bit PCs. Nice bit of nostalgia though.
Tuesday 20th February 2018
Alec Evans (France)
Running the emulator reveals a very easy to use and intuitive system!
With more than twice the screen size as the TRS-80 model 100, better batery life and lighter, this system is amazing for it''s era!
Saturday 4th February 2017
Very Nice Vera
NAME
Z 88
MANUFACTURER
Cambridge Computers
TYPE
Portable
ORIGIN
United Kingdom
YEAR
1988
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
Diary, PipeDream (combined wordprocessor/spreadsheet), Terminal, Printer Editor, BBC BASIC, Index (application/card manager), Filer (file/EPROM manager), Calendar, Calculator, Clock, Alarm, Import/Export (file transfer) and Panel (control settings).
KEYBOARD
64 rubber-key QWERTY arrangement, including full-size spacebar.
CPU
CMOS Z80A
SPEED
3.2768MHz
RAM
32 KB, 128 KB or 512 KB depending on models (the Z88 can address up to 4Mb of memory, subdivided into 256 banks of 16K each)
ROM
128 KB (up to 1 MB)
TEXT MODES
104 chars. x 8 lines
GRAPHIC MODES
640 x 64 (the screen is typically shared between a text area of up to 104x8 characters on the left and a graphics area of up to 256x64 pixels (on the right). Additionally there is a 16x64 pixel status information window at the far right)
COLORS
3 shades of gray
SOUND
Miniature loudspeaker, used for alarms or warnings.
SIZE / WEIGHT
A4-size notepad (294mm x 210mm x 23mm). Weight 900g.
I/O PORTS
RS232, 3 Expansion ports (RAM or EPROM), Z80 Bus
OS
OZ
POWER SUPPLY
4xAA alkaline cells, providing up to 20 hours of use or one-year standby. AC mains adaptor (6.5v DC @ 500mA). Internal capacitor provides power while batteries are being replaced.
