The Z88
was a laptop-style machine with a Zilog Z80 processor,
LCD screen screen and a silent keyboard (rubber,
naturally). It was the first and only product
of Cambridge Computer, the company established
by Sir Clive Sinclair following the 1986 takeover
by Amstrad of Sinclair Research's computer business.
In
comparison to the huge sales of the earlier Sinclair
computers, the Z88 was only modestly successful.
It possibly suffered from being ahead of its time
- it was in many respects a forerunner of the
personal digital assistants (PDAs) which were
to become so popular in the late 1990s. The built-in
software suite was very much reminiscent of a
modern PDA: calculator, calendar, clock, diary,
terminal emulator, spreadsheet and word processor.
It was not PC-compatible but, surprisingly, it
had a good deal of compatibility with the BBC
Micro, thanks to its use of an adaptation of BBC
BASIC.
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