The 1980s was the era when affordable computers came to UK homes. They were known as microcomputers as their 'brain' was a microprocessor chip. Before then, computers were either found in the IT centres of big companies, taking up a whole room, or were large desktop machines with a price tag that put them out of reach for most people. But in February 1980, a company called Sinclair Computers launched their first home computer costing less than GBP100 - the ZX80. It began a very exciting time for all those with an interest in technology, and the UK home computer market was born. The first Sinclair ZX80s were soon joined by a host of competition in the early years of the 1980s as machines were released from companies such as Acorn, Dragon, Tangerine and Commodore. They all wanted a share of a market that would soon be worth millions of pounds. This book explores the history of these companies and the entrepreneurs behind them such as Sir Clive Sinclair of Sinclair Computers and Chris Curry of Acorn Computers. The innovative machines they produced inspired a generation.

Before the 1970s, for anything but basic arithmetic, a pen and paper was needed and complex calculations required a slide rule or logarithm tables. Electronic calculators were in use in the 1960s but they were based on valve or transistor technology, and so they were both bulky and expensive machines. But with the development of the microchip on the back of the space race, the rapid process of miniaturisation began. By the early 1970s, affordable pocket calculators came to the shops and enabled everyone to have instant answers to any mathematical need. A global market emerged worth hundreds of millions of dollars and the large electronics companies in Japan and the US were joined in a battle to produce ever smaller and cheaper machines. In the UK, companies such as Sinclair also wanted to take a share of this expanding market. This book charts the history of these companies, their products, and the innovation behind them.