TIMEX Sinclair 1000

Timex/Sinclair 1000 (TS1000) is the American version of the British Sinclair ZX81 and the first Timex Sinclair computer, visually very identical to the ZX81. It was the result of the deal made with Sinclair Research to help Sinclair fulfill the ZX81 demand so after Sinclair sold 500.000 ZX81 in the USA, Timex was allowed to sell their own version. It started to be manufactured in the Dundee (Scotland) Timex factory but to fulfill (again) the demand for those computers, Timex of Portugal also started to manufacture them.

The computer pictured above is the first TS1000 coming out of the assembly line in Portugal that was donated to the museum by Eng. Pedro Esteves from TIMEX Portugal. 

It is 100% ZX81 compatible. In fact, early models had a ZX81 circuit board. Two 4x1K RAM chips replaced by a single 8x2K RAM gave it 2K RAM instead of the 1K RAM of ZX81.

Two keys are different between the Sinclair and Timex machines: Rubbout -vs- Delete and New Line -vs- Enter. 

Assembled in the USA, Scotland (Dundee), and Portugal (Caparica).

The machines shown in the picture above are two TS1000s, the top one with a VHF/ NTSC tuner, and below the one with a UHF/PAL tuner.

Features of the TS1000:

  • Z80 processor @ 3.5Mhz
  • 8K ROM BASIC
  • 2K RAM
  • 32×24 Character screen
  • Ferranti ULA
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