Jim Westwood

Jim Westwoodwas chief engineer at Sinclair Research Ltd in the 1980s, having joined the company in 1963. Westwood was the technical mastermind who helped design and produce many Sinclair products including the calculators, audio equipment, ZX Spectrum and the pocket TV, the TV80. Westwood is still designing hardware, now working as a partner in Cambridge Electronics Consultancy.

In an interview published in Sinclair User (July 1982), Westwood describes his aptitude for all things technical: "Engineering of a kind was always my hobby, even when I was very young. Wherever I went you could be sure of finding a trail of broken torches in my wake. I had to take everything to pieces and gradually I was able to put it together again", he says. When he joined Sir Clive Sinclair at Sinclair Radionics the company consisted of little more than Sir Clive and one secretary. But the company went from strength to strength producing groundbreaking gadgets until its eventual demise.

In 1982 Westwood cited the ZX-80 as his favourite development: "Of all the products with which I have been involved I think the ZX-80 is my favourite. It was a real breakthrough in the use of cheap components. It is something which ought to be in the Ark by now but I am still proud of it".