The Lambda 8300 was a Sinclair ZX81 clone from Lambda Electronics Limited of

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. It had a modified ROM (including extra semigraphic characters) and extra hardware, making it not fully compatible. Total compatibility could be achieved by installing a

ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-c ...

ROM. It came with 2K RAM (expandable to 16K or 32K), three octave single voice sound (generated by a C4005 ULA I/O chip) and an Atari joystick port. Specifically, it used a NEC D780C-1 (Z80A clone) microprocessor at 3.25 MHz. The

character set Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to graphical characters, especially the written characters of human language, allowing them to be stored, transmitted, and transformed using computers. The numerical values that make up a c ...

was slightly altered from the ZX81, replacing some symbols with game graphics (see below).

BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...

tokens have alternate codings, further preventing 100% compatibility with the ZX81. Command input is done key by key (not by keyword entry like on the ZX81). The computer was somewhat successful in Northern Europe (mostly in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

) and China, and today enthusiasts still develop new hardware. The Lambda 8300 can be emulated on modern systems using, for example, the EightyOne Sinclair Emulator or

MAME MAME (formerly an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is a free and open-source emulator designed to emulate the hardware of arcade games, video game consoles, old computers and other systems in software on modern personal computers and ...

Models

The machine was licensed to several different companies, with many rebranded models available in different markets. Unisonic distributed it as the Futura 8300 in the US. In France it was available as the DEF 3000. Known model designations: *Lambda 8300 (

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

) *Your Computer PC 8300 (

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

) *DEF 3000 (

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) *Basic 2000 (Norway, Sweden,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

) *Marathon 32K (Norway, Denmark) *Tonel PC (Italy, Germany) *Unisonic Futura 8300 (United States) *PC-81 Personal Computer (China) *CAC-3 (China) *Polybrain P118 (

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

) *Creon Electronics Power 3000 (Hong Kong,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, Denmark,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

) *NF300 jiaoXueDianNao (China) *Basic 2000 *Basic 3000 *PC 2000

Character set

The character set was slightly altered from that of the

, replacing the ,, ?, £, and ' symbols with game graphics: , , and .

tokens also have alternate codings.

References

External links

Old-computers.com

Sinclairzxworld.com
{{Sinclair computers and clones Z80-based home computers Sinclair ZX81 clones Computer-related introductions in 1983