The Timex Sinclair 2050 (TS2050)
was a
computer modem built by Westridge Communications for
Timex Sinclair
Timex Sinclair was a joint venture established in December 1982 between the British company Sinclair Research and Timex Corporation in an effort to gain an entry into the rapidly growing early-1980s home computer market in North America.
Histo ...
, a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
between
Sinclair Research
Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Clive Sinclair in Cambridge in the 1970s. In 1980, the company entered the home computer market with the ZX80 at £99.95, at that time the cheapest personal computer ...
and
Timex Corporation
Timex Group USA, Inc. (formerly known as Timex Corporation) is an American global watch manufacturing company founded in 1854 as the Waterbury Clock Company in Waterbury, Connecticut. In 1944, the company became insolvent but was reformed into ...
.
Initially sold under the Timex Sinclair''
'' label and with a Timex designed case, it was then labeled Westridge 2050,''
'' as Timex exited the computer market when the modem started manufacture.
A lot of people bought the modem board and made a custom casing.
The device supports all the Timex Sinclair machines, coming with a cassette containing modem control software for
T/S 1000 and T/S 1500 on side A and for
T/S 2068 on side B.
It was based on the
Intel 8251
The 8251 is a Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (USART) packaged in a 28-pin DIP made by Intel. It is typically used for serial communication and was rated for per second signalling rate.
It is commonly confused with the mu ...
USART chip and very slow (300 bit/s). A magazine published a way to modify the modem to convert it to a
serial port
A serial port is a serial communication Interface (computing), interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in Pa ...
, allowing users to connect faster modems. At least two
bulletin board system
A bulletin board system (BBS), also called a computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running list of BBS software, software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user perfor ...
s based on the T/S 2068 computer and TS2050 modem existed as of 1988.
References
External links
Timex Computer World
Modems
Timex Group
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