Next Tech

Product details

The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Next packs 45 years of British home computing into a friendly box. It combines brilliant ideas from Sinclair, Acorn, Amstrad and the Amiga in a modern system made by industry professionals who never forgot the thrills of the early micros, and who had the vision and community spirit to develop that technology further for the 21st century. It’s a lot to get your head around.

NEXT TECH is a book for readers who enjoyed the creative aspects of the pre-PC home micro scene of the late 1970s and early 80s, or want to recapture that spirit. It helps Spectrum Next owners to progress beyond the manual that came with their computer, providing them with inspiration, expert guidance and enthusiasm spread over 500 pages. It’s written for the people for whom Sir Clive Sinclair created his computers in the first place.

NEXT TECH is a celebration and source of inspiration expertly researched and written over six years. From simple hardware hacks to intricate, carefully explained software components - from BASIC commands through a structured cascade of POKEs, USR calls, custom chip registers, pointer control, sprites, graphics and sound layers, coprocessors, VHDL, DMA and Z80n machine code - NEXT TECH guides the reader down a fascinating path from 1970s DIY culture and historical accidents to the FPGA silicon that powers the Next’s cores and personalities.

NEXT TECH explores the creation stories, inner logic and endless potential of classic computers that do just what you ask of them... flexible, interactive, accessible micros designed for quick learners and creative minds, now enhanced with speed, memory and storage options unimaginable in the 1980s, not forgetting modern WiFi and HDMI.

Simon N Goodwin has published hundreds of clear, informative articles about the heyday of home micro-computing as Technical Editor of Crashmagazine, a frequent contributor to Your Spectrum, a writer for most other UK Sinclair magazines, Personal Computer World, Computer Shopper, Amiga Format and Wireframe columnist. Simon’s programs have been marketed by Atari, ATD, Codemasters, Digital Precision, Dk’tronics, EA, Quicksilva, Sega and Zynga. Simon has contributed to the system software and design of Sinclair-based micros like MGT’s SAM Coupé, CST’s Thor and the ZX Spectrum Next.

● Includes N-GO, Xberry Pi, a bit of ARM, lots of Zilog, and (almost) no Microsoft!