The Guy From Timex

Timex planned to manufacture and sell a 3068 computer with 1 meg. of memory, 256 colors, and virtual memory for a target price of $199.95. This was just one of the bits of information that was revealed by Mr. Billy Skyrme, the President of Psion America, formerly of the Timex Computer Corp., during the Feb. meeting of L.I.S.T.

Mr. Skyrme told the group of how his own career paralleled that of the computer industry. He started working with computers back in 1958. The early machines had 650 bytes of memory and utilized toggle switches for binary inputs. He said that he was a math and physics guy and described how back in the primordial days people did not really know what computers were. He migrated over to the marketing side when he saw the need for personal or home machines. He described how he constructed one of the early kits and had little support.

Timex and Clive first came together following the development of the ZX 80. Sir Clive was always of a technical bent and did not care for the marketing aspects of the industry. He was seeking a manufacturer and he contacted Timex Scotland. Billy Skyrme had heard of the machine and started manufacturing since the machine offered enough horsepower to provide good human interfacing. Marketing surveys indicated that many people out there would love to have a computer. This led to a marketing agreement between Timex and Sir Clive. Timex introduced the TS 1000, which offered purchasers a label change and twice the memory of the ZX81. The machine was extraordinarily successful in the marketplace. Reaction to the machine ranged from the doorstop description, coming from the computer illiterates, to the technical people who discovered that it was quite a little beast.

A holy war occurred in Timex over the development and introduction of the color machines. One faction at Timex felt that the Spectrum was a very dirty machine in FCC terms. They felt that the Spectrum must be redesigned to clean it up and also to prove that they could do a better design job than Clive did. Billy Skyrme and the other faction sought to rush and get a color machine out into the marketplace as soon as possible. They took the Spectrum, did quick and dirty work to bring it to American standards and brought it to the FCC. The machine passed but they lost. Timex developed and marketed the 2068. Timing was a problem. When it was introduced, Commodore and Texas Instruments were having price wars. This lowered prices and destroyed the market. The computer price wars led to the projection of no profits from the home computer market. Both the 2068 and the 3068, which was then under development, were killed. Timex needed cash to reorganize the watch business, which was the bread and butter of the company. At the time, first LED and then LCD sold state watches flooed the market and Timex needed the funds to develop products.

The proposed 3068 would have been the super computer of the home computer industry. At the time when the project was abandoned they had not yet selected a microprocessor but were looking at either the Z8000 or the 68000. This machine, which had a target price of $199.95, would have offered users 256 colors using a standard TV as well as 1 megabyte of memory. According to Billy Skyrme, the only machine on the market close to the 3068 is the Amiga. Mr. Skyrme left Timex in 1984.

He described how Timex did not suddenly abandon 2068 purchasers when it made the decision to pull out of the computer market. Although they were already out of the computer business, the people at Timex recognized the need for a technical manual. They published it out of good will to the users while they were disbanding the computer unit.

Both Sinclair and Timex made major contributions to the small computer industry. The ZX81 established the correct environment for IBM and Apple. Back in 1981 people outside of electronics professionals did not know about computers. The TS 1000 opened many minds. In the field of computer logic, Clive Sinclair developed the logic chip in the ZX81, showing how one chip can be used to replace many individual components. Timex developed the logic chip in the 2068. Bank switching was also a Timex innovation.

Many questions were answered by Mr. Skyrme. The great mystery of what Sinclair products continued to use tape drives when the rest of the industry went to discs was explained: Clive had a problem with disc drives because he did not invent them. Also, the mystery of the Westridge modem was discussed. Mr. Skyrme said that the modem was not marketed by Timex because it had problems.

Mr. Skyrme dashed the hope of those Timex loyalists that have been spreading rumors for the past few years about sales of rights to the 2068. Timex is a mass manufacturer and is willing to produce anything if it has large orders. This is what led to the production of the Portuguese 2068 and the Polish 2048 machines. Legal problems and the tangled mass of agreements between Timex and Sinclair make it impossible for anyone else to build or sell the 2068. The big surprise is that Timex is still making and selling the TS1000 for industrial applications in process control and interfacing. They market the machine both as a complete board and as a computer within the plastic case. They do not sell the machine for consumer applications.

As users, the members of L.I.S.T. really appreciate the time that Mr. Skyrme was willing to spend to attend our meeting. His presentation solved many mysteries concerning the demise of our favorite computers and shed new light on the corporate decisions which control the home computer industry.