Clive Sinclair 1985 owing to Sinclair's financial troubles.) The following year, he received a knighthood and formed Sinclair Vehicles Ltd. to develop electric vehicles, which resulted in the unsuccessful Sinclair C5 in 1985. In 1984, Sinclair launched the Sinclair QL computer, intended for professional users. Development of the ZX Spectrum continued with the enhanced ZX Spectrum 128 in 1985. In April 1986, Sinclair Research sold the Sinclair trademark and computer business to Amstrad for £5 million. Sinclair Research Ltd. was reduced to an R&D business and holding company, with shareholdings in several spin-off companies, formed to exploit technologies developed by the company.
Sinclair QL for the original QL by Sandy Electronics. RWAP Software supplies various hardware and software upgrades. A few patched versions of QDOS were produced, most notably Minerva which gradually evolved into a completely rewritten operating system, offering improved speed, with multitasking SuperBASIC interpreters. Tony Tebby went on to produce another updated operating system, SMSQ/E, which has continued to be developed for the Sinclair QL and emulators, offering many more features. Sinclair QL The Sinclair QL (for "Quantum leap"), is a personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984, as an upper-end counterpart to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The QL was aimed