Media File: 1983
Sinclair in the News

Financial Times
May 26, 1983

Sinclair plans £2m centre

BY JOAN GRAY; EDITED BY ALAN CANE

CLIVE Sinclair, multi-millionaire pioneer of the home computer and flat screen TV, is spending £2m on a new research centre for his company in Cambridge.

Called the MetaLab, the centre will supplement Sinclair Research's existing computer and television research divisions. It will act as a think tank working on new products in fields including robotics, battery technology and personal communications equipment.

The centre will be headed by Richard Cutting, at present managing director of the contract research and development company Cambridge Consultants, and two Sinclair Research directors, David Southward and Jim Westwood.

Mr Cutting, who has been managing director of Cambridge Consultants (CCL) since 1970, explained he was chosen for the job because "MetaLab is designed to foster products from initial idea to commercial launch and working on a wide range of research and new product developments has a close analogy to CCL."

As managing dirctor of CCL, Mr Cutting has run a large number of research and development projects for the Ministry of Defence. "This has applications for professional engineering standards at the MetaLab," he said. "Sinclair is very much in the forefront of technology and intends to stay there and to do it at low cost by good design, technology, and mass production."

Questioned about new products Sinclair would be develping at the MetaLab, Cutting emphasised: "Sinclair is much more than a television and computer company but is working on a whole range of personal communication products.