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1984
- In 1984, Radio Shack began selling the Tandy 1000, which took its computer products on a very successful IBM PC-compatible branch. The "Tandy" brand took over full time on new PCs in 1985, including on some follow-up models of the TRS-80 line like the Tandy 102.
www.howtogeek.com/822043/radio-shacks-first-pc-45-years-of-trs-80/
TRS was formed by the 1963 merger of Tandy Leather Company and Radio Shack (which was almost bankrupt at the time). They dealt in many different electronic products, but introduced two computers that were important in fostering the personal computer revolution.
- Tymshare, Inc
Tymshare was founded in 1964 by two engineers from General...
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Varian is a leading firm in the provision of scientific...
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Zilog, Inc - Tandy Radio Shack Corporation (TRS) | Selling...
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Xerox Corporation - Tandy Radio Shack Corporation (TRS) |...
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This “Reservisor” system was not the first in the world, but...
- Tei, Inc
Tei, Inc - Tandy Radio Shack Corporation (TRS) | Selling the...
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Underwood Corporation - Tandy Radio Shack Corporation (TRS)...
- Wang Laboratories, Inc
Wang Laboratories, Inc - Tandy Radio Shack Corporation (TRS)...
- Tymshare, Inc
Tandy Corporation released several computer product lines starting in 1977, under both TRS-80 and Tandy branding. TRS-80 was a brand associated with several desktop microcomputer lines sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores.
In June 1991, Tandy closed or restructured its 200 Radio Shack Computer Centers, [36] acquired Computer City, and attempted to shift its emphasis away from components and cables, toward mainstream consumer electronics. [37]
- History
- Hardware
- Peripherals
- Software
- Reception
- Compatible Successors
- See Also
- Further Reading
- External Links
Development
In the mid-1970s, Tandy Corporation's Radio Shack division was a successful American chain of more than 3,000 electronics stores. Among the Tandy employees who purchased a MITS Altair kit computer was buyer Don French, who began designing his own computer and showed it to the vice president of manufacturing John V. Roach, Tandy's former electronic data processing manager. Although the design did not impress Roach, the idea of selling a microcomputer did. When the two men visited National Semi...
Announcement
Having spent less than US$150,000 on development, Radio Shack announced the TRS-80 (Tandy Radio Shack) at a New York City press conference on August 3, 1977. It cost US$399 ($2006 today), or US$599 ($3012 today) with a 12" monitor and a Radio Shack tape recorder; the most expensive product Radio Shack previously sold was a US$500stereo. The company hoped that the new computer would help Radio Shack sell higher-priced products, and improve its "schlocky" image among customers. Small businesses...
Delivery
The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with hobbyists, home users, and small businesses. Tandy Corporation's leading position in what Byte magazine called the "1977 Trinity" (Apple Computer, Commodore, and Tandy) had much to do with Tandy's retailing the computer through more than 3,000 of its Radio Shack storefronts in the USA. Tandy claimed it had "7000 [Radio Shack] stores in 40 coun...
The Model I combines the mainboard and keyboard into one unit, which became a design trend in the 8-bit microcomputer era, although the Model I has a separate power supply unit. It uses a Zilog Z80processor clocked at 1.78 MHz (later models shipped with a Z80A). The initial Level I machines shipped in late 1977-early 1978 have only 4 KB of RAM. Aft...
Cassette tape drive
User data was originally stored on cassette tape. Radio Shack's model CTR-41 cassette recorder was included with the US$599 package.: 3–4 The software-based cassette tape interface is slow and erratic; Green described it as "crummy ... drives users up the wall", and the first issue of 80 Micro has three articles on how to improve cassette performance. It is sensitive to audio volume,and the computer gives only a crude indication as to whether the correct volume was set, via a blinking charact...
Model I Expansion Interface
Only the Model I uses an Expansion Interface; all later models have everything integrated in the same housing. The TRS-80 does not use the S-100 bus like other early 8080 and Z80-based computers. A proprietary Expansion Interface (E/I) box, which fits under the video monitor and serves as its base, was offered instead. Standard features of the E/I are a floppy disk controller, Centronics parallel port for a printer, and an added cassette connector. Optionally, an extra 16 or 32 KB of RAM can...
Floppy disk drives
Radio Shack introduced floppy drives in July 1978, about six months after the Model I went on sale. The Model I disk operating system TRSDOS was written by Randy Cook under license from Radio Shack; Randy claimed to have been paid $3000 for it. The first version released to the public was a buggy v2.0. This was quickly replaced by v2.1. Floppy disk operation requires buying the Expansion Interface, which included a single-density floppy disk interface (with a formatted capacity of 85K) based...
BASIC
Three versions of the BASIC programming language were produced for the Model I. Level I BASIC fits in 4 KB of ROM, and Level II BASIC fits into 12 KB of ROM. Level I is single precision only and had a smaller set of commands. Level II introduced double precision floating point support and has a much wider set of commands. Level II was further enhanced when a disk system was added, allowing for the loading of Disk BASIC. Level I BASIC is based on Li-Chen Wang's free Tiny BASIC with more functi...
Other programming languages
Radio Shack published a combined assembler and program editing package called the Series I Assembler Editor. 80 Micromagazine printed a modification enabling it to run under the Model 4's TRSDOS Version 6. Also from Radio Shack was Tiny Pascal. Microsoft made its Fortran, COBOL and BASCOM BASICcompiler available through Radio Shack. In 1982, Scientific Time Sharing Corporation published a version of its APLfor the TRS-80 Model III as APL*PLUS/80.
Other applications
Blackjack and backgammon came with the TRS-80, and at its debut, Radio Shack offered four payroll, personal finance, and educational programs on cassette.: 3 Its own products' quality was often poor. A critical 1980 80 Micro review of a text adventuredescribed it as "yet another example of Radio Shack's inability to deal with the consumer in a consumer's market". The magazine added, "Sadly, too, as with some other Radio Shack programs, the instructions seem to assume that the reader is either...
Dan Fylstra, among the first owners, wrote in Byte in April 1978 that as an "'appliance' computer ... the TRS-80 brings the personal computer a good deal closer to the average customer", suitable for home and light business use. He concluded that it "is not the only alternative for the aspiring personal computer user, but it is a strong contender."...
Tandy replaced the Model I with the broadly compatible Model III in 1980. (The TRS-80 Model IIis an entirely different and incompatible design).
Mazur, Ken (1983). The Creative TRS-80. Creative Computing Press. ISBN 9780916688363. Retrieved October 14, 2021.Aug 3, 2022 · In 1984, Radio Shack began selling the Tandy 1000, which took its computer products on a very successful IBM PC-compatible branch. The "Tandy" brand took over full time on new PCs in 1985, including on some follow-up models of the TRS-80 line like the Tandy 102.
Aug 3, 2010 · It was with minimal expectations that, on August 3, 1977, Tandy Corporation teamed up with Radio Shack to release the TRS-80, one of the first personal computers available to consumer...
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Apr 15, 2017 · During the dawning era of the personal computer, RadioShack dipped its toes into the market with its 1977 RadioShack TRS-80 computer. This early consumer PC gained its name from a combination of...
