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charon writes:

[Update: Thanks to an AC who pointed out this is a dupe of a story we previously ran: "Surfing the Internet… From My TRS-80 Model 100". As folks have already commented on this story, we'll leave it up should you wish to post new insights. --martyb]

There will always be, shall we say, driven people who want to connect ancient computer hardware to something more modern. Their Frankenstein's monster-like creations are amusing and amazing and slightly appalling. Witness: The TRS-80 Model 100!

In case you're not familiar with it or perhaps have confused it in some way with the slightly more famous TRS-80 desktop, the TRS-80 Model 100 (affectionately known among retro-computing buffs as the "T100") is the Radio Shack-branded version of an early "laptop" computer developed by Kyocera and Microsoft. It was the last system for which Bill Gates wrote a significant amount of code. As we reported in our initial hands-on tour of the Model 100, he considered it his favorite machine ever. (Sadly, Gates was unavailable to take this trip with us down memory lane.)

The machine has some nostalgic significance to me as well—I filed one of my first assignments as a technology journalist with a Model 100, connecting to MCI Mail over dial-up in a phone booth using acoustic couplers. At the time, the machine was a reporter's dream: 20 hours or more of life on four AA batteries plus built-in text editing, address book, calendar, and communications applications burned into an onboard ROM chip. It was easy to overlook the fact that even the top-end Model 100 only had 24 kilobytes of RAM. Literally any modern device surpasses that figure.

My current Model 100 came with a bit of a handicap; it didn't include the AC power supply, the original cables, or the cassette drive used to store and retrieve programs. The documentation was a photocopied, ring-bound duplicate for NEC's version of the same system, so there were a few minor but significant differences. And while many current Model 100 enthusiasts have upgraded the ROM of their systems to extend their capabilities, this one came with the stock ROM from 1984.

To date, I have a well-documented history of trying to drag 1980s technology into the 21st Century. I wasn't going to let a little thing like "no possible way of loading a TCP/IP stack" get in my way.

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