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posted by janrinok on Saturday August 06 2022, @05:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the fine-and-Tandy dept.

Radio Shack's First PC: 45 Years of TRS-80:

45 years ago, Radio Shack released the TRS-80 Micro Computer System, a 1977 personal computer that launched an era of low-cost PCs along with computers from Apple and Commodore. Here's what was special about it.

On August 3, 1977, Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80 Micro Computer System for $599.95—about $2,904 today adjusted for inflation. This complete system included a main unit with a built-in keyboard, a cassette recorder, and a monochrome monitor. After the introduction of the Model II later, this first model became known as the TRS-80 Model I. In 1977, the TRS-80's $599.95 price was a big deal. To compare, the Apple II sold for $1298 with 4K of RAM (that's a whopping $6284 today), and it didn't include a monitor or a storage device.

But you always get what you pay for: The original TRS-80 was a fairly primitive machine. Under the hood, the TRS-80 utilized its Z-80 CPU at 1.77 MHz and included a mere 4 kilobytes (KB) of RAM. Its video could only display 64 columns and 16 rows of monochrome text (all uppercase) with no support for true bitmapped graphics (although by using a block-shaped text character, you could create a 128×48 pixel display). It also did not include any sound hardware, but many programs used a trick to output simple sounds through the cassette port.


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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by maxwell demon on Saturday August 06 2022, @07:17AM (1 child)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Saturday August 06 2022, @07:17AM (#1265238) Journal

    I'm closer to the grave than to the cradle

    There's an easy fix to that: Buy a cradle, and put it close to you. Unless you happen to live on a graveyard, this ensures that you are closer to the cradle than to the grave.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by khallow on Saturday August 06 2022, @11:23AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 06 2022, @11:23AM (#1265248) Journal
    Another problem solved by the hive mind of the internet!