©Mark Ollig
In
1977, Radio Shack, a subsidiary of the Tandy Corporation, announced it would
begin selling the TRS-80 personal computer.
T-R-S
stands for Tandy Radio Shack.
The
80 at the end of TRS-80 stands for the Z80 microprocessor used in the computer.
The
Z80 was made by a company called ZiLOG, which, in 1974, became a corporation
based out of California.
The
Z80 microprocessor had an original clock speed of 1.78 MHz.
The
TRS-80 was a home computer containing the keyboard and display monitor. The computer
processing and associated electronic components are inside of the keyboard
housing.
In
August of 1977, I was in the Brainerd Radio Shack store to purchase a new
radio. I recall seeing the TRS-80 on display and thought about buying it. When
I learned the TRS-80 cost $600 ($2,536 in 2019 dollars), I decided to hold off
on purchasing it.
Looking
back 42 years ago, I considered computers as being used by the military,
weather forecasters, NASA, and for predicting and processing election results,
or tabulating the US Census. I did not see the immediate advantages of owning
one.
The
magazine, Popular Electronics, features articles on how to build your own
electronic devices.
During
the 1970s, one of the regularly seen advertisements in the magazine included
Heathkits.
Heathkits
contained the electronic components and instructions needed to make a variety
of useful electronic gadgets. Many electronic hobbyists ordered and worked on
Heathkits.
The
January 1975 front cover of Popular Electronics featured a photograph of the
build-it-yourself “World’s First Minicomputer” called the Altair 8800, designed
by H. Edward Roberts of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS).
The
Altair 8800 kit containing the components cost $439, while the fully-assembled
Altair 8800 computer sold for $621.
“If
you can handle a soldering iron and follow simple instructions, you can build a
computer,” read the Altair 8800 advertisement.
The
Altair 8800 computer’s input/output interface consisted of toggle switches and
binary lights.
During
its first year, over 5,000 Altair 8800 computers were sold.
Many
feel the development of the personal computer among computer hobbyists, was due
to the popularity of the Altair 8800.
I
once read how Paul Allen showed the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics,
featuring the Altair 8800 microcomputer on the front cover, to Bill Gates.
Allen
and Gates would later sit down and write the code for a BASIC program which
executed software programs on the Altair computer.
Four
months later, Allen and Gates started a microcomputer software company called
Microsoft.
There
have been computer hobbyists around since the mid-1960s.
Building
a digital minicomputer in 1965 could cost $20,000, which is equivalent to
$162,600 in today’s dollars.
The
TRS-80 Model I computer came equipped with 4KB (4,000 bytes) of RAM (Random
Access Memory) and Level I BASIC ROM (Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic
Instruction Code – Read-Only Memory).
The
TRS-80’s display screen was a 12-inch video monitor. Loading and saving of the
software and programming data were accomplished using a Realistic CTR-41
cassette tape recorder. A TRS-80 peripheral printer could be added for a pricey
$1,200.
During
the ‘70s, we recorded and stored music off the radio onto cassette tapes, and
computer hobbyists used cassettes to load and store data and software programs.
Some
of the software titles used on the TRS-80 included:
Home
Recipe;
Personal
Finance;
Math
I;
Algebra
I;
Backgammon/Blackjack;
Payroll;
and
Level-I
BASIC Course.
Floppy
disk drives in personal computers were commonly used a few years later.
In
1980, the TRS-80 floppy drive unit sold for about $425.
The
same year, Radio Shack introduced their TRS-80 Model III, a pocket computer,
and an interface for using a color display monitor.
During
August 1977, the first month the TRS-80 computer was publicly available, Radio
Shack sold 10,000 computers at an average price of $600 each.
I
was reading on the Radio Shack historical home pages about how their stores
were flooded with orders and soon sold out their stock of TRS-80s. They were
backordered for months.
Radio
Shack sold 55,000 TRS-80 computers during 1977.
The
TRS-80 became famous for being one of the first affordable fully-assembled home
computers; plus, it was a “computer” – which, in the late ‘70s, gave one
bragging rights when mentioned during a conversation.
Was
the TRS-80 a portable computer? Well, not really, but you could purchase
carrying cases for it from the Radio Shack store.
Radio
Shack was founded in 1921 by two brothers, Milton and Theodore Deutschmann from
Boston, MA.
The
term “radio shack” is a reference to the location for a small cabin housing a
naval ship’s radio equipment.
The
primary reason the two brothers started this company was to provide electronic
radio equipment for police radio officers and amateur ham radio operators.
That’s why they called their company, “Radio Shack.”
A
full-page color advertisement for the 1977 TRS-80 computer can be seen at
https://bit.ly/2KurUBD.
Radio
Shack ended production of the TRS-80 in 1981.
To
learn more about the Radio Shack TRS-80, visit https://bit.ly/2MExNPn.
More
information about the Altair 8800 can be found at https://s.si.edu/2WrTOH9.
