03/29/2023 at 00:01 by Henner Schröder – Radio Shack launches the TRS-80, the first portable computer on the market – that happened on March 29th. Every day, PC Games Hardware takes a look back at the young but eventful history of the computer.
…1983: The TRS-80 Model 100 is considered the first portable computer. The TRS-80 was launched by Radio Shack in the US on March 29th. It was based on a 2.4 MHz processor (yes, there is actually a comma between the 2 and the 4), an Intel 80C85 and was equipped with 8 to 24 KiBytes (not MiBytes) of RAM. The keyboard had 56 keys and an LCD with 8 lines of 40 characters each – characters, not pixels! A modem with 300 baud, the usual interfaces and an interface to a tape drive complete the equipment. The 32 KiB ROM contained five pre-installed programs including an address book, Microsoft Basic, a scheduler and a text editor.
The NEC PC-8201 and the Olivetti M-10 also use the same system basis and all three were built by Kyocera. The low weight of about 2 kilograms (3.9 pounds) and the software package enabled the Radio Shack model to sell well in the business segment. It also only cost $799 to $1,134 depending on the RAM configuration.
