Trash Eighty

RadioShack's line of TRS-80 computers manufactured by Tandy. Some used the Zilog Z80 processor. Some used the Motorola 6809 or 68000 processor.

(Working from hazy memories; please improve) The TRS-80 was extremely popular, but RadioShack basically didn't know what it had on its hands. The TRS-80 was not a particularly powerful system for the time, so the hobbyists derided it. It died an ignoble death, despite having significantly fueled the home PC revolution.

My Trs-80 isn't dead, it still works, and so does my Tandy 1000, and my Hp Pavilion and my Ibm Aptiva, and my Dell Dimension, each still usable and representing a different generation. The same can be said for a 1953 Chevrolet, a 1960 Corvair, a 1967 Mustang, a 1993 Explorer and a 2000 Expedition. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It is a GoodThing to try to learn from history, since it can be instructive in what to do, as well as what not to do.

TRS-80 was very popular in Brazil even in the late 80's (GeraldoAmaral)

• According to some charts I saw and a book about the era, it was the most popular microcomputer until the early 80's when Commodore started selling VIC and C-64 in department stores. This is largely because everybody knew where to find a Radio Shack store. The Apple company and/or Apple fans tend to exaggerate Apple sales. Apple was 3rd behind Commodore (world-wide count) until VisiCalc exploded in the early 80's, which propelled it to 2nd. (If not for VisiCalc, a lucky accidental association, Apple may never have had enough to fund Mac development, and would be as dead as Commodore.)

I made my first programming moolah off of a Trash-80 back in the '70s. I was nineteen years of age and BASIC was the be-all, end-all of Computer Programming. Wow! I can't remember what the application was. It was a mailing label generator, I think. Anyway, some local business man wanted to "computerize" his operation. He bought the TRS-80 and hired a couple of kids (me and future Parsec Systems partner) to "program" it for him. Heh. Earned a couple of hamburgers from it, anyway. Plus, had enough left over to go to the movies.

More at http://www.kjsl.com/trs80/