[Air-l] timeline: TRS 80

[Ellis Godard]

What I remember as the Trash-80 (and what Jim and Alex have mentioned) were
four models (original, "Model II", "Model III", and "Model 4") of desktops
made 1977-c.1983. 

What you're remembering your journalist friends carrying were two latter
additions to the series, the TRS-80 PC-1 (1981-?) and the TRS-80 PC-2
(1982-?) - though even those ceased production in the mid-80s, so that I'd
be surprised if any journalist you knew was carrying one in the mid-90s. 

All six were superceded by the Model 600, in 1985, which combined features
of each (portability of the PC-X models, and bulk of the desktops), which
itself was the precursor of the first generation of "laptops".

I made use of a friend's Trash-80 (model 200, c.1979) for a short time, then
got an Apple II+ (c.1980), finally replaced with a Datavue Spark (which
itself ought to be added to the Timeline, as one of the first laptops ever
made, with 640KB Ram and a 9.77MHz processor, woo-hoo!).

For photos of any one these (to toggle your memory, or meander memory lane)
see 
http://www.old-computers.com/search/default.asp

-eg

> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Barry Wellman
> Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 10:01 AM
> To: aoir list
> Subject: [Air-l] timeline: TRS 80
> 
> 
> Jeremy DePauw says he is really interested in Journalists'
> use over time.
> 
> Am I the only one old enuf to remember the TRS-80 from Radio
> Shack, known as the Trash-80. It had a screen of only a few 
> lines, but a full keyboard, and was small and lite to carry. 
> Smaller than a current ultra-portable.
> 
> All 4 of my journalist friends of those days (mid-1990s?)
> carried them.
> 
> I'm sure a little surfing will find more.
> 
>  Barry Wellman
> _____________________________________________________________________
> 
>   Barry Wellman   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology   NetLab Director
>   Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
>   455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8    fax:+1-416-978-7162
>   wellman at chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
>         for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
>  _____________________________________________________________________
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> The air-l at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers
> http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: 
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
> 
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>