The real history of the personal computer: Radio Shack TRS-80

The TRS-80 Model 1 holds a special place in my heart.

In the late 80's I was a newly-graduated EE working at a tiny hardware manufacturer. Our primary test machines were Model 1's because they were so simple they were basically bulletproof and could handle all sorts of weird conditions encountered when testing hardware coming out of production. Besides, they were so cheap that if we somehow managed to let the magic smoke out of one (rarely), it went in the dumpster and another one was taken off the shelf and the production test software loaded onto it; we had about a dozen or so in storage at any given time.

Nothing like powering up a computer and having it boot within seconds to a "Microsoft BASIC>" prompt. Sometimes I really miss those days of "this is so much fun I can't believe they're actually paying me to do this!"

I recall in about grade 1 or so, my school bought a few TRS-80 model 3's. Each one had a name "FRED" "BERT" (I can't remember the real names)

Interestingly, many years later when graduating from university, a load of old computer gear from the school district was dumped off by truck - and among the antiquated stuff were what looked like old TRS80-IIIs. I picked them up, dusted them off, and found the sticker on the side with the name on them - they were the actual computers from back when I was 6, from my old school.

The university was nice enough to let me take one home - where it still sits, silent, waiting for the day when I clean it up and actually do something with it (it still works - missing a key or two from years of abuse)