TRS-80  |   Future


 

TRS-80
The Apple was expensive, inaccesable.  The Commodore 64 was trendy, somewhat powerful, but very limited.  The TRS-80 was a smart machine, able to do a lot of the things the rich machines could do.  Not only was the machine used by businesses, but also by budding youth programmers who used the machine as a gateway to bigger systems (UNIX).  The TRS-80 was Tandy/Radio Shack's first PC.  The first model was sold on August 3, 1977 for $599.95.  Here are the specs. of the Model1:

     --CPU: Z-80 (1.77 MHz)
     --RAM: 4K-48K (4K Standard, Expandable to 16K in the Unit - Additional 32K through Expansion Interface)
     --ROM: 12K
     --Language: Microsoft Basic (in ROM)
     --VIDEO: 12" RCA white-on-black monitor (16 lines x 64 characters text; 48 x 128 graphical 'squots')
     --I/O: 250 Baud (Level I)/500 Baud (Level II) Casette (5 Pin DIN), Video Out (5 Pin DIN), Power (5 Pin DIN),
     --Printer Port (40 Pin Edge Connector)
     --I/O Option: Expansion Interface which would house a RS-232, Disk Drive Controller, Printer Port, and up to 48K RAM.
     --I/O Option: 5 MB Hard Drive
     --I/O Option: Exatron Stringy Floppy
     --Storage: Casette. Optional 89K Floppy Drive (with DOS) / 102K (without DOS) -- 184K Floppy if Double Density was user installed.
     --Option: Voice Syntesizer (Radio Shack)

Here's a link for the TRS-80 page:  http://www.kjsl.com/trs80/
This is an emulator of the TRS-80, works in Win9x (by Wade Fincher):  Win TRS-80
For a TRS-80 experience (Model III) you can actually telnet to:  frank.searchlight.com -- this BBS runs on a TRS-80 through a Win95 serial port
 
 
 
 
 
 


The Future
2199
We've abandoned aluminum, copper, gold circuitry, mankind has looked to the worlds fastest computer, the human brain.  By
using tissue from the brain and taking advantage of the speed of neuron firing we have developed computers that go beyond finite
states and are capable of "thinking."  In education, computers are able to adapt to students needs and most human teachers have
been replaced with machines.  The bizarre part is that it seems like these educational neural computers have been raising generations
of children accustomed to computers having authority over them.  Have these computers broken from of their users and established
electronic freedom?