TRS-80 Color Computer (1980)

Introduced September 1980

The original TRS-80 (launched in 1977) was one of the “holy trinity” of early consumer-friendly microcomputers along with the Apple II and Commodore PET. Capable though the original was, it lacked colour and sound which was what the next-generation of home micros would provide, so in September 1980 Tandy Radio Shack launched the TRS-80 Color Computer.

It had almost nothing in common with the original TRS-80 Model I except for the name. Crucially the Color Computer (often called the “CoCo”) didn’t have the Z80 processor that gave the “80” to the Model I’s name but instead it included a Motorola 6809. Indeed, the whole thing was more Motorola than Tandy – the basis of the CoCo was a Motorola-designed Videotex terminal which Tandy joined in to manufacture and market.

TRS-80 Color Computer 1

 

The 6809 was a bit more sophisticated than the Z80 and the rival 6502, and the more powerful Motorola 68000 was still an expensive and rather niche device. This was combined with a Motorola MC6847 graphics chip and there was an optional sound and speech cartridge.

Although the CoCo had pretty powerful graphics capabilities it was complex to get the most out of them, and the machine had some odd quirks such as being unable to display pure white and lacking lowercase character support. At launch the CoCo had 4, 16 or 32KB of RAM but later models shipped in 16 or 64KB configurations, and the last series of Color Computers could support up to 512KB.. and wonder of wonders, even lowercase text.

Over eleven years the hardware evolved somewhat with three distinct series of computers being made with different case colours, detailing and keyboards. The third and last series had improved graphics, built-in software and better support for peripherals. The larger memory allowed the sophisticated OS-9 operating system to run which brought a modern operating system to this fairly simple 8-bit machine.

TRS-80 Color Computer 2

Production ended in 1991, which wasn’t bad for an 8-bit machine. It was more popular in North America than in Europe, but the same Motorola reference platform emerged in the somewhat CoCo-compatible Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 a few years later.

For collectors, the CoCo isn’t an expensive buy and is commonly available in the US, however those run on a different voltage and have different video standards to European ones. Plenty of software emulators are available if you fancy tinkering on more modern hardware.

Image credits:
Adam Jenkins via Flickr - CC BY 2.0 - [1] [2]

Acorn System 1 (1979)

Acorn System 1

Launched March 1979

British company Acorn had a history of innovation during the 1980s, with commercial offerings starting with the popular 6502 CPU and eventually ending up with the all-conquering ARM processor which you probably have in your smartphone today.

In March 1979, Acorn launched what was essentially the precursor for their consumer microcomputer range – the Acorn System 1. Following a similar pattern to the KIM-1 and Apple I, the System 1 was a board computer rather like a modern Raspberry Pi. Instead of a single-board design, the System 1 was two boards connected together with a ribbon cable.

At its heart was the ubiquitous 6502 CPU clocked at 1 MHz with just over 1K of RAM. Input was via a 25 key keypad and the System 1 outputted to a small LED display. Data could be saved to a cassette, and it was possible to add expansion hardware too. Aimed primarily at scientists and engineers, the relatively low price of the System 1 also appealed to tech enthusiasts.

The System 1 evolved into the Eurocard-based Systems 2, 3, 4 and 5. Acorn adapted the System 3 into Acorn’s first home system, the Atom. In turn, the Atom was developed into what is probably the definitive Acorn microcomputer, the BBC Micro. And in turn, this led us to the ARM-based Archimedes with the processor that changed the world.

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.

You’d be hard-pressed to find an original Acorn System 1 today, but replica boards and components are available if you want to build one yourself, or alternatively an emulator is available.

Image credit: Flibble via Wikimedia Commons

Atari VCS / 2600 (1977)

Launched September 1977

1977 was the dawn of home computing, with the Apple II, Commodore PET and TRS-80 Model I all being launched within months of each other. But another early computing pioneer also found success in the same year, and that was Atari.

Launched in September 1977, the Atari Video Computer System (“VCS”) was an early second generation console that came after the 1970s wave of single purpose games machines that could typically play Pong and nothing else. Based around a cut-down version of the 6502 CPU called the 6507, the Atari VCS was designed from the start to be a highly flexible system that could play a wide variety of games.

Atari VCS "Heavy Sixer" (1977)

One key thing that made the VCS easy to use was the cartridge system. Instead of struggling to load a game from tape or splashing out on a very expensive floppy disk drive, the VCS loaded in games from cartridges instead. Although it wasn’t the first cartridge console on the market, the VCS was the first one to be a real success.

Games included the ubiquitous Pong, Space Invaders, Breakout, Pitfall, Centipede, Defender and later on a poorly received version of Pac-Man and the infamous E.T. Despite the VCS’s fairly crude colour graphics and sound and the relatively high price of the cartridges themselves, the VCS and many of its games went on to sell in huge numbers.

Atari 2600 ad (1982)

Priced at just $199 at launch, including a game and two joysticks, the VCS represented impressive value for money. Cartridges were relatively expensive, typically coming in at $20 or more. However the cartridges were easy to use… and crucially for Atari, almost impossible to pirate.

The original VCS models were made in Sunnyvale, California and are known as “heavy sixers” because they have six switches on the top and a more solid construction than the later “light sixers” built in Hong Kong. Further revisions followed, with the fake wood panel surviving until 1982, but the VCS name was changed to 2600 in 1980. In one form or another, the VCS / 2600 remained in production until 1992, giving the console a staggering 15 year run with almost unchanged hardware, selling 30 million units in the US alone.

Despite ending production, the VCS / 2600 remained popular, and in 2004 a modern interpretation was made called the Atari Flashback which is currently in its eighth generation. A top-of-the-range Flashback with an HDMI connector and a huge number of games costs around €170, an original 2600 console can cost from next to nothing up to several hundred euro depending on exact model, condition and bundled games with consoles quite commonly available.

In 1983 a crash in the video games market led to Atari being sold by its then parent company, Warner Communications, and it split into two. On part of it was bought by Jack Tramiel (who founded rivals Commodore) and which later went on to make home computers including the Atari ST. The company’s name and assets have changed hands many times over the years, but “Atari” still exists as a gaming brand today.

Image credits:

Tom Simpson via Flickr

Pino Dita via Flickr

TRS-80 Model I (1977)

TRS-80 Model I

Launched August 1977

1977 saw three key products launched that helped to bring microcomputers into homes and businesses. These were the Commodore PET, Apple II and the TRS-80 which was launched in August 1977.

The TRS-80 (later called the TRS-80 Model I) was sold worldwide through Tandy and Radio Shack stores, and used a Zilog Z80 processor - this gave the computer its "TRS-80" moniker. Designed relatively quickly, the TRS-80 was both versatile and troublesome which gave rise to a nickname of "Trash-80". Despite the problems, the TRS-80 was a significant commercial success and several other products were released under the "TRS-80" name over the years.

Back in 1977, Radio Shack owned over 3000 stores in the US with hundreds more worldwide either using the "Radio Shack" name or the "Tandy" name of its parent company. Inspired by the success of the Altair 8800 launched in 1974 and with a desire to sell higher-ticket items, Radio Shack engineers quickly designed an expandable fully-assembled computer with prices at launch as low as $500 (compared to $1300 for the Apple II).

TRS-80 with Expansion Interface

The original TRS-80 had its problems. Firstly, the ability to display lowercase characters was deleted in order to save a few dollars of the price, the supplied monitors were of questionable quality, the keyboards suffered from keybounce (where multiple characters get entered for one keypress), the cassette tape interface was unreliable, the floppy disk system was full of bugs, connectors ended up suffering from corrosion and the expansion interface would tend to make the whole computer reboot. The implementation of BASIC was also pretty crude and the operating system was somewhat primitive. The graphics were also crude, there was no support for colour and there was no sound.

Despite these the TRS-80 had the advantage that you could not only rock up to a Radio Shack store and buy one, but if it went wrong you could take it back to the same store and they would fix it. This was a huge advantage over Apple and Commodore who had to build up a distribution network through partners. The design was steadily improved and problems fixed by Tandy themselves, and a range of aftermarket accessories and replacements became available to fix some of the design defects.

Peripherals continued to become available, including hard disks and printers and joysticks and third party suppliers made a wide range of software available for the TRS-80 (even if Tandy didn't publicise the fact very well). Various operating systems were available too, some through Tandy and several more through third parties, giving the TRS-80 an appeal to tinkerers are well as the home and small business users it was aimed at.

TRS-80 Model III

The first major revision of the TRS-80 came in 1980 with the Model III (the Model II was something different) which moved everything into one box with better hardware and software overall. In 1983 the Model 4 was launched with further enhancements and the ability to run CP/M. There was also a transportable version launched the same year, the TRS-80 4P, and the final model released was the 4D in 1985 – this model remained available until 1991.

The Model I and its successors sold well in North America and Germany, but not so well in other markets such as the UK. Although the TRS-80 name found its way onto many other computers of varying success, these were all largely incompatible as they had very different architectures. Over the next few years Tandy’s microcomputer business continued to grow and they manufactured a variety of systems for other companies as well as their own. However, in 1993 Tandy quit making computers and sold its assets to AST.

Tandy and Radio Shack continued going, but a slow decline had set in. In 2015 Tandy/Radio Shack declared bankruptcy, followed by a buyout and another bankruptcy in 2017. At present a few stores are left trading, but the once great Tandy/Radio Shack empire is just a faint echo of what it once was.

These days if you are after any model of TRS-80 will will probably have to import one from the US (remember in Europe you'll need a transformer else you will blow the power supply). Prices go up to about $500 or so depending on model and specifications.

Image credits: HoCC Swansea / David Wale via Flickr

Mr Gray via Flickr

Bilby via Wikimedia Commons

Apple II (1977)

Apple II (1977)

Released June 1977

Think of great Apple products. There’s the iPod, iPad and the iPhone which were all launched between 2001 and 2010, the original Apple Mac which was launched in 1984... and before that was the Apple II, launched in 1977.

Like all those other devices, the Apple II really represented a paradigm shift. It was one of the very first professionally designed, pre-built and fully-features microcomputers that just anybody with enough money could go out to buy.

Just one year previously, Apple had launched the Apple I. Technologically similar to the Apple II, Apple’s original computer didn’t even come with basic things such as a keyboard or case. The Apple II took those underpinnings, including the 6502 CPU, and created a computer “appliance” rather than a hobbyist kit.

As with the Apple I, Steve Wozniak designed the internals which Steve Jobs took on marketing and responsibility for industrial design. Jobs gave the task of designing the look of the Apple II to Jerry Manock, a fairly unsung hero of Apple design who was responsible for many of their early products.

Manock’s design of the system and many of its peripherals gave the Apple II a coherent and professional look. But inside, Wozniak had used several clever tricks to develop a machine that outclassed its early 8-bit opposition in many ways, in particular with rudimentary colour and sound. Added to that, the Apple II had impressive expansion capabilities including a variety of add-on cards that could eventually give SCSI, parallel and serial interfaces, and there were games paddles, disk drives and more. Peculiarly the Apple II was hindered by only being able to display uppercase characters.

VisiCalc (1979)

The introductory price in the US was just shy of $1300, which over $5000 in today’s prices. That seems like a lot, but you can easily spend that much money on a high-end Mac even today. The Apple II was a huge success, even at those prices, and in one form or another it continued on sale until 1993. It also helped to create the microcomputer software industry, including VisiCalc – the first electronic spreadsheet for personal computers.

The Apple II went through several fairly minor revisions during its 16 year lifespan. One reason for this unusual longevity was the II’s success in schools in the United States, where a wide range of software took advantage of the II’s colour capabilities.

For collectors, there are usually quite a range of Apple IIs available second-hand. Prices range from few hundred dollars for a basic system up to several thousand for rarer versions, including the original “Revision 0” units. Alternatively, software emulators are available for most platforms and are much cheaper.

Along with the Commodore PET and the Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80, the Apple II helped to introduce many households and businesses to computing and in doing so they changed the world forever.

Image credits: Rama & Musée Bolo via Wikimedia Commons
apple2history.org via Wikipedia

Cambridge Z88 (1987)

Launched February 1987

Launched in February 1987, the Cambridge Computer Z88 (usually just called the "Cambridge Z88") was a Sinclair by any other name. A compact, A4-sized ultraportable computer, the Z88 was a design success even if it didn't quite become the big seller that was hoped.

In 1986, Clive Sinclair had sold the rights to the Sinclair name and product line-up (primarily consisting of the ZX Spectrum) to Amstrad. However, his company still existed under a different name and the Z88 was the product of long running research to produce a portable computer.

As was typical for a high-profile 1980s product, the Z88 was announced a long time before it was available in quantity. First demonstrated in February 1987, it didn't really get to market in any quantity until 1988. And unlike previous Sinclair machines, the Z88 was something of a niche device targeting customers who wanted to do things on the move rather than sitting at a desk.

Measuring 294 x 210 x 21mm the Z88 was the same size and weights as a pad of around 200 sheets of A4 paper. Most of the front of the Z88 was taken up by a large rubbery keyboard, and at the top was an 8-line 640 x 64 pixel STN LCD screen which was very advanced for its time. Underneath, the Z88 had a Z80 CPU running at 3.3MHz with 32K of RAM and it could store data on either volatile RAM cards or an EPROM card which wouldn't lose data when the machine was powered off. The Z88 was powered by four AA batteries which could give up to 20 hours use.

The operating system was called Oz, and the Z88 came with BBC Basic, a terminal emulator, a word processor / spreadsheet application and some personal information management tools. Applications could be suspended and resumed, giving the Z88 a limited multitasking ability. New applications could be added through the EPROM slot, and data could be transferred to and from the Z88 using a serial cable.

The Z88 found a particular niche as a note-taker. The large keyboard was effectively silent (unless the optional click was turned on), and the long battery life and readable screen certainly helped here too. But since the Z88 was a fully-featured 8-bit computer it could do many other things too.

The Z88 became a bit of a cult machine, with after market upgrades to allow Flash memory storage and more RAM becoming available. Accessories and add-ons are still available as well. On the second-hand market the prices for the Z88 vary on condition and accessories, with UK prices ranging from around £50 to £130.

In the end, the Z88 was probably too far ahead of its time. These days we are all used to carrying a computer about in our pocket, but thirty years ago it was a novelty. This was the last computer project from Sinclair's own company and although a variety of other projects were started at a later date they could never repeat the success that Sinclair had in the 1970s and 1980s.

Image credits: Evan-Amos via Wikimedia Commons, Bill Bertram via Wikimedia Commons

Commodore PET (1977)

Early model Commodore PET

Announced January 1977

Throughout the mid-1970s there were the seeds of a revolution were being sown. After 1975 hobbyist microcomputers such as the Altair 8800 were being offered to the public. After that, relatively low-cost microprocessors such as the Zilog Z80 and the MOS Technology 6502 had been developed into basic systems and board such as the Apple I and KIM-1, but these still were still strictly for hobbyists and engineers.

But 1977 saw the first systems that businesses or consumers could buy and use out-of-the-box. Professionally designed and fully functional, these early commercial offerings sparked the revolution that had been brewing for a few years. This year saw the launch of three highly significant systems in the US - the Commodore PET, Apple II and Tandy TRS-80.

The Commodore PET was announced at CES in January 1977, although the first units didn't ship until October and production levels didn't really meet until early 1978. In terms of announcement date, the PET beat its Tandy and Apple rivals, but those those systems actually shipped to consumers earlier.

The name PET stood for "Personal Electronic Transactor", and it was strikingly designed in an all-metal case with an integrated chiclet keyboard and data cassette recorder. Perched on top was a trapezoid-shaped 9" CRT display, giving the whole thing a look reminiscent of a Mesoamerican pyramid.

Commodore was no startup company - founded in 1954 it had started with typewriters before moving into adding machines and electronic calculators. Founded by industry legend Jack Tramiel, Commodore had bought Chuck Peddle's MOS Technology to secure supplies of the 6502 processor for use in calculator products. Peddle convinced Tramiel that a microcomputer was the way forward, and since Commodore was being hit by a slump in fortunes after a collapse in the calculator market, the company changed direction.

Early PETs featured a 1 MHz 6502 CPU, with RAM options ranging from 4KB to 32KB. Storage was a built in data cassette ("datasette") next to the keyboard, which did mean that on early versions the keyboard was a cramped affair. Over time a wide range of upgrades became available, including floppy and hard disks, printers, plotters and the PET's IEEE-488 interface could talk to a variety of scientific and engineering equipment too.

Later model Commodore PETs

Over the five years of production there were various upgraded models, with better keyboards, bigger screens, more RAM and better graphics. Along the way the cute "PET" name was dropped and the machines took on the name "CBM" (for Commodore Business Machines), but it didn't stop people calling them "PETs".

The PET sold very strongly into schools and colleges, thanks to its sturdy construction and reliability. However, the poor graphics capabilities meant that it didn't sell well in the booming home market, so Commodore followed up the PET with the successful VIC-20 in 1980 and the legendary Commodore 64 in 1982, both based on the 6502 processor. The 64 sold in millions and is the biggest selling computer model of all time.

Prices today for these machines varies from next-to-nothing up to €1000 or so, depending on model and condition. Although the PETs themselves were highly reliable, disk drives were always less common and more fragile and can be hard to find today. Alternatively, if you fancy a virtual PET rather than a physical one the VICE emulator emulates pretty much all 8-bit Commodore machines and runs on a wide variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac and even Android smartphones.

Image credits: Tomislav Medak (Flickr)  / Bill Bertram (Wikimedia Commons)
and Seth Morabito (Flickr)

Zilog Z80 (1976)

Launched July 1976

During the late 1970s and early 1980s the majority of home microcomputers ran on one of two processors: the MOS Technologies 6502 or the Zilog Z80 which was officially launched forty years ago this month.

A relatively sophisticated 8-bit processor, the Z80 found its way into a variety of computer systems such as the Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 and Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and PCW range, Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 plus a variety of less-known systems. In business it found its way into a very wide variety of CP/M systems including the Osborne 1 and Kaypro II.

It also found itself into embedded systems, calculators, musical instruments and communications systems. In some ways the versatility of the Z80 predated today's ARM cores, with Z80s popping up all over the place.

What may surprise you is that even after 40 years of production, you can still buy new Z80s (part numbers Z84C0008PEG or Z84C0010PEG) for about €3.50, in the original 40-pin configuration. Not bad going for a simple 8-bit CPU.

Image Credit: Mark Ramsey, Flickr

Apple I (1976)

Apple I at the Computer History Museum, California

Launched July 1976

Forty years ago this month, Apple introduced their first product - the Apple I (also known as the Apple-1). Billed as a "fully assembled" system, in fact it was just a bare board to which the user had to add a power supply, case, keyboard, monitor and to be of any use a cassette interface was available too.

Based on the 6502 processor launched the previous year, the Apple I was a major step-up from the KIM-1 single board computer, although it was more than twice the price at $666.66 (around $2400 in today's prices). The KIM-1 was a primitive device compared to the Apple, which had 4KB of RAM as standard (expandable to 48KB), could output 40 x 24 characters on a composite video display, and when supplied with the cassette interface it could run BASIC.

Only around 200 units were ever produced, many of which were traded in for Apple II systems introduced in 1977. Maybe 60 or so Apple I machines still exist and examples can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Each system was hand-built by Steve Wozniak in the garage of the parents of Steve Jobs.

Apple I signed by Steve Wozniak

The Apple I was on the market for a little over a year before it was replaced by the Apple II, the iconic 8-bit computer that sold around six million units. Technologically it wasn't much of a step up from the Apple I, but the II really was a fully assembled device that anyone could use rather than a hobbyist system. The Apple II continued in production for 15 years.

Although it sold in tiny numbers, the niche success certainly helped set up the Apple II and that is certainly a machine that transformed the early microcomputing scene. But if you want to see one.. go to a museum.

Image credits [1] [2] 

Acorn BBC Master (1986)

Launched 1986

Thirty years ago we were seeing a great shift from away from the first generation of 8-bit home computers to 16 and 32-bit platforms such as the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. But 8-bit computing wasn't dead yet, and low cost devices such as the Amstrad CPC 6128 and PCW along with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128 showed that there was still life in these simple devices yet. The Acorn BBC Master belonged firmly in the second camp, an improvement over the original BBC Micro launched five years earlier. There were various models of Master available, but the most common one was the Master 128.

Although the original BBC Micro was a popular and technically capable device, one key problem it had was the lack of memory. The 6502 processor at its core could only directly address 64KB of memory, 32KB of which was used by the ROM and up to 20KB was used by graphics.. and a about half of the meagre amount left was allocated to the system. The BBC Master 128 got round this problem by allowing memory to be addressed in banks which could be paged in and out when needed.

The Master added two cartridge slots and a slightly upgraded processor, and crucially video memory was now separate from main memory. As ever, the array of expansion ports was impressive - there was a floppy disk interface, optional network interface, A-D convertor port, serial and parallel port, plus expansion ports and most interesting of all a "Tube" interface for a second processor.

The Tube allowed for a second 6502 processor, or a Zilog Z80 allowing CP/M capabilities or even a National Semiconductor 32016 which could run a variant of Unix. When running with a Tube coprocessor, the Master simply handled the input and output which allowed the Master to run theoretically anything that could be squeezed into one of the beige expansion boxes.

There were other versions of the Master too, notable the Master Compact with a difference case design and integrated 3.5" disk, the Master AIV (used in the BBC Domesday Project) and the Master 512 with an Intel 80186 CPU and 512KB of RAM. In one form or another, the Master was around until 1994 when it was finally discontinued. It proved quite popular, primarily in the UK education market.

Although it had some interesting features, it was hardly a groundbreaking machine. As it turns out, Acorn were developing something that would change the world - the ARM-based Acorn Archimedes that was launched the next year. But more about that another day. These days the price a BBC Master ranged between around £50 to over £200 depending on condition and peripherals.

Image credits: [1] [2]

MOS Technologies KIM-1 (1976)

Launched April 1976

These days, single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi and Arduino are all the rage. These small and inexpensive devices are ideal for hobbyist and industrial application, but of course this is not a new idea. Forty years ago one of the most important single-board computers was launched: the MOS Technologies KIM-1.

MOS Technologies had produced low-cost 6502 processor the previous year, but (as today) the problem was getting it into the hands of people who could actually DO something with it. So, the KIM-1 was produced as a basic bare-boned system that people could adapt, at the relatively affordable price of $295 (equivalent to around $1050 today).

It was a primitive device. The 8-bit 6502 CPU came with 1K of RAM, a small LED display, and a hexadecimal keypad. It had a couple of expansion ports and pair of serial interfaces, which meant that it could be paired with a teletype for output or a cassette recorder. Later independently-produced expansion modules included a video board.
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The design was adapted and expanded by other manufacturers too, and the KIM-1 and its derivatives became a significant success and helped to establish the 6502 as one of the key processors of the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the end, MOS Technologies ended up being bought up by Commodore, and the ideas behind the KIM-1 were expanded and eventually developed into the Commodore PET.

In Europe, the KIM-1 is a very rare device indeed. They are occasionally available in the US with prices ranging between $300 to $1000, with a typical price of around $700. Of course, in order to get it the best out of it you would need a whole pile of obsolete equipment to go with it, or alternatively you can bamboozle yourself with this Javascript KIM-1 emulator.

Image credits [1] [2]

Amstrad PCW 8256 (1985)

Launched September 1985

Thirty years ago we were seeing the dawn of 32-bit home computing with the state-of-the-art Commodore Amiga and Atari ST coming to market. The Amstrad PCW 8256 was also the exact opposite to these, and yet it turned out to be an enormous success in the countries it was launched in.

Back in the 1980s, wordprocessing was one of the most common things you’d do on a computer. Email and other online services were rudimentary and only used by a tiny handful of people, so things such as business correspondence were sent on bits of paper.

If you wanted to use something better than a typewriter, then you’d need a word processor. These tended to be expensive, or very difficult to set up. Or usually both. But the Amstrad PCW tackled both of those problems head on.

As with the Amstrad CPC range, the PCW was a combination of very cheap components cleverly packaged together. Based on a Zilog Z80 processor with 256Kb of RAM, and running the CP/M operating system (both designed in the mid 1970s), you could hardly call the PCW a high-tech device.

The package included a monochrome monitor, keyboard, one or two 3” floppy disks and crucially it came with a basic dot matrix printer in the package. With the possible exception of the floppy disks you had to buy, none of these components was very expensive, and this enabled the PCW to sell for a little over £450 (equivalent to about £1240 or €1700 today). This was a fraction of the price of (say) an IBM PC with similar capabilities.

The other advantage of including everything you needed in the box was that everything worked when it came out of the box. You didn’t need to worry about compatibility, or drivers.. or really anything else, because everything was designed to work together. The PCW can be regarded as an “appliance” in the same way that contemporary Macs could.

The LocoScript word processor was basic but straightforward to use, but because the PCW ran the CP/M operating system, it could also run a variety of other business applications such as spreadsheets and databases. And although the PCW wasn’t designed for games, inevitably there were those too.

Most of the circuitry to drive the printer was actually in the computer case, and the printer itself was very simple and the 9-pin head could only really produce rather chunky text. The printer itself was highly proprietary, so you couldn’t simply upgrade it to anything except an Amstrad daisywheel printer or Amstrad plotter. However, you could produce simple graphics with the standard printer which did lead to some basic desktop publishing (DTP) packages being developed.

A few months later the Amstrad PCW 8512 was launched with twice the RAM. In 1987 the PCW9512 and 9256 were announced, replacing the crude dot matrix printer with a daisywheel printer. In one form or another, this series of computers soldiered on into the 1990s by which time they had sold 8 million units. Not bad for something based on 1970s technology.

If you are looking at starting your own computing museum, then the Amstrad PCW is a very cheap thing to acquire, commonly available for about £10 to £15. An original 1984 Apple Macintosh will cost about fifty times as much!

Image credit

MOS Technology 6502 (1975)

Launched September 1975

Microprocessors were expensive forty years ago. Popular processors such as the Intel 8080 and Motorola 6800 would sell for hundreds of dollars, and these high prices were a significant barrier to the development of low-cost personal computers.

A group of engineers from Motorola, including the pioneering Chuck Peddle had tried to develop a simple low-cost device while at Motorola, but had been rebuffed. Instead, they left the company to join a small firm called MOS Technology, and they set upon developing the MOS Technology 6502 processor instead.

The design philosophy of the 6502 could be summed up in about three words: “keep it simple”. Instead of loading the processor down with extra features, Peddle and his team created a processor that was much less complex than rivals. This meant that it was much cheaper than rivals. And it also meant that it was much faster.

A simpler design was cheaper, because the actual silicon part of the chip was smaller, and this led to fewer flaws during manufacturing and also increased the number of chips that could be produced on one wafer. The result of this was that MOS Technology could sell the 6502 for just $25, a fraction of what rivals were charging.

At this price point, the 6502 became an obvious choice for the many of the microcomputers that emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the Apple II, Commodore PET and VIC-20, Acorn Atom, BBC Micro and Electron, Atari 400 and 800 plus a variety of lesser-known or now-forgotten computers plus a wide range of embedded systems.

MOS Technology was eventually taken over by Commodore in 1976 and spun out into a separate company again in 1995, although that company was eventually liquidated in 2001.

You might think that an 8-bit processor from the 1970s has very little influence today, but there is a surprising twist to the tale. When the engineers at Acorn in the UK were designing their range of 6502-based computers, they were impressed by the simplicity and speed of the 6502 design. This directly influenced the development of the Acorn ARM processor that was used in their Archimedes computer in the 1980s. So successful was the ARM design, that variants of that processor are now used in millions of devices today. The smartphone or tablet you own today is probably based on an ARM core, which is directly influenced by this 40 year old device.

Image credits [1] [2]

Amstrad CPC 6128 (1985)

Launched August 1985

The summer of 1985 saw the launch of some powerful home computers, including the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST. These powerful computers broke new technological ground with a forward-looking 16/32 bit architecture, but they were also rather expensive.

But in Europe one of the most successful competitors to the ST and Amiga was the 8-bit Amstrad CPC range (distributed in Central Europe through Schneider). The Amstrad CPC464 had been launched in 1984 and featured a Z80 CPU with 64KB of RAM, an integrated cassette player and it also shipped with an integrated monitor, at a very attractive price. A floppy-disk version called the CPC664 followed, and in August 1985 Amstrad launched the CPC 6128 which featured a whopping 128KB of RAM as well as the floppy drive.

Although the CPC range were built using inexpensive components, they were relatively sophisticated with a dedicated sound chip and three screen display modes of various resolutions and colour depths. The CPC 6128 could also run CP/M (still used in businesses at the time) and it was the cheapest floppy disk drive system on the market.

The disk drive itself was an unusual 3" format designed by Hitachi. Disks for these drive were expensive and had a relatively low capacity, however they were designed to be very rugged. Despite their drawbacks, the floppy disk drive was enormously better than the cassette drive that the CPC464 was lumbered with.

A wide range of games were produced for the CPC6128, and it found a niche with businesses looking for a low-cost but practical computer. For home users, the fact that it included a monitor was an enormous advantage because it freed up the family TV for.. well, watching TV. Back in the mid 1980s even a small TV set would cost hundreds of pounds.

When sold in the US, the colour CPC6128 was pitched at $799 compared to $1000 for an Atari ST and about $1600 for an Amiga, and a shocking $2500 for an Apple Mac. In the UK the same model was priced at £399 and in Germany the price was 2098 DM. With prices like that the CPC range became a huge success in Europe, although not in the States.

Amstrad went on to produce the Z80-base PCW word processor range, a variety of upgraded ZX Spectrums after they bought Sinclair before moving into the PC business. In 1990 the CPC range received a makeover which made them look much more contemporary, but the era of 8 bit computing was over by this point.

A well-built and reliable machine, today there is a lively retro scene around these CPC models. Complete working models with a colour monitor cost from £100 upwards in the UK with secondhand games coming in at around £10, alternatively you could try playing with the CPC emulator on your Android phone. Although the CPC ended up as being a dead-end, it does have a legacy of introducing many families to a computer for the very first time.

Image credits: [1] [2] [3]

The 8-bit computer that spawned the phone in your pocket

The origins of the phone in your pocket are probably older than you think. Running Android or an iPhone? Well, that operating system is based on Unix which was created in the early 1970s. Running Windows Phone? That is based on Windows NT from the early 1990s, which in turn was largely inspired by another 1970s operating system, VMS. Have a new BlackBerry? Well, that's based on QNX from 1980s.
 
But one thing that links almost all modern smartphones is the processor - almost every one sold runs on some sort of core licensed from the British company ARM.
 
But the story of ARM begins with something familiar to anyone who grew up in Britain during the 1980s  - the BBC Micro. This 8-bit microcomputer was developed in conjunction with the BBC by Acorn. At first glance it seems to have little in common with those tiny computers we carry in our pockets with just 32Kb of RAM and a 2MHz processor.. after all, even the most basic smartphone has a processor that runs hundreds of times quicker and with 32 times the memory. But there was more to the BBC Micro than that.

Conceived one third of a century ago, this humble machine could support a second processor, had a built in analogue to digital converter, optional networking and speech synthesis, a whole host of interface ports, possibly the best audio of any machine at the time and high-resolution graphics. With the optional Teletext adapter the BBC could download news, information and even programs over a TV signal, and with a Prestel adapter it could access information over the phone line. The BBC Micro was designed from the outset to communicate with other devices and to be flexible and expandable.
 
But the key thing about the BBC Micro was that it was fast. Really fast. Some of this was down to the highly optimised version of BASIC that programs could use, but mostly it was down to the processor itself. Although clocked at a modest 2MHz, the 6502 processor was significantly speedier than the rival Z80, due mostly to the simple design of the onboard logic which meant that it was relatively primitive but also very quick.

In turn, the simplicity and speed of the 6502 inspired Acorn to develop their own processor, the 32-bit ARM which appeared in Acorn's Archimedes computers in the late 1980s. The Archimedes range used and evolved many of the same features pioneered in the BBC, but the processor was a huge leap forward.
 
Clocked initially at just 8MHz, the ARM processor's simple internal RISC design was both very fast and relatively cheap to make, which met Acorn's requirements for a home computer. But almost coincidentally, this also made the processor very small and power efficient.
 
ARM eventually spun off from Acorn and began to licence the processor cores to other manufacturers. Although the take-up was initially quite slow, the growth of PDAs and later smartphones from the late 1990s onwards really expanded the use of the ARM processor enormously, and it is now the most commonly used type of CPU in the world.

So, next time someone shows you their snazzy new smartphone, instead of just being jealous you can simply point out that it is based on 1970s and 1980s technology instead..

Image sources: [1] [2] [3]

Data sources: [1] [2] [3]