|
Do you know what Radio Shack's computer name "TRS-80" Stood for?
In 1977, Lewis Kornfeld, former president of the Radio
Shack Division of Tandy Corporation, named Radio Shack's first
computer the "TRS-80".
•
TRS stood for Tandy Radio Shack,
the company that created the TRS-80.
•
80 was taken from the Zilog Z80 microprocessor
used in the original
TRS-80 Model 1.
Kornfeld saw a
unique opportunity to make Radio Shack a manufacturing name as
well as a successful retailer. So he used the name "Radio
Shack" instead of "Micronta", their usual brand.
In the years to
follow, Tandy Corporation
continued to use the TRS-80 name for their computers,
even for ones that didn’t use the Z80 microprocessor.
For example:
• The TRS-80 Color Computer 1 used
a Motorola 6809
• The TRS-80 Model 16 used both a
Z80 and a Motorola 68000
• The TRS-80 Model 100 used an
Intel 8085
• The TRS-80 Model 2000 used an
Intel 80186
In 1983, Tandy phased out the
TRS-80 name
after the TRS-80 Model 2000 computer. And as you can see in the
1985 computer catalogs, began to use "Tandy" as the
manufacturer. |
