Back to the future: the TRS-80 Model 100

Sean Gallagher

The TRS-80 Model 100, the "original laptop."

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A while ago, as we at Ars were discussing our first mobile computing experiences, I recalled the first "laptop" computer I was ever issued to use as a journalist: the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100. Back on my first field assignment for Government Computer News, I was given the only computing device in the company inventory that could be used to file a story from the field—via acoustic couplers and an MCI Mail account.

Overcome with nostalgia, I put a bid in on a Model 100 on an eBay auction shortly afterward—and then completely forgot about it. Or I forgot about it until about a week and a half ago, when I saw that I had the winning bid. And yesterday, my very own TRS-80 Model 100 arrived in a Priority Mail box (along with the Super Serial card for the Apple II Plus I recently inherited).

The Model 100 was the future of mobile computing when it arrived on the market in 1983. Powered by the 2.4-MHz Intel 80C85 and four AA batteries—and squeezing out over 20 hours of battery life!—it has no internal storage other than the  RAM (8 or 24 kilobytes, depending on whether you bought the base or deluxe model). The core software for the Model 100 is stored on a ROM chip. It includes a BASIC interpreter, a text editor, a "Telecom" program for remote connections, and an address book application that stores phone numbers for dialing up connections via the built-in 300 baud modem.

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