OLD-COMPUTERS ARCHIVE

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TIMEX 1000

This is the US version of the Sinclair ZX-81 marketed by Timex. The main difference is that the TS 1000 has 2 KB RAM instead of the 1 KB RAM of the original ZX-81.

TANDY 1000 1S

The Tandy 1000 was a line of IBM PC compatible computers made during the 1980’s by the American Tandy Corporation for sale in their chain of Radio Shack electronics stores in Canada and the USA. The Tandy 1000 would be the successor to their influential TRS-80 line of computers, the Tandy 1000 would eventually replace the COCO line of 8 bit computers as well when Tandy decided to prematurely end that project in favor of the Tandy PC line of computers. Targeted toward the home user with a modest budget, it copyied the IBM PCjr's 16-color graphics (PCjr's graphics were an extension of CGA video) and anhanced 3-voice sound, but didn't use the PCjr cartridge ports, instead the Tandy version had built-in game ports compatible with those on the TRS-80 Color Computer (COCO), as well as a port for a "light wand/pen". Most Tandy 1000 models also featured “line-level” sound and composite video RCA outputs built onto the motherboard so that a standard television could be used as a monitor, albeit with much poorer video quality. Unlike most PC clones, early Tandy 1000 computers had MS-DOS built into ROM allowing the OS to boot in a few seconds. Tandy also bundled onto floppy diskette “DeskMate”, a suite of consumer-oriented applications, with several models. Besides a composite output to TV, as mentioned earlier, Tandy 1000’s also housed a built in CGA video adaptor equal to PC standards built onto the motherboard and since the Tandy 1000 outlasted the PCjr by many years these graphics and sound standards became known as "Tandy-compatible" or "TGA," and many software packages of the era listed their adherence to Tandy standards on the package. One odd feature of the Tandy-1000, however, was a non standard edge card printer connector built onto the motherboard and protruding through the rear; an adaptor would be needed to work a standard IBM style printer. In 1984, when the “T-1000” was in its prime, you may have paid up to $2499.00 (Canadian) for a full featured system with matching monitor. The original line was equipped with the Intel-8088 CPU at 4.77Mhz, which was later extended to faster clock speeds up to 7.16Mhz, as well as the upgrade to 8086 and 80286 processors at 10Mhz (in the TL & TX configurations). Common models of the machine included the Tandy 1000, EX, HX, SX, TX, SL, SL/2, RL, and TL, TL/2, TL/3. The “T-1000” was a workhorse in the IBM PC world, large numbers of units are still in active service today as it’s construction was quite robust. The T-1000 was Tandy’s last attempt in the home computer market. In the early 1990’s Tandy Corporation sold its computer manufacturing business to “AST Computers”. When that occurred, instead of selling Tandy computers, Radio Shack stores began selling computers made by other manufacturers, such as “Compaq”. The original Tandy 1000 was similar in size to the IBM PC except it had a plastic case to reduce weight. The original Tandy 1000 featured a proprietary serial keyboard port along with 2 similar joystick ports on the FRONT of the case (a feature that would become standard in later models). The rear featured a PC standard monitor connector (compatible with CGA/EGA), a composite (TV) video-out connector, a single RCA-style monophonic line-level audio connector, a port for a light pen, and the unusual edge-card connector used to attach a parallel printer. The original Tandy 1000 came standard with one 5.25 disk drive, with an additional bay usable for the installation of a second 5.25 disk drive (available as a kit from Radio Shack). 128k of memory was standard, with the computer accepting up to 640k of total memory with the addition of expansion cards. MS-DOS 2.11 and DeskMate 1.0 were included with the system. The Tandy 1000 offered 256 characters: 96 standard ASCII characters, 48 block graphics characters, 64 foreign language/Greek characters, 16 special graphics characters, 32 word processing/scientific-notation characters. __________ Contributors: Derek McDonald (aka “Skel”) Sources: Switchtec's Virtual PC Museum, Emperor Multimedia Electronic Archives, Wikipedia, 8-Bit Micro, Tandy 1000 PC Museum.

TANDY 1000 EX

The Tandy 1000 EX is a member of the Tandy 1000 series family. See this entry for more info. The Tandy 1000 EX was designed as an entry-level IBM compatible personal computer designed as a starter system and sold for $1000.00 US by December 1986. The EX was compact with the keyboard and 5.25" drive built into the computer casing; the 5.25" drive accessible from the right hand side of the computer. Officiel 1988 Tandy catalog reads: Our lowest-priced MS-DOS based personal computer Fifty-percent faster clock speed than the IBM PC Incredibly easy-to-use Personal Deskmate Sotfware Choose from thousands of popular programs Built-in 360 000 character 5.25" floppy disk drive A 256K PC-compatible computer, ready to use the MS-DOS software you bring home from the office, as well as software designed for the home or classroom. The integral 90-key keyboard has the same layout as the Tandy 1000SX, ideal for business programs. You'll find an advanced three-voice sound circuit for sophisticated sound an music generation through the built-in speaker. There's also a headphone jack with volume control - perfect for the classroom. Graphics-oriented Personal Deskmate software features six programs and handy pull-down menus and pop-up boxes for selecting funvtions. __ Contributors: Derek McDonald (aka “Skel”)

TANDY 100HX

The Tandy 1000 HX is a member of the Tandy 1000 series family. See this entry for more info. The Tandy 1000 HX, released in 1987, was designed as another entry level IBM compatible personal computer and the successor to the EX. Like the EX, the HX was a compact computer with the keyboard built into the computer casing. The computer came with an Intel 8088 CPU, 256 KB of memory, and had one 720 KB 3.5" disk drive on the right side of the machine behind the keyboard. HX computers came with MS-DOS 2.11 built into the ROM and “Deskmate 2” on diskette. The computer's memory could be expanded to 640 KB by the use of a memory expansion card; by default these cards, sold by Tandy, came with 128 KB, but one could add another 384 KB in memory chips to this board. These cards were named “Plus Cards” and used a pin configuration instead of the slot system used by IBM or the T-1000. The cards themselves followed all the IBM standards and eventually Radio Shack started selling the adaptors in their stores to allow the cards to be inserted into a standard IBM 8-bit ISA slot. There were three such spots available in the computer case. There was also a spare 3.5" drive bay in the computer case. On the back of the machine there was a port which allowed a user to connect an external 5.25" (360 KB) or 3.5" (720 KB) disk drive. There was also a connector for a printer. The 1000 HX did not come with a hard drive, and Tandy Corporation did not manufacture fixed disks for this type of computer. A HDD could be purchased from third party vendors, however. It was also here that the DOS in ROM was getting a little old and for the first time the settings on the computer could be changed so that instead of looking in ROM for DOS at bootup, it would go direct to the floppy drive instead. Most versions of MS-DOS worked with the 1000 HX, including 3.x, DOS 5.x & 6.x. DOS 4.0 did not work due to a bug in its environment that prevented it from working. __ Contributors: Derek McDonald (aka “Skel”) Sources: Switchtec's Virtual PC Museum, Emperor Multimedia Electronic Archives, Wikipedia, 8-Bit Micro, Tandy 1000 PC Museum

ALPHA MICRO 1000

The Alpha Micro 1000 was a line of systems based on the 68000 microprocessor. According to customer requests, each system could be configured from a single user microcomputer with 128 KB of RAM, up to a 60-users system with 3 MB of RAM and 2.4 GB of disk storage. The operating system of the 1000 series was AMOS, a multi-user, multi-tasking and timesharing system allowing the user to easily add terminals and printers to the current configuration. Several programming languages were available to build AMOS compatible applications: BASIC, PASCAL, LISP, ASSEMBLER, FORTRAN and COBOL. Alpha Micro offered innovative hardware solutions and high technology firsts provided by a third company called Macrotech: a 1 MB RAM Board an intelligent I/O board using DMA the only 6MB piggyback board available etc... The system used a standard VHS Video Tape Recorder for back-ups, and most software updates from Alpha Micro and other software houses were supplied in this form. In the UK this caused a few problems as you had to obtain NTSC-compatible players. The Alpha Micro company still exists. You can find the latest info on the Amos and Alpha micro systems here. Thanks to Joe for additional pictures and information

TANDY 1000 SL

The Tandy 1000 SL series of computers were an update of the Tandy 1000 SX. They came in a redesigned case and, in the case of the TL/2 and above, featured onboard XT IDE hard disk controllers (These controllers are not AT IDE compatible and thus will not work with modern ATA hard drives). The Tandy 1000 SL boasted an Intel 8086 processor running at 8 MHz. The 8086's 16-bit bus gave it a small but definite performance advantage over the earlier 8088-based Tandy 1000s. The SL came with 384 KB of memory preinstalled, whereas the SL/2 offered 512 KB. Both machines could be expanded to 640 KB. The Tandy SL model was equiped with a 5.25" floppy disk drive (360 KB) whereas the SL/2 featured a 3.5" floppy disk drive (720 KB). It was possible to add a second disk drive or even a hard disk. The SL series offered two innovations over the earlier SX series. One is high resolution (640x200) 16 color graphics; the other is an improved sound circuit, using an 8-bit mono DAC alongside the PSSJ 3-voice sound source. The DAC gave the SL series digital sound output capabilities not much unlike those of the early 8-bit SoundBlaster line of audio cards: 3 PCM voices, 8-bit DMA up to 22050 KHz, audio mono output, audio mono inputs (mic + line), sampling at 5512 KHz, 11025 KHz and 22050 KHz. One interesting feature was the 512 KB BIOS, from which 350 KB where available as a read-only C: drive. DOS 3.3 and the main component of Deskmate 3 where stored on it. This was excellent as you could access DOS and start to work only within a few seconds (an unreachable dream nowadays). There is no internal clock but one called "SmartWatch" was available as an option. There was thus a socket on the electronic board reserved for it. __ Contributors: Derek McDonald (aka “Skel”) Sources: Wikipedia, MO5.com Ray Jewhurst comments: The SL and SL/2 both came with Deskmate 3 not Deskmate 2 I know this because I used to be a Radio Shack store manager in the early 90's and Deskmate 3 was one of improvement over the SX.

TANDY 1000 SX

The Tandy 1000 SX was similar to the Tandy 1000 (see this entry for more info about the Tandy 1000 series). The difference with the original model 1000, is that the CPU (Intel 8088) can be set to two different speeds: 4.77 MHz and 7.16 MHz thus offering more speed than the original IBM PC on the same software. The SX also comes with more memory (384 KB) than the Tandy 1000 (128 KB).
Contributors: Derek McDonald (aka “Skel”)

TANDY 1000 TX

The Tandy 1000 TX was similar to the Tandy 1000 in that it had an external keyboard and casing. The difference, however, was the addition of an 80286 CPU on the TX model; otherwise, it was nearly identical to the Tandy 1000, including the odd parallel port edge connector. The TX had a 3.5" drive, with an optional 5.25" drive. It contained hookups for two joysticks in the front along with the keyboard, and included a volume control with a phono input on the front. The back had all of the same ports as the Tandy 1000. The memory size was 640k (upgradable to 768k, which was devoted to video) and the computer came bundled with Deskmate II. The TX had a special function to the F4 key that would reduce the speed of the processor to half the normal rate for programs(mainly games) that 8-10 mhz was simply too fast for. To activate this function, you held down the F4 key during boot-up.
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Contributors: Derek McDonald (aka “Skel”), Casey

ATARI 1200 XL

The Atari 1200 XL was the predecessor of the Atari 600/800 XL. It had much of the same characteristics, except the size of its ROM (16 KB instead of 24 KB) the BASIC Interpreter being supplied on a cartridge. Because the built-in Operating System was not designed very well, people are known to have swapped the OS ROM chip from their 800XL & put in the 1200 XL. This machine was a flop in the marketplace and would be produced for only 4 months before being replaced with the 600 & 800 XL machines. This computer was not distributed in Europe.

ATARI 130 ST

The Atari 130 ST (ST means sixteen/thirty-two :16 bit data bus & 32 bit address bus) was shown at the Winter Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in 1985. It was the great surprise of the show and was presented only six months after Jack Tramiel bought Atari, Inc. (He later named it Atari Corp). The ST series was rushed onto the market as Atari had originally contracted Amiga Corp. to manufacture a 16-Bit home computer, but legal issues caused the dissolution of that contract resulting in Commodore Computer releasing the Amiga and Atari creating the ST using 'Off The Shelf' electronics to release a computer to coincide with Commodore's release of the Amiga. It was also designed to be a "Macintosh Killer", and was jokingly called the "Jackintosh". It offered lots of features never found on home computers before: 16 bit microprocessor, lots of interfaces, standard MIDI interface, high graphic resolution, lot of colors, enhanced GUI (Graphic User Interface). It was much more powerful and expandable than the Macintosh (MIDI, graphics, colors, and the like) and competitors weren't very numerous (Commodore 128, PC AT, & compatibles, and the old CP/M machines). That explains why more than 6 million of Atari ST's were sold around the world. The Atari 130 ST was a prototype for the press demonstration and was never released because of its small memory size : the complete operating system couldn't fit in it. It was replaced by the Atari 260 ST and the Atari 520 ST. Despite its name, the Atari 260 ST was shipped with 512 KB of RAM, because the 192 KB operating system left less than 64 KB of free RAM. The Operating System was TOS (Tramiel Operating System, later renamed just "The Operating System") which was in fact no more than the old CP/M 68K. Notice that to make easy the transition from the PC to ST, all the high level calls of the TOS (called GEMDOS) were compatible with the DOS calls of the PC (int 21h). All of the ST family systems used the GEM, which stands for Graphic Environment Manager, GUI (from Digital Research) which has a striking resemblance to the Macintosh GUI (windows, dialog boxes, desktop, desktop accessories, & bitmap fonts) even if it is a bit less friendly than the Apple one. The 260ST Operating System (TOS & GEM) was supplied on disquette with earlier models, then into 6 x 32 KB ROM chips when the development of the O.S. was fully finished. ST systems had several dedicated coprocessors for interrupt handling (MFP 68901), sound (the old Yamaha YM 2149, same as General Instruments AY-3-8910 found in MSX computers, Amstrad or Oric), video (a custom chip called "Shifter"), and memory (a custom chip called "GLUE" and the MMU).

TANDY RADIO SHACK 1400 LT/FD/HD

This nice little laptop is one of the first real IBM PC compatible laptops featuring large LCD display (80x25 here) and true compatibility. This machine has two 720KB Floppy drives (and no hard drive). It boots from one floppy drive (DOS) while the 2nd floppy is used for data and programs you may wish to run. It has a NEC V20 8-bit processor which is switchable between 7.16 MHz and 4.77 MHz. It also has a CGA backlit LCD screen (monochrome), optional built in modem (1200 baud), math coprocessor and standard serial and parallel ports. It also has a DB-9 CGA port and RCA composite port for use with an external display. There are LED indicators for Caps Lock, Num Lock, Low Battery, Scroll Lock and Standby Mode. Special features (for the time) includes battery-powered clock & calendar, standby mode and internal speakers. The first member of the 1400 serie is called the LT. The FD and HD models were released later (1988?). The FD having two 3.5'' disk drives and the HD one 3.5'' disk drive + one built-in hard disk (20 MB). The only differences between LT and FD model are : FD has an external floppy drive connector, no composite video output and only one internal slot (for modem). The case is almost identical though the FD is lighther. The HD is an FD model with a 20 MB hard drive built-in instead of the 2nd floppy drive. The LT was delivered with Tandy DOS 3.2003 or 3.2004, and the FD & HD with Tandy DOS 3.3004.
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Thanks to Alex Rushing....

ATARI 1400 XL

The Atari 1400 XL has the same characteristics as the Atari 800/600 XL machines exept for some new features: a new custom chip called "FREDDY" which replaces the old discrete semiconductors & TTL chips of the 600/800 XL to manage the memory. It has a speech synthesizer chip (Votrax SC-01) and a built-in modem (Bell 103 compatible, 300 baud). Thus it was conceived as an enhanced version of the Atari 600XL and 800XL computers and was to be software and hardware compatible with all the 8-bit Atari family systems. It seems that this computer was never marketed... All existing models are thus considered as prototypes. This system was also called by Atari A1201, Atari 1200 XLD and Atari 1200 XLT. Another model was announced at the same time : the Atari 1450 XLD.

ATARI 1450 XLD

The Atari 1450 XLD has the same characteristics as the Atari 1400 XL. Like the 1400 XL, it has a built-in modem (Bell 103 compatible, 300 baud) and the speech synthesiser chip (SC-02). Contrary to the other Atari, it uses a parallel disk drive controller (a much faster arrangement) instead of the SIO interface. Apparently The 1450 was not released because they were having problems getting the parallel disk drive controller to work properly.

PEERLESS 150

WICAT 150

Wicat stands for World Institute for Computer Aided Training. The Wicat is one of the first (perhaps even the first) computer to use a 16-bit Motorola MC68000 processor. It is a card-based computer. The mainboard just houses the processor, the boot PROMs, a very fast cache memory and the glue electronics. A lot of cards were developed for this computer. Each card has its own CPU: The I/O board called ICI board uses its own 68008 (68000 with 8 bit data bus), the FD & HD controller, as the streamer controller uses also their own processor. Apparently there were two versions, the 150-WS and the 150-WD, maybe for single drive and double drive... A number of these units were also sold in Australia and Singapore.

TIMEX-SINCLAIR 1500

The Timex-Sinclair 1500 is basicaly a Sinclair ZX-81 in a ZX Spectrum case with 16 KB RAM. Timex marketed the Sinclair computers on the North American market. The ZX-81 was sold as the TS-1000 (with 2 KB RAM instead of 1 KB of the original model) and the ZX Spectrum as the forth-coming TS-2000 (which remained a prototype). As the sales of the TS-1000 were dangerously falling, Timex produced a mix between the ZX-81 and the ZX Spectrum: the TS-1500. The goal was to correct the weaknesses of the TS-1000: too small memory and awfull keyboard. It's in fact just a ZX-81 with the 16 KB RAM expansion built inside a Spectrum style case. But the original black case turned silver for the TS-1500. To prove that it is exactly the Spectrum case re-used here, there is still the speaker grid underneath the system, whereas the TS-1500 has no sound feature! However there are minor cosmetic changes: the "sinclair" encarved logo on top of the case is replaced by a fake grid... In fact, this plastic case was the TS-2000 one (which was never produced), reused here for the TS-1500. The chicklet keyboard is also an improvement (really?) over the flat membrane keyboard of the ZX-81. The keys layout is exactly the same as the ZX Spectrum. You can even use keyboard membranes of the Spectrum 48KB to replace the existing one if it breaks. Apart from that it remains a TS-1000. The connectors are the same (RF TV ouput, tape recorder, expansion bus) and the Basic is still the Sinclair Basic. A 16k RAM expansion (the same as the one sold for the TS-1000) can be used to reach 32 KB RAM. However, the TS 1500 had a number of changes that made it different than just a TS 1000 / ZX-81 with 16k: 1. The ROM was updated to check for 16 KB memory and correct faults in the TS 1000 version (which corrected faults in the ZX81 version). 2. You could only add a 16 KB RAM pack (1016). To use any larger 3rd party RAM pack from the TS1000/ZX81 family you need to modify the motherboard. 3. Circuitry was added to allow you to choose which channel to display, 2 or 3, when you turned on the system by holding down the "3" key on the keyboard. 4. The motherboard is a complete redesign with 16 KB onboard and the ULA (Undefined Logic Array) was surface mounted and not socketed. Despite its funky look, the TS-1500 did not sell well either. In 1983, who wanted to buy a ZX-81 disguised whereas you could offer yourself a splendid Commodore 64 for a few more bucks!
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Contributed to this page : Bill Hicks

PRAVETZ 16

No writeup for this system can be found on the site, as the redirect to its article is broken; as such, the following is my own summary. The Pravetz 16 was an installment in a line of personal scientific computers by Bulgarian manufacturer Pravetz. Their origin brand, the Pravetz personal computer, were among the first personal computers available to Bulgarians, following the implementation of full-room computing setups. One of Pravetz' first prototypes faced accusations from Apple in regards to similarities between it and the Apple 2; these accusations were accurate, though the two were distinguishable by their cases, keyboards, character tables, and the power supply of each.
Little else can be said about these models. As they were fairly expensive, and outsourced largely to scientific institutions via government funding, limited information exists about the Pravetz 16 or any of its progenitors.
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Source: Information derived from the Pravetz computers Wikipedia page.

IBP 190

Very unusual clone and first repackaging of the Atari Mega ST computer. Apparently the manufacturer bought the parts from Atari and repackaged it as a series of rugged modules in a 19" rack mount case so the computer was better suited to music and industrial applications. This seems like a good idea seeing how popular the Atari was in studios. Information discovered in some German Atari magazine around 1989. It is not known how successful this computer was or if they went on to make any other systems Picture and more information needed. There are rumours there were other clones of the Atari ST series in the early part of its life. Thanks to Asteroid for this information.

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