TRS-80 Model I

[Tony Duell]

> 
> Jay West wrote:
> > Al wrote...
> >> I have a HUGE softspot in my heart for the TRS-80 Model I, having 
> >> purchased a 16k, Level I unit in December of 1978. A unit, I still own 
> >> today,
> > That's the one system I don't have in my collection that I'd really like 
> > to - a TRS-80 model I with tandy monitor and perhaps the expansion unit. 
> > I never owned one, but a lot of my friends in the late 70's timeframe 
> > did and we always fought about if my Apple ][+ was better than their 
> > TRS80 :)
> > 
> > Jay
> 
> That must have been a short argument.  I used both a lot in high school. 
>   The model I was unreliable in the extreme.  The model III's were much 
> better in that regard.

And for the counter-argument, I have a model 1 that I've had from new, 
and which has never failed me. COnversely I had nothing but trouble with 
the Apple ][, a design which i feel is marginal at best!

I had one failure on my Model 3, the disk cotnroller chip failed in an 
odd way. It sometimes failed to geenrate a Data Request signal, with the 
result that a new byte would not be loaded by the processor, instead the 
disk cotnroller wrote the previous byte again. You got text files with 
repeated cheracters in them..

And my Model 4 has blown 1 tantalum capacitor in its life. It carried on 
working as the smokke came out, of course.

-tony