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Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
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---
title: THORN EMI WREN
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Transportable
origins:
- United Kingdom
years:
- '1984'
cpus:
- Zilog Z80 A
params:
name: WREN
company: /companies/thorn-emi
company_name: THORN EMI
specs:
- label: NAME
value: WREN
- label: MANUFACTURER
value: Thorn EMI
- label: TYPE
value: Transportable
- label: ORIGIN
value: United Kingdom
- label: YEAR
value: '1984'
- label: KEYBOARD
value: Full-stroke keyboard with 5 function keys and arrow keys, 67 keys
- label: CPU
value: Zilog Z80 A
- label: SPEED
value: 6 MHz
- label: RAM
value: 64 kb (up to 256 kb)
- label: VRAM
value: 32 kb
- label: ROM
value: 8 kb
- label: TEXT MODES
value: 80 x 25 / 40 x 25
- label: GRAPHIC MODES
value: 512 x 256
- label: COLORS
value: monochrome built-in display
- label: SIZE / WEIGHT
value: 235 x 420 x 470 mm / 12 kg
- label: I/O PORTS
value: Centronics, RS232c, Winchester Hard Disk, Paddle (2), Modem socket, RGB video output
- label: BUILT IN MEDIA
value: Two 5.25'' built-in disk-drives (190k each)
- label: OS
value: CP/M
- label: POWER SUPPLY
value: Built-in PSU
- label: PRICE
value: |-
£1,000 (UK, april 84)\
2881 (France, october 84)
tabs:
- adverts
adverts:
- title: PROUD !
subtitle: ''
text: This authentic picture show a proud owner of a Wren transportable computer ! It looks like it bought it 5 minutes ago as he doesn't really know from which side to handle it...
image: null
- title: U.K. AD (APR. 86)
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: null
comments:
- author: george baker (United Kingdom)
date: Saturday 29th January 2022
text: Hi It seems I need to provide contact details since the forum does not forward, mobile telephone number is 07928 483938 text only I wont pick up a call. G
- author: george baker (United Kingdom)
date: Saturday 29th January 2022
text: Hi I in Manchester England and found a Wren transport bag a couple of weeks ago full of stuff. I would like to see it united with a Wren if someone has a suitable bag to hold the stuff currently in it. I had 2 wrens, bought as insurance salvage because they stopped working around 1988. In the workshop they were always coming back because they stopped working, The under side of the unit hit your leg and buckled shorting out the MoBo. My workshop fix was a sheet of insulator. We sold a News Agents package with them as IIRC a turn key solution. G
- author: Martin Underwood (England)
date: Tuesday 11th May 2021
text: Ian (London, UK) "Do you still have the audio digitiser schematic and software to share or to purchase? I am also interested in the RGB to PAL card." I''m afraid I don''t have the schematics. I \*may\* have the circuit boards somewhere, but it''s quite likely that I got rid of them when the Wren itself stopped working, or during a house move. Even knowing which ICs I''d used would probably help you a bit. The RGB-to-PAL interface was a design I saw in an electronics Magazine. I''ll have a quick look through my things and see if by any chance I can find the circuit boards, but I''m not confident :-(
- author: Petr
date: Tuesday 18th August 2020
text: |-
Hello Wren fans,
I do believe you might be interested into Jerry Walker youtube channel where he is repairing 3 pieces of old Wren computers and is trying to reverse engineering not just schematics but also a firmware. And maybe you could help him with some info?
Here is link to one part of series\
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v$\_4cUNDc_ong
Regards,\
Petr
- author: Ian (UK) (United Kingdom)
date: Sunday 12th July 2020
text: |-
Greetings again to all in the Forum! Have a working Wren but unfortunately boot disc is corrupted and system will not boot to screen. Can anyone send me a physical copy of a boot disc by post to London UK? Have a full set of other software to exchange.
Keen to correspond with other Wren users and enthusiasts to discuss and exchange software, schematics and hardware ideas etc.
Please text me on (+44)7710 095902 for e-mail details.
Cheers!
- author: Ian (United Kingdom)
date: Wednesday 1st July 2020
text: |-
Hi Harry, thanks for posting. Yes, I can get both of your computers repaired at fairly low cost. Can you post your e-mail and I will communicate with you directly. This mini-Forum does not automatically forward/redirect messages.
Do you have any software to exchange? Anyone on the forum have any cool vintage hardware for this Wren and more importantly software to run?
Cheers,
Ian
- author: Dan (UK)
date: Tuesday 19th May 2020
text: I think I used to use one of these back in 1990 for exercising floppy disk drives. It used to run some program for exercising different makes of drive and also used to show an "oscilloscope" output showing the amplitude of the signal from the heads when a test diskette was used in the drive$ this allowed alignment to be performed. Anyone else know of these being used for this purpose or have I got this mixed up with something else?
- author: harry (uk)
date: Thursday 30th April 2020
text: I noticed that Ian from London mentioned he could get these Wren ''s repaired is that still an option? I have two of these not working? can you pass him my details if possible?
- author: Ian (London, UK)
date: Monday 27th April 2020
text: |-
Hi Martin, great to know that you have one of these machines and that you were interested in I/O interfacing. So am I, and I have built a lot of hardware interfaces e.g. ROM cards, 8255 PIA boards, ADCs and DACs.
I am eager to interface to the Wren.
Do you still have the audio digitiser schematic and software to share or to purchase? I am also interested in the RGB to PAL card.
I have got a working Wren Executive which my friend and I have repaired and restored. More importantly, the boot disc has been corrupted and I wondered if I could perhaps borrow your''s to make a duplicate and flux copy?
I can also arrange to have your Wren repaired.
Cheers!
- author: Adrian (UK) (United Kingdom Hampshire)
date: Wednesday 5th February 2020
text: |-
I had a Wren and used it for producing a club magazine using the "Perfect Suit" of software supplied as a package with the machine.\
The magazine was voted as one of the best club mags at the time.\
I sold it to a collector - am I sad saying I wish I still had it to play with.\
The implementation of BBC basic was fairly sound and I also used for Packet Radio as a licensed UK radio ham - it was ideal for that.
- author: Martin Underwood (East Yorkshire)
date: Friday 27th September 2019
text: |-
I bought a Wren - I remember driving up to Transam''s shop off Gray''s Inn Road to collect it and an Epson RX80 dot-matrix printer. I decided I could afford the RAM upgrade from 16 KB to 256 KB, but not the optional 5 MB HDD.
I can vouch for the Wren being \*heavy\* and then need to change arms several times when carrying it.
I used it at university for writing project reports. I also built an RGB-to-PAL board for driving a colour TV, and an I/O board which connected to the HDD connector and allowed analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue converters to be converted: somewhere I have a file containing Dire Straits'' "Brothers in Arms" track digitised from LP, as an exercise.
It worked until a few years ago, but when I was about to move house I could not get it to boot: it was a hardware problem because it never got as far as spinning the boot floppy.
I''ve just found a listing of a BASIC program that I wrote which contained embedded Z80 code which sorted an integer array considerably faster than doing it in BASIC - or even in Turbo Pascal. It was a long job debugging that code because any error in Z80 usually resulted in the Wren locking-up and having to be rebooted.
- author: Chris (UK)
date: Wednesday 20th May 2015
text: Great to see so many posts for the Wren. I would love to see any schematics or service information for this great little computer.
- author: Mr N B Bell (uk)
date: Sunday 16th November 2014
text: Hi I have a Thorn EMI WREN in good working order.Also has its ts Mannuals and software ...Nice old pc
- author: Steve (Norway)
date: Friday 30th May 2014
text: |-
Interesting... I was the hardware support specialist at Wren computers... I found this during a "nostalgia hunt".
The computer was very advanced for its time, but, as people have pointed out, plagued by problems.
The primary issue was the case itself. The design was very poor and EXTREMELY vulnerable to shock damage. There were quite a few sharp angles in the case mouldings that created weaknesses.
I cannot remember how many units we repaired, sent back to the customer , and which were returned again with cases that had been damaged in transit.
I remember testing out new packaging (+ possibly a slightly modified case?) by $ping boxes off a desk.\
(Corner $s, side $s, flip $s and so on).
I cannot remember with certainty if the design of the case was modified to try and make it less prone to stress damage, but I am pretty sure that the design of the case was modified slightly.
Also during manufacturing, we were unlucky enough to have batches of logic chips where the propagation times were all at the maximum specified values.. Units build using these chips often suffered from "amnesia".\
There was a lot of discreet logic involved in the RAM refresh circuitry, with bad propagation times through a number of logic gates all adding up, the memory refresh was unreliable.\
This was a difficult problem to find, and quite costly for Wren. The computers designer (from Transam Microsystems) used a lot of time tracking this problem down.
I took one home a few times, and had to swap arms several times on my way to the tube station. They were pretty heavy to haul around.
- author: Mike (UK)
date: Friday 10th June 2011
text: |-
This Computer was assembled at the Thorn EMI factory in Treorchy South Wales. Only about 1000 were made before Wren went bust and many companys were left holding the parts for the other 9000 units that were part of the first production run.
It was very advanced for its day and the software package was very good quality and comprehensive for that era.
Quality control was a major issue which certainly delayed production and caused a few financial problems for Wren. It might just have been too far advanced a concept for the time....
Great Computer though!!
- author: Webmaster
date: Tuesday 19th May 2009
text: |-
Hi
Thanks for the info!\
Don''t hesitate to send us more information about your experience with this system so that everyone can read it.
Regards
- author: Brendan Owen (UK)
date: Tuesday 19th May 2009
text: Although the Wren computer was manufactured at Thorn EMI in Feltham, they were a subcontractor to Wren Computers Ltd. Wren was a joint venture company between Transam Microsystems (www.transam.co.uk) and Prism (who distributed computers for Sinclair). I led the team at Transam that designed the computer and implemented the software. Transam have recently been aquired by Eurodata Systems.
- author: KasunagiX (USA)
date: Saturday 25th January 2003
text: 7" monitor?, the largest then i've ever seen in a Luggable machine.
oc_id: 257
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230530112840/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=257
date: '2023-05-30'
---
The Wren was one of the last "laptop" CP/M computer. It can be described as a combined personal computer and Teletext terminal. It weights more than 12 Kg !
This Computer was assembled at the Thorn EMI factory in Treorchy South Wales. Only about 1000 were made before Wren went bust and many companys were left holding the parts for the other 9000 units that were part of the first production run.
It was very advanced for its day and the software package was very good quality and comprehensive for that era.
Although the Wren computer was manufactured at Thorn EMI in Feltham, they were a subcontractor to Wren Computers Ltd. Wren was a joint venture company between Transam Microsystems (www.transam.co.uk) and Prism (who distributed computers for Sinclair). Transam have recently been aquired by Eurodata Systems.
The Wren was sold with several good softs : Perfect Calc, Perfect Writer, Perfect Filer, Executive Desktop (agenda, phone directory, note-pad, etc.), the popular BBC Basic (the same as the Acorn BBC or the Electron) and a communication application. Indeed the Wren has a built-in modem and is Prestel (english videotex) compatible. But it can also be used to automaticaly dial phone numbers stored in a directory.
The whole system looks quite strong and robust. When transported, the whole monitor and drive assembly slides over the keyboard. The 7" built-in screen is monochrome but it is also possible to connect the WREN to an external RGB monitor. The two disk-drives (40 tracks) can stored 190k each. Weird fact : the drives LEDs light up when one of the floppies is selected but don't light off when this drive stop to work...
Quality control was a major issue which certainly delayed production and caused a few financial problems for Wren. It might just have been too far advanced a concept for the time....