---
title: EAGLE COMPUTERS INC. Eagle
categories:
- Computers
types:
- Professional Computer
origins:
- U.S.A.
years:
- '1980'
cpus:
- Zilog Z80 A
params:
  name: Eagle
  image: /media/museum/photos/eagle_ii_1s.jpg
  company: /companies/eagle-computers-inc
  company_name: EAGLE COMPUTERS INC.
  specs:
  - label: NAME
    value: Eagle
  - label: MANUFACTURER
    value: Eagle Computers Inc.
  - label: TYPE
    value: Professional Computer
  - label: ORIGIN
    value: U.S.A.
  - label: YEAR
    value: april 1980
  - label: END OF PRODUCTION
    value: '1988'
  - label: KEYBOARD
    value: Full-stroke ketboard with separated numeric keypad
  - label: CPU
    value: Zilog Z80 A
  - label: SPEED
    value: 4 MHz
  - label: RAM
    value: 64 KB
  - label: VRAM
    value: 2 KB
  - label: ROM
    value: 4 KB
  - label: TEXT MODES
    value: 80 x 24
  - label: GRAPHIC MODES
    value: None
  - label: COLORS
    value: monochrome green display
  - label: I/O PORTS
    value: |-
      Centronics, 2 x serial/RS232, SASI\
      AV ports on AVI models
  - label: BUILT IN MEDIA
    value: According the model
  - label: OS
    value: CP/M 2.2
  - label: POWER SUPPLY
    value: Built-in PSU
  - label: PRICE
    value: |-
      Eagle III : $1600 (USA, 1982)\
      Eagle IV : $2600 (USA, 1982)
  tabs:
  - photos
  photos:
  - title: EAGLE II
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/eagle_ii_1.jpg
  - title: EAGLE II - FRONT
    subtitle: ''
    text: thanks to Dorothy de Kiewiet for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/avl_eagle_front_dorothy.jpg
  - title: EAGLE II - RIGHT SIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: thanks to Dorothy de Kiewiet for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/avl_eagle_r-side_dorothy.jpg
  - title: EAGLE II - SIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/eagle_ii_rear.jpg
  - title: EAGLE II - REAR
    subtitle: ''
    text: thanks to Dorothy de Kiewiet for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/avl_eagle_rear2_dorothy.jpg
  - title: EAGLE II - REAR CLOSE-UP
    subtitle: ''
    text: |-
      From left to right:

      \- audio PLAY IN\
      \- audio OUT 1 & OUT 2\
      \- SERIAL 1 & 2\
      \- PARALLEL A\
      \- PARALLEL B (Centronics)\
      \- Power cord\
      \- Brightness knob\
      \- Power switch

      thanks to Dorothy de Kiewiet for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/avl_eagle_rear_dorothy.jpg
  - title: EAGLE II - LEFT SIDE
    subtitle: ''
    text: thanks to Dorothy de Kiewiet for this picture
    image: /media/museum/photos/avl_eagle_l-side_dorothy.jpg
  - title: DIFFERENT EAGLE MODELS
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: /media/museum/photos/eagle_computers.jpg
  comments:
  - author: ND Martin (United States)
    date: Tuesday 28th July 2020
    text: There are a few errors in the Spellbinder essay. Spellbinder was a two-man company, founded by UC Davis psychology professor John Bintz and Perry Gee, who wrote the software. You seem to have conflated the story of Eagle Computer president Dennis Barnhardt''s untimely demise in his Ferrari the day the company went public. Lexisoft folded because they never developed a WYSIWYG capability for Spellbinder and the industry passed them by. I don''t know what happened to Perry, but John and his wife retired, sold their house in Davis, CA, bought a motor home and hit the road.
  - author: mrkoolnerd (usa)
    date: Thursday 13rd January 2011
    text: i was wondering which model is most common today
  - author: Joey Swails
    date: Sunday 4th October 2009
    text: I used an Eagle III around 1984 - the software company I worked for (Eldorado Software) got it to use for porting our products (spreadsheet utilities and templates) to C/PM. We also used it to convert our spreadsheet templates to UltraCalc and SuperCalc (they were all originally written for VisiCalc on the Apple II.) Since we were trying to do a lot of cross-platform development, we had the Eagle, an Apple II, an original IBM PC (no hard drive), a TRS-80, a Commodore 64, Atari 400 and a Basis 80 (Apple clone) all in our workshop!
  - author: Joseph Kelch (Belcamp, MD)
    date: Saturday 18th May 2002
    text: I was working as an intern at the Hayden Planetarium in NYC when in 1982 we installed the first computer automation system in the theater, using dual Eagle II computers. They were nice machines for the time. I learned a lot about assembly language programming playing with them!
  oc_id: 526
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230208074732/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=526
    date: '2023-02-08'
---

Eagle Computers were originally manufactured by AVL (Audio Visual Labs) as a controller for audio-video projectors. The original models, the Eagle I and II, had AV ports on the back.

The computers proved so popular that the AV ports were removed, and standard RS-232 and Centronics ports added. The computer division was spun off and Eagle Computers, Inc. was created.

The complete line of CP/M computers they made was: Eagle I, II, III, IV, and V. All were the same except for the storage. The **Eagle I** had a single single-sided (SS) double-density (DD) 96-tpi 5.25" floppy-disk drive, the **Eagle II** had two of these. The **Eagle III** had two double-sided (DS) DD 96-tpi 5.25" FDD. The **Eagle IV** had one of these and a 10-Mb hard disk, and the **Eagle V** had one of these and a 32-Mb hard disk.

The Is and Vs were not sold in large numbers, because of the small storage capacity of the former, and the high capacity and higher price of the latter. Who needed 32 Mb?