website/content/museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-ii.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
Tandy Radio Shack TRS 80 MODEL II	Computers	Professional Computer	U.S.A.	1979	Zilog Z80 A	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos adverts hardware emulators links related oc_id source TRS 80 MODEL II /media/museum/photos/tandy_trs80-model2_1.jpg /companies/tandy-radio-shack Tandy Radio Shack label value NAME TRS 80 MODEL II label value MANUFACTURER Tandy Radio Shack label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR May 1979 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE Basic delivered on disk label value KEYBOARD Full-stroke keyboard with separated numeric keypad label value CPU Zilog Z80 A label value SPEED 4 MHz label value RAM 32 / 64 KB depending on models label value ROM Unkown label value TEXT MODES 40 x 24 / 80 x 24 label value GRAPHIC MODES None, but 32 graphical symbols are available to simulate graphics label value COLORS monochrome built-in monitor label value SIZE / WEIGHT Heavy ! label value I/O PORTS Centronics/Parallel port, 2 x serial/RS232 ports label value BUILT IN MEDIA One full height Shugart 8'' drive, single sided floppies with a capacity of 500K label value OS TRS-DOS label value POWER SUPPLY Built-in PSU label value PRICE $3,450 (USA, october 1979) photos adverts hardware emulators links 253 title subtitle text image MODEL II /media/museum/photos/tandy_trs80-model2_2.jpg title subtitle text image FRONT /media/museum/photos/tandy_trs80-model2_front.jpg title subtitle text image LEFT SIDE /media/museum/photos/tandy_trs80-model2_left.jpg title subtitle text image 80'S WOMAN This fabulous picture shows a happy woman using a complete TRS-80 Model II system. You can see 3 additional 8'' minidisks under the table, resulting in a 2Mb total storage capacity, wow. Behind the woman is a big Line Printer III. This whole configuration costed $8200 in 1981 (France). /media/museum/photos/tandy_trs80-m2_woman.jpg title subtitle text image SAME CONFIGURATION ... without the woman /media/museum/photos/tandy_model2_desk_1.jpg title subtitle text image ISAAC ASIMOV FEB. 1982 Courtesy of **[Attached](http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/)** /media/museum/pubs/tandy_model2_pub_s3.jpg title subtitle text image FRENCH ADVERT (1981) /media/museum/pubs/tandy_trs80-model2_pub-dossier17.jpg title subtitle text image GERMAN ADVERT (1983) A computer for each job /media/museum/pubs/tandy_model2_pub_1.jpg title subtitle text image NEW ZELAND ADVERT (1980) "A complete system, including furniture (except chair) for only A$13164.95" Ouch!! Thanks to **Murray Moffatt** from New Zeland /media/museum/pubs/tandy_model2_pub_2.jpg title subtitle text image 8'' MINIDISKS Serial# 26-416x Each of these additional 8'' minidisks can hold up to 500kb, not bad for 1981. Only one of these cost 7950fr and the box pictured above (3 minidisks) cost 15995fr (France, 81). /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80-m2_minidisks_1.jpg title subtitle text image REMOTE UNIT ACTIVE Serial# 26-1210 This rare unit is meant for teachers to control up to 16 TRS-80 Model 1 from a another TRS-80 equiped with min-disk. All the controled TRS-80 model 1 must be equiped with Level II. It cost 2895fr (France, 1981) /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80-m1_remote-unit-active.jpg title subtitle text image NETWORK II BOX p/n 26-1211 This box allowed up to 16 TRS computer to be networked. Three network boxes were released by Tandy (I, II and III).\ The Network II required verbal communication between the server operator and the remote user, and data transfer had to be completed one user at a time.\ The network III allowed automated control of the network so that users could easily access programs and data stored on the server's storage device. Thanks to **David Sutherland** for the pictures. /media/museum/hardware/tandy_network2_s1.jpg title subtitle text image DMP-200 80-column, 100 cps dot matrix printer. /media/museum/hardware/tandy_model3_dmp200_s1.jpg title subtitle text image DAISY WHEEL PRINTER II Serial# 26-1158 This is a high-quality printer meant to be used with wordprocessors. Some interchangeable daisy-wheels were available (Courrier, Elite, Madeleine). It could print 163 characters per line (34cm), at a 43 cps rate. It cost 9595fr (France, 1981) /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80-m1_daisy-wheel-printer-2_1.jpg title subtitle text image LINE PRINTER I Ref# 26-7017 This printer was a custom version of the Oki Microline 80.\ Printed lower and upper case on paper rolls or listing paper (24cm wide) from 40 to 80 columns/line, at a speed rate of 28 lines/minute. It cost 716 Euros in 1981 (France). /media/museum/hardware/tandy_model1_lineprinter1_s1.jpg title subtitle text image LINE PRINTER III Serial# 26-1156 This printer can print lower and upper case, at a speed rate of 120 c/s, on paper up to 38cm wide. It is conceived for intensive use ! It cost 9950fr in 1981 (France). /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80-m1_line-printer-3_1.jpg title subtitle text image LINE PRINTER VI Serial# 26-1166 This large printer can print lower and upper case, graphic characters and symbols at a speed rate of 100 c/s ! This is definately a professional printer. It cost 5495fr in 1981 (France). /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80-m1_line-printer-6_1.jpg title subtitle text image TP-10 THERMAL PRINTER Box /media/museum/hardware/tandy_trs80_tp-10_thermal-printer_box.jpg title subtitle text image EXATRON Stringy Floppy drive The Exatron Stringy Floppy (ESF) was a low-cost data—storage system that fitted the gap, between cassettes and disk drives.\ The system was based on a miniature endless—loop tape cartridge called a "wafer".\ The amount of data that could be recorded on a wafer depended on the length of tape in it, typically, a 50—foot wafer could hold at least 40 KB of programs or data. **Matt** reports to us:\ A curiousity about the model 1, CPU SPEED had a direct relatonship with STORAGE CAPACITY. if you doubled the clock speed of your MODEL 1 CPU you doubled the amount of data you could store on your stringy floppies. this is a feat that no other computer no matter how many ghz you have in your PC can do today without using compression. Thanks to **David Sutherland** for the pictures /media/museum/hardware/tandy_model3_exatronwafer_s1.jpg title url platform text David Keil's TRS-80 Model III/4/4P Emulator Page http://discover-net.net/~dmkeil/trs80/model4.htm MS DOS This program emulates a complete TRS-80 title url platform text Matthew Reed's TRS-80 Emulator Web Site http://www.arrowweb.com/mkr/ MS DOS This page offers shareware versions of a TRS-80 Model 4 emulator and a TRS-80 Model 1-2 emulator title url platform text TRS-80 Model III/4 Emulator http://www.vavasour.ca/jeff/trs80.html#model4 MS DOS This TRS-80 Model III/4 Emulator is a commercial product title url platform text xtrs: TRS-80 Model I/III/4 Emulator for Unix http://www.tim-mann.org/xtrs.html Unix / Linux xtrs is a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I/III/4/4P emulator for Unix and the X Window System title url platform text TRS-80 Level I BASIC in a browser http://www.vavasour.ca/jeff/trs80.html#simulator Other platform With this Java emulator, you'll be able to write a BASIC program directly in your browser! title url platform text Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Pages http://www.trs-80.com/trs80-e.htm Multiplatform A complete list of TRS-80 emulators for various platforms ! title url platform text MESS http://www.mess.org Multiplatform MESS emulator also emulates a TRS-80 systems title url text 8bit-micro.com - Online TRS-80 Computer Magazine HTTP://WWW.8BIT-MICRO.COM Online Magazine dedicated to the TRS-80 and other Vintage - Monthly Issues title url text David's TRS-80 Page http://freespace.virgin.net/david.sampson/ title url text DOCUMENTS > http://www.trs-80.com/ TRS-80 Model 2 manuals (PDF files) title url text Ira Goldklang's TRS-80 Revived Pages http://www.trs-80.com/ Lof of infos about all TRS-80 computers title url text Java TRS-80 Model 1 BASIC Interpreter http://ganley.org/software/trs80.html title url text Kees's Computer Home http://home.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/modelii.html Nice TRS-80 Model II dedicated page title url text Mike's Personal Computer Museum http://personal.nbnet.nb.ca/mclays/trsmod1.html Level 1 & 2 Basic summaries, Tandy time-lines, price-list, etc ... ! title url text RadioShackCatalogs.com http://www.RadioShackCatalogs.com Here, you can actually/virtually flip-through the pages to view the content of every RadioShack catalog! title url text The TRS-80 Home Page http://www.kjsl.com/trs80 Full of infos title url text Tim Mann's TRS-80 Page http://www.tim-mann.org/trs80.html Infos, tools and home of xtrs, a Model I/III/4 emulator for Unix title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com Discussion about Tandy computers /museum/radionic-model-r1001 /museum/sysdata-eletronica-jr /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-12 /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-16 /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-4 /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-4p /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-i /museum/tandy-radio-shack-trs-80-model-iii 243 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230606185201/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=243 2023-06-06

The TRS-80 model II, is the obscure brother of the TRS-80 family. Many internet pages deal with the models 1,3 and 4 but omit the model 2... This is maybe because the TRS-80 Model 2 was intended to be a business computer for use in offices and labs. Thus it is equiped with a full height Shugart 8'' drive with a capacity of 500k which is a lot compared to the 87k offered by the TRS-80 Model 1 system disk.
It is also possible to connect up to 4 floppy disk units, so you could have 2MB disk space online !

It runs under TRSDOS, but can also achieve CP/M compatibility.

Options for the machine included a hard disk controller, an arcnet network card, a graphics card and a 6 MHz 68000 board set with extra memory (up to 512K) so it could run XENIX.

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Mark Brumlik reports to us:
Actually, there was a Hi-Res Graphics Mode for this machine, which mapped every pixel on the screen (still in monochrome). There was very limited software for it.
The machine had the capacity in hardware to utilize multiple 64K banks of memory but this was never implemented in production software. This is the same techiique the IBM PC and other clone 8-bit machines achieved 640K of memory (10 banks of 64K).

Edward Griffin adds:
This machine could also read IBM formatted Mainframe and data entry unit disks. The data entry units (IBM 3742's I think) would write information directly to 8 inch floppys as the operater depressed the Carriage Return button, and then the disks could be taken from these large units and insterted into the drive of the model II for verification and other checking. I recall a Model II being expressly used for this purpose. It also came with a neat Radio Shack acoustic coupler!!
These machines did experiance frequent power supply problems though!