Computers & Business Machines

Monitor, Radio Shack TRS-80 Monitor

Description

Don French, a buyer for the consumer electronics chain Tandy Radio Shack (TRS), believed that Radio Shack should offer an assembled personal computer and hired engineer Steve Leininger to design it. In the summer of 1977, Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80 for $599. You could purchase the computer without a display for $399.95, but the most common configuration was buying the computer, monitor, and datacassette recorder for $599. For the accompanying keyboard and computer, see 1983.0169.01.

date made

1977-1981

maker

Tandy Corporation

ID Number

1983.0169.02

catalog number

1983.0169.02

accession number

1983.0169

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Federal Express SuperTracker

Description

This is a Federal Express SuperTracker handheld barcode scanner, first introduced in 1986. The SuperTracker is a critical part of FedEx’s Customers, Operations, and Services Master On-line System (COSMOS) used to track packages and confirm deliveries. Customer agents, couriers, and sorting personnel use the SuperTracker to scan barcodes on packages as they move through the Federal Express system. Providing information about a package’s location, status, and movement became an integral part of delivery companies, with every major carrier implementing a package tracking system.

Reference:

Carl Niehls, “Custodial Package Tracking at Federal Express,” in Managing Innovation: Cases from the Services Industries, ed. Bruce R. Guile and James Brian Quinn (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1988), 57–81.

date made

1986

ID Number

1993.0228.01

catalog number

1993.0228.01

accession number

1993.0228

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Employee Badge for Michael Dell

Description

This employee badge was used by Dell Inc. founder and CEO Michael Dell and provided global access to all Dell facilities. The ID badge was used from around 1994 until the time it was donated to the Museum in 2007. The badge is white with a blue Dell logo at the top and a head shot of Michael Dell in the center. The bottom of the badge features the employee's name, "Michael Dell," and his employee number, "1.” An image of Dell Inc.’s headquarters, Round Rock 1, is in the background, and the badge is covered with a holographic layer to prevent tampering.

date made

1984

maker

Dell Inc.

ID Number

2007.0042.05

catalog number

2007.0042.05

accession number

2007.0042

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Intel 8080A Microprocessor

Description

Intel introduced its 8080A 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) microprocessor in April 1974. Generally considered as the first truly usable microprocessor, the chip ran at 2 megahertz and powered the Altair 8800 and the IMSAI 8080, two of the first Personal Computers. Housed in a 40-pin DIP package that contained 6,000 transistors, the integrated circuit could receive 8-bit instructions and perform 16-bit operations. This particular example is marked "8321"indicating it was made in the 21st week of 1983. The "D8080A" means the unit has a housing of black ceramic.

date made

1983-05

maker

Intel Corporation

ID Number

1984.0124.04

accession number

1984.0124

catalog number

1984.0124.04

maker number

8080

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Radio Shack EC-2001 Desktop Electronic calculator

Description

This lightweight, non-printing electronic calculator has an array of nine digit keys at the center, with a zero bar and a decimal point key below these. On the right are arithmetic and clear keys. On the left are percentage, percent change, gross profit margin, item count, clear memory, recall memory, memory subtraction, and memory addition keys. Above the keys are switches between a floating and a fixed decimal point, a constant switch, and a power switch. Behind is a ten-digit vacuum fluorescent diode display. A cabinet has space for two D batteries. A jack for a cord is at the back but there is no cord.

A mark on the front of the machine reads: Radio Shack. A label on the back reads: CAT. NO. 65-660 (/) MODEL EC-2001 (/) Radio Shack, A DIVISION (/) OF TANDY CORPORATION. It also reads: S/NO. 430793 4A2 (/) MADE IN TAIWAN. The interior of the calculator has a single circuit board which has a mark that reads: J (/) 5729 (/) K. The chip by Texas Instruments has a mark that reads: TMC1073NL (/) MBS 8205 (/) PHILLIPINES.

Radio Shack advertised the EC-2001 in American newspapers as early as 1978 and as late as 1985. The regular price in 1978 was $29.95.

Compare the Lloyd’s Accumatic E680-3 (1986.0998.006) and Unisonic XL-101 (1986.0988.004).

References:

[advertisement], Boston Globe, December 5, 1978, p. 15.

[advertisement], New York Times, March 21, 1985, p. A22.

date made

1978-1985

maker

Tandy Corporation

ID Number

1986.0988.007

catalog number

1986.0988.007

accession number

1986.0988

Data Source

National Museum of American History

PC's Limited Turbo Keyboard

Description

Michael Dell’s PC’s Limited Turbo PC came with an eighty-four-key AT-style keyboard. The AT-style keyboard was compatible with the IMB PC/AT computer and featured the function keys to the left, ten numerical keys at the top, and light-up buttons indicating Caps Lock, Number Lock, and Scroll Lock. The keyboard connected to the Turbo PC via a five-pin DIN connector.

date made

1985

maker

Dell Inc.

ID Number

2007.0042.03

catalog number

2007.0042.03

accession number

2007.0042

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Amdek Video 310A Monitor

Description

The Amdek Video 310A twelve-inch cathode ray tube monochrome display monitor accompanied a 1985 PC’s Limited Turbo PC (2007.0042.01). Monochrome monitors only have the ability to display text in one color. The shade of the text depends on the type of phosphor used in the cathode ray tube. The Amdek 310A contained P3 phosphor, displaying amber characters on the screen.

Reference:

Amdek Corporation, Model 310/310A Owner’s Manual, 1984.

date made

1985

maker

Dell Inc.

ID Number

2007.0042.02

catalog number

2007.0042.02

accession number

2007.0042

Data Source

National Museum of American History

PC'S Limited Microcomputer

Description

In 1984 Michael Dell was a freshman at the University of Texas, building PCs and selling them to fellow students and faculty. By 1985 Dell’s company, PC’s Limited, was selling Turbo PC IBM clones that came with an Intel 8088 microprocessor, 640 kilobytes of RAM, a 360-kilobytes drive, a 130-watt power supply, eight expansion slots, and the ability to connect to local area networks (LAN). One of Dell’s selling points was the option to order a PC over the phone with customized components. This connection with the consumer and the ability to keep inventory low until a computer was ordered gave Dell a distinct business advantage going forward. This computer was sold to Clint Johnson, a freelance writer in North Carolina. In 2005 he donated the computer back to Dell Inc., which gave it to the Museum in 2007.

References:

Owen Edwards, “Baby Dell,” Smithsonian Magazine, August 2007.

Nancy Fowler Koehn, Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2001), 276–305.

date made

1985

maker

Dell Inc.

ID Number

2007.0042.01

catalog number

2007.0042.01

accession number

2007.0042

Data Source

National Museum of American History

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 Personal Computer

Description

In the early 1970s, most personal computers came as hobbyist kits requiring a high level of technical expertise to assemble. Don French, a buyer for the consumer electronics chain Tandy Radio Shack (TRS), believed that Radio Shack should offer an assembled personal computer and hired engineer Steve Leininger to design it. In the summer of 1977, Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80 for $599. This offering included a BASIC language interpreter, four kilobytes of RAM, a Zilog Z80 processor at 1.77 megahertz, a twelve-inch video monitor, a cassette recorder, a power supply, and a cassette tape containing the games Blackjack and Backgammon. While some Tandy executives were skeptical about the success of the PC market, the availability of the TRS-80 on five thousand Radio Shack store shelves helped the Model 1 sell over one hundred thousand units during its first year, which was 50 percent of the total PCs sold in 1978.

The TRS-80 had its microprocessor inside its keyboard. While you could purchase just the TRS-80 for $400, most opted for the package that included the twelve-inch monitor and cassette recorder for $600. This example of the object includes the TRS-80 Expansion Interface for $299 (the monitor sits on it) that gave the machine an extra thirty-two kilobytes of memory. Also part of the system are two Mini-Disk drives that sold for $499 and a suitcase for carrying all this around.

One also could purchase such accessories as a TRS-80 Telephone Interface II for $199 that allowed for network communication and printer for $399. Examples of these are in the Smithsonian collections, although they were not received with this specific microcomputer.

References:

Radio Shack, A Tandy Company, 1978 Catalog No. 289, page 166, accessed September 1, 2014, http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1978

Radio Shack, A Tandy Company, 1979 Catalog No. 302, pages 79–82, accessed September 1, 2014, http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1979

“BYTE News,” BYTE, May 1979, 117.

Peggy A. Kidwell and Paul E. Ceruzzi, Landmarks in Digital Computing (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), 96–99.

date made

1977-1981

maker

Tandy Corporation

ID Number

1983.0169.01

catalog number

1983.0169.01

accession number

1983.0169

Data Source

National Museum of American History