TRS-80 Family Computers

TRS-80 Family Computers covers the line of home and small business microcomputers Tandy Corporation sold under its RadioShack retail brand from the late 1970s into the 1980s. Tandy's TRS-80, launched in 1977 and later known as the TRS-80 Model I, was one of the first mass produced personal computers sold through an ordinary retail chain rather than mail order or specialist dealers, using RadioShack's thousands of storefronts to reach buyers who had never bought a computer before. Tandy followed it in 1980 with the TRS-80 Color Computer, commonly called the CoCo, a lower cost machine built around the Motorola 6809 processor and aimed at the home and hobbyist market with color graphics and cartridge based software, distinct in hardware and software from the original Model I line despite sharing the TRS-80 brand name. Both machines were popular in the years before the IBM PC became commonplace, and together they illustrate Tandy's strategy of using its retail footprint to sell computers to a mass audience across two separate but branded hardware families, one aimed at business and hobbyist users and the other at home and educational buyers.