Introduction - Computer Busses - page 18

had a significant effect on the electronics industry. In the 1960s, he had developed hi-fi, am-
plifier and radio kits for hobbyists, and then in the 1970s he had further developed into calcu-
lators, multimeters and, even, pocket TVs. His main market in the 1980s would be personal
computers, and it was on price that his company would gain the most on his competitors.

The major developments of the year were:

• Radio Shack . In 1980, Radio Shack followed up their success of the TRS-80, with the

TRS-80 Model III (Figure 1.9). It was based around the Zilog Z80 processor and was
priced between $700 and $2500. They also released the TRS-80 Color Computer (Figure
1.8), which was based on the Motorola 6809E processor and had 4 KB RAM. It was
priced well below the Model III and cost $400. Radio Shack at the time were innovating
in other areas, and produced the TRS-80 Pocket Computer, which had a 24-character dis-
play, and sold for $230.

• Apple Computer . Apple Computer accelerated their development work and released the

Apple III computer. It was based on the 2 MHz 6502A microprocessor, and included a
5.25-inch floppy drive. It initially cost between $4500 and $8000. Work also began on
the Diana project, which would eventually become the Apple IIe. The company was also
floated on the stock market, where 4.6 million shares were sold at $22 a share. This made
many Apple employees instant millionaires.

• Sinclair Research . Sinclair Research burst on the com-

puter market place with the ZX80 computer. It was
based on the 3.25 MHz NEC Technologies 780-1 proc-
essor and came with 1 KB RAM and 4 KB ROM. It was
priced at a cut-down rate of $200, but it was far from
perfect. Its main drawback was its membrane type key-
board.

• Intel . Along with development of the 8086 processor,

Intel released a number of support devices, including
the 8087math coprocessor.

• Microsoft . Microsoft released a Unix operating sys-

tem, Microsoft XENIX OS, for the Intel 8086, Zilog
Z8000, Motorola M68000, and Digital Equipment
PDP-11.

Figure 1.10 Apollo DN300

• Hewlett-Packard . HP had developed a good market in powerful calculators, and pro-

duced a mixture of a computer and a calculator, with the HP-85. It cost $3250, had a 32-
character wide CRT display, a built-in printer, a cassette tape recorder, and a keyboard.

• Commodore . Commodore Business Machines enhanced their product range with the

CBM 8032 computer, which had 32 KB RAM and an 80-column monochrome display.
They also developed a dual 5.25-inch floppy disk drive unit (the CBM 8050). In Japan,
Commodore released the VIC-1001, which would later become the VIC-20. It had 5 KB
RAM, and a 22-column colour video output capability.

• Apollo . Apollo burst onto the computer market with high-end workstations based on the

Motorola 68000 processor. They were aimed at the serious user, and their main applica-
tion area was in computer-aided design. One of the first to be introduced was the DN300
(Figure 1.10), which was based around the excellent Motorola 68000 processor. It had a
built-in mono monitor, an external 60 MB hard disk drive, an 8-inch floppy drive, built-in
ATR (Apollo Token Ring) network card, and 1.5 MB RAM. It even had its own multi-
user, networked operating system called Aegis. Unfortunately, for all its power and us-