The TRS-80 MC-10 microcomputer is a lesser-known member of the

TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of '' ...

line of home computers, produced by

Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store. By the end of the 1950s, under the tutelage of then-CEO Charles Tandy, ...

in the early 1980s and sold through their RadioShack chain of electronics stores. It was a low-cost alternative to Tandy's own

TRS-80 Color Computer The RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer, later marketed as the Tandy Color Computer and sometimes nicknamed the CoCo, is a line of home computers developed and sold by Tandy Corporation. Despite sharing a name with the earlier TRS-80, the Color Com ...

to compete with entry-level machines such as the

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the ...

and

Sinclair ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-co ...

. The MC-10 was of value primarily to hobbyists and as an introduction to

computer programming Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as anal ...

. It was not a commercial success and was discontinued only a year after its introduction.

Description

About the size of a hardcover book, the MC-10 has four

kilobyte The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The International System of Units (SI) defines the prefix '' kilo'' as 1000 (103); per this definition, one kilobyte is 1000 bytes.International Standard IEC 80000-13 Quant ...

s (4096 bytes) of RAM, a Motorola MC6803 eight-bit

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circ ...

, a built-in serial port, and graphics capabilities similar to those of the original

Color Computer The RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer, later marketed as the Tandy Color Computer and sometimes nicknamed the CoCo, is a line of home computers developed and sold by Tandy Corporation. Despite sharing a name with the earlier TRS-80, the Color Com ...

(provided by the same

MC6847 The MC6847 is a video display generator (VDG) first introduced by Motorola and used in the TRS-80 Color Computer, Dragon 32/64, Laser 200, TRS-80 MC-10/Matra Alice, NEC PC-6000 series, Acorn Atom, and the APF Imagination Machine, among others ...

video display generator). The MC-10 includes a BASIC interpreter in

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

and uses regular audio cassettes for bulk storage. Text and graphics are displayed on a

television set A television set or television receiver, more commonly called the television, TV, TV set, telly, tele, or tube, is a device that combines a tuner, display, and loudspeakers, for the purpose of viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or using ...

via a built-in

RF modulator An RF modulator (or radio frequency modulator) is an electronic device whose input is a baseband signal which is used to modulate a radio frequency source. RF modulators are used to convert signals from devices such as media players, VCRs a ...

. Less common for machines in its class is the integrated

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such ...

serial port In computing, a serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in parallel. ...

, which allows the MC-10 to use

line printer A line printer prints one entire line of text before advancing to another line. Most early line printers were impact printers. Line printers are mostly associated with unit record equipment and the early days of digital computing, but the ...

s and

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

s without additional hardware. At the time of its release in 1983, the MC-10's specifications were underwhelming.

Disk drives Data storage is the recording (storing) of information (data) in a storage medium. Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are consi ...

, full-travel

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

s, medium-resolution graphics, and complete 64-kilobyte (65,536 bytes) memory banks were becoming popular features for home computers; the MC-10 offered none of these, severely limiting the functions it could perform and the range of users to whom it could appeal. The MC-10 was discontinued in 1984, along with the 16 KB (16,384 bytes) memory upgrade and small amount of cassette-based software that had been released for it.

Specifications

* VDG:

** Text: 32×16 ** Low-res: 64×32, 8 color (4bpp) ** Low-res: 64×48, 2 color (not fully implemented) ** Low-res: 64×64, 4 color (2bpp) ** Med-res: 128×64, 2 color (1bpp) ** Med-res: 128×64, 4 color (2bpp) ** Med-hi: 128×96, 2 color (1bpp) ** Med-hi: 128×96, 4 color (2bpp) ** Hi-res: 128×192, 2 color (1bpp) ** Hi-res: 128×192, 4 color (2bpp) (partially supported, insufficient video RAM)TRS-80 Micro Color Computer Model MC-10 Service Manual, Radio Shack Corporation, Catalog Number 26-30-11, Pages 4-6, 17. ** Hi-res: 256×192, 2 color (1bpp) (partially supported, insufficient video RAM) * I/O Ports: ** RS-232C serial interface (300-9600 baud; 600 baud from BASIC) ** Cassette interface (1500 baud) ** Internal RF modulator ** Memory expansion interface Although the memory expansion interface connected directly to the CPU bus and could have been used for many applications, the

edge connector An edge connector is the portion of a printed circuit board (PCB) consisting of traces leading to the edge of the board that are intended to plug into a matching socket. The edge connector is a money-saving device because it only requires a sin ...

involved had an unusual number of pins and was difficult to obtain. The RS-232C serial interface had extremely limited usefulness. Although the 6803 CPU conveniently includes a built-in

UART A universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART ) is a computer hardware device for asynchronous serial communication in which the data format and transmission speeds are configurable. It sends data bits one by one, from the least signific ...

, it was left unconnected and did not assist the RS-232C interface in any manner. In part, this is because a single 3.58 MHz TV colorburst crystal is used to generate video and clock the CPU, and this clock rate could not be divided by an integer to obtain any standard baud rate for the UART. As a result, programs have to shift bits individually into and out of the RS-232C interface, a mode of operation that entails atypical and especially critical timing requirements. The cassette interface has similar difficulties, plus a few. Although Micro Color Basic includes an undocumented CLOADM command for loading machine-language programs and an undocumented VARPTR function for manipulating variables as memory, there is no corresponding CSAVEM command (documented or otherwise) to permit machine language programs to be saved to tape.

Software

A limited amount of software was available on cassette for the MC-10, including Lunar Lander, Checkers, and a machine-language Pinball program. However, as most programs written in Basic for other TRS-80 models were compatible with the MC-10, many books with BASIC programs were available for the user who was willing to type in the code.

Clone

A clone of the MC-10, the Alice, was marketed in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

through a collaboration among Tandy,

Matra Matra (an acronym for Mécanique Aviation Traction) was a French industrial conglomerate. During its years of operation, it was engaged in a wide range of business activities, primarily focused around automobiles, bicycles, aeronautics and w ...

and Hachette.

References

External links

Old-Computers.com

Browser based emulator for the MC-10
{{Authority control Home computers