Description
About the size of a hardcover book, the MC-10 came equipped with four kilobytes of RAM, a Motorola MC6803 eight-bit microprocessor, a built-in serial port, and graphics capabilities similar to those of the original Color Computer (provided by the same Motorola MC6847 video display generator).
Like most early home computers, the MC-10 included a BASIC interpreter in ROM and used regular audio cassettes for bulk storage. Text and graphics were displayed on a television set via a built-in RF modulator. Less common for machines in its class was the integrated RS-232 serial port, which allowed the MC-10 to use a wide variety of line printers and modems without additional hardware.
Even so, at the time of its release in 1983, the MC-10's specifications were underwhelming. Disk drives, full-travel keyboards, medium-resolution graphics, and complete 64-kilobyte 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 which it could appeal. Even hobbyists did not seem drawn by its low price tag, although Tandy did little to spread the word that the machine existed in the first place.
The MC-10 was discontinued in 1984, along with the 16 kB memory upgrade and small amount of cassette-based software that had been released for it. It never achieved a wide following.
Read more about this topic: TRS-80 MC-10
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